28 जून 2026

"These aren’t like some vague hallucinations, these are like three-dimensionally-rendered, highly-detailed figures inhabiting your exterior world."

"And they’re also interacting with objects in the real world — like crawling up chairs and tables or under doorways.... The little people are said to typically like teasing, playing with or harassing the person seeing them.... Everyone knows that this mushroom has this property and can make you see little people, but they’ll continue to eat it anyway, because they’re just not afraid of that effect."

Said University of Utah researcher Colin Domnauer, quoted in "New magic mushroom makes users see tiny ‘gnome’ people — scientists have no idea how it’s doing that" (NY Post).

The mushroom is L. asiatica.

Would you want to see little people running around everywhere?

I remember hearing Joe Rogan talk about this and speculate that the people are somehow really there....

"You know the thing is like is it teaching us something about the human brain or is it allowing you to see something that's actually there all the time?"

49 टिप्‍पणियां:

Bob Boyd ने कहा…

I asked the little people if they believe in Bigfoot and they said yes.

rehajm ने कहा…

good lord, why would you want to conjure more people? are they superior to real people…so long as the shrooms don’t conjure black labs that tell you to kill people or vote for commies…

Dave Begley ने कहा…

I have no idea why Joe Rogan is so popular.

Who has three hours to listen to him ramble?

Ann Althouse ने कहा…

If you completely understood that these little people were a predictable effect of the harmless mushroom that you just deliberately ate and that the effect would wear off and there would be no aftereffects, then you might want to do this once for fun, especially if you were doing it with other people and talking and laughing about it. Doing it repeatedly might be stupid, but so are a lot of harmless amusements.

Leland ने कहा…

I enjoyed the interview with Taylor Sheridan. If you commute to work, podcasts are great listens.

Wince ने कहा…

Black Sabbath's power trio roots on full display with their magnum opus, Fairies Wear Boots, Paris 1970.

Going home late last night
Suddenly I got a fright
Yeah, I looked through a window and surprise what I saw
Fairies in boots are dancing with a dwarf
Alright now!

Yeah, fairies wear boots, and you gotta believe me
Yeah, I saw it, I saw it, I tell you no lies
Yeah, fairies wear boots and you gotta believe me
I saw it, I saw it with my own two eyes
Alright now!

So I went to the doctor, see what he could give me
He said, "Son, son, you've gone too far
'Cause smokin' and trippin' is all that you do"
Yeah!

Ann Althouse ने कहा…

"Who has three hours to listen to him ramble?"

No one is just sitting there doing nothing but listening.

It's great when you're doing something that requires some attention but that doesn't give you enough to think about, such as cleaning the house. An audiobook requires more concentration. It's great if you just want the feeling of being around people but there are no people around. Gives texture to the lonely space.

rehajm ने कहा…

how little are these little people? we need a scale like for hail- tyrion lannister, lilliputian, ant-man…

Jamie ने कहा…

Knowing that I have a propensity for - call it addiction, call it obsession, whatever; when I enjoy something I tend to do it too much, I have avoided all mind-altering substances except alcohol and I keep that one in limits. But I have to admit that I'm intrigued by the little people!

Bob Boyd ने कहा…

"how little are these little people?"

The basketball players are like six and a half, six and five eighths.

bagoh20 ने कहा…

"It's great if you just want the feeling of being around people but there are no people around."

Apparently there are lots of people around. They need to stop screwing around and pick up a tiny broom.

Bob Boyd ने कहा…

What if you took the mushrooms at home and all of a sudden you could see their otherwise invisible blood stains on your carpet where you have been unwittingly stepping on them for years.

Bob Boyd ने कहा…

"It's great if you just want the feeling of being around people but there are no people around."

That works for podcasts and the mushrooms.

Jamie ने कहा…

It actually would be awesome if they were really there, wouldn't it? The Tuatha dé Danaan for reals?

Mary Beth ने कहा…

It would be simple to answer Joe's question. Do two (or more) people who have taken the mushrooms see the same little people?

Believing there are little people around, even when you can't see them, might also be helpful for lonely people.

Mike (MJB Wolf) ने कहा…

The Greek word for pharmaceuticals used in writing the New Testament is from the same root word for magic, and the warning from the good Book is that you shouldn’t open that door in the mind because you aren’t equipped to handle what you will see, but even worse the Spirit of God cannot dwell in an intoxicated body and mind.

This is why. Scientists are no help in some circumstances.

Mike (MJB Wolf) ने कहा…

OTOH you can see in modern sports how advertising is magically inserted even appearing to wrap around the field as cameras pan. VR headsets do this too, highly realistically so why can’t your brain, especially that 80% that many insist we never use, generate realistic inserts into our world with proper stimulation?

Jamie ने कहा…

Mary Beth has proposed a simple test! We know of two people who live in the same house, who could undertake it.

Althouse? Meade? What's your afternoon looking like?

PigHelmet ने कहा…

"What do we know, he had said, of the world and the universe about us? Our means of receiving impressions are absurdly few, and our notions of surrounding objects infinitely narrow. We see things only as we are constructed to see them, and can gain no idea of their absolute nature. With five feeble senses we pretend to comprehend the boundlessly complex cosmos, yet other beings with wider, stronger, or different range of senses might not only see very differently the things we see, but might see and study whole worlds of matter, energy, and life which lie close at hand yet can never be detected... Those waves will open up to us many vistas unknown to man, and several unknown to anything we consider organic life. We shall see that at which dogs howl in the dark, and that at which cats prick up their ears after midnight.“
Crawford Tillinghast in HP Lovecraft’s “From Beyond”

Temujin ने कहा…

I have to say, if this is a known regular feature of this mushroom, it's piqued my interest. Just not sure I would want to deal with it at this point in my life. It would have to be the right setting: wife not home, dog not home, pizza readily available for me plus 3-5 gnomes. Plus, what do gnomes like on a pizza?

Aggie ने कहा…

The article doesn't give a sense of how regular the effect is. What percentage of users see the little people? What percentage of occurrence can a regular user expect? These are important questions for the professionals out there.

My other question is: Do these mushrooms also grow in Ireland, by any chance?

rehajm ने कहा…

…apparently yet to be foraged the mushroom with constructive properties, like a proficiency in astrophysics or thee dimensional renderings of next week’s s&p close or tomorrow’s pick six at Saratoga…

Josephbleau ने कहा…

Yes, the Lovecraft quote above covers the subject. The alternates are that the drug or mental illness opens the doors allowing perception of the strange weird universe that actually exists, or that the drugs or illness trick your mind into seeing what is not there. I hope it is the latter, or schizophrenics would be correct in their damaging beliefs. But I see no way to prove which hypothesis is right.

Wilbur ने कहा…

The gnomes order mushrooms on their pizza.

boatbuilder ने कहा…

Aggie--Joe says that according to the article, it's a "universal" effect. Sure.
I like Joe, but he has a very gullible side--willing to believe stuff that's written or stated as a certainty, without checking into it. One would think that his experience being made a pariah for taking ivermectin would make him a little more skeptical, but he's worth about a hundred times more than I am, so what do I know.
I recall him interviewing Bjorn Lomberg. Lomberg was saying that fracking has essentially freed up enormous quantities of oil (that previously "didn't exist" as reserves) with relatively minimal environmental effect, and Rogan kept pestering him about some article focusing on anecdotes of a chemical spill at one isolated site, as reported by Rolling Stone magazine, and hyping some billionaire who claimed to be operating an "energy neutral" farm. Big picture vs. little picture. It's annoying.

lonejustice ने कहा…

I'm not a big fan of Joe Rogan, but I would definitely enjoy taking mushrooms with him.

Steve Austin Showed Up For Work. ने कहा…

Not recommended while playing Warhammer 40k.

Fritz ने कहा…

Back in the 60s I recall an urban legend about a hallucinogenic plant that would make everyone, including Inuit who would never have been exposed to them, hallucinate snakes and large cats. I was never able to verify that.

Maynard ने कहा…

I doubt very much if everyone sees the same thing. Psychoactive substances produce different effects in different people.

Yancey Ward ने कहा…

"Plus, what do gnomes like on a pizza?"

Mushrooms, of course.

Jamie ने कहा…

"My other question is: Do these mushrooms also grow in Ireland, by any chance?"

Exactly! And should we be after their lucky charms?

MadTownGuy ने कहा…

"Would you want to see little people running around everywhere?"

We had that early in our married life.

Yancey Ward ने कहा…

Assuming for the sake of argument that all/most people on these mushrooms are seeing gnomes- couldn't we study them together, very closely, to see if their hallucinations align with each other? If they are really perceiving an underlying reality, then the hallucinations should correlate with each other.

FredSays ने कहा…

Next question, do gnomes that eat the magic mushrooms on pizza see littler gnomes running rampant around the room?

hombre ने कहा…

We see “little people running around everywhere” without the mushrooms. We don’t call them “gnomes.”

Lem Vibe Bandit ने कहा…

In Mullin v. El Otro Lado, the Supremes (6-3) said the little people must fully cross the mind-body barrier to gain the right to apply for asylum. The court’s conservative majority said little people standing in Mexico do not 'arrive' by 'attempting, and failing, to set foot in this country.

Lem Vibe Bandit ने कहा…

We chased our pleasures here
Dug our treasures there
But can you still recall the time we cried?

[Chorus]
Break on through to the other side
Break on through to the other side

gilbar ने कहा…

How Much of "religion" is just drug induced pyschosis?
How Much of "left wing thought" is just drug induced pyschosis?

here's a ProTip, from some one that may have used to deal drugs*
IF you're taking drugs.. you're escaping reality; and that's NOT GOOD

deal drugs* good luck proving it in a court of law..
Also,
the 1980's were a LONG TIME AGO.. way past any statues of limitations

Lem Vibe Bandit ने कहा…

Wait... I just got political, didn't I?
Shucks

Aggie ने कहा…

Not sure if this is a correct perception, but it kind of reads like the whole thing is perceived like the 'tilt-shift' photographic effect, where aerial-type photo compositions shot with these settings produces a lilliputian effect of the subjects below.

lonejustice ने कहा…

We recently returned from a two week vacation in Scotland, and then stopped by Iceland for four days on our return trip. They believe in the little people:

In Iceland, "little people" almost always refers to the Huldufólk (Hidden People) and elves from Icelandic folklore. These supernatural beings are believed to live in rocks, hills, and natural landscapes, and are deeply woven into the country's cultural heritage and daily life. According to legend, these beings are the descendants of the children of Adam and Eve that Eve hid from God because they weren't washed and presentable. They generally look just like humans, but they are often described as wearing old-fashioned clothing and living in their own parallel society. While surveys show a mix of opinions, a significant portion of Icelanders either believe in them or respect the legends enough to avoid angering them. Locals frequently build small wooden houses called álfhól in their gardens to provide a safe, welcoming space for the hidden people. The belief in hidden people is taken so seriously that construction projects and major highways have been altered, delayed, or rerouted to avoid disturbing specific boulders and rock outcroppings believed to be elf homes. In Reykjavík, you can actually visit the Icelandic Elf School to learn all about the more than 50 different types of elves and their history in the country.

Narr ने कहा…

In college an older friend--psychology grad student who ended up in HR for a major drug manufacturer--told me that many psych profs considered LSD or psilocibin trips to be essentially the same as psychotic breaks.

Gee, I said, where do I sign up?

And I recall an NPR story from the 80s (?) about the street kids of Colombia--one of whom was quoted as sniffing glue to see the amusing little animals (my Spanish was good enough to understand him without the translation offered).

My drug use stopped at booze and reefer, though many in my circles did everything available to them--which didn't make them any more interesting, intelligent, or insightful in my opinion.

Narr ने कहा…

In her last months my mother (d. 2018 at 91) reported seeing little people in the shadows and under furniture. I don't know which of the many drugs she took to blame (or credit).

Neither I nor my brother who lived with her saw them.

Gospace ने कहा…

We have a ghost in our house. Ghost, singular, not plural. A male, who wanders around and is seen occasionally, but doesn't bother anyone. Requires no drugs to be seen, and has been seen and observed by my wife all 5 of my children.

But not by me.

Is it real? Or do they observe shadows and lights and mist or dust and translate them as a ghostly man walking about? If the ghost is real- why in 30 years of living here have I never seen him?

BTW, I have seen ball lightning. Something scientists have finally decided is a real thing. My wife and children haven't- I've seen it twice.

Family history, my side, of alcoholism and tobacco addiction. And there's a correlation between both of those and other addictions. I drink sparingly and avoid all other addictions. Except caffeine... which actually appears to be a net positive in life. I see others here do the same- deliberately avoid the things that harm you.

AnotherJim ने कहा…

Wilbur said...
The gnomes order mushrooms on their pizza.

The ones who don't can't see us big people.

wendybar ने कहा…

Nope. I never did hallucinogenic drugs after a friend told me how her stuffed animals came to life when she did. No thank you. I prefer real life!!!

Naked Molerat ने कहा…

Hallucinations of little people are a common symptom of Lewy Body Dementia.

Josephbleau ने कहा…

Rush Limbaugh had a three hour show each day, and most radio stations have a three hour drive time show. So I would guess people just listen on and off when you are doing something else.

Lazarus ने कहा…

It's the return of the tiny people!

https://althouse.blogspot.com/2026/01/at-mushroom-hot-pot-restaurant-there.html

I wouldn't mind seeing tiny people running around ... if I could get them to do work for me.

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