Written by Andrew K. Arnett

A psychedelic mushroom found in Asia is causing people to see small elves. The Coast to Coast AM article titled “The Mushroom That Makes the Brain See Little People,” is reporting that a hallucinogenic mushroom in China is giving some people “lilliputian hallucinations” after ingesting the fungi.

The mushroom, called Lanmaoa asiatica, is found in the Yunnan Province of China. It is a form of bolete mushroom prized throughout Asia for its umami flavor. Generally, there is no problem when the fungi is thoroughly cooked before eating. However, doctors in the region do end up treating hundreds of cases a year of those suffering from visions of xiao ren ren, translated as “little people.” Folks thus inflicted are seeing a plethora of tiny elves marching across the living room floor, crawling under doors and hanging on to the ceiling fan.

What is going on here? Clearly a hallucination of some sort, no doubt. But the remarkable aspect of this is the consistency of the experience from person to person, as well as across cultures, who have ingested the fungi. This would include taking into account the effects of psilocybin mushrooms found worldwide.

DMT And The ‘Machine Elves’

The article recounts the experiences of users who have noted a similar face-to-face introduction to the little people via the drug DMT. DMT (Dimethyltryptamine) is an ingredient that occurs naturally in the bark, leaves and roots of a variety of plants and is an ingredient in the Amazonian beverage ayahusca.

Ethnobotanist and psychedelic philosopher Terence McKenna popularized DMT when he researched its effects and described encounters with little people he termed “machine elves.” McKenna’s research into the psychedelic realm led him to claim, “These are bizarre dimensions of extraordinary power and beauty, and I don’t believe there’s any set rule for acquiring [the] power to not be overwhelmed, but I think moving carefully, reflecting a great deal, always trying to map it back on the history of the race and the philosophical and religious accomplishments of the species — this should always be done.”

Curiously, biologist Colin Domnauer, currently studying the little people inducing fungus Lanmaoa asiatica, has not yet found the same psychedelic compounds inside the fungus that are present inside DMT or psilocybin, suggesting this may be its own unique family of hallucinogenic.

R. Gordan Wasson And The CIA

This brings to mind the renowned American author and ethnomycologist R. Gordon Wasson (1898-1986) who dedicated the latter part of his life (he started out as a banker for J.P. Morgan) to studying psychedelic mushrooms. Wasson made many contributions to this field and came to the conclusion that the “soma” cited in the RigVeda derived from the fly agaric mushroom, a form of psychedelic fungi.

Curiously, Wasson’s work on psychedelic mushrooms was funded by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Now why would the CIA be paying someone to investigate a hallucinogenic compound? In documents obtained by John Marks under the Freedom of Information Act, it was revealed that Wasson’s 1956 expedition in search of magic mushrooms was funded by the CIA’s MK-Ultra subproject 58. The cover name for this funding was Geschickter Fund for Medical Research and is given credit in the Life magazine article about his expedition.

References

https://www.coasttocoastam.com/article/the-mushroom-that-makes-the-brain-see-little-people/
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260121-the-mysterious-mushroom-that-makes-you-see-tiny-people
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._Gordon_Wasson

Andrew K. Arnett is a writer for New Dawn Magazine and author of the book The Crowley Conspiracy available on Amazon.