Just like the tiny inhabitants of Lilliput in Gulliver’s Travels—surprising, endearing, and sometimes a little unsettling for their miniature size—there’s a real-world way to encounter such beings without leaving your home. Don’t believe it? Ask the communities of Yunnan, Papua New Guinea, or the Northern Cordillera of the Philippines. They’ve spent decades reporting the same experience: a mushroom that makes people see extremely tiny figures.
Fairies and little people: A global phenomenon
“Nonda” in Papua New Guinea, “Jian shou qing” in Yunnan (China), and “Sedesdem” in the Philippines all refer to the same mushroom: Lanmaoa asiatica, an edible bolete whose most famous effect isn’t culinary—though it’s sold in some of the largest wild mushroom markets in China—but perceptual.
Those who eat it undercooked describe the sudden appearance of tiny, 2-centimeter-tall creatures dancing, marching, or even teasing the observer. Colin Domnauer, a doctoral student at the University of Utah’s School of Biological Sciences and the Natural History Museum of Utah, documented the words of an elder in Papua New Guinea who said he “saw tiny people with mushrooms around their faces. They were teasing him, and he was trying to chase them away.”
For some, it’s amusing; for others, overwhelming, but no one seems to be alone in this, and it’s definitely not “only a few people” experiencing it. According to the Yunnan Hospital, 96% of patients affected by this mushroom report seeing “little people” or “elves,” dancing, jumping, or marching around. A kind of invasion from a world not their own.
And it’s not new to Asian culture. A 3rd-century Daoist text mentions a “flesh spirit mushroom” that, when eaten raw, allows the person to “see a little person” and “attain transcendence immediately.” The historical continuity is …
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Author: Camila Berriex / High Times
