Some people see tiny people after eating a wild mushroom. These people are not really there, but they look very real. People sometimes see hundreds of them walking around things or climbing over objects.
Researchers at the University of Utah studied this mushroom in southwestern China and the northern Philippines. They checked its DNA, the information inside living things. They found the same kind of mushroom in both places. Its name is Lanmaoa asiatica.
People in these areas eat the mushroom as part of their food traditions. But it can cause these strange experiences when people do not cook it well enough. Scientists tested it for known chemicals that make people see things that are not there. They did not find any of those chemicals.
The researchers think a different, unknown chemical may cause the tiny people to appear. Their next goal is to find it. People with some brain or eye illnesses also sometimes see tiny people. Studying this mushroom could help scientists understand how the brain makes these pictures.
