← Back to context

Comment by astronads

1 day ago

It is interesting how the hallucinations consistently represent tiny people/elves to the mushroom consumer, even across geography/culture.

I wonder what the brain is doing…

Could be that the mushroom just temporarily interferes with the substances the elves put in our water supply to keep us in the dark?

I think it makes sense given the following:

- Your brain has been trained extensively to recognize faces / people. Even very small babies can do this.

- Your brain processes a large amount of mostly noise, and sometimes mislabels noise as objects, which trends towards face-like things (see: seeing faces in clouds, people in shadows etc.) Various classes of substances make this effect more noticeable (even stimulants, including caffeine)

- The jump from that to 'elves' is largely just cultures have some form of small magical person.

  • >Caffeine increases pareidolia

    I like that coffee is clearly a drug, a mind-alterer. But it's mostly harmless so it's been boosted as a sort of society-wide mascot. Humans really love drugs.

Would be interesting if the chemical mechanism is related or similar to the DMT one that creates the "machine elves" experience.

  • Yeah, the machine elves rabbit hole is interesting for sure. I hope a lot more rigorous science delves into both mushrooms and DMT

Since we're in the topic of elves and common hallucinations, I want to share these Salvia trip replicas that some say are extremely accurate:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2IRKuS3sSE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65XfIpJdlEY

  • It gets the visuals accurate, but the experience includes a lot of physical sensation that is very difficult to convey, e.g. the 'wind' that pushes you back and the discomfort of going into a chaotic dissociated state. You see those things but it feels very 'real'.

  • Wow, looks terrifying!

    I can only speak for medically-administered intravenous Ketamine, but I would describe it as like relatively effortlessly floating inside of the non-physical space inside of you and meeting yourself in metaphor, all the while completely aware. The biggest risk seemed to be temporarily becoming a relatively inanimate part of the infrastructure there, and even that was a sort of pleasant and satisfying state.

Lilliputian hallucinations are also common in mental illnesses with hallucinations. Definitely some kind of physical foundation for it in the human brain.

reminds me of trip reports from people trying Salvia Divinorum - there's even a name for these tiny people, 'Smelves'