Hallucinogenic bolete mushroom

Western Highlands, Papua New Guinea

Certain bolete (nonda)^[18] and russule mushrooms have been used in shamanic practices in Papua New Guinea by the Kuma people and other ethnic groups and have been reported to cause "madness".^[4][1][23] However, findings are conflicting and this area is controversial.^{[4][1][24][23]} Various mushroom species have been reported to have been consumed by the Kuma people, including notably Boletus manicus and Retiboletus nigerrimus.^[1] Psilocybe mushrooms are also present in these areas and known by the locals, but are considered inedible and are not consumed.^[1]

It was first reported by a missionary in 1936 that some bolete mushrooms consumed by natives in Papua New Guinea caused "madness".^[23][12] Subsequently, this phenomenon was described in more detail by anthropologist Marie Reay in the late 1950s, who reported that the mushrooms caused Lilliputian hallucinations.^[12][23][1] Then, in the mid-1960s, mycologists Gordon Wasson and Roger Heim surveyed 400 mushrooms in the area, described six species claimed to cause "mushroom madness", and sent one purportedly hallucinogenic species, Boletus manicus, to swiss chemist Albert Hofmann for chemical analysis.^{[23][25][24][12]} Boletus manicus was found by Hofmann known to contain trace amounts of three unidentified indolic compounds.^[25][24][3] However, the quantities were too low to allow for identification, and hence the active constituents were not identified.^[25][6][3] In any case, the detected indolic compounds would need to be extremely potent, on par with lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), to account for the claimed hallucinogenic effects of Boletus manicus.^[25][24][6] The hypothesis that these indolic compounds are indeed highly potent hallucinogens has been treated both seriously, for instance by Heim, and critiqued and discounted, for instance by ethnobotanist Jonathan Ott.^[25][24] Heim, who notably discovered Boletus manicus, reported three self-experiments with consumption of tiny amounts of the mushroom that resulted in strange dreams on one occasion, but clearly perceptible and uncontroversial psychoactive effects were not experienced.^[1][23]

Heim, Wasson, and Reay ultimately concluded in the 1960s that, due to their inability to identify active constituents and due to the lack of consistency in reported effects, the claims of "mushroom madness" were really just "social catharsis" and ritualistically and theatrically "acting out", rather than a pharmacological effect of the mushrooms.^[1][23][12] On the other hand, Giorgio Samorini, a contemporary psychedelic researcher, has theorized that this conclusion may have been premature and that the mushrooms may indeed be psychoactive.^[1] In a 2006 survey of the village by Roland Treu and Win Adamson, it was found that much of the local knowledge of the mushrooms had been lost and the last known incidence of the mushrooms being consumed and producing hallucinogenic effects was in the mid-1980s.^[12][23] Only a few people with direct experience with the mushrooms remained alive.^[23] One man asserted that the mushrooms did indeed cause him to experience Lilliputian hallucinations.^[23]

Bryn Dentinger and/or Colin Domnauer traveled to Papua New Guinea in December 2025 in search of the hallucinogenic bolete mushrooms of Wasson and Heim's records, but they were unable to find them.^[19]

Yunnan, China

Certain blue-staining edible boletes in the Yunnan province of China are said to be hallucinogenic mushrooms.^[1][6][7][5] This was first reported in 1991, was observed by mycologist David Arora by 1997, and was more thoroughly reported by Arora in 2008.^{[12][6][7][26]} However, the Chinese Daoist Ge Hong wrote in Baopuzi (The Master Who Embraces Simplicity) around 300 CE that eating a certain wild mushroom raw would result in attainment of transcendence immediately, suggesting that the mushrooms may have been known for thousands of years.^[27] The Yunnan mushrooms are said to become non-hallucinogenic with proper cooking (for at least 15 to 25 minutes), which presumably destroys their active constituents, and are commonly consumed in well-cooked form as food in the province.^[1][6] There have been cases of unintended hallucinogenic mushroom poisonings when the mushrooms are accidentally undercooked or are eaten in large quantities.^[1][6] However, it has been suggested that some level of cooking might be required for the mushrooms to become hallucinogenic.^[6] The mushrooms are said to make people see the "xiao ren ren", meaning "lots of little men or people", and these hallucinations are said to be reminiscent of Lilliputian hallucinations.^[1][4][5][6] Aside from "xiao ren ren" hallucinations, the hallucinogenic bolete mushrooms are also reported to make people see walls moving and shifting, geometrical patterns, and strange shapes and object transformations (like shoelaces turning into butterflies that fly away), to make everything appear very beautiful, and to produce other effects such as gastrointestinal distress.^[1][6][5]

The exact bolete species that produce hallucinogenic effects are not entirely clear, at least as of 2008, due to difficulty in identification, due to many of the different species closely resembling one another on account of convergent evolution, and related to the fact that the people in the region are known to eat hundreds of different mushroom species.^[1][6][12] As a result, it is unclear whether it is one species or multiple that may be causing the hallucinations.^[12] In any case, popular edible bolete species in the province include Butyriboletus roseoflavus, Lanmaoa asiatica, Sutorius magnificus, and Rubroboletus sinicus.^[5][12] The active constituents of the mushrooms likewise have not yet been identified and are unknown.^[6][3] The phenomenon of hallucinogenic bolete mushroom intoxication in China is well-known and frequently covered in local and national media in the country.^{[1][28][29][30][31]}

The earliest report, published in 1991 by a Yunnan hospital, described 300 cases of xiaomei niuganjun^[a] poisonings, with effects starting 6 to 24 hours after consumption, lasting days to months, and including both open-eye and closed-eye Lilliputian hallucinations of people and animals.^[12][26] Other effects in more serious cases included psychosis- or schizophrenia-like symptoms, auditory hallucinations, pareidolia, disturbed thinking, aberrant behavior, personality disintegration, and stupor.^[26] Most cases resolved within a few days, some within 10 to 30 days, in a subset of cases after more than a month, and in a few cases within half a year.^[26] There were no deaths or relapses.^[26] In those with stupor, electroencephalogram (EEG) found LSD-like changes.^[26] The antipsychotic chlorpromazine was reportedly effective in managing symptoms.^[26] The same researchers administered extracts of the mushrooms to animals, including to dogs and to a rhesus monkey, and found that they produced abnormal behavior that started after 5 to 12 hours and lasted up to 2 days.^[12][26] Stupor was observed in the monkey similarly to human poisonings.^[26]

A news article in 2014 reported that a Yunnan woman was purposely and repeatedly consuming hallucinogenic bolete mushrooms so that she could have hallucinations of and thereby see her deceased daughter.^[12][32] A case series of mushrooms identified as xiaomei niuganjun^[a] causing visual and auditory hallucinations in two women was published in the Chinese literature by a Beijing hospital in 2014.^[1][2] The symptoms onset after 6 to 12 hours, resulted in the women going to the hospital after 12 hours, and lasted for up to 5 days.^[1][2] Similarly, in 2016, a case report was published of hallucinogenic mushroom poisoning in a Hong Kong woman who had consumed a bolete that had been purchased in the Yunnan province.^[1][33] Her symptoms included dizziness, malaise, and visual hallucinations.^[1][33] They onset 10 hours after consumption and resolved after 48 hours.^[1][33] The mushroom was identified as Tylopilus nigerrimus (formerly also Boletus nigerrimus and now Retiboletus nigerrimus) and is generally considered inedible.^[1][33] This was the first report of hallucinogenic effects with this mushroom species in the English-language literature.^[1][33]

Larger series of mushroom poisonings, including hallucinations, have also been reported in 2022, 2023, and 2024.^{[1][9][10][11][13]} In the 2024 series, of 81 patients, symptoms onset after 12 to 24 hours, notably longer than other hallucinogenic mushrooms, were often accompanied by other symptoms such as nausea (54%), vomiting (44%), fatigue (49%), dizziness (36%), diarrhea (15%), and abdominal pain (7.4%), resolved within 1 to 5 days in almost all cases (93%), and no deaths or abnormalities in vitals or blood tests were observed.^[13] Lanmaoa asiatica is one of the more frequently implicated bolete mushrooms in producing hallucinogenic effects.^{[1][9][10][11][12][13]} Other reportedly implicated species have included Butyriboletus roseoflavus and Neoboletus magnificus, and some of their constituents have been characterized.^[1]

Colin Domnauer and Bryn Dentinger have been studying hallucinogenic bolete mushrooms in the 2020s.^{[12][34][35][36]} Dentinger is said to be one of the world's leading experts on bolete mushrooms.^[35] In 2023, it was reported that Domnauer had recently visited Yunnan to collect samples of hallucinogenic bolete mushrooms.^[34][36] Also in 2023, Domnauer and Dentinger published a conference abstract in which they sampled and assessed 12 of the 13 currently accepted species of Lanmaoa mushrooms towards investigations of the psychoactive Yunnan mushrooms.^[36] Chinese researchers are also studying the mushroom poisonings.^{[9][10][11][13][26]}

United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, unbeknownst to her at the time, ate cooked (and thus inactivated) hallucinogenic bolete mushrooms at a restaurant while visiting China in 2023, and this was widely covered in the media when it occurred.^{[34][29][37][38][39]}

Cordillera, Philippines

In 2024, Colin Domnauer published that he had traveled not only to southern China but also to the northern Philippines in his studies of hallucinogenic Lanmaoa asiatica mushrooms.^[8][40] This was in Sagada in the Philippine Cordilleras, to investigate blue-staining boletes, known as "Sedesdem", that were said to be regularly eaten and would irregularly cause people to see the "Ansisit" or "little people" (i.e., also Lilliputian hallucinations).^[8][40]

Other instances

Other Lanmaoa species closely related to Lanmaoa asiatica, such as Lanmaoa pallidorosea, Lanmaoa carminipes, and Lanmaoa flavorubra, exist in North America.^[12] However, there are no reports of such species causing hallucinogenic effects in North America or Europe or anywhere outside of China and Papua New Guinea.^[12] In any case, such mushrooms are also not commonly eaten in North America due to apparent stigma against consumption of blue-staining mushrooms in this part of the world, and so possible hallucinogenic effects of such mushrooms may have been missed.^[12]