People living thousands of miles apart have reported an extraordinarily strange experience after eating certain wild mushrooms. They begin seeing tiny human figures that appear to move through the real world, walking around objects, climbing over surfaces, and interacting with their surroundings.

These visions are known as Lilliputian hallucinations, named after the miniature inhabitants of "Gulliver's Travels," who stand just 6 inches tall. For decades, researchers suspected that cultural beliefs and folklore might explain why people in different regions described such similar experiences.

Now, a new study provides evidence that the phenomenon has a biological explanation.

Researchers at the University of Utah (U) used DNA sequencing to identify Lanmaoa asiatica as the mushroom responsible for these unusual hallucinations in Southwest China and the northern Philippines.…