The hallucinogenic mushroom that contains no known psychedelic • Hacker News Board

Re: The hallucinogenic mushroom that contains no known psychedelic

#51

Post by ridgeguy » Mon, Jun 15, 2026, 12:48 PM UTC

jaggederest wrote: post #30

ridgeguy wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reconsider the blood cell visualization thing. I've had bilateral PVD. Each was accompanied by an initial few minutes of seeing a few dozen small dark spots that had lighter grey centers. Most visible when I looked at the sky. They all disappeared after a few minutes. I think these were RBCs from minimal retinal blood vessel tearing at the PVD events. Human RBCs are ~6µm - 8µm diameter. Human retinal light sensing ce…

Slightly off topic, but on a clear blue sky it's possible to directly visualize the white blood cells running around on your retina. I love watching them go about business, and I think I heard it can even be used diagnostically to do a manual WBC count in extremis for leukoproliferative disease. They're pretty tiny though, I'm not sure if you'd actually see a center in the RBCs

The lighter centers could have been diffraction around the object and reconvergence. Or some kind of signal processing effect at the retinal level.

The retinal vessel network is a fun thing to inspect as you say. It works best for me when the sun is high in the sky. The bright, featureless blue brings out the branching network very well.

Re: The hallucinogenic mushroom that contains no known psychedelic

#52

Post by moi2388 » Mon, Jun 15, 2026, 1:45 PM UTC

jdthedisciple wrote: post #39

moi2388 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does? “ Patients describe colourful figures only a few centimetres tall, marching, dancing and climbing over the furniture.”

Tbf I would also want to know more: Like to what end are they moving around? And what do they look like exactly? Like people you know from your life? Wearing ordinary outfits? Do they communicate amongst themselves, like little groups of people? Do they gesticulate? And when you see them, can you like, focus on a particular one and follow him around? Etc etc...

The hallmark symptom of these mushrooms are Lilliputian hallucinations. This is a clinically defined psychiatric condition characterized by the perception of numerous tiny human, animal, or fantasy-like figures in one’s environment. They’re often very realistic, three dimensional figures said to be colorfully dressed, very mobile, and interacting with the physical world—like climbing up chairs or tables, or clinging to surfaces.

Re: The hallucinogenic mushroom that contains no known psychedelic

#53

Post by IAmBroom » Mon, Jun 15, 2026, 7:45 PM UTC

OhioMan2943 wrote: post #32

I'd love it if someone went through all of the historic fairy tales and folklore and tried to validly link local psychoactive and hallucinogenic plants to them.

That would be the sociological equivalent of saying "Zoom in, enhance, zoom in, enhance" forty times in a row, until you can identify the shooter from a reflection off a raindrop.

"Where are mushrooms with these chemicals found?" "In ~50% of arable land on Earth." "When was the earliest known rendition of this fairytale?" "8-10 generations ago."

Re: The hallucinogenic mushroom that contains no known psychedelic

#54

Post by spidercat » Mon, Jun 15, 2026, 8:11 PM UTC

sugarkjube wrote: post #44

ggm wrote: post #4

"seeing little people" is such a hyper specific visual effect, it begs questions. Since I am well aware how my mind fills in gaps in the visual field with attempts to map what I would expect or want to see (try holding your head rigidly ahead and look with a steady gaze at a near field pattern like floor tiles to experience your brain filling in the missing pieces in the field) I ask: what could this actually be? For…

> For instance, when I get (got: my blood pressure is treated) migraine visual effects, I would say "lightning bolt" but thats just a textual analogue/simile. What I actually saw was more complex than that: lightning is white. My effect was polychrome. What you describe seems to refer to scintillating scotoma, which appears to be well known and documented: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scintillating_scotoma I persona…

>I personally have my doubts whether it has to do with blood pressure

If you're referring to scintillating scotoma/visual migraine aura, it's thought to be the result of what's called a cortical spreading depression: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortical_spreading_depression

It's really fascinating stuff (and pretty unnerving, speaking as someone who experiences migraines with aura).

On the blood pressure connection, propranolol (a beta blocker often used to treat high blood pressure and anxiety) is often prescribed as a prophylactic for migraines, but I'm unsure of the preventative mechanism(s) at play.