this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2026
213 points (92.8% liked)

science

27837 readers
577 users here now

A community to post scientific articles, news, and civil discussion.

dart board;; science bs

rule #1: be kind

lemmy.world rules

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] SunshineJogger@feddit.org 18 points 4 days ago (2 children)

No matter what it is, it is fascinating in its own right that it has such a specific visual effect on users.

Maybe this mushroom was very common once and is the source for folk tales of all sorts.

I mean there are truly a lot of old stories involving tiny people.

[–] mPony@lemmy.world 5 points 4 days ago

There are also a lot of old stories about people seeing tall slender alien-like creatures. I wonder if there's a substance that causes that.

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 1 points 3 days ago

I think that's true of a lot of myths, folk tales, religions, etc. Those people were eating all sorts of weird things, and there was no FDA policing the food supply. LSD can be derived from moldy rye bread, and is probably the explanation for lots of mass hallucinations over the centuries.

It seems plausible that stories of entities like fairies and elves could have arisen from experiences with substances like these mushrooms.