This scene, from an early episode of HBO’s new Dune prequel series Dune: Prophecy, showcases the fictional Water of Life, a powerful narcotic extracted from young sandworms on the desert planet Arrakis. Women belonging to the Bene Gesserit—the sisterhood of psychic political advisors the show revolves around—depend on it for some of their most important rites. Along with the spice melange, another by-product of Arrakis’s giant sandworms, the Water of Life helps Sisters enhance their senses, connect with their ancestors, and peer into the past and future.

The Bene Gesserit aren’t the only faction in Dune that rely on supersized worm secretions for their powers. So-called “Guild Navigators” consume large quantities of spice to induce a clairvoyant state of mind, allowing them to guide starships across interstellar space. The “Fremen” people of Arrakis, meanwhile, eat spice for its mind-altering properties and health benefits.

“In Dune, a lot of things come across like superpowers,” Alison Schapker, the showrunner and executive producer of Dune: Prophecy, told National Geographic. Yet, Schapker says, even Dune’s most fantastical elements are often grounded “through the lens of evolution.”

Here are a few examples of real-world evolution producing seemingly magical elixirs.

Dramatically prolonging life spans

Giant sandworm spice may have more commercial value, but on Earth humble nematodes produce an equally impressive arsenal of chemicals. These diverse, highly adaptable worms secrete a cocktail of powerful pheromones called ascarosides. Like the Water of Life, some ascarosides act as a love potion, helping the worms attract mates.

Other ascarosides reshape nematodes’ anatomy, similar to how prolonged spice exposure causes the Guild Navigators’ bodies to mutate. Some chemicals even cause nematodes to enter a hibernation state known as the ‘dauer stage’ that can prolong their lifespan far more than a daily cup of spice-infused tea.

Nematode pheromones probably can’t trigger hallucinations (although Werner admits scientists haven’t investigated the matter).

Psychedelic fauna above and below the sea

Several species of fish, amphibians, and possibly insects produce chemicals that can induce altered states, says Laura Orsolini, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the Polytechnic University of Marche in Ancona, Italy, who co-authored a review paper on so-called ‘psychedelic fauna’.

There are very few formal studies of animal-derived psychedelics. In many cases, scientists don’t know which mind-altering chemicals are at play or why the animal produces them (although biologists often suspect natural hallucinogens serve a defensive role). Typically, researchers are only aware of an animal’s trippy effects thanks to anecdotal reports.

“Their use is completely experimental,” Orsolini says.

In one case study, a 40-year-old vacationer became sick to his stomach several hours after eating Sarpa salpa at a restaurant on the French Riviera. The next day, he had to stop driving when his vision started to blur and giant, screaming insects appeared to swarm his car.

In another incident, a 90-year-old man started to hear “human screams and bird squealing” within hours of consuming the fish. While it’s unclear why only some people experience such effects after eating Sarpa salpa, it’s possible that how the fish is prepared, including whether it is gutted before being cooked, plays a role.

Others have experienced bad “fishing trips” after eating the Greenland shark. Fermented Greenland shark meat is a beloved national dish in Iceland. But if the reclusive predator’s flesh is consumed fresh, it can cause vomiting, hallucinations, and temporary paralysis. Scientists believe the nerve toxin trimethylamine—a breakdown product of the trimethylamine oxide present in Greenland shark flesh—is responsible.

Not all psychedelic creatures dwell in the sea. Some evidence suggests that harvester ants from south and south-central California can induce hallucinogenic visions, possibly due to psychoactive compounds in their venom. Meanwhile, the Sonoran Desert toad, B. Alvarius, produces a trippy venom from several of its skin glands.

Tuscon Herpetological Society president Robert Villa says psychedelic users likely first experimented with the toad’s venom in the 1980s. But demand for the toad is now surging thanks to the promotion of toad tripping by celebrities and wellness influencers.

While scientists aren’t yet sure whether the Sonoran desert toad has been seriously harmed by the black market trade, Villa and others worry that by the time researchers document a population decline, it will be “too late” to reverse.

“It’s a wildlife product that actually produces the claims that are projected about it” unlike popular pseudo-medicinal products like rhino horn, Villa says. “That makes it much more difficult to dissuade people from using it.”

A timely parable

The plight of the Sonoran Desert toad offers a warning to the Bene Gesserit, and others, who rely on sandworms for their psychoactive drugs. Werner, the worm expert, theorizes that overexploitation of the spice, which is harvested industrially on Arrakis by enormous mining machines, could have a devastating effect on the planet’s ecology.

This “would cause the ecosystem to collapse,” Werner says.

A potential ecological unraveling due to overexploitation of spice “mirrors our situation on Earth very, very closely,” Villa says. To avoid it, Villa says groups that depend on the spice must “figure out how to manage [it] cooperatively.”

Protection of sandworms, the spice, and the desert planet that sustains both is a central issue in Dune, even if it’s not always driving the plot, Schapker says.

“The pressure of a limited resource that the whole Imperium has come to depend on…can they sustain the usage of spice?” she asks. “There’s a lot at stake.”