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By the Eyes of the Blind: Difference between revisions
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== Film ==
* ''[[Nightmare On Elm Street
* In ''[[The Frighteners]]'', those who have a traumatic experience sometimes have their perception altered. This allows them to see ghosts, the white light/stairway to heaven, and [[The Grim Reaper|other... things.]]
* In the James Stewart movie ''[[Harvey]]'', Harvey is a pooka, a fairy spirit who appears to Stewart's character as a six-foot white rabbit, but who is invisible to others. Naturally, everyone else thinks Stewart is insane. One character bothers (named Wilson) to look up "pooka" in a dictionary and reads the definition, "a fairy spirit in animal form. ... very fond of rumpots, crackpots, and how are you today Mr. Wilson?" He's very upset.
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* In ''[[Beetlejuice]]'', only Lydia can see the Maitlands. According to the "Handbook of the Deceased", this is because ghosts cannot be seen by the living because they are "strange and unusual", something that Lydia herself is.
* ''[[They Live!]]!'': The Aliens can only be seen for what they are by people with the special sunglasses (later contact lenses).
== Literature ==
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** The Bogles (weird humanoid demon-animals that inhabit the Underworld) from ''[[Discworld/Wintersmith|Wintersmith]]'' can only be seen by people who have their eyes shut at the time. This might be a deliberate parody of the [[Blind Seer]] trope.
* "''The Ten O'Clock People''", by [[Stephen King]], had monsters that appeared as human but could only be identified by people who smoke a certain amount (roughly a couple a day, but not heavily).
* ''[[The Emperor's
** It's based on a swindle, which in turn is based on the natural human fear of looking stupid. Hence, everyone who looks at the "magic cloth" pretends to see it, based on the "rules" that the con-men have given to the Emperor, for fear of losing their jobs. The "innocent" child who sees through the scam does so because he (or she) has not been trained to tell the Emperor and those around him what they want to hear (i.e., to lie in order to preserve the feelings of the powerful, and the life of the speaker). And the story itself is a metaphor for how a powerful idiot can only be challenged by someone who has nothing to lose.
** One [[Fable Remake]] makes it ambiguous whether it's a con... or whether the cloth really does work and the reason the viewpoint character could never see it is that he's indeed foolish and unfit for his position.
* The classic short story ''Eight O'Clock in the Morning'' had monsters who could only be seen after awakening from hypnosis. It was adapted into the [[So Bad It's Good]] movie ''They Live'', where the monsters can only be seen by wearing special sunglasses.
* [[The Fair Folk|Sidhe]] in the universe of ''[[Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell]]'' can only be seen by the insane unless they reveal themselves. Jonathan Strange therefore
* In the novel ''Kit's Wilderness'', the main character gains the ability to see ghosts after suffering a mysterious near death experience, but a few other major characters of all ages claim to see them as well, but there is no way of knowing whether they are telling the truth or not, and his closest friends seem to know when he is looking at them or in their presence.
* Central to Theodore Sturgeon's classic novella, ''The [Widget], The [Wadget], and Boff''.
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* The Spectres in ''[[His Dark Materials]]'' can only be seen by children, but feed on the minds/souls of adults.
* In Gustave Le Rouge's ''La Guerre des Vampires'', Martians can only be seen by blind people (or by someone who's wearing a special Martian helmet).
* In the ''[[Star Wars]]'' novel ''Dark Apprentice'',
* In ''[[Myth Adventures|Myth-ion Improbable]]'', the lurking dust bunnies of the Vortex dimensions are invisible to guys. Of course.
* How the ''[[Animorphs]]'' learn about the existence of the Chee, a race of androids living among humans through the use of holograms: in dog morph, Marco notes that Eric has no smell (though he was carrying smells picked up from touching other people), but because dogs have mammalian eyes, he still looked normal. It takes a spider morph, with completely different eyes, to reveal the machine under the hologram.
* ''[[Star Trek: New Frontier]]'', "Gods Above": No one but Moke can see Woden and an [[Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence|ascended McHenry]] at first, but that's because 1. {{spoiler|Moke is Woden's son}}; 2. Woden's enemies are keeping them concealed, and 3. They don't see them because [[Clap Your Hands If You Believe|they don't believe they're there]].
* Inverted in [[Fredric Brown]]'s ''[[Martians Go Home]]''. The Martians are real, and everyone on earth can see
* In [[The Last Unicorn]], normal humans can't see the titular unicorn (or unicorns in general). All they will see is a white mare at best. It is implied that only some humans who deeply believe in their existence, such as Molly, or being possessing magic, such as Schmendrick and the witch who captures her early in the movie, can see her who what she truly is. Said witch had to create on her a ''fake'' horn in order to make people believe she was a true unicorn, since they can't see her real horn. Haggard himself can see through her human disguise because, as he puts it, everything in her behaviour betrays her real nature. Finally, the skull saw right through her disguise.
* Alan Dean Foster's ''Into The Out Of'' features three characters who are the only ones who can see the supernatural creatures infiltrating the world in order to destroy it. For two of them, it's a ''literal'' case of By the Eyes of the Blind, as both of them have lost an eye and can see the creatures with their ''glass'' eye. The third has a [[Third Eye]].
▲== Live Action TV ==
* The Vorvon in the ''[[Buck Rogers in the 25th Century]]'' episode "Space Vampire" could only be seen by its intended victim.
* The insect-like creatures from a parallel universe in ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' could only be seen by those irradiated by the alien device brought by SG-1, or those who touched them. Interestingly, the creatures themselves did absolutely nothing, but suddenly being able to see them led to some... panic.
* Dawn in ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer
* On ''[[Lost]]'', Hurley, who is [[Genre Savvy]], theorizes that only he, Locke, and Ben can see Jacob's cabin because they are the craziest ones.
* In the final season of ''[[Slings and Arrows]]'', Geoffrey and his ghostly mentor Oliver Wells hazard that the only ones who can see Oliver (besides Geoffrey...who is is probably mad) are people near death.
* Vorlons in ''[[Babylon 5]]'' cannot be seen by those who have been touched by the Shadows.
* In ''[[Angel]]'' only people whose blood has mixed with [[Eldritch Abomination|Jasmine's]] can see beyond her beauty to see the creepy maggot-infested walking [[Eldritch Abomination]] she is. Subverted with
* Al, the hologram sidekick from ''[[Quantum Leap]]'' could only be seen by Sam, animals and 'the very old, very young and very crazy.'
* ''[[The X-
* In the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' episode "Vincent and the Doctor", only Vincent van Gogh can see the [[Monster of the Week|Krafayis]]. No explanation is given for this, but it's probably because he's at least a little bit crazy.
* Both versions of ''[[The Outer Limits]]'' have examples of this trope
** In the original series episode "Behold, Eck!", a two-dimensional creature from [[Another Dimension]] accidentally enters our world. It can only be perceived by people wearing glasses made from a special prescription that uses meteroic quartz.
** In the [[Revival]] episode "Music of the Spheres", the alien audio signal is only recognizable as music to teenagers, but not to adults or younger children.
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* In ''[[Being Human (UK)]]'', only people who are somehow supernatural (including vampires, werewolves, and zombies) can see ghosts.
* Played with in the ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' episode ''Imaginary Friend''. Young Clara originally has a not-unusual imaginary friend named Isabelle who she pretends to play with. Then an alien presense reads her mind and manifests itself as the physical embodiment of Isabelle. It's not really that no one else can see her though, just that she vanishes whenever someone else enters the room.
== [[Music]] ==
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* In the music video for Lordi's "Blood Red Sandman", the monsters/band can only be seen at first through a handheld camera.
▲== Tabletop RPG ==
* In the tabletop role-playing game ''[[Changeling: The Lost]]'', a Changeling's mien (that is, their true, Fae-inspired appearance) is virtually impossible to detect against a Changeling's will, even to other magical folk; though there may be enough bleedover to make their mundane appearance unique or unusual enough to make others suspect there could be something wrong , the illusion of a normal visage, called the Mask, is complete and almost impenetrable. However, one book lists optional conditions for people who are naturally capable of seeing through it—such as the seventh son of a seventh son, a person with [[Mismatched Eyes|heterochromia]], or someone born on Leap Day.
** Then there's the fact that most things from the Hedge, such as [[Our Goblins Are Wickeder|hobgoblins]], can only be perceived on Earth by changelings or any humans a changeling has chosen to ensorcel.
* In the 3E [[Ravenloft]] supplement ''Dark Tales & Disturbing Legends'', many bogeymen [[Invisible to Adults|can only be seen by children]].
== [[Video Games]] ==
* Amaterasu from ''[[Ōkami
* In ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]: [[Strange Journey]]'' demons are invisible unless viewed through a [[See-Thru Specs|Demonica visor with the Devil Summoning Program installed]]. Even ''then'', they just show up as a bit of graphical corruption on the HUD until the program gathers enough information to display their actual appearance.
* In ''[[Trace Memory]]'' only Ashley can see D, apparently because "her heart and mind are pure" or something like that.
== [[Web Comic]] ==
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* [[Monsterhood]] has an interesting variation. The monster town is contained in an energy field that makes those outside it believe that whatever is inside is fantasy—they'll rationalize their experiences within as a dream, a movie they were acting in, or anything else, and monsters trapped outside too long will even forget they are monsters, as monsters exist inside the field and are thus fantasy. The "Blind" here? People who can't distinguish between fantasy and reality are entirely unaffected, as what's within the field doesn't seem any less "real" to them.
* ''[[Shan Shan|The Adventures of Shan Shan]]'': [http://shanshan.upperrealms.com/view.php?pageid=004&chapterid=1 Shan Shan is special and can see and hear things others can't.]
== Web Original ==
* ''[[SCP Foundation]]'': The world accessible through
* Implied in many works from [[The Slender Man Mythos]]. Typically, only Slender Man's intended victims can actually see him unassisted. However, he always shows up in pictures and videos, which is why the more [[Genre Savvy]] characters (i.e. [[Marble Hornets|Alex Kralie]], [[Tribe Twelve|Milo]],) start keeping a camera with them at all times. Then, when other characters review said pictures and videos, they end up going "Hey wait, why didn't I ever notice that rather obvious tall, faceless guy in the business suit when I was actually there?" Unfortunately, realizing that Slender Man exists is an easy way to get on his list...
== Western Animation ==
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* Spoofed in ''[[The Simpsons]]'' with Osmodiar, a similar-looking alien that can only be seen by Homer. And indeed, the audience can't see it either.
* One episode of ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' was centered around Danny childishly breaking stuff and blaming a ghost that no one else could see. Turned out, he was right; the ghost was only visible to children or those with a similar mentality. Jaz was eventually able to see him once she was forcibly reminded she's not as adult as she like to think.
== [[Real Life]] ==
* Olfactory example: There was a study about how asparagus imparts a particular smell to urine, yet some people report that it doesn't work on them. The punchline of that study was that some people simply cannot ''detect'' that particular smell - they have a "dead spot" to that odor. Interestingly, [[Dirty Jobs|Mike Rowe]] found that he couldn't detect certain smells (and others registered strangely) when shooting the odor analysis segment (season 3, ep. 14).
:Sadly there are more serious consequences to this than simply being unable to tell if someone's had asparagus. There are poisonous gases which some people can't smell and so can't detect as leaking when they enter a room, which may have debilitating or fatal results.
* Certain high-frequency
** Those inaudible mobile phone ringtones have one (occasionally hilarious flaw): the adult in question (generally a teacher) may not be able to hear it, but when everyone in the class is clutching their ears in pain and yelling at the person whose phone is ringing...
* Certain bitter chemicals, such as phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) can only be tasted by people with the right flavor-receptors in their taste buds. People with the greatest variety of receptors and/or a denser supply of them are known as "supertasters", and tend to dislike flavors with bitter components, such as coffee or cabbage.
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