Go Mad from the Revelation: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either [[Trope Namers|go mad from the revelation]] or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age."''|''[[HP Lovecraft|The Call of Cthulhu]]''}}

In many stories, there are some experiences that are so horribly mind-shattering that the usual result is stark raving madness. This is the signature characteristic of an [[Eldritch Abomination]] and one of the central tropes of the [[Cosmic Horror Story]] genre, but other things can cause it as well, such as [[Cold -Blooded Torture|prolonged torture]] or learning [[These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know|Things Man Was Not Meant to Know]].

There is generally a distinction between things that happen to the mind because of experience and things that are done to the brain. This trope is the former. Thus, insanity caused by drugs or a specific, quasi-magical effect (like a [[Brown Note]]) doesn't qualify. Contrast those things with the Shoggoths, who strain people's sanity in spite of never having that as a stated special ability -- theability—the thought of them is just that horrible. Confronting a Creature From Beyond The Stars or a Thing That Should Not Exist will lead either to psychological regression into denial, or insanity when the cognitive dissonance becomes too great. [[HPH.P. Lovecraft]] was fond of these; his stories abound with [[Eldritch Abomination|creatures from regions of space where the known laws of nature do not apply]], and [[Alien Geometries|geometries that violate the laws of physics]].

This almost could have been [[Truth in Television]], insofar as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a real mental illness, but a character who Goes Mad From the Revelation usually is portrayed in a more generic insanity, often resembling Freak Outs, [[Heroic BSOD|catatonia]], schizophrenia or most commonly, psychotic mania with [[Laughing Mad]]. Sometimes, if you whack someone with the "insane stick" enough times, they'll get [[Bored Withwith Insanity]].

The main inspiration for this trope is the work of [[HPH.P. Lovecraft]], whose story ''The Call of Cthulhu'' is the [[Trope Namer]]. Occurs in most of his work and a good deal of Lovecraft-[[Cosmic Horror Story|inspired work]] that use [[Mad God|Mad Gods]]s and [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldritch Abominations]]s, indeed Cthulhu-inspired [[RPG|RPGs]]s often make this a game mechanic. Will be absent from stories where you can [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?|punch out Cthulhu]]. [[Shinji and Warhammer 40 K (Fanfic)Warhammer40K|Mostly.]]

The extreme form of a [[Freak -Out]]. May take the form of a [[Heroic BSOD]] where the thing isn't going to start working again. If the whole nature of the universe is opened to you because of your velocity, this is [[Ludicrous Speed]].

Compare with [[Brain Bleach]] and [[My God, What Have I Done?]]. See also [[A Form You Are Comfortable With]] for a way to avoid this.

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* ''[[Naruto|Sasuke.]]:'' Sasuke. He went nuts after Madara told him what Itachi's true intentions were.

* Casca in ''[[Berserk]]'' goes insane during the Eclipse after a harrowing [[Break the Cutie]] ordeal that involves {{spoiler|being branded for sacrifice, losing everyone in the Hawks to things out of pure nightmare, getting stripped naked and almost getting tentacle -raped by demons, and then getting brutally raped by Femto, her former commander turned demon king (and, because of said newly-born demon king status, is inflicting ''utterly excruciating agony'' on her through her Brand all the while that he's doing this to her), right in front of the man she loved. As Guts is held down and [[Forced to Watch]] it happen}}.

** It speaks volumes about ''Berserk'' that theafter followingthis, wordsit are being typed: And then?went [[ItFrom Bad Gotto Worse]].

* A few characters in ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni (Visual Novel)|Higurashi no Naku Koro Nini]]'' arguably experience this, most definitely Keiichi and Shmion.

* Suzu in ''[[Peacemaker Kurogane]]'' becomes [[Axe Crazy]] and a [[Depraved Homosexual]] after {{spoiler|finding his beloved master dead, and being raped by an old man}}.

* The reason Schwarzwald from ''[[The Big O (Anime)|The Big O]]'' goes mad and decides to destroy Paradigm City is because he figures out the show's [[Ontological Mystery]] (or at least part of it... it's a [[Jigsaw Puzzle Plot|big mystery]]).

* Sensui from ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'' '''definitely''' saw some things he shouldn't have, that broke his brain... [[Split Personality|literally]]. However, the madness was aided and abetted by the [[Brown Note|Chapter]] [[Post -Historical Trauma|Black]] [[Snuff Film|tape]].

* Definitely happens to Shinji in ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion|The End Of Evangelion]]'' when the ritual to {{spoiler|awaken [[Eldritch Abomination|Lilith]]/Rei Ayanami}} reduces him to a fit of shrieking omnicidal insanity. It didn't help that he had just seen {{spoiler|Asuka's torn-apart remains}} only about a minute earlier.

* [[Big Bad]] [[Kill All Humans|Millions]] [[Evil Twin|Knives]] from ''[[Trigun]]'' has this as his manga origin story. (In the anime he just decided [[Humans Are the Real Monsters|Humans Are Bastards]] for semi-logical if not terribly extreme reasons, and then went [[Evil Plan]] on them and his brother. In the manga, he [[Used to Be Aa Sweet Kid|was a sweet boy]] who snapped after discovering the [[Awful Truth]]-- — that there had been an 'Independent Plant' born before him and his brother, and the crew had [[For Science!|studied her right to death]].

** Notably, if you didn't already know who was going to grow up to be the villain, it would ''look'' like Knives handled it better than Vash. They both locked themselves in and attempted to starve to death together, but after Rem broke in and saved them it was ''[[The Messiah|Vash]]'' who did the [[Creepy Laugh]] and [[Humans Are the Real Monsters|Humans Are Bastards]] and hysteria, and Knives seemed... perfectly okay. He saved his freak-out until after he'd set up all the colony ships to crash.

* ''[[Digimon Adventure 02]]'': Certainly not the only factor in his descent, but his visit to the [[Cosmic Horror Story|Dark Ocean]] a perpetually dark realm, populated by various Lovecraftian horrors and where Love and Hope are a foreign concept, was definitely the Straw that Broke the Camel's Back for Ken Ichijoji. One look at his [http://www.alltrees.org/anime/basetwo/images/ken.chibi.evil.jpg expression]{{Dead link}} in that [[Flash Back|scene]] is enough to convince you that this kid just went off the deep end.

* On ''[[Tsukuyomi Moon Phase (Anime)|Moonphase]]'', Kouhei experiences temporary madness after his new power lets him see {{spoiler|Hazuki's}} true form, after which he temporarily becomes a trembling wreck who screams like a madman every time he sees her, he eventually gets over it though.

* ''[[20th Century Boys]]'': Approximately 2/3 of the people who complete [[Twentieth Century Boys|Friend's]] VR, which purportedly reveals [[The Faceless|his face]], are [[Driven to Suicide]]. {{spoiler|It's not his face.}}

* ''[[Perfect Blue]]'': In the anime's denouement, Rumi is permanently delusional and institutionalized.

* Most of the characters in the visual novel ''[[Saya no Uta (Visual Novel)|Saya no Uta]]'' are absolutely nuts by the time any of the three endings are over. Ryouko Tanbou, Fuminori's doctor, particularly suffers. After witnessing the reality of Dr. Ougai's experiments more than a year before the story, she's a classic case of paranoia who through her own intelligence has kept her paranoia carefully hidden in every day interactions.

* Occurs to one of the astronomers in ''[[Hellstar Remina]]'' when he realizes that {{spoiler|Remina's a sentient [[Planet Eater]]...and it's headed for Earth.}}

* In the ''[[Halo Legends]]'' segment ''Homecoming'' a few of the escaped Spartans find out they've been replaced with clones {{spoiler|leading a few to commit suicide}}.

* Happens to {{spoiler|Sayaka Miki, and Mami Tomoe from the third alternate timeline}} in ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica (Anime)|Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]''. {{spoiler|Sayaka}} starts losing it as she realizes that {{spoiler|[[No Good Deed Goes Unpunished]], and ends up becoming the witch known as Oktavia Von Seckendorff since she brought hope to others only to lose herself to despair}}; {{spoiler|the third Mami}} goes insane with grief after {{spoiler|the Sayaka of her continuity also becomes Oktavia and is killed by Homura, since she cannot handle the [[Awful Truth]] that being a Puella Magi means; she kills Kyouko and gets ready to kill Homura, so Madoka has to [[Mercy Kill]] her.}}

** And in the backstory of {{spoiler|Kyoko Sakura}}, this happened to {{spoiler|her father, when he found out that Kyoko used her [[Selfless Wish]] to brainwash people into following him. His mind splintered so badly that he went the [[Pater Familicide]] route, with Kyoko as the [[Sole Survivor]] of the Sakura clan.}}

* In ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', it's strongly implied, and possibly outright stated, that the experience of going through the Gate is so "awful" that even if you did manage to survive through the pain of whatever it took from you, you could wind up a vegetable.

* ''[[School Days (Visual Novel)|School Days]]'s'' Kotonoha and Sekai. Both are dumped by a [[Jerkass]] Makoto Ito and have realized that he's also screwed around with their best friends. [[Dull Eyes of Unhappiness|Kotonoha's eyes turn dark]] around the later half of the anime.

* In ''[[Monster (Animemanga)|Monster]]'' after [[Trauma Conga Line|Nina recovers all of her memories]] and realizes that the memories her evil twin brother [[Complete Monster|Johan]] thinks are his are really hers ([[It Makes Sense in Context|it's complicated]]), she nearly commits suicide. Thankfully [[The Messiah|Dr. Tenma]] intervenes just in time to avert a potentially HUGE [[Tear Jerker]].

* Apparently, this is what happened to {{spoiler|Kaafai}} in ''[[Haou Airen]]'' when {{spoiler|Hakuron raped his new friend Kurumi in front of him.}}

* From ''[[The Sandman]]'': "Not knowing everything is all that makes it okay sometimes." May explain why Delight became Delirium.<br />Particularly in her little speech in Season of Mists (I think), when she snaps at Desire for belittling her, and says that she knows things, things that not even Destiny (who knows everything) knows.

* [[The Joker]] is like this at least some portrayals, more so than most ''[[Batman (Comic Book)|Batman]]'' villains. More than one interpretation (including the 1989 movie) has shown him bursting into maniacal laughter after seeing his chemically-disfigured reflection for the first time. His fellow [[Rogues Gallery]] members are listed alongside him under [[Freak -Out]].

** For instance, ''The Killing Joke''. Possibly subverted by Commissioner Gordon's resistance to Joker's attempts to drive him (no pun intended) batshit crazy in the same graphic novel.

** Dr Manhattan also deserves a mention, having been through something very like [[The HitchhikersHitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy|the Total Perspective Vortex]] and then acquired the power of God. He doesn't exactly go ''mad'', but he certainly wasn't the same person after his experience.

** Captain Britain himself had his own brush with this trope when he was first confronted with a supernatural occurrence he couldn't [[Flat Earth Atheist|dismiss or explain away]] - in this case, extradimensional beings contacting him in the middle of a Trans-Atlantic flight. He promptly freaked out and jumped out of the plane. Note that at this point in time, Brian got his powers from an amulet and scepter given to him by Merlin and Arthur. ([[Knights Of The Round Table|Yes, them]]). This has been [[Retcon|retconnedretcon]]ned at some point to Brian getting his brains rattled by a psychic attack and jumping to protect the plane's passengers (At this point he couldn't fly yet).

* According to ''[[Transformers: Shattered Glass|Shattered Glass]]'' [[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Optimus_Prime_<!-- 28SG29%28SG%29 Optimus Prime's bio]], he discovered something so shocking from Cybertron's past that it made him to go insane, and to the present day no one knows what it was he found. -->

* One issue of ''[[Hellblazer (Comic Book)|Hellblazer]]'' features a [[Well -Intentioned Extremist]] priest who gets into the habit of calling the police when teenagers start confessing their misdeeds to him- and at one point, he goes so far as to physically assault a girl who confessed to having sex with her brother. And then the Devil shows up; after letting him know how badly the teenagers have suffered, he ushers the priest back into the confessional and lets him hear ''his'' confession. Minutes later, the priest burns the church to the ground; from then on, he's straight-up [[Ax Crazy]], murdering people from one end of the country to the next, culiminating in his attempt to rape a young John Constantine- which results in him getting a razorblade wedged in his face, being arrested, and committed to an asylum. After being released over twenty years later, he bumps into Constantine again at a local church; by now completely lucid, he explains everything, then [[Eye Scream|jams a pencil in either eye]] and [[Driven to Suicide|headbutts the pew in front of him.]]

** Prior to this, in [[Swamp Thing]] Constantine leads a mentalist to make contact with heroes and villains battling what appears to be a giant, black [[Ultimate Evil|shelled mollusk]] that even defeats [[Beyond the Impossible|the Spectre, implied to be an aspect of God.]] Though the entire experience has been traumatic, Constantine's patsy gets a good look at the shell on the creature to snap his mind: {{spoiler|It's not a shell, it's a fingernail. The entire battle had been fought on a scale so alien, whole armies had been assaulting just the fingertip of their foe without realizing.}}

{{quote| '''Ultraman''': There is a god...and he hates us all.}}

* Much of the plot of [[Tron]]: Ghost in the Machine runs on this trope. The story opens with the [[Tron Two Point Oh (Video Game)2.0|protagonist of the game]] being so paralyzed by what he saw inside the computer system that he went from being an avid programmer to being a shut-in afraid to touch electronics. From there, the whole comic spirals into a genuine [[Mind Screw]].

* Happens in [[Power Pack]] when the kids' parents learn firsthand that the kids have superpowers, as the aliens species that gave the kids their powers ''brainwashed them without the kids knowledge or consent'' (that the majority of this species was secretly dicks had been foreshadowed their last appearance) into accepting any explanation for events that wasn't "their children have super powers" and their minds couldn't reconcile the clear facts with the brainwashing. They're ultimatelytemporarily saved by being led to believe that the superpowered kids were fakes switched for their real kids, though it takes till the end of the series for the brainwashing to be removed.

== [[Film]] ==

* In ''[[Old BoyOldboy]]'' Oh Dae-su discovers the girl he had sex with was {{spoiler|his daughter}}, madness and cutting out his tongue followed.

* In ''[[Indiana Jones and Thethe Kingdom of The Crystal Skull (Film)|Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of Thethe Crystal Skull]]'', the Crystal Skull itself contains immense psychic power and knowledge, which turns Harold Oxley into a gibbering lunatic and almost Indiana Jones as well. {{spoiler|Though he regains his sanity once the skull is returned to Akator.}}

* During the ending of ''[[In the Mouth of Madness (Film)|In the Mouth of Madness]],'' after witnessing the collapse of human civilization in a rising tide of madness and mutation, John Trent cracks when he discovers that the [[Tome of Eldritch Lore|nightmarish book that did the deed]] was just a novelisation of everything he did in the last few days. He finds this out by watching the film adaptation.

* ''[[Bram Stokers Dracula (Film)|Bram StokersStoker's Dracula]]'': Keanu Reeves' Jon Harker seems to have an episode of this when Dracula feeds his brides. He gets better.

* Jack Nicholson's Joker loses his mind the instant he sees his new perma-grin in the 1989 ''[[Batman (Filmfilm)|Batman]]'' movie, stumbling into the street giggling insanely.

* Loki from the new filmin ''[[Thor (Filmfilm)|Thor]]'' after discovering {{spoiler|he is a Frost Giant}}. While he was already a bit unstable to start with {{spoiler|having allowed a few Frost Giants into Asgard for "a bit of fun" (and to discredit Thor)}}, this was what truly tips him over the edge.

* When the mummified corpse of Imhotep comes back to life in original ''[[The Mummy (Filmfilm)|The Mummy]]'', the archeologist who saw it went insane.

{{quote| "He went for a little walk! You should have seen his face! HAHAHAHA!"}}

* This trope, mixed with [[Hyperspace Is a Scary Place]], is essentially the plot of ''[[Event Horizon]]''. {{spoiler|The test run of the titular ship's hyperdrive sent it beyond the edge of the universe where the crew experienced something that can only be described as Hell. When the rescue crew watches the video logs on the now deserted ship after it returned from the journey they see the former crew engaging in various deranged acts of graphic self-mutilation after the madness of the place took them over.}}

* ''[[The HitchhikersHitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy]]'' has the Total Perspective Vortex, which did this to its first subject. It's believed that this will happen to anyone; the Vortex allows someone to comprehend just how significant they are in the vastness of the universe (they become hopelessly incapable of functioning when the answer turns out to be "not at all").

* [[Spider Robinson]]'s novel ''[[Telempath]]'' involves a virus which multiplies the human sense of smell a thousandfold. It is estimated that one third of the population goes mad or commits suicide due to the olfactory overload.

* In [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s novel ''[[Methuselahs Children|Methuselah's Children]]'', Slayton Ford goes mad when he meets the [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens]]. Interestingly, after Ford goes mad, Lazarus Long mentions he is afraid that if he met them he ''wouldn't'' go mad.

*** He did go back, as mentioned in passing in [[Time Enough for Love]], and survived the experience without going mad-- butmad—but it was at least a couple of centuries later, when he'd presumably had more time to expand his ability to deal with the unknown.

** The "thing with the endless piebald side" in ''[[Liseys Story (Literature)|LiseysLisey's Story]]''.

** In the revised first book of the ''[[Dark Tower]]'' series, a man comes [[Back Fromfrom the Dead]] and claims to have knowledge of the afterlife. When he tells Roland's girlfriend what it is, she begs Roland to kill her. {{spoiler|He does.}}

* ''[[The MagiciansMagician's Nephew]]'', the 6thsixth (publication order) and 1stfirst (chronological order) book in ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]'', includes an inscription stating that the reader must either face something very dangerous, or go insane wondering what sort of danger they would have had to face. So, this is more of an instance of possibly "Going mad from the lack of revelation". However, since they end up facing the danger (reviving a powerful sorceress), it's never revealed if leaving the situation alone would have indeed driven them mad or if the inscription was just there to scare people into doing something needlessly dangerous.

* In ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'', the test for becoming a chief of the Aiel -- [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|a desert warrior society with elaborate honor customs]] -- involves—involves passing through an artifact that causes them to relive key moments across thousands of years that led to their formation. Aiel are such a prideful people that the shameful truth of their origins ({{spoiler|being descended from those outcast from a tribe of extreme ''pacifists''}}) hits ''hard''. Rand enters at the same time as an Aiel, and by the end that man is clawing out his own eyes. Rand has a rather unfair advantage here, since he wasn't raised as an Aiel. {{spoiler|Rand later reveals the truth to ''everyone'', and hordes begin to defect from the old warrior lifestyle every day, either vanishing altogether, joining a rogue tribe, or taking up a pacifist slave life.}}

** Seen again later with the Seanchan. Their culture believes that women who can use magic are far too dangerous to go free, but also too useful to kill... so they slap collars on them which utterly enslave their wearer and make them puppets to a master, called a sul'dam. Recently, theThe main characters haveeventually disovereddiscovered that the collars can't be used by anyone who does not have some degree of magical prowess themselves... meaning the sul'dam are essentially the same as the women they treat as objects. When one sul'dam discovers this she undegroesundergoes a borderline mental breakdown, and it's speculated that if this knowledge got out publicallypublicly, it would shake the very foundations of the Seanchan Empire.

* As mentioned above, a [[Cthulhu Mythos]] protagonist protagonist who ''isn't'' [[Body Horror|transformed into something... not nice]] or dead at the end of the story usually suffers this trope. (In the original [[HP Lovecraft]] stories, outright madness wasn't as common.)

* ''The Bishop Murder Case'': Philo Vance posits that someone went mad from studying quantum psychics.

* In the ''[[Warhammer 4000040,000]]'' novel ''[[Grey Knights (Literature)|Grey Knights]]'', Balurian Imperial Guardsmen are driven out of their minds by seeing the tomb of Saint Evisser. Some "saw a world of glory and bounty" and ran blindly into it only to fall into pits or be attacked by cultists, some collapsed and others struck at comrades in the conviction that all around them were corrupt.

* In [[Tad Williams]]' ''[[Memory, SorrowandSorrow, and Thorn]]'', the [[Big Bad]] Storm King and his minions exist in a place "between life and death" that gives them plenty of time to contemplate [[Things Man Was Not Meant to Know]]. Unprepared mortal minds that dare to touch them (or do so accidentally) are driven stark raving bonkers. Also, ''[[Tome of Eldritch Lore|Du Svardenvyrd]]'', the tome of the mad prophet Nisses, contains sufficient knowledge of the workings of the world to drive anyone who reads it past the [[Despair Event Horizon]].

* The author and main character of ''[[Zen and Thethe Art of Motorcycle Maintenance]]'' is a victim of this.

* ''[[Warrior Cats (Literature)|Warrior Cats]]'': Having already developed a near-crazy obsession with the Warrior Code, the realization that her parents were in fact {{spoiler|Leafpool and Crowfeather}} and her very existence was "breaking the code" pretty did away with what was left of {{spoiler|Hollyleaf's}} sanity at the end of ''[[Warrior Cats Power of Three|Power of Three]]''.

** Also, in ''[[Warrior Cats the Original Series|The Original Series]]'' finding out that {{spoiler|Tigerclaw is indeed evil, just like Fireheart was trying to tell her all along}}, pushes {{spoiler|Bluestar}} over the edge for several books.

* Invoked a lot in Simon R. Green's ''[[Nightside]]'' novels. One book features Madman, a former theoretical physicist who'd worked out the means to observe reality as it truly exists; [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|his name says it all]]. In another incident, a minor character asked the animated corpse Dead Boy what it was like being dead, and was reduced to quivering catatonia by the reply.

* In Chris Wooding's novel ''Poison'', the titular character [[Heroic BSOD|gives up all desire to live]] after discovering that, not only is she a fictional character who was created by the 'heirophanthierophant'- a God-like being in the book's universe, and that her home did not exist before she came into being, but that said heirophanthierophant has been controlling her all her life, making her choose certain courses of action and make certain decisions. Luckily, she gets over it after discovering that her death would mean the death of those around her, as the story she is in is centred entirely around her.

* In the chapter "The Castaway" in Hermann Melville's ''[[Moby- Dick]]'', the cabin boy Pip falls overboard and the immense emptiness of the ocean drives him mad. "By the merest chance the ship itself at last rescued him; but from that hour the little negro went about the deck an idiot; such, at least, they said he was. The sea had jeeringly kept his finite body up, but drowned the infinite of his soul."

* Parodied and Inverted in ''[[Don Quixote (Literature)|Don Quixote]]'', who goes mad for trying to make sense of the purple prose that plagued the chivalry books he has read, but never was any reveal because even [[Aristotle (Creator)|Aristotle]] could not make sense of that. Chapter I, Part I:

{{quote| ''Over conceits of this sort the poor gentleman lost his wits, and used to lie awake striving to understand them and worm the meaning out of them; what [[Aristotle (Creator)|Aristotle]] himself [[The Un -Reveal|could not have made out or extracted had he come to life again for that special purpose.]]''}}

* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s "[[JewelsThe Servants of GwahlurBit (Literature)Yakin|"Jewels of Gwahlur"]]", Yelaya warns [[Conan the Barbarian]].

{{quote| ''Here I have lain for so many centuries, to awaken each night at sunset and hold my court as of yore, with specters drawn from the shadows of the past. Man, if you would not view that which will blast your soul for ever, get hence quickly! I command you! Go!”''}}

{{quote| ''it would blast your soul to hear from what far realm I summoned them and from what doom I guard them with ensorcelled crystal and golden serpents.''}}

{{quote| ''Their iron nerves had withstood an ordeal that might have driven weaker men mad. He knew it was with no weaklings that he conspired, but men whose courage was as profound as their lawless ambitions and capacity for evil.''}}

* The Oculus from the ''[[Fablehaven (Literature)|Fablehaven]]'' series has this effect.

* ''[[FateoftheFate of the Jedi|Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi]]'': Anyone who swims in the Pool of KnowlegeKnowledge gets their eyes turned partly silver, and slowly turns into an [[Eldritch Abomination]], who eats [[Emotion Eater|fear instead of food.]]

* Revelations are relative: the society depicted in [[Isaac Asimov]]'s ''"Nightfall''" lives on a planet with six suns, and its members are greatly unnerved by prolonged darkness. They're about to have their first full eclipse in two thousand years. [[The End of the World Asas We Know It|Things get bad]]. (It's implied this has happened at least seven times before, each time leaving a few survivors who rebuild from a preindustrial technology level.)

* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s [[Kull]]/[[Bran Mak Morn]] story "Kings of the Night,", Gonar knows things.

{{quote| ''I know secrets that would blast even your brain, Bran, should I speak them.''}}

* In [[Salman Rushdie]]'s ''[[The Enchantress of Florence]]'', [[Niccolo Machiavelli]] met a slave-girl which was transformed by potent hypnosis to be a "memory palace," a kind of exotic living hard disk drive. Machiavelli then attempted to restore the girl to a human state, but when she did, she remembered all the perils of her life and defenestrated herself.

* In [[The Dresden Files (Literature)|The Dresden Files]]' ''Turn Coat,'' Dresden barely manages to avoid this after looking upon {{spoiler|the skinwalker}} with his wizardly Sight. Because things seen with the Sight can never be forgotten, every time he recalls the memory, voluntarily or otherwise, he blacks out, only to awaken some time later as a gibbering, incoherent mess, and in some cases in physical pain. He recites prime numbers to prevent himself from remembering it for a time. {{spoiler|It takes locking himself in a room and assaulting his mind with the image over and over again to get his mind straight (he also gets a [[Psychic Nosebleed]]). Even then, ''he'll never forget what he saw.''}}

* ''[[The BookofBook of All Hours]]'' by Hal Duncan: several instances it seems. The first is {{spoiler|the realization that Thomas Messenger is destined to die, again and again throughout the infinite multiverse of the Vellum, sparking Jack's effort to find the one reality where the man he loves defies the rules and lives.}} Another has to do with the backstory that contributed to starting the whole story in the first place: {{spoiler|one of the reasons the Unkin that joined Metatron's Covenant to fight the Sovereigns was because of the realization that there is in fact no judeoJudeo-christianChristian God. Imagine being a believer, undergoing the event of touching the Vellum underneath reality (thus thinking you've been "chosen" or something), and finding out that in eternity dwells... nothing. Just some other humans that, like you, managed to touch the multiverse under reality.}} One of the biggest is the idea of {{spoiler|the Unkin trying to build {{smallcaps| Heaven}} in the Vellum - trying to build a tiny, insignificant outpost of crude meta-human order amid the vast, hostile wilderness of eternity that exists beneath the multiverse.}}

* In [[The Bible (Literature)|The Bible]], God tells Moses that this will happen if he shows his true form to Moses. Except instead of going mad, you go ''dead'' from seeing God. The angels are pretty scary to see, too.

* One of the short stories in the [[Chuck Palahniuk]] collection ''[[Haunted 2005(Palahniuk (Literaturenovel)|Haunted 2005]]'' has something called a "nightmare box" which does exactly this to whoever looks inside it.

* In ''[[Burying the Shadow (Literature)|Burying the Shadow]]'' any attempt by a [[Dream Weaver|soulscaper]] to heal an [[Our Angels Are Different|eloim]]'s mind results in the soulscaper going stark raving mad.

* ''[[The Chronicles of Professor Jack Baling]]'': Let’s just say that Jack’s study of his student’s perpetual motion machine don’t make him the... most stable of individuals.

* In ''[[Star Trek (Franchise)|Star Trek]]'', having sex with a Deltan makes one go mad. [[Take Our Word for It|Or so we've heard.]] More precisely, the sex is apparently so ''good'' that Terrans, at least, have trouble coping afterwards, unless they're [[Narcissist|Captain James Tiberius Kirk]]. Then the sex was sorta 'meh'.

** The ''[[Star Trek: theThe Original Series (TV)|Original Series]]'' episode "Is There In Truth No Beauty?" revolves around Kollos, an ambassador of the [[Energy Beings|Medusan race]], whose physical appearance is so hideous - or maybe so beautiful - that any humanoid who looks at them directly goes insane. This is a subversion, as Kollos, in contrast with Shoggoths and Eldritch horrors, is clearly a good guy.

* In the ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' episode "The Sound Of Drums", we learn that every Time Lord is forced at the age of eight to stare at a gap in the fabric of reality. Through this gap the entire Time Vortex can be seen, containing all that is, was, or will ever be. In the words of The Doctor, "Some would be inspired, some would run away, and some would go mad." It's initially suggested that this is what happened to the Master, though it's later revealed in ''The End of Time'' {{spoiler|that his madness was deliberately engineered by Lord President Rassilon to help pull the Time Lords out of the time locked Last Great Time War}}.

** ''[[Doctor Who (TV)/Recap/S26 E2/E02 Ghost Light|Ghost Light]]'' introduced Redvers Fenn-Cooper, an explorer and hunter who was unlucky enough to witness [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien|Light's]] [[Sealed Evil in Aa Can|sleeping form]] in the cellar of a Victorian mansion. The experience turned his hair white and drove him into the depths of insanity. By the time the Doctor arrives, he's disassociated his own identity so well that if he does acknowledge his own name, it's [[Third Person Person|in the third person]].

* The ''[[Torchwood (TV)|Torchwood]]'' episode "Adrift" has a victim of the Rift who's permanently insane as a result of looking into the heart of a dark star. He's living in a secret Torchwood-sponsored care home in an old bunker, with at least a dozen other patients. {{spoiler|He screams for twenty hours a day...}}

* This arguably happens to Faith in ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)|Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' and ''[[Angel (TV)|Angel]]'', only instead of going off the deep end, she just becomes suicidal.

* ''[[Married... With Children (TV)|Married Withwith Children]]'' [[Played for Laughs|puts a humorous spin on this trope]]. Poor Al Bundy has temporarily gone insane after an unpleasant incident at work, and when Peg brings him home, he's babbling about "selling a lot of shoes after midnight." A kiss from Peg brings him back to his senses, but what makes it even funnier is when Al explains what happened:

{{quote| '''Al:''' Oh Peg, it was horrible. Sixteen straight hours of shoe-selling mayhem. The last thing I remember, I was on one knee, waiting on an overflowing glacier of a woman. The first thing they teach you when you're a rookie shoe salesman is, when you've got a fat one in the chair, never look up. I looked up, Peg! [[Panty Shot|I saw underwear]]! It said "Saturday" on it!<br />

'''Peg:''' So what?<br />

* "Need to Know", an episode of the 1980s ''[[The Twilight Zone (TV)|The Twilight Zone]]'', featured William Petersen investigating an insanity epidemic in a small town. It turns out a resident has discovered the meaning of life, but to hear the secret is to go crazy.

** In another episode of ''[[The Twilight Zone (TV)|The Twilight Zone]]'', a [[Those Wacky Nazis|retired Nazi general]] returns to the death camp he worked at, only to be [[Laser -Guided Karma|tortured to insanity by the ghosts of the people he murdered]]. Let's just say they showed him ''everything'' they went through while in his "care".

* This happens in ''[[Being Human (TVUK)|Being Human]]'', when Annie (a ghost) whispers to {{spoiler|her killer, Owen}} a "secret that only the dead know." He snaps almost immediately. Interestingly enough, when [[Our Werewolves Are Different|George]] asks what she said, [[Our Vampires Are Different|Mitchell]] shakes his head slightly, indicating that Annie shouldn't say--assay—as well as the fact that he knows it too.

* When [[Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)|D'Anna]] learns the identities of the Final Five Cylons, it appears to be so overwhelming as to at least render her comatose. Only a borderline example, though, because she does get better.

* Lampshaded in ''[[Babylon 5 (TV)|Babylon 5]]'', when G'Kar has a guest over for dinner:

{{quote| '''Na'kal''': "Breen. You've managed to import breen from homeworld. How?"<br />

'''G'Kar''': "It .. isn't actually breen."<br />

'''Na'kal''': "But the smell, the taste..."<br />

'''G'Kar''': "It's an Earth food. They are called Swedish meatballs. It's a strange thing, but every sentient race has its own version of these Swedish meatballs. I suspect it's one of those great universal mysteries which will either never get explained or which will drive you mad if you ever learned the truth." }}

* One episode of ''[[Criminal Minds (TV)|Criminal Minds]]'' is about a man who [[No Medication for Me|goes off antipsychotic meds]] in an attempt to access lost childhood memories, only for them to turn out to be so traumatic that they cause him to go on a killing spree.

* In the ''[[Seinfeld (TV)|Seinfeld]]'' episode "The Serenity Now" Jerry has become emotionally mature (as opposed to his shallow self) by letting his emotions out. At one point he asks George to "let it all out". We cut back later to see George in a similar state of emotional maturity, but Jerry is horrified beyond words. Even though Jerry doesn't go insane, the revelation burned out his emotional maturity and returned him to the shallow sitcom character he was before.

* In ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000 (TV)|Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' Tom and Crow are given psychotropic drugs for Pearl to observe the effects. Tom's view, while creepy, is apparently normal to him. What makes Crow go mad? ''The Milky Way bar Mike was holding is now a Snickers!''

* Another [[Played for Laughs]] in ''[[The Legend of Dick and Dom (TV)|The Legend of Dick and Dom]]'' episode [[Our Werewolves Are Different|"Hairwolf"]]; a man is driven mad by the horrors of the Hairwolf {{spoiler|eating his hair}} and dances around giving cryptic warnings like "Don't go to the castle, it's dangerous!", "Don't play the bassoon in the bath, it's wrong!" and "Don't feed a whote rabbit brussels sprouts, it'll turn green!"

* In season seven of ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'', {{spoiler|Sam is being driven mad by memories of his time tortured by Lucifer in the Cage.}}

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21jswyPBKbI&feature=related "Scared"] by [[Three Days Grace]].

* ''[[Dungeons and& Dragons]]'' supplements occasionally contain abilities which drive the user insane.

** More specifically, the ''[[Ravenloft]]'' campaign setting had tons of things that could drive a character insane, or at least prompt a madness check. Like direct mind-to-mind contact with a fiend.

** The Arcanis world-setting, along with the Living Arcanis campaign, featured Larissa. She started as the goddess of Fate, Prophecy, and all that jazz but one day she looked too far into the future and, well, [[Go Mad From the Revelation|went mad with the revelation]]. Now she's the goddess of sensuality, lust, and ladies (and men) of the evening. Apparently she's convinced that the fate she saw will come to pass and that she needs to get in as much pleasure now before it all goes kablooey.

* The Black Spiral Dancers from ''[[Werewolf: The Apocalypse (Tabletop Game)|Werewolf: the Apocalypse]]'' get their name because every last one of them walked the Black Spiral, an equally metaphorical and literal path that brought them face-to-face with the Wyrm, a cosmic embodiment of suffering and hatred. The experience breaks the minds of all but the most strong-willed like a twig; most Black Spiral Dancers take their deed name after whatever pathetic growls or mewling noises come out of their mouth upon "revelation."

** Similarly, the Weaver, originally a cosmic embodiment of order and purpose, was turned into an all-consuming force for stasis when it tried to define the Wyld (a cosmic embodiment of primal chaos) and got the biggest "DOES NOT COMPUTE" in history.

* In ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade (Tabletop Game)|Vampire: The Masquerade]]'', this is the schtick of the insane seers of Clan Malkavian, and is also a popular trait amongst the utterly inhuman Tzimisce.

* Fan game ''[[Genius: The Transgression (Tabletop Game)|Genius: The Transgression]]'' has the [[Science -Related Memetic Disorder|Genius condition]] somewhat contagious- exposure to mad science can turn an ordinary human into a [[The Igor|Beholden]], or even cause a Breakthrough to becoming a full fledged [[Mad Scientist|Genius]]. This isn't generally encouraged as [[Perpetual Poverty|there's enough fighting over resources]] as it.

* And then, of course, we have ''[[Mage: The Ascension (Tabletop Game)|Mage the Ascension]]''. One could say that Awakening to the realization that all reality is controlled by the belief of people, that your beliefs can change it more than others, and that humanity has become an apathetic race unwilling to realize the wonderment of the world is simply the start of a long, torturous road to death or complete insanity. Mages who violate the rules of reality too much eventually find themselves to become gibbering madmen unable to accept any reality but their own convoluted, insane one, eventually being ejected from the fabric of the world itself. Some Mages become brainwashed into reinforcing the frozen reality as it is (i.e. science) forming a contradiction in themselves against their dynamic nature. Then there's the [[Complete Monster|Nephandi]], the depths of depravity who would sell humanity out to [[Eldritch Abomination|Demons]] just [[Deal Withwith the Devil|for power]]. Since, by being a mage, you change reality with your beliefs just by existing, you're constantly violating general reality, you're always a little off even if you can avoid those three disastrous paths above.

* ''[[Hunter: The Reckoning (Tabletop Game)|Hunter: The Reckoning]]'': You are a normal guy who realizes that humanity is just the playthings of vampires, werewolves, fairies, zombies, etc, and always has been since the dawn of time. Of course, the voices in your head telling you this is the truth doesn't exactly help.

* [http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=magic/chk/unspeakable "The Unspeakable"], from the ''[[Magic: the Gathering (Tabletop Game)|Magic theThe Gathering]]'' Kamigawa block vignettes.

** Then there's [[httphttps://ww2web.wizardsarchive.comorg/Gathererweb/CardDetails20190927180117/https://status.aspx?name=glimpse<!-- 20the20unthinkablewizards.com/ "Glimpse the Unthinkable]"], whose flavor text provides the second quote on this page. -->

** Then there's [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=29721 "Obsessive Search"].

*** Which is from the set cal let '''Torment'''... and has the keyword ability "Madness"...

* Appears (appropriately enough) in ''[[Call of Cthulhu (tabletop game)|Call of Cthulhu]]''. Actually, the entire game is pretty much one long string of madness-inducing revelations, and the goal is to maintain your slipping hold on sanity for as long as possible. One edition of the rulebook even joked about it: "The only game where the big prize for finishing an adventure is a moldy old book which, when read, causes your face to melt off."

** The ''[[Call of Cthulhu (tabletop game)|Call of Cthulhu]]'' adventure "City Beneath the Sands" actually turns this trope ''against'' the [[Eldritch Abomination]]. {{spoiler|If the heroes fail to prevent the bad guys from linking their sleeping god-alien's mind with the collective subconscious of human dreamers everywhere, it's the ''god'' that goes mad, overwhelmed by contact with millions of human psyches (which are just as disturbing to it as vice versa). Sleepers worldwide just mainline [[Nightmare Fuel]] for a night.}}

* Many people who encounter the daemons of Chaos in ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' and ''[[Warhammer 4000040,000]]'', especially the daemons of Nurgle. The Chosen of Chaos Archaon is also rumored to have gone mad from reading a prophecy about Chaos' victory.

** Archaon was a templar of Sigmar who read a forbidden manuscript and went batshit after learning the truth about the Gods including his own Sigmar.

{{quote| '''Inquisitor Czevach:''' Ask not the Eldar a question for they will give you three answers, all of which are true and terrifying to know.}}

* The Madness Meters of ''[[Unknown Armies (Tabletop Game)|Unknown Armies]]'' have many varieties of ways to show how a multitude of stressful experiences, among them anything dealing with the supernatural, can either harden you into a sociopath or drive you insane.

* ''[[Call of Cthulhu]]: Shadow of the Comet]]'' begins with the scientist Lord Boleskin going bat-shit insane after making a discovery in the ''[[Town Withwith a Dark Secret]]'', Illsmouth. As mentioned in the trope description though, this being a Lovecraftian tale it's all par for the course.

* In ''[[Call of Cthulhu: [[Dark Corners of the Earth]]'' Jack is subjected to a series of revelations driving him more and more insane, culminating in him committing suicide in a mental institute {{spoiler|after discovering that his father was possessed by a Yithian when he was conceived, making him not quite human}}

* Maximillian Roivas from ''[[Eternal Darkness]]''. He's committed after learning that his mansion is actually built over a [[Cosmic Horror]]'s city and {{spoiler|murdering his servants due to his belief that they're all infected with [[Body Horror|Body Horrors]]s. Most of them actually are.}} Since the game is directly based on Lovecraft's work, insanity due to revelations is a fairly major theme.

{{quote| {{spoiler|'''Archbishop Benedictus''':}} I looked into the eyes of the dragon... and despaired.}}

* Prince [[La Croix]]LaCroix in ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines]]'' should the PC take the Anarch or Lone Wolf paths: after spending the entire game hunting for the [[McGuffin|Ankaran Sarcophagus]] in the hope that there'd be a sleeping Antediluvian inside to steal ultimate power from, he finally opens it, {{spoiler|only to find a large supply of C4 -- with a timer set to detonate in ten seconds}}. Very slowly, [[Villainous Breakdown|Lacroix begins to chuckle, which rises to laughter, and finally to utterly hysterical cackling]] {{spoiler|before the entire penthouse suite explodes}}.

* Albedo from ''[[Xenosaga (Video Game)|Xenosaga]]''. He was always a high-strung kid, but the cracks begin to show when he finds out that he is immortal, but {{spoiler|his (formerly conjoined) twin brother, whom he depends on completely for emotional support}} is not.

* Much of the reason people watch Let's Plays of games like ''[[I Wanna Be the Guy]]'' is to watch the player go [[Rule of Funny|slowly insane]]. [[Cluster F -Bomb|They often swear a lot too]] but as time goes on, they begin shouting increasingly random things. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DqpKV04kb0 Here's a good example] {{spoiler|"Maybe it's about as funny as going to Texas to fish for Vampires."}}

* In ''[[Star Control]] II]]'', if you explore the [[Ghost Planet]] of the extinct Androsynth, Science Officer Bukowski will find out the hard way that [[These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know]]. It's very creepy for such a funny game.

* Fou-lu in ''[[Breath of Fire]] IV]]'' is a textbook example of what happens when this occurs to a ''literal'' [[God -Emperor]]. {{spoiler|He is summoned, split in the process due to a botched summoning, wakes up 600 years later to find the very empire he founded is attempting to kill him, has said empire fire a literal [[Fantastic Nuke|Curse Nuke]] called the Carronade at him in an effort to destroy him, and finally discovers the ammo for aforementioned Carronade was ''[[Human Resources|his girlfriend]]'' who was ''herself'' [[Break the Cutie|tortured to insanity]] before being used as a Tactical Thermonuclear Peasant... ''[[Love Hurts|because she was in love with him and the curse would go just that much deeper]]''. To say he [[Laughing Mad|takes this last discovery poorly]] is [[Unstoppable Rage|quite an understatement]].}}

* Invoked in the venerable ''[[Chrono Trigger (Video Game)|Chrono Trigger]]''. The "[[Standard Status Effects|Confuse]]" status effect causes the character to go [[Laughing Mad]], so it's really not surprising that any monster related to the game's [[Big Bad]], the [[Cosmic Horror]] known as Lavos, can and ''will'' inflict this status with any of its attacks unless you've equipped items that prevent it.

* Subverted in the third season of ''[[Sam and Max FreelanceThe PoliceAdventures (Videoof Game)|Sam and& Max: Freelance Police]]''. Sam must travel through a dark dimension in search of a puzzle solution. He doesn't come back all there, but he gets over it in about half-a-minute.

** Also subverted when the pair meet face to face with actual [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldritch Abominations]]s but don't really seem to react adversely. They're even on good terms with one.

* In ''[[Assassin's Creed II]] 2'', Altaïr notes in the Codex that many would-be Assassins could not accept the [[Badass Creed]] - Nothing is true. Everything is permitted. - and were mentally broken for it.

** The reason why Sibrand cracked. [[The Reveal]] about [[Cessation of Existence|the afterlife]] by the Piece of Eden turned Sibrand scared-shitless of death. His fears became even worse when Altair was after him. Everything that wore white and hoddyhoody clothes would be immediatlyimmediately killed by him, even if they were obviously just scholars and not assassins.

* Jump too high or go too far off course in ''[[SSX (Video Game)|SSX Tricky]]'', and the music is replaced with an unhinged voice that whispers disquieting non-sequiturs ...

* In ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]] II]]'', this is implied to be a side-effect of being in the Sith Lord [[Humanoid Abomination|DarthNihilus']] presence for any significant period of time. The entire crew of ''[[Ghost Ship|The Ravager]]'' are [[Empty Shell|mindless zombies]] who are incapable of any form of individual thought or anything outside of their duties on board the ship. When you encounter Colonel Tobin, the [[Smug Snake]] who shot down your freighter earlier in the game, on board Nihilus' ship he is a gibbering lunatic who looks like [http://images.wikia.com/starwars/images/7/77/TobinRavager.jpg this] and he begs you to [[Mercy Kill|end it all for him]].

** A reader without comprehension is dazed or stunned by the twisting patterns. One who can comprehend but isntisn't mentally prepared is struck blind. Even those with training slowly lose their vision. Eventually all readers recievereceive nothing from the scroll but a fortellingforetelling that if they read again, whatever they may learn, they will also go utterly blind. The monk either then resignesresigns or prepares his mind to recievereceive the mind-blasting knowledge of his final reading.

** After asking an omniescentomniscient cueball about whether {{spoiler|1=the horrorterrors are good or evil, [[Black Magician Girl|Rose]] [http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=005542 goes] [http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=005543 grimdark.]}} The scariest part is that [[Brown Note|we never get to see the answer ourselves.]] {{spoiler|Again, it's shown to be subverted when she arrives on Skaia - she's still herself, (probably) sane and responds positively to meeting [[The Hero|John]], but she is far more aggressive and can only speak in incomprehensible [[Black Speech]]. After she dies and is revived on Derse, she returns to normal.}}

* The datasphere in ''[[Eight Bit Theater (Webcomic)|8-Bit Theater]]''. Once Red Mage and Thief concluded that reading it would drive a normal man insane and an insane man normal, (or kill him,) they decided to try it on Black Mage. Once he was incapacitated, they called Fighter over...

* In ''[[Narbonic]]'', this is how the [[Science -Related Memetic Disorder]] finally manifests itself.

** All [[Mad Scientist|mad scientists]]s go mad, sooner or later, by definition. It seems to be genetic. [[Its All There in the Manual|Helen went mad]] in an Italian restaurant when her mother's lawyer met with her.

* The ''[[Order of the StickThe (Webcomic)|Order of the Stick]]'' features "The mysterious Vaarsuvius, keeper of a thousand arcane secrets. And each one would drive you MAD! ''MAD!''" Note that V tends to boast.

* [http://www.sexdrugsandjunecleaver.com/2010/03/01/netflix/ We are all made of CORN!!!!!!!]{{Dead link}}

* {{spoiler|Jack Hyland}} in ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court (Webcomic)|Gunnerkrigg Court]]''. They had the bad fortune to get caught in {{spoiler|Zimmy's nightmare world when she had a psychic freak-out, ending up alone and unheard by the any of the others also caught in it}}. Although they weren't there long, it did not affect their mental state very well.

** When [[Obscurus Lupa]] can't work out the deeper meaning of MC Kung Fu's lyrics in 'City Dragon', she employs [[Brows Held High (Web Video)|Kyle]] to work it out for her. After watching the film, Kyle starts spouting lines from the film out of context, gradually descending into madness.

{{quote| '''Kyle:''' I can't speak the English language anymore! God help me!}}

** Kyle himself has had a few incidents of this in his own show, ''[[Brows Held High (Web Video)|Brows Held High]]''. In particular, there was the "if you can't beat 'em..." segment at the end of the ''[[Mind Screw|What is it?]]'' review, and the [[Psychic Nosebleed]] and subsequent [[Unstoppable Rage]] he had after keeping his cool through most of ''[[Gorn|A Serbian Film]]''.

* [[The Angry Video Game Nerd (Web Video)|The Angry Video Game Nerd]] himself gets one after hearing Zelda's [[Bond One -Liner]] in The Wand of Gamelon.

* Inferno of ''[[WALLEWALL-E Forum Role PlayRoleplay]]'' may count?, as she's more of a case of Go Even More Mad From The Revelation...

* Once of the consequences of reading a good book discussed [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnbYcB9ctu8 here]. If knowing the unknowable is crazy I don't want to be sane. {{context}}

* In ''[[Shell]]'', this is what happens to people when they look at the [[Eldritch Abomination]].

* The [[DCAU]] has many villains that were driven to crime because of the horrible circumstances forced upon them (Clayface, Parasite, etc.) but only one character seems to snaphave snapped purely because of the knowledge he has received: [[The Question]]. When he cracks the Project Cadmus secret files and {{spoiler|learns of the overthrow of the government of a parallel world and the ever-increasing likelihood that our Superman will likewise kill the president and instigate a worldwide catastrophe}} he ''loses'' it, begins to mumble incoherently to himself, and eventually tries to {{spoiler|kill Lex Luthor himself so that Superman will never have the chance.}} [[It Got Worse|Things go downhill from there]].

* This is parodied in a ''[[The Simpsons (Animationanimation)|The Simpsons]]'' Halloween Special based on ''[[Night Gallery]]'', in which Bart promises that a story based on a particular painting was so terrifying that it would instantly drive people mad. "..but it was far too intense. So we just threw something together with vampires. Enjoy!"

{{quote| '''Homer:''' It's dogs! ''And they're playing poker!'' '''AAAAAHHHH!!!'''}}

* On one episode of ''[[Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (Animationanimation)|Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers]]'', the villain loses it when he realizes he's just been defeated by chipmunks.

* ''[[Batman: theThe Brave And The Bold (Animation)|Batmanand the Brave And The Bold]]'' --: In "Deep Cover for Batman!", Batman's only ally in this reversed dimension, Red Hood, is being questioned and tortured. We learn that he was disfigured by being thrown into a vat of chemicals by this universe's version of Batman. Sure enough, we see him look in a mirror, get a glimpse of green hair and bleached skin -- andskin—and hear a truly maniacal laugh start to rise. Averted when he grabs a chair and smashes the mirror, presumably at the last minute he could retain his sanity. What made this so effective? Really, it's the voice actor -- thatactor—that laugh is as scary as anything [[Jeff Bennett]] ever unleashed.

* ''[[Turtles Forever]]'' -- As—As [[TMNTTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003|The Shredder]] surveys [[The Multiverse]], he discovers that each of its infinite worlds contains its own group of Turtles, a revelation that causes him to hatch a plan to [[Omnicidal Maniac|destroy it all]]--even—even if it kills him in the process.

* ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]]'' -- Buzz—Buzz Lightyear ends up doing this after discovering he is indeed only a toy and not an Intergalactic Space Ranger as he previously believed. He snaps out of it later, though.

* In the episode of the ''[[Powerpuff Girls]]'' which deals with Mojo Jojo's origin, he is shocked to discover that prior to gaining his intelligence, he caused Professor Utoninum to hit the container of Chemical X that poured into his 'Perfect Little Girl Formula' resulting in the birth of the Powerpuff Girls. He is so shocked that he [[Villainous Breakdown|continuously mumbles]] "It was me?"

** Also to point out, since it was the blast the girls were born from that transformed Mojo and gave him his intellect, it can be pointed out that he also caused ''his own'' origin.

* Averted in ''[[The Real Ghostbusters]]'' episode, "The Collect Call of Cthulhu.". The guys lay eyes on Cthulhu himself... and aren't driven to madness. [[Word of God]] reasoned that it's because the Ghostbusters encounter horrifying things on a regular basis.

* The ''[[Animaniacs (Animation)|Animaniacs]]'' short "Wally Llama" has the eponymous llama, who claimed to know the answer to every question, go crazy when he realises he doesn't know why it's 8 hot dogs to a pack but 10 hot dog buns. Admittedly, the seven minutes of harassment by the Warners prior to this probably didn't help his psychological state.

* [[Freakazoid!]]'s origin has Dexter Douglas beamed into cyberspace after typing in a very specific line of code and exposed to the entirety of the internet. One can only imagine what would happen if he were exposed to the internet of today.

** [[Wikipedia]] says the way that is told was a ploy by Stravinsky and company to make the music seem more groundbreaking than it was. In actuality the riot was very slightly related to the atonal music than the beastly dancing. While both were pretty avant-garde at the time you must put yourself in the shoes of a conservative couple just wanting a quiet night watching a soothing ballet and be confronted with a monstrous performance (watch it on YoutubeYouTube to get an idea). Compare it to paying to going to the cinema to watch the new Pixar flick and getting treated to three hours of 2 girls 1 cup. Some may be ticked off. Then again a small few will love it.

* It is generally forbidden to collect all of the ''[[Arabian Nights (Literature)|Tales Ofof Aa Thousand Andand One Nights]]'' in one set, and not just because not only would it be pretty difficult to do so. According to legend, reading them all in one sitting will make whoever does so go mad from the sheer majesty of it.

** Either that or simply your brain would short out from lack of sleep. Seriously, a thousand and one tales with a narrative thread that connects them all would be a LOT''lot'' of reading for a single sitting.

** Though the accepted explanation is that his mental problems were more caused by being a pariah in the math community for his theories, due to Leopold Kronecker's (who was arguably the most powerful German mathematician at the time) distaste for everything but whole numbers. Still, '"Go Mad From Your Boss Being A Jerk'" doesn't have the same ring to it.

** Most of the difference depends on what questions you ask. If it's something that people, in general, are overly optimistic about (e.g. [[Wide -Eyed Idealist]]) the pessimists will be accurate. If it's something that people are overly paranoid about, (risk of death in a terror attack) the pessimists will be inaccurate.

* While not exactly "mad", [[Church of Happyology|Scientologists]] contend that anyone who reads the Xenu story without proper preparation (i.e., $200,000 in "donations") will become physically and mentally weakened. This may have something to do with a kind of "shock treatment" backfire similar to the VR in ''[[Twentieth20th Century Boys]]''.

** However, there were originally plans to make a [[Film of the Book]] in order to let the public in on the <s>joke</s> secret. [[L. Ron Hubbard|Hubbard]] probably changed his mind when he realized how much money he was making off the "[[You Keep Using That Word|audits]]".

* [[TV Tropes Will Ruin Your Life|This damn website]].

** Especially the [[Wild Mass Guessing]] page, specifically the "[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WMG/RealLife Real Life]" section.

* [[Wikipedia]]. Some pages aren't for the meek of the psyche, such as, say, the aptly-titled [http[w://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimate_fate_of_the_universeUltimate fate of the universe|Ultimate Fate of the Universe]].

* The sheer size of the Universe can drive people mad, as a [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Giordano_Bruno:Giordano Bruno|certain unfortunate monk]] experienced it.

[[TV Tropes Will Ruin Your Life|This very wiki.... Completely ruined my life..... Ha.... HA....HAHA!... HAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!]]

[[Category:HeelCosmic FaceHorror IndexTropes]]

[[Category:DarknessGo VisibleMad From the Revelation]]

[[Category:CosmicCorruption Horror StoryTropes]]