Clap Your Hands If You Believe: Difference between revisions

** It doesn't stop there. Answering the wider question as to why the world of Berserk is so full of [[Crapsack World|crapsuck]], {{spoiler|humanity needed a reason as to why there was so much evil and suffering in the world so badly that all of their collective thoughts and prayers formed the [[God Is Evil|Idea of Evil]]. Yep. That will do it.}}

* The part where the trope crosses over with [[I Am Spartacus]] is the principle behind Goku's Genki-dama/Spirit Bomb in ''[[Dragon Ball]]'': he draws energy from the Earth, including its people, to power it up. Addressed straight in {{spoiler|his final battle with Buu, when Mr. Satan/Hercule asks the (remaining) people on Earth to lend their energies to him for this specific purpose.}}

* In ''[[Kanon]]'', {{spoiler|the comatose Ayu still believed enough in her promise to Yuuichi and the wishes that she made on a simple crane machine doll that she was able to spiritually project herself as a solid living being even seven years later.}}

* In ''[[Welcome to The NHK]]'', a large number of the episodes are spent with the protagonist Tatsuhiro Sato having hallucinations of characters, scenarios, and people are members of an organization out to ruin his life. Near the end of the series, he asks one of the other cast members to see one of these creatures, where it is revealed to her. {{spoiler|He then imagines his cell phone is a bomb and jumps off a cliff to blow up with it in a suicide attempt.}}

** All espers derive their powers from having radically different internal realities from the standard. The process involves little kids, experimental drugs and brainwashing. Lots of parents seem to have no problems volunteering their kids for the process. Since the process is repeatable, it's Scientific, as opposed to the methods of the magicians... Waitaminute!

* In ''[[The Slayers]]'', Shinzoku are dependent on the prayers of the mortal races, to the point where their counterparts, Mazoku, tactically destroyed temples to reduce the power of Shinzoku. Mazoku have their own form, feeding off of any negative emotions the mortal races have.

* ''[[Full Metal Panic!]]'': the Lambda Driver reacts to the user's mental state. The first time Sousuke uses it, Kaname instructs him that he must believe in it for it to work.

* In ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro ni]]'', the point of Battler's game with the witch Beatrice is that, should he accept her existence and the existence of magic, magic will exist in retrospect as the cause of the murders that drive the whole mystery. Since he refuses to accept her existence, though, Beatrice must prove her existence with [[Locked Room Mystery|new unsolvable murders.]]

* Parodied in the first film of ''[[The Mummy Trilogy]]'' - Imhotep's soon-to-be [[The Renfield|Renfield]] tries to fend him off with a cross and a murmured Lord's Prayer, which is utterly useless. He then runs through a keychain of similar holy symbols and their matching incantations, none of which have any effect until he yanks out a Star of David and starts babbling in Hebrew - which the undead priest recognizes as "the language of the slaves," which makes Beni useful to him as a translator. Discussion of the actual use of Hebrew slaves in ancient Egypt and the language they spoke at time is reserved for [[Hollywood History|other places]]...

* Parodied again in ''[[Dracula 2000]]''. One of Team Good Guy brandishes a crucifix at one of the vamps, who remarks "Sorry, sport. I'm an Atheist." The good guy wittily remarks "God loves you anyway." before stabbing the vamp in the eye with the knife hidden inside the crucifix.

* In ''[[Star Wars]]: [[The Empire Strikes Back]]'', Yoda blames Luke's failure to levitate his X-wing out of the swamp on his not believing that such a feat is possible.

* In ''[[Erik the Viking]]'', Harald the Missionary who accompanies the Vikings on their quest staunchly refuses to believe in Ragnarok and any of the Viking myths. Eventually, the Vikings make their way to Valhalla, where they triumphantly demand that the missionary accept that they were right all along - only to discover that because he doesn't believe in it, he can't actually see it, and causing a certain amount of frustration. This actually saves them in the end, as because Harald doesn't believe in the Aesir they have no power over him. He can walk through the walls of Valhalla, make it back to the ship, and use the [[MacGuffin]] to bring them all back home while the other Vikings are trapped.

{{quote|'''Peter Vincent:''' ''[brandishing a crucifix]'' Back, spawn of Satan!

'''Jerry Dandrige:''' ''[chuckles]'' Oh, really? ''[grabs the cross, crushes it, and throws it aside]'' You have to have faith for this to work on me. }}

* In the Jim Carrey vehicle ''[[Once Bitten]]'', The Countess shrugs off the religious symbol ("Put down the cross, Robin. It only works in movies. Besides, I'm an atheist.") Then Mark shows up with a torch, and the Countess recoils, declaring, "Fire, on the other hand..."

 

* In [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[IT]]'', the eponymous shapeshifting monster takes the form of a werewolf, making it vulnerable to silver simply because the child heroes of the book firmly believe that werewolves ''have'' to be vulnerable to silver. Also, believing that his inhaler was full of poison allowed a protagonist to harm It with the contents.

** Established in King's writing much earlier in his short story ''The Boogeyman'', which is in many ways a precursor to ''IT''.

* The page quote isn't the only example from [[The Bible]]: e.g., in the Gospels, Simon Peter walks on water until he starts to doubt.

** [[Stephen Colbert]] (apparently sincerely) believes this to be an instance of comic relief in the Bible, saying Jesus wouldn't be truly human if he could witness that without laughing.

* The gods in the ''[[Discworld]]'' series work like this. The climax of ''[[Discworld/Monstrous Regiment|Monstrous Regiment]]'' involved {{spoiler|a beloved leader who had died and was being tormented by the prayers of those who put her on a godlike pedestal.}} In ''[[Discworld/Hogfather|Hogfather]]'', when the [[Big Bad]] was magically preventing people from believing in the [[You Mean "Xmas"|local equivalent]] of [[Santa Claus]], the extra, unused belief-energy made any imaginary creature that was even slightly plausible (like a creature that eats odd socks, and a bird that eats pencil stubs) come into existence. ''[[Discworld/Small Gods|Small Gods]]'' describes in detail how gods come into existence and become powerful.

** "Belief" is stated as a very powerful force on the Discworld - if enough people believe something to be true, it will become true, however there are limits. The rules have never been fully stated, but it appears there needs to be a "space" that makes it somewhat reasonable such a thing could be true (hence the non-existence of the Give-The-Dean-A-Big-Bag-Of-Money goblin). In ''[[Discworld/Pyramids|Pyramids]]'' the mess of [[Crossover Cosmology|multiple combined mythologies]] that made up the religion of Djelibeybi, much of which was self-contradictory, and a lot of which could be contradicted by simple observation, only became true when the kingdom was pushed into an alternate reality with an even lower reality threshold than the Disc.

** In ''[[Discworld/Carpe Jugulum|Carpe Jugulum]]'', one family of vampires have developed the ability to resist religious symbols (as well as most things that vampires are traditionally vulnerable to) through extensive psychological conditioning. {{spoiler|This later backfires when their conditioning wears off under the influence of a witch, but the study that went into it leads to them being able to recognize - and as a result be affected by - "hundreds of the damned holy things! They're everywhere! Every religion has a different one!"}}

*** later expanded into the Black Ribbon Society, which provided a better integration with a multicultural modern city

* Deconstructed in ''[[Kingdom Keepers]]''. Enough people believing in them is what causes several [[Disney]] characters to come to life...including the villains, who are putting the world in danger.

* In [[Sergey Lukyanenko]]'s ''[[The Stars Are Cold Toys|Star Shadow]]'', it is eventually revealed that the human [[Faster-Than-Light Travel|jump drives]] work because the pilots believe them to work. This is also why humans are the only ones who retain their sanity when using it - because this should not be possible. The protagonist even recalls that the jumper was invented by a bunch of underfunded Russian researchers, and the scientific basis for the device was added as an afterthought and seems tacked-on. Also, every jumper works exactly the same, no matter the design or power. Kinda makes sense since astronauts have to believe they'll succeed in order not to die.

* A rare inversion with a short story ("Obstinate Uncle Otis") about an obstinate Vermonter (and as such, the most obstinate man in the world) whose power of disbelief was legendary, to the point where he could almost convince others that their eyes were tricking them. And then he got struck by lightning, and got a dose of [[Your Mind Makes It Real|Your Mind Makes It Reality]]. The statue in the town square to the man he hated? Gone after he commented about how "No one would build a statue to a nincompoop like that!" The barn that was obstructing a nice view? Also gone when he commented how "No barn there, boy! Nothing but th' view - finest view in Vermont." His nephew realizes the danger this poses (e.g. his hatred of [[Franklin Roosevelt]], his recent disbelief in stars, etc.). It comes back to bite the elderly man on the ass, though, as he got a bit of [[Easy Amnesia]] and believed himself to be a traveling salesman with a different name. "Humph - ain't no such person as Otis Morks."

** And before [[Fridge Horror]] enters into it, the narrator was ''also'' named Otis Morks, yet didn't disappear - unlike his hapless, obstinate Uncle.

* The ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' [[Big Bad]] of seasons 9 and 10, [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien|the Ori]], are [[Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence|ascended beings]] who thrive on worship. And they also ''lose'' their powers when not worshiped, {{spoiler|hence how The Ark Of Truth beats Adria, forcing the Priors to realize that the Ori, and by extension, Adria herself, were ''not'' gods.}} A fitting end.

** The [[Big Bad|Big Bads]] of the previous eight seasons, [[A God Am I|the Goa'uld]], are a more figurative example. Once a significant number of people stop believing that a particular Goa'uld is a god, it's usually a sign that said Goa'uld is about to lose out.

* An episode of ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' focused on a spirit that was created (and maintained) by people's belief in it. Unfortunately, getting people to ''stop believing'' was not an option.

** Leading Sam to wonder how many of the things they hunt only exist because people believe in them.

* In the TV miniseries ''[[Merlin (TV miniseries)|Merlin]]'', Merlin finally defeats the evil Queen Mab by encouraging everyone to ''forget about her''. This is the culmination of the fading belief in her and led to her vanishing. The novelizations went as far as noting that Merlin omitted her from his stories about the events and misattributed them to Mordred or Morgan le Fay.

* One episode of ''[[Fraggle Rock]]'' introduced a one-off character named Skinfred, a small monster whose [[Empathic Shapeshifter|transformations]] were based upon this Trope. His physical appearance depended on ''what other people thought about him'' (it's impressive how upbeat his personality was given how very definitely [[Blessed with Suck]] he was). Red and Wembly like him, think he's very cute and friendly... and that he sports goofy pigtails. Ma Gorge does ''not'' like him, thinks he's creepy and scary for living in her flooded basement, and wonders if he's actually a giant, fanged, two-headed monster. Guess what happens next. (Skinfred: "Aw, I '''hate''' having to be a monster!")

* [[Stephen Colbert]] fully believes in this trope, naming it Wikiality, wherein if enough people believe something to be fact, it is; and the best method for altering the public's belief in something? Change its Wikipedia page.

** To demonstrate this, he single-handedly tripled the African Elephants' numbers via Wikipedia. Quite a feat.

** This also works on Tara as well, for a while, at least. Then she finds out it was all a scam and becomes her old "friendly" self. Then a maenad shows up and tells Tara it was her belief that called her to Bon Temps.

* One episode of ''[[Wire in The Blood]]'' dealt with this trope. The murderer of the story was thought by some people to be using magic. Tony Hill, however, knew that it was all in the victims' heads and when the murderer was finally caught, she thought Tony was a powerful wizard because he'd been able to see through her "invisibility".

* In the 1998 ''[[Merlin (TV miniseries)|Merlin-1998]]'' series, [[The Fair Folk]] and gods of [[Celtic Mythology]] don't necessarily require followers and prayers (though it helps), but they absolutely need to have people believe in them. If people stop believing in them and ascribing importance to them, they will simply cease to exist.

* In ''[[Being Human (UK)]]'', vampires recoil from George's Star of David pendant. But George's affection for his best friend Mitchell (who is a vampire) makes Mitchell immune to its deleterious effects. Mitchell even keeps the necklace safe when George [[Wolf Man|transforms]].

* A key point in the ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]'' series, where entities from [[All Myths Are True|virtually every mythology ever]] exist, specifically because people believe in them.

** The spinoff series ''[[Persona (video game)|Persona]]'' takes this to far greater extremes, where rumors you start [[Infallible Babble|actually become true]].

** Ouendan's {{spoiler|destroys an asteroid about to collide with Earth.}}

** EBA's {{spoiler|crushes an alien invasion.}} Bonus points for featuring the cast actually clapping their hands because they believe.

** And then things get really interesting and weird: [http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/dec/22/placebo-effect-patients-sham-drug The placebo effect can happen even when people are TOLD it's a placebo!]

* For that matter, most superstitions work this way too; believing something may encourage someone to try things and do things they might not otherwise. Like athletes who tend to have the most unusual and personalized superstitions.

* The stock market. Expectations of the future are one of the most powerful forces, as evidenced by how stocks consistently rise/fall after optimistic/dour speeches, reports and addresses. So if the market tanks, it will come back to life if everyone just believes in it.

** Bank runs, where people believe that their bank is failing and rush to take their money out of it, which causes more people to believe that the bank is failing, which causes more people to take their money out of it, which eventually causes the bank to actually fail, even if the original reason for thinking that that the bank was failing was completely false.

* This is how hypnotism works. You have to ''believe'' that you can be hypnotized in order for it to work, and it is impossible to be hypnotized against your will. The fact that the word "hypnotism" is applied to a half-dozen or so completely unrelated ideas, some well-understood and some utterly absurd, doesn't help.

* This is the most likely explanation of the Midnight Game.