Your Mind Makes It Real: Difference between revisions

 

Frequently pops up in a [[Holodeck Malfunction]]. See also [[Self Inflicted Hell]]. When your mind actually changes the physical world, it's [[Clap Your Hands If You Believe]]. If a computer generated or magical illusion changes the physical world, it's [[Hard Light]]. When you're trapped in a virtual world, and have to win or die, its [[Win to Exit]]. Compare [[Puff of Logic]], [[Magic Feather]].

 

== Anime & Manga ==

* In the [[.hack|.hack series]], characters hit by the ''Data Drain'' attack within ''The World'' are usually sent into a coma in the real world, and are temporarily knocked unconscious at the very least.

** Some characters eventually realize that somehow their minds are taken ''inside'' the game world, experiencing it with their character's own senses instead of being at home with a headset and game pad. Naturally, they become deeply concerned about what's going on with their physical bodies, and what happens if their characters are "killed" in this state.

* ''[[Digimon Adventure]]'': Towards the end of the second [[Story Arc]], Local Boy Genius Izzy figures out the Digital World is a world made out of the data of the world's network infrastructure and hence all the human protagonists are more than likely made of data in that world. Although he tells everyone to be careful in spite of this new development it doesn't sink in with Tai, the goggle boy leader of the group, and he starts acting like a jackass under the flawed logic that he'll somehow survive regardless of what happens. It takes Izzy telling him that he would more than likely die in both worlds if he messed up to put a stop to his nonsense. Unfortunately, this happens just after a member of the team is kidnapped and they're about to cross an electrified gate to go after her. He loses his bravado right there and the kidnapper gets away more or less scott-free, leading to a short term [[Heroic BSOD]] for Tai.

* ''[[Digimon Tamers]]'': Henry and Takato manages to cross a massive expanse of water without drowning by convincing themselves that they would only drown if they thought they would.

* ''[[Digimon Frontier]]'': Played with when [[Sixth Ranger]] Kouichi's consciousness was pulled into the Digital World by the would-be [[Big Bad]] Cherubimon. Because of this, he's technically not there, he only ''believes'' he's there. It begins to dawn on him that this might be the case when survives several [[Curb Stomp Battle|curb stomp battles]] virtually unscathed while his friends get more and more roughed up. Although at the end, this turns out to be an even ''more'' convoluted usage when all of the hinting about the aforementioned results in Kouichi realizing that {{spoiler|he is actually ''dead'' in real life; he thus makes a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] to combine his power with Kouji's to defeat Lucemon, under the justification that out of all of them, he's not really alive in the first place. The [[Power of Friendship]] saves him, in the end; this ''is'' ''[[Digimon]]'', after all.}}

* Subverted somewhat in ''[[Hunter X Hunter]]'''s Greed Island arc, in that the game's titular island IS in fact a real island that the players are teleported to when they start playing the "game", rather than a virtual world.

** In a later example in the same series, the trope is used to make people believe {{spoiler|that they are snails due to subliminal messaging}}. Yeah, didn't make all that much sense in context either.

* Half of the [[Story Arc|Story Arcs]] in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh]]!'' are about soul-sucking Virtual Reality games. The other half are about soul-sucking millennium items.

* In ''[[Read or Die (Anime)|Read or Die]]'', it's commented that a major reason people don't all have superpowers is because they don't believe that it's possible to have them, and thus subconsciously reject them.

* Averted in the sixth ''[[Detective Conan (Manga)|Detective Conan]]'' film: in the virtual reality pods everyone is set to die if they all lose, but it's separated from what they ''feel'' because of it. Even the ones who "die" in the game are clear shown to not be in any pain from the injuries which caused them to lose.

* Zakuro from {Saiyuki} has the power to hypnotize people by looking into his eyes and doing just this.

 

** Trauma was a mutant introduced during Avengers: Initiative who could become one's greatest fear. It's presumed that Trauma only gains power if his opponent fears what he's turned into, since he's been capable of turning into Thor, Hulk, Juggernaut, and several other people/creatures whose power levels are insane. However in a battle against the Hulk during the World War Hulk arc, it was discovered that if his opponents can control themselves during the fight and rein in their fears, he loses power.

* In ''[[Scare Tactics (Comic Book)|Scare Tactics]]'', the "town" of Beaumont brought the band's worst nightmares and could have killed them, even though the dreams vanished when Arnie realized they weren't real.

* In ''[[Hellblazer (Comic Book)|Hellblazer]]'', Constantine remarks that "magic is only as real as you think it is."

* The plague that killed the [[Martian Manhunter|Green Martians]] operated this way. Hronmeer's Curse was spread psychically and preyed on the Martians' fears of fire, making them spontaneously combust.

* One of Dumbledore's famous quotes from ''[[Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows]]'' seems to address this trope. "Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?"

* The Afterlife in both the book and movie versions of ''[[What Dreams May Come]]''.

* In [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[IT]]'' the "it" is an [[Eldritch Abomination]] [[You Cannot Grasp the True Form|whose true form cannot be comprehended]] and uses the worst fears of its victims to kill them. "It" preys on children because [[Invisible to Adults|adults]] are too close minded to believe what they see.

* [[Sphere]], the Michael Chriton novel (and film) has a device bestow this power on unwitting researchers sent to inspect a seemingly alien find on the ocean floor. Half are killed by nightmares emanating from themselves or someone else.

* In [[Robert E Howard]]'s [[Conan the Barbarian]] story "Shadows in Zamboula", Zabibi is trapped in a circle of cobras, that prove illusionary in the end, but the [[Evil Sorcerer]] assures her that forcing women to dance to escape until they collapse was a common form of [[Human Sacrifice]].

* In ''Fatal Frame/Project ZERO 3'', "The Tormented": Rei, Miku and Kei travel into the House of Sleep when they dream. If they lose all their spiritual health in the dream-world, they are confined there forever; leaving nothing in the physical world but a bunch of scorch-marks.

* Central to the gameplay in ''[[Dystopia (Video Game)|Dystopia]]'', where players work with each other between Meatspace (the solid world) and Headspace (Cyberspace). Headspace obstacles such as encryptions, passwords, or ICEs (Although the regular ICEs don't damage the player, and GREEN ICEs only forcibly jack the player out with an EMP) are ''physical'' to the player's avatar, and entire fights wage on in Headspace. If one ''dies'' in Headspace, they are yanked back to their physical bodies with [[Interface Screw|disorientation]] and bodily damage (HP loss). It is also possible to sneak behind a jacked-in player in Meatspace and kill them. The player's avatar is told that their Meatsack (body) is taking damage, and death simply deletes the Headspace avatar in the middle of whatever it was it was doing.

** Played straight as an arrow in the DLC, Operation: Anchorage. If the [[Player Character|Lone Wanderer]] dies in the Anchorage simulation, his/her body goes into fatal cardiac arrest in the real world. Justified by the Brotherhood of Steel being unable to re-enable the safety features in the simulation. As for why a ''stated'' training sim would have lethal settings, it's repeatedly hammered in that the head of the dev team was a nutcase.

* In the PC adventure game ''[[Ripper]]'', the killer known as the "Ripper" has the ability to kill anybody who once played the online game ''Ripper'' (the "Ripper" is one of the original players, the protagonist has to figure out which one of the surviving players it is). The Ripper's ability takes the form of a "software rewrite" of the victim's "brain software": the hormonal and electrical layers of the human brain. When triggered (through use of a [[Brown Note]] telephone call), the fluid and air pressure within the victim increases rapidly causing them to violently explode. The protagonist has to have his own "software" modified with an immunisation so that the Ripper can't use the "long range doohicky" any longer (he is still vulnerable if the Ripper chooses to attack him "face to face" in the virtual world).

** Also, in an earlier episode, Raven causes monsters to spawn in Titans Tower because she's trying to bottle up the fear brought by a recently watched horror movie

*** This may be more of a case of Raven subconsciously summoning the creatures from whatever dimension Trigon is from, in the animated show her emotions affected her powers much more severely than in the comics.

* ''[[Transformers Animated]]'', "Human Error Part 2": The Autobots {{spoiler|realizing that they're in a computer simulation set up by Soundwave, manage to change their human bodies back to their Cybertronian ones by thinking about it. Amusingly, Bulkhead can't until he makes the transforming noise with his mouth.}}

* ''[[WITCH (Animation)|W.i.t.c.h.]]'', "E is for Enemy", has this trope in action.