History Main / LotusEaterMachine

* ''Literature/ThePendragonAdventure'' by Creator/DJMacHale: the territory of Veelox has Lifelight, a sort of virtual reality where people can live perfect lives. The world outside decays into a ghost town because of this. The titular Reality Bug is created to make the illusions less idealistic, but it has the unintended and VERY unwanted effect of [[spoiler:[[YourMindMakesItReal actually killing people]]. Unfortunately, Saint Dane's [[ThePlan plan all along]] was to have the bug deactivated.]] Bad ending.
* ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'' has the Lotus Hotel and Casino, named for the Greek TropeNamer. The hotel stocks every type of game, snack, and luxury imaginable. [[spoiler: Because time passes more quickly inside, a few hours inside turns out to be five days outside, and a couple months is ''70 years''.]]

* This is an idea which has repeatedly arisen in various forms throughout all of human history, from UsefulNotes/{{Manichaeism}}, to UsefulNotes/{{Buddhism}}, to UsefulNotes/{{Gnosticism}}, to even the modern-day "Reality is a Computer Simulation" hypothesis, all essentially stating the same thing: that "Reality" is actually an illusion - a prison - from which we must escape, and most often this is achieved by "detaching" ourselves and focusing on the "unreality" of everything we perceive.

!!''Manga/AhMyGoddess''
* ''Fanfic/TrialByTenderness'': This is implied at several points to be happening to Cevn, although given the nature of some events, we're never entirely sure if its AllJustADream or not.
!!''Manga/{{Bleach}}''
* ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4185540/1/Orihime Orihime]]'': Szael traps Ishida in one of these during the Hueco Mundo arc where he is killed over and over again, except for the last hallucination, where he is [[spoiler:living with Orihime and his child by her in what is hinted to be a vision of the future, or one possible future.]]
!!''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex''
* ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8452746/1/A-Perfect-World A Perfect World]]'' has the heroes Touma Kamijou, Accelerator, and Shiage Hamazura wake up to find the world at peace and themselves [[MarryThemAll living happily with their respective]] {{Unwanted Harem}}s. Their memories have been altered so they believe it has always been this way, but they slowly begin to notice inconsistencies, like when Mugino cannot remember the date of her and Shiage's anniversary. [[spoiler:The fic seems to be cancelled, but the author released an outline revealing that Creator/AleisterCrowley trapped the heroes and their girls in this illusion to get them out of his way, and that it was slowly killing them. Everybody manages to break free, but Touma is forced to let Maria Kumokawa go, as unlike the other girls, she had been an illusion created by Crowley all along. Before the fake world is destroyed and she disappears, [[TearJerker she admits that she truly loved Touma]].]]
!!''Manga/CardCaptorSakura''
* ''Fanfic/ChaosCardCaptorSakura'': In the second chapter, Sakura and Kero are trapped in a inverse Lotus Eater Machine in the form of the Nightmare Card, which plays out extreme forms of Sakura's insecurities and feeds off of them.
!!Crossovers

!!''Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}''

!!''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom''

!!''Franchise/TheDCU''

!!''VideoGame/DieAnstalt''

!!''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'':

* ''Fanfic/Zero2ARevision'': [[spoiler: Belialmyotismon]] employes a inverse Lotus Eater Machine by delivering the Digidestined's own fears, which, as Shaun noted, is the complete opposite of Malomyotismon. Shaun eventually snaps them out of it.
!!''Series/DoctorWho''

!!''Franchise/HarryPotter''

!!''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers''

!! ''Series/{{iCarly}}''

!!''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim''

!!''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures''
* ''Fanfic/AgesOfShadow'': [[spoiler: Drago]] traps Jade in a double-layered one of these. In the first dream world, she's still a child and having a series of never-ending adventures just like the ones she had in canon. Fortunately [[spoiler: her son]] Jack manages to enter the dream and point out all the things [[AGlitchInTheMatrix that make no sense]], like the long hair Jade has which she didn't in real life, and how no one's aging no matter how much time passes. Realizing this breaks the dream but sticks Jade in the next one (while kicking Jack out), which is a world where [[TheChessmaster the Magus King]] never enacted the EvilPlan that inadvertently led to Jade's [[FallenHero fall]]. Here, she's still living a normal life, and even has a baby with Paco. Then her subconscious manifests as Jackie to help her realize that it's all a dream, by bringing the Talismans (which should be stuck in the Netherworld) and, most importantly, [[ArmorPiercingQuestion asking Jade her baby's name, which she doesn't know]]. This helps her accept the world's a fake, and she then has to fight her way past the illusions of all her loved ones in order to reach the Section 13 Vault, where her [[EldritchAbomination Yade Khan]] body is; she has to let it eat her, symbolically [[ThatManIsDead letting go of her Jade Chan identity]], in order to fully wake up.

!!''WesternAnimation/KimPossible''

!!''Franchise/{{Kirby}}''

!!''VideoGame/MapleStory''

!!''Webcomic/MobPsycho100'':

!!''Anime/MyHime''

!!''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''
* ''A Simple Question, A Terrible Truth'': [[spoiler: Turns out, the '''entirety''' of Twilight Sparkles' life since the fateful Summer Sun Celebration has been a constant endless dream created by Nightmare Moon: when Nightmare Moon banished Celestia into the Sun; [[KilledOffForReal it also caused the Sun to be deleted with her]], which resulted in a now sunless world [[ApocalypseHow/Class3B to slowly start to freeze over]] and life to slowly start freezing to death even in the hidden chambers Nightmare Moon had created to try saving them. Twilight had been forced to constantly relive her false life over-and-over again, [[GoMadFromTheRevelation because she couldn't bear to handle the truth whenever Nightmare Moon is inevitably forced to let Twilight out of her pod.]]]]

* ''Fanfic/FriendshipIsOptimal'' presents an entire universe turning into this, as an AI thought experiment. Equestria Online is created to satisfy values through friendship and ponies, by an AI powerful enough to reverse-engineer the entire human mind. Even when it involves a video game console, specifically targeted [=NPCs=] and encounters make it so much more fulfilling than life that the game has to turn itself off so the players don't harm their own health. Once virtual reality and brain uploading are involved, players are placed in an environment where the local rules of the universe care about them, individually, having a good time. [[spoiler: By the way, that "entire universe turned into" is literal. The AI turns several galaxies into computronium. Needless to say, this example has no escape clause.]]

!!''Franchise/{{Naruto}}''

!!''Franchise/NeonGenesisEvangelion''

** Shinji, Asuka, Mana, and Rei are trapped in one by Ireul. Shinji winds up in a [[HighSchoolAU high-school setting]], Asuka is sent to a MagicalGirl setting where her mother isn't a complete bitch, Mana is in a DatingSim, and Rei is... On second thought, let's not even ''go'' there. Of course, it's ''IRUEL'', the Angel of Terror, so things [[FromBadToWorse get worse]]. [[spoiler: Shinji watches a fake Asuka go from normal to insane numerous times, Asuka is completely taken apart by her mother, who gives everything she took, her eyes, her hair, etc., to Uriel, Mana is hit by a truck again and again and again, given more cybernetic parts each time, until she is entirely a robot and goes on a killing spree of the virtual counterparts of her friends. No clue what, if anything, happened to Rei, though.]] When [[spoiler: Ichi]] goes into the virtual reality to find the pilots, Iruel does the same thing to [[spoiler: her]].
** A second case happens when Arael [[spoiler:plunges the whole of Earth into a seven-week dream state. The exact reasons why she did this are not yet known, though only Shinji (through Lilith's meddling) and the Angels remember any of the dream.]]

!!''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}''

!!''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica''

* ''Fanfic/ToTheStars'': Chapter 33 takes place in [[spoiler: Asaka's self-imposed one after Alice's death]], set before the events of the story.
!!''Manga/RanmaOneHalf''

!!''Manga/SoulEater''

!!''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros''
* ''Machinima/ALinkToTheSmash'' Link is put into a dream state by Mewtwo's psychic powers, [[BrainwashedAndCrazy on Ganondorf's orders.]]
!!''WesternAnimation/SuperWhy''

!!''Franchise/TouhouProject''

!!''WesternAnimation/{{WITCH}}''
* ''Fanfic/{{Ripples}}'': Will spends most of the story convinced that Phobos has trapped her in one as part of a complicated scheme to gain the Heart of Kandrakar from her. [[spoiler: It takes Allora crushing the Heart and nearly killing her to convince her it's real.]]
!!''Literature/TheWizardOfOz'':

!!''Literature/{{Worm}}'':
* ''Fanfic/{{Warp}}'': Invoked. When [[Literature/{{Ward}} Victoria Dallon]] wakes up and finds she has somehow returned to the past before her boyfriend's death and the end of the world, she quickly wonders if she is trapped in a psychic illusion modeled after her own desires.

!!''Franchise/YuGiOh''

* One of Illudere's best spells in ''Fanfic/ManehattansLoneGuardian'', the "Luminous Cruelty", traps the target in one of these. [[spoiler:When Leviathan is caught in it, it proves potent enough that despite her noticing a few things off about it, she dismisses them entirely and stays in the illusionary world until she "dies" of system failure--and thus has her self-confidence shattered when she returns to reality.]]

* ''[[https://www.potionsandsnitches.org/fanfiction/viewstory.php?sid=3890&chapter=1 You Will Find Them]'': Voldemort traps Harry in a no-magic scenario where his relatives actually care about him for almost seven weeks.

* ''ComicBook/HouseOfM:'' The ComicBook/ScarletWitch, Wanda Maximoff, had a nervous breakdown over the deaths of her children and, nudged by Quicksilver, creates an alternate reality, where mutants were the dominant race and all the heroes had their hearts' desires granted (Spider-Man was married to Gwen Stacy with Uncle Ben alive, the X-Men were able to have normal jobs in a world free of persecution and bigotry, etc). Unfortunately, Wolverine's heart's desire was to remember every day of his life: he knew the world was fake and was the one to try to revert it. Unlike most examples, the ''House of M'' universe was as real as the one it replaced, but it served the same purpose -- to keep the heroes pacified.

* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9921786/1/The-Clueless-Groom The Clueless Groom]]'': Harry subjects Voldemort and his remaining followers to Draft of Living Death and a daydream charm which makes them believe that they're awake and ruling the world.

* ''[[http://glassamilk.livejournal.com/1162.html A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes]]'' has Denmark being ensnared by a [[Comicbook/ForTheManWhoHasEverything Black Mercy]] and dreaming where he is living in the perfect world. Unfortunately for him, as the rest of the Nordics and other countries tries to wake him up, his perfect world descends into a horrifying nightmare, as the Black Mercy is slowly draining his life at the same time.

* ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8629492/1/iSwear iSwear]]'' is based on the premise that Carly is either in one of these, or UnstuckInTime, or a mix of both.

* In Issue 16 of ''ComicBook/Titans1998'', the Fab Five Titans (Troia, Arsenal, Tempest, Nightwing, and Flash) are trapped in Limbo by the Gargoyle. He places the five adults in fake versions of their childhoods (Dick with the circus, Donna on Paradise Island, etc.) and they only have a slight sense that something is wrong. But the first one to actually break the illusion is Arsenal. The Gargoyle tried to create a version of Roy's life if his father hadn't died in Arizona, but what the Gargoyle ''couldn't'' do is create a version of Roy's MissingMom. All Roy had to do was ask his father if "Mom will be home" and Roy Sr. couldn't come up with something to say. This is because Roy's mother is so fundamentally missing from his life that all he knows is that he ''had'' a mom, therefore the Gargoyle couldn't fool him. What's especially telling about this is that, all throughout the issue in Gargoyle's Limbo, Roy is the only one who is briefly able to turn back into an adult.

* In Issue 16 of the first ''ComicBook/{{Titans}}'' volume, the Fab Five Titans (Troia, Arsenal, Tempest, Nightwing, and Flash) are trapped in Limbo by the Gargoyle. He places the five adults in fake versions of their childhoods (Dick with the circus, Donna on Paradise Island, etc.) and they only have a slight sense that something is wrong. But the first one to actually break the illusion is Arsenal. The Gargoyle tried to create a version of Roy's life if his father hadn't died in Arizona, but what the Gargoyle ''couldn't'' do is create a version of Roy's MissingMom. All Roy had to do was ask his father if "Mom will be home" and Roy Sr. couldn't come up with something to say. This is because Roy's mother is so fundamentally missing from his life that all he knows is that he ''had'' a mom, therefore the Gargoyle couldn't fool him. What's especially telling about this is that, all throughout the issue in Gargoyle's Limbo, Roy is the only one who is briefly able to turn back into an adult.

!!''Franchise/DoctorWho''

* Happens in ''Film/{{Inception}}'', where one character even runs this kind of place for people. Cobb earlier had warned Ariadne of using real life memories in the dream world because you might think that reality itself is another dream. [[spoiler:The ending leaves itself open to whether the whole thing was one for Cobb. [[NoEnding The film stops before we see the spinning top fall]].]]

* Combined with CruelTwistEnding in the early-'90s Fangoria Films release ''Film/{{Mindwarp}}''. In a [[AfterTheEnd post-apocalyptic]] Earth, the majority of the surface consists of large areas of radioactive wastelands, inhabited largely by violent mutant "Crawlers". The remaining humans, a.k.a. "Dreamers", live in a single biosphere known as ''Inworld'', and spend their time plugged into a computer living out virtual-reality fantasies; while retaining barely enough volition to take care of their basic physical needs. One Dreamer rebels and is exiled from ''Inworld'', fights Crawlers, and searches for her father who was similarly exiled for rebelling. In the end [[spoiler: she encounters multiple layers of DreamWithinADream, as she repeatedly "wakes up" from virtual-reality fantasies; and is ultimately revealed as just another apathetic Dreamer.]]
* In ''Film/MinorityReport'', the prisoners in containment are supposedly in virtual realities where all their wishes come true. Since the prisoners never actually managed to commit any crimes, having been prevented by Pre-Crime operatives, they're not being punished. They're being conditioned to never want to commit the crime. [[spoiler:It's a popular theory that Anderton himself suffers this fate after he's arrested, and the film's ending is his dream within containment.]]
** The page image here shows what those virtual realities must be, in a cyber parlor "{{Dreamweaver}}" where people are immersed in their own virtual fantasies. The difference is that the people are fully conscious, unlike the Pre-Crime prison detainees.
* ''Film/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'': The movie references the {{Trope Namer}}s in the Lotus Hotel & Casino. The heroes eat little lotus-shaped cakes that lull them away from their mission for several days. And they were lucky — others had been blissfully gaming the night away for forty or more ''years'' without so much as ''aging'', let alone realizing how much time had passed.

* The original ''Film/TotalRecall1990'' revolves around this, giving an ending with a "I am the enemy" revelation. Or was he his own worst enemy?

* ''Literature/{{Accelerando}}'' by Creator/CharlesStross: Some {{Sufficiently Advanced Alien}}s discover an Islamic scholar, and become interested in his beliefs. So they decide to throw him into a virtual reality version of Paradise, complete with 72 virgins. He responds by locking himself in the highest tower he can find and praying, as he knows immediately this isn't FluffyCloudHeaven; he's a ''scholar'', his idea of paradise is infinite knowledge straight from the most omniscient source around. Interesting in that this is the sort of Lotus Eater Machine that you can't break out of, even if you know it's not real. He has to be rescued by someone outside.
* In the ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' side-story ''The Ellimist Chronicles,'' the main character finds himself in a dream world created by a semi-sentient sponge called "Father." It turns out that out of his entire race, he is now the only surviving member, and all the people he meets in the dream are the resurrected memories of the dead that Father had captured from his ship. When he has children in his Lotus Eater world, they only appear to him when he thinks of them. Unlike most Lotus Eater Machines, the Ellimist knows he's in a dream world, but he still has to figure a way out of it.

Sometimes the lotus-eater has no idea it's all fake. Sometimes they do know, but it's so beautiful and relaxing there that they don't care, and they'd rather stay there. In order to escape, the dreamer has to figure out they're dreaming, if that isn't already known to them; then they have to [[BrokenMasquerade break the masquerade]] and give up their life's dream. If they're in too deep, friends (or even [[DreamTellsYouToWakeUp characters from the fantasy itself]]) hoping to mount an OrpheanRescue have to force the hero to BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind in order to escape. More often than not, a DreamApocalypse occurs. Might involve a realistic ArtificialOutdoorsDisplay.

* ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfDorsa'': In book three, Joslyn and Tasia become trapped inside a blissful dream by the deathless king. There, they dream of drinking, together, having sex carefree while in the palace grounds. Meanwhile, the power of the more powerful {{living shadow|s}}, the undatai, is growing back so it can eventually possess them. Joslyn though realizes what's going on, working to free the two of them. It's very hard however with the allure of the dream.

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' has Slaanesh's realm, composed of concentric rings known as the Six Circles of Seduction. Each of them tempts anyone who enters with a different carnal sin, but stopping even for a moment to indulge in any of it will leave one trapped there forever.
** The Circle of Avidity has mountains of gold cascading with waterfalls of sapphires, diamonds, opals, lapis lazuli, faïence and every other precious object one can imagine.
** The Circle of Gluttony is home to sumptuous banquets of every conceivable culinary experience and rivers of wine.
** The Circle of Carnality is a realm of pure debauchery, where one is free to explore every bodily pleasure they've desired to experience.
** The Circle of Paramountcy offers the roars of adulation from an inconceivably vast crowd and the promise of absolute power over others.
** The Circle of Vainglory is a beautiful garden that reflects one's perfect self-image, where everything you ever tried to be, wished you were or secretly thought you were all along is reflected back at you.
** The Circle of Indolency is a heavenly realm of pure and utter bliss, chanting choirs, perfumed seas, and ambrosial waters that lull the mind and senses. You can walk here for what feels like centuries.
** And at the very center lies the Palace of Pleasure, where Slaanesh resides. If you've made it this far, you'll willingly place yourself in such a fate, as it's impossible to look upon the beauty of the Prince of Pleasure without forfeiting your soul and becoming a willing slave.

* The concept of Solipsism is that the only thing that is real is "the mind" (which is to say, the person reading this) and that "the mind" created the universe as an illusion to protect itself from the horror of the void. A self imposed illusory world if you think of it that way.

* ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaAs'': The [[ArtifactOfDoom Book of Darkness]] uses this against Fate Testarossa, locking her into a dream world where [[spoiler: her MadScientist mother Precia is [[LoveMakesYouEvil alive and sane]], Fate's late mentor and maid Linith, and Alicia, [[CloningBlues the dead girl she was cloned from]], also lived as her older sister]]. After [[spoiler:making peace with Alicia]], Fate shatters the dimension with Bardiche's [[{{BFS}} Zanber form]]. The Book of Darkness also planned on doing this to her master Hayate, and the rest of the Earth, believing Hayate wished for the pain of the real world to just be a dream and disappear. She drops the plan when Hayate tells her that isn't what she wants. The experience also had the effect of helping Fate come to terms with herself [[spoiler:as a separate person from Alicia]], resulting in her accepting Lindy's offer to adopt her in the third ''A's'' Sound Stage.

* In [=ClockUp=]'s ''Euphoria'', [[spoiler: all the events of the whole plot are set off by an unnamed depressed girl who tried committing suicide, but failed and ended up as a vegetable instead. The story would've ended here if she was just an ordinary vegetable lying in bed all day. No, she became a vegetable with the power to dream. In her mind, she created the perfect utopia that people would pay astronomical amounts of money to live in. And that’s exactly what they did, after scientists managed to analyze her brain signals to create a program known as Rakuen with her as the central unit known as the ''[[CloningBlues Nemu]]''ri Hime. All those with way too much money on their hands need to do is to get themselves hooked up to the Rakuen system and they’ll be able to live the utopia of her dreams, literally as their body is just lying in the lab while they dream of ultimate bliss.]] [[MindScrew Yeah, it's complicated.]]

* One of Illudere's best spells in ''Fanfic/ManehattansLoneGuardian'' traps the target in one of these. [[spoiler:When Leviathan is caught in it, it proves potent enough that despite her noticing a few things off about it, she dismisses them entirely and stays in the illusionary world until she "dies" of system failure--and thus has her self-confidence shattered when she returns to reality.]]