History Main / LotusEaterMachine

* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0887.html gets stuck in a lotus-eater illusion]] while searching for Girard's Gate.

* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0886.html gets stuck in a lotus-eater illusion]] while searching for Girard's Gate.

* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' gets stuck in one of these.

* Done slightly differently in ''Series/LegendOfWilliamTell'' when there is no actual machine. Instead a whole valley uses this. The heroes get everything they ever wanted, but the illusions all turn nasty and try to kill them, sometimes overlapping with one person's illusion going after another person.

* ''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.

** Possibly the entire universe. Multiple dimensions, and the time just keeps repeating in a cycle. Even people's lives keep renewing in a reincarnation, while trapped in the World Of Dreams, in the mean time.

* In Robert Jordan's ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'', the test for becoming Accepted is to go through an artifact that does this three times. The dream world (OrWasItADream ?) takes many forms, sometimes horrifying, sometimes perfect, sometimes prophetic. To pass each round of the test, they must pass through an exit door that appears only once, at the time when they are least able or willing to use it.

* In ''Film/{{Labyrinth}}'', this happens to Sarah twice over. The first time is the result of her eating a magic peach; her memory is erased and she is transported into a literal crystal ballroom where Jareth the Goblin King tries to woo her at a masked ball. The atmosphere becomes increasingly creepy; she realizes ''something's'' wrong (just as the clock strikes twelve -- significant because her quest must be completed by the time it strikes thirteen) and manages to escape by smashing the crystal walls...but when she lands in a junkyard, she still hasn't regained her memory. A Junk Lady then lures her into a perfect replica of her bedroom at home (which initially makes Sarah believe her journey was AllJustADream), albeit with all her favorite childhood toys and whatnot. The replica is a little ''too'' perfect though, because a copy of the play that inspired her adventure in the first place is there and jogs her memory; as Sarah realizes ItsAllJunk and that she has to rescue her baby brother, her friends arrive and the room's walls are literally torn down by tumbling rocks.

* RayBradbury's ''Mars is Heaven!'' starts out as a sort of OntologicalMystery in the beginning. A crew from Earth land on Mars, which looks like Ohio at the turn of the 20th century. However, when their long lost dead relatives start appearing, it becomes more of a Lotus Eater Machine story. It has a DownerEnding: [[spoiler: the residents of the town are telepathic, shape-shifting Martians who put up the facade to throw the spacemen off guard. It works: that night, just as the Captain is beginning to realize this, his "brother" turns into an alien and stabs him to death. The same thing happens all over town. The next day, they have a funeral for the spacemen...and then take on their true forms and gleefully tear the ship apart.]]
** In "Here There be Tygers", three space explorers lands on an uncharted planet which turns out to be a beautiful, idyllic paradise which seems to cater to there every need. Being GenreSavvy types, two of the crewmen realize that it must be a trap, and leave, but the third insists that it must be genuine and stays behind. [[spoiler:As the two leave, they see natural disasters ravage the surface and the ecosystem tear itself apart...which is actually an illusion generated by the [[GeniusLoci living planet]], which is angry at them leaving; the third astronaut remains in a paradise.]]

** Interestingly, Brock knows full well what the machine is capable of, having dived in to throw another to safety. He's apparently enjoying [[BloodKnight an eternal battle]] against countless ninjas, dinosaurs, monsters, robots, and [[NinjaPirateRobotZombie ninja robots riding dinosaurs]]. At least for a while until he yells out "[[CrowningMomentOfFunny OH COME ON ALREADY!]]", at which point they all vanish, and [[{{UST}} Molotov]] [[MeaningfulName Cocktease]] shows up, finally giving herself to him.

* In ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'', this is Nocturn--the Dream Ghost's--specialty, as he has devices that give the dreamers their happy paradise. The beginning portion of the episode is designed with this in mind for Danny, though he quickly snaps out of it.

** Related, ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' had a season finale where Stewie killed Lois and became [[PresidentEvil president of the United States]]...and then Lois came back, killed him, and it was revealed to be a simulation the whole time.

** Related, ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' had a season finale where Stewie killed Lois and became [[PresidentEvil president of the United States]]...and then Lois came back, killed him, and it was all just a simulation.

* The main character of ''Series/{{Angel}}'' has a curse where if he's ever truly happy, he loses his soul and becomes a vampire serial killer. For plot reasons, the good guys needed this to happen, so they hire a somewhat nefarious looking shaman to cast the spell that would accomplish. [[spoiler:The shaman, however, is revealed to be an assassin, and attempts to kill Angel, leaving the spell un-cast, though Angel and company decide they have to face the BigBad regardless. Over the course of the episode, it plays out just like a normal episode, with gains and losses, things happening, until the BigBad is actually defeated and everyone is happy. Then...everything starts getting freaky as too much happiness results, with far too many good things happening, culminating in a rewind back to the supposedly "failed" spell, which actually worked. The entire episode was a hallucination of Angel's, creating a day when everything fit together perfectly in such a way that it culminated in a moment of true happiness. His soul was taken from his body, and we come face to face with Angelus.]]

* In ArthurCClarke's novella ''The Lion Of Comarre'', the protagonist discovers that "Comarre," a rumored place that is occasionally sought out by people who are never seen again, is a robotic Lotus Eater Machine facility. The government tries to keep the truth hidden, and to keep people away -- but not very hard, as it's considered a good safety valve for those who would otherwise be disruptive.

* In ArthurCClarke's novella ''TheLionOfComarre'', the protagonist discovers that "Comarre," a rumored place that is occasionally sought out by people who are never seen again, is a robotic Lotus Eater Machine facility. The government tries to keep the truth hidden, and to keep people away -- but not very hard, as it's considered a good safety valve for those who would otherwise be disruptive.

* ''VanillaSky'', a remake of ''Abre Los Ojos'', [[spoiler:ends with the revelation that the protagonist actually committed suicide early on and was cryogenically frozen and put into a state of lucid dreaming where he lives out his fantasy life, gets the girl and gets an operation which fixes his disfigurement...however, the dream turns into a nightmare which culminates in him accidentally killing his girlfriend. At the end he jumps off a building in order to wake himself up despite being given the choice to have everything fixed so that the dream would be happy again.]]

* TheDustFactory : The main character nearly drowns and is transported to a comforting and dreamlike version of the real world where time stands still for all who end up there. They could easily stay, until the end of time if they so wished, lest they become unafraid to get [[UnusualEuphemism dusted]] and return to their real lives.

** [[FleetingDemographicRule Done again in Best Wishes]], this time the work of a [[LittleGreenMan Beheeyem]] belonging to a crook. The trick here is that they can only be freed from the illusion until they are all fully awake, which is a problem since Meowth (who, at that time, was with Ash and friends), instantly goes back to sleep every time they try to wake him up.

* In the ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' episode "Malice in Wonderland", Ash and his party get trapped in a dream-world, where Ash is able to defeat the champion Cynthia and owns every single badge in the world, Dawn is a undefeatable Coordinator, who has no problems taking on her own Mom and owns more Ribbons than one can count, and finally, Brock is surrounded by an army of Joys and Jennys, who all want to marry him. The cause is a Ghost-type Pokemon, Mismagius, who wants them to play with it...''forever''. As soon as they realize, that everything around them is not real, the dream changes into a nightmare, but they find a way to use their own imaginations to fight back.

* GregoryHorrorShow has a weird variation. The hotel run by Gregory is the embodiment of the desire to escape from reality, and Gregory and his inhabitants will try their damndest to drive you mad and keep you there. You can escape, but of the two people we've seen escape, both eventually end up coming back and becoming one of the hotel's twisted inhabitants.

* In ''RoboCop [[XVersusY vs]] {{Terminator}}'' this is Skynet's last line of defense against the [[BrainUploading electronic ghost]] of Alex Murphy. He's well aware that it's an illusion, a trap, and tells himself that he'll fight it... in a moment.

* One ''{{Xxxenophile}}'' story featured a villain trapping Orgasm Lass in a Wet Dreamtime Generator, bouncing her between fantasy lovers. She escapes by overloading the device ... come on, this is Xxxenophile, you ''know'' how she did it.

* Steve Moore (no relation to AlanMoore) used this trope in his JonniFuture stories. One of Jonni's enemies is the Empress of the End, who trades people all their Earthly possessions to experience a (fatal) experience of their heart's greatest desire. A surprising number of people willingly make this trade, but when the Empress kidnaps Jonni's sidekick, Jermaal Van Pavane the Paraman and forcibly submits him to the machine, she has to rescue him.

** Turns out that Black Mercys are {{Well Intentioned Extremist}}s who do this in order to end pain and fear and later, [[spoiler:Mother Mercy joins the Green Lantern Corps.]]

** Turns out that Black Mercys are {{Well Intentioned Extremist}}s who do this in order to end pain and fear and later, [[spoiler: the mother joins the Green Lantern Corps.]]

* ''VideoGame/Persona'' plays with this concept; [[spoiler:the other world is in Maki's imagination, but it's real at the same time. Confused? The (first) BigBad used his RealityWarper machine to make her dreams come true.]]

* In ''StarFight VI: Gatekeepers'', the PlayerCharacter ends up being {{Mind Rape}}d by an alien creature. However, what it looks like is the player waking up and doing the same thing as at the beginning of the game. If the player ends up doing the exact same thing (i.e. follow the memory), then the crew is revealed to be just projections of the creature who then consumes the player's mind. The only way to get out is to do the one thing you can't do at the beginning, enter Engineering. Since there is no memory of entering it, the illusion is broken.

* ''[[VideoGame/Persona Shin Megami Tensei Persona]]'' plays with this concept; [[spoiler:the other world is in Maki's imagination, but it's real at the same time. Confused? The (first) BigBad used his RealityWarper machine to make her dreams come true.]]

* ''VideoGame/Persona Shin Megami Tensei Persona'' plays with this concept; [[spoiler:the other world is in Maki's imagination, but it's real at the same time. Confused? The (first) BigBad used his RealityWarper machine to make her dreams come true.]]