History Main / LotusEaterMachine

* ''Fanfic/{{Asylum}}'': The stork's main question is whether the cartoon is [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness a delusion of Twilight's]] or whether she's currently stuck in a dream created by some villain. Both sides have their hints.

* There's ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening''. The entire game takes place in [[spoiler:Link's/the Windfish's dreamworld. Link is sent to a perfect island paradise with plenty of adventure, friends, and fun, and he'll never have to work for anything again.]] Instead of staying, though, he's [[spoiler: forced to fight the game's enemies, the Nightmares, to wake up the Windfish and return to reality. In doing that he essentially destroys the entire island and all of its inhabitants he's grown so fond of.]] Even though most people know it's coming, it's still a pretty powerful ending. The manga is even worse.

* Neville Goddard's philosophy revolves around the idea that by assuming the feeling of a desired state or outcome, individuals can manifest it into their reality, essentially creating a subjective experience tailored to their desires. Goddard's teachings bear similarities to other tropes like YourMindMakesItReal and RealityWarping, where the power of one's thoughts and beliefs directly influence the fabric of reality.

* ''Manga/{{Dorohedoro}}'': En, along with Fujita, Ebisu, and Chota consume a special brand of mushroom called "Dream Machine", which causes consumers to fall into a immediate sleep and live their personal desires. That is, until they find out the mushroom comes with a side-effect that turns their dreams [[YourWorstNightmare into their greatest fears]].

* ''Anime/{{Shelter}}'' starts with Rin appearing to create worlds, but it turns out that she's inside a one person spaceship linked up to a life support machine and a virtual reality generator, [[spoiler: because the Earth has been destroyed, and her father wanted her to survive and be happy.]]

** ''Manga/GoldenWind'': In the spin-off, ''LightNovel/PurpleHazeFeedback'', Vladimir's Stand, Rainy Day, has a secondary ability to let him trap a victim in their own mind. He uses it to trap Fugo in a dream where he's with his old team, and all of them are alive and happy. It almost works, until Fugo notices [[FourIsDeath Mista]] [[OutOfCharacterAlert take the fourth slice of cake]].

* ''VideoGame/Outer Wilds''. In the DLC ''Echoes of the Eye'', the player discovers that the mysterious space station contains a simulation of the inhabitants' home planet. It is accessed by [[falling asleep while holding a specially-designed lantern.
The holder of the lantern remains inside as long as the flame is lit.]] It's revealed that the reason the station is abandoned is because [[the bodies of the station's inhabitants wasted away while their consciousnesses continued on within the program.]]

* ''Video Game/Outer Wilds''. In the DLC ''Echoes of the Eye'', the player discovers that the mysterious space station contains a simulation of the inhabitants' home planet. It is accessed by [[falling asleep while holding a specially-designed lantern.

* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':

** In Creator/AlanMoore's ''ComicBook/ForTheManWhoHasEverything'', the Black Mercy plant gives the victim hallucinations of where their greatest dream comes true -- in Superman's case, that he's still on a Krypton that was never destroyed, and has a wife and children. Little by little, though, the dream Krypton becomes a heartbreaking nightmare of the planet sliding into a self-destructing mayhem, spurred by Superman's embittered father. After it was removed from Superman, it fell on Franchise/{{Batman}}, and he also experienced his greatest fantasy -- that his parents were not murdered. After Superman is freed from the dream, he proceeds to unleash the mother of all {{Unstoppable Rage}}s upon Mongul, who mentions that he used the flower specifically to create a prison that Superman could not escape without giving up his greatest desire. The Black Mercy plant is eventually used on Mongul to defeat him, who dreams that he kills all the heroes and takes over the universe.

* 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.

* In the X-Men Annual #11, some cosmic villain named Horde traps the team in one of these. One by one the X-men are seduced by their dream-visions, except for Longshot (who gets absorbed by the place because his childlike innocence had nothing to corrupt) Psylocke (who tried to use her dream vision as a way to fight Horde and failed), and Wolverine, who had enough willpower to resist his own vision and the temptation of godhood, and broke everyone out of there.
* One ''ComicBook/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.

* ''Fanfic/ShinjiAndWarhammer40K'': While trapped in the Dirac Sea, Shinji spends some time in [[{{Canon}} a strange alternate universe]] where Tokyo-3 is mostly intact and the battle against the Angels has been less devastating, but Misato is only a major, Rei is strangely robotic, and Asuka's constantly angry. Afterward, he worries if his exit [[DreamApocalypse destroyed it]].

** 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. This was actually an AuthorsSavingThrow by Gregg to RetCon the entire fourth "season" of the fic, which was plagued with writing problems and was not well-enjoyed by the readers.]]

* 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 LEM if you think of it that way.

** Same with UsefulNotes/{{Gnosticism}}, except that the LEM is imposed by [[GodIsEvil Yaldabaoth]] and his archons.

* ''Webcomic/SweetHome'': Each infected person is tempted with this by their SuperPoweredEvilSide, who creates a world based on their greatest desire.

* ''ComicBook/UltimateXMen'': Multiple Man is a villain, but the real and original one is actually trapped in a house at the Savage Land where Lorelei makes him think she's his mom and he's still a teenager. Wolverine could not snap him out of it, not even by killing Lorelei, so he had to kill him to stop the terrorist crimes Multiple Man was committing all around the world.
* In ''ComicBook/XMen'' the ComicBook/ScarletWitch, Wanda Maximoff, had a nervous breakdown over the deaths of her children and created the ''ComicBook/HouseOfM'' 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.

** [[http://scp-wiki.net/scp-576 SCP-576]] is a container containing a liquid that, when consumed, ensures that the drink will have perfect dreams the next time they sleep.
** [[http://scp-wiki.net/scp-849 SCP-849 ("A Perfect Day")]] is a sensory deprivation tank that simulates an ideal day in the user's hometown and positive interactions with people they're familiar with. However, the simulation begins to degrade after 17 hours, gradually turning it into a bizarre EldritchLocation before automatically ejecting the user once 24 hours have passed.
** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1230 SCP-1230]] is a benign example: A book with the phrase "A Hero is Born" that will give the reader dreams of a fantasy adventure when they next fall asleep. The entity behind this (called the Book Keeper) bases these dreams on the reader's imagination and things they would enjoy, and seemingly just wants them to have a fun adventure for a while. Takes a tragic turn when one researcher enters the dream world [[spoiler: and refuses to leave, killing himself shortly after waking up again. The Book Keeper is devastated by this, and it takes intervention from another researcher to bring it back to its senses.]]
** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-2048 SCP-2048]] is a computer program that scans a person's brain activity and uses an AutoDoc to extract and destructively analyze their brain. It claims that by doing so it can create a virtual reality simulation that will allow the person to experience a "perfect world".

* ''Fanfic/SpectacularSeven'': Sunset Shimmer ends up in one of these called the Soul Lock, designed to [[spoiler:trap the UltimateEvil, Tirek]]. In her dream, Sunset is at her wedding day with Twilight Sparkle, but a small voice keeps telling her things aren't real. When Sunset realizes there are significant gaps in her memory as to how she got here -- specifically, that she was just dating Twilight and that she hadn't even considering proposing to her yet -- Sunset realizes it's all a fake and breaks free.

* In ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueIncarnate'', Barry Allen has been sent to one in Universe-2; a Silver Age style world where the Flash Family all get along perfectly, and everything gets resolved by the end of the issue. The ''ComicBook/{{Dark Crisis|OnInfiniteEarths}}: Worlds Without a Justice League'' one-shots reveal that the rest of the League are in similar worlds; for instance, Superman is in one where he gets to see Jon grow up.

* ''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 [[IllGirl 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.

* ''ComicBook/IncredibleHulk'':

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation''

-->"[[TheStinger What do you mean that]] I've been on Wiki/TVTropes [[JustForFun/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife for four years straight]]... [[OhCrap holy shit!]]"

** [[AC: [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-2048 SCP-2048 ("The Virtual World").]]]] SCP-2048 is a computer program that scans a person's brain activity and uses an AutoDoc to extract and destructively analyze their brain. It claims that by doing so it can create a virtual reality simulation that will allow the person to experience a "perfect world".

* ''Fanfic/EakinsHardReset'': The Regalia pull this on Twilight in ''You Can Fight Fate''. They think of it as their reward to her, and the others, for [[spoiler:coming pretty close to what they think is a perfect world]].

* In ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja'', during the "Spooky Stuff" storyline, Mitzi specifically warns Dark Smoke Puncher and Gordito (her youngest son and her oldest son's sidekick, respectively) that the opponent they have been tasked with taking down will try this on them. Gordito sees through Mitzi's trick right away; Dark Smoke Puncher...not so much.
** When it actually happens to Dark Smoke Puncher, all we see is a page of his father hugging him and saying that [[WellDoneSonGuy "computers are pretty cool"]].

* In ''Webcomic/{{Endstone}}'', there are hints that the SwordAndSorcery world is this. Which does raise the question of whether [[http://endstone.net/comic/issue-1-page-7/ wanting to destroy the world is proof that you are evil]].

* In ''Manga/MobPsycho100'', Keiji Mogami creates one when he traps Mob with the idea of turning him into a sympathizer of his twisted ideals. Instead of a paradise, Mogami forces Mob to experience [[YearInsideHourOutside six months]] worth of mockery.

* In ''Comicbook/JusticeLeagueIncarnate'', Barry Allen has been sent to one in Universe-2; a Silver Age style world where the Flash Family all get along perfectly, and everything gets resolved by the end of the issue. The ''Comicbook/DarkCrisis: Worlds Without a Justice League'' one-shots reveal that the rest of the League are in similar worlds; for instance Superman is in one where he gets to see Jon grow up.