History Main / MindVirus

* Rabies is best known for its "furious" state, in which the virus drives the host to actively and violently seek out victims to bite. This is, of course, to insure its own transmission.

* An issue of ''TheAuthority'' had Apollo and Midnighter teaming up with alternate-universe versions of themselves to stop a killer meme: anyone who heard it would whisper it to the first person they saw and then commit suicide. They had to stop the meme from making its way to a TV studio, where it would be spoken on a live broadcast. [[spoiler:The solution is to subject it to ExecutiveMeddling, which renders it harmless.]]

* In ''{{Planetary}}'', the BigBad's power is seemingly that his mind expands and 'infects' other minds near himself, causing them to start to think the same way and become, well, ''him''. It ends up becoming an InformedAbility because we never see him use it.
* {{Transmetropolitan}} alludes to things like this at times, although details for how they work are never given. A [[ImAHumanitarian Canibalism Meme]] is mentioned as one point, for instance.
* Came up in a section of [[TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen the Black Dossier]], in which a descendant of Fu Manchu tried to release an (ancient Aztec) linguistic virus into a Massachusetts spaghetti restaurant to perpetuate a feud between his family and Professor Moriarty's. [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext Makes far, far less sense in]] [[Creator/TheBeatGeneration context]].

* Came up in a section of [[TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen the Black Dossier]], in which a descendant of Fu Manchu tried to release an (ancient Aztec) linguistic virus into a Massachusetts spaghetti restaurant to perpetuate a feud between his family and Professor Moriarty's. [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext Makes far, far less sense in]] [[TheBeatGeneration context]].

** Also the Godhead arc, which featured a villain with the power to turn people in his slaves.

* An issue of ''TheAuthority'' had Apollo and Midnighter teaming up with alternate-universe versions of themselves to stop a killer meme: anyone who heard it would whisper it to the first person they saw and then commit suicide. They had to stop the meme from making its way to a TV studio, where it would be spoken on a live broadcast.

* ''Master of Space and Time'' by Rudy Rucker has a section where the heroes visit an alternate dimension full of "meme viruses". One of the characters is bitten by a "Jesus Lizard" and subsequently starts gaining [[TheMessiah messiah-like characteristics]], along with [[HippieJesus growing out his hair and beard and wearing sandals all the time]].

* Though the "culling song" in [[ChuckPalahniuk Chuck Palahniuk's]] ''{{Lullaby}}'' starts out as a lethal BrownNote, it eventually turns out that merely thinking about it can telepathically transmit it to someone else, making it a lethal Mind Virus.

* Creator/AlastairReynolds features these prominently in many of his novels. ''Century Rain'' has the "Amusica" virus that causes its victims to be unable to appreciate music (released as a demoralizing tool in a war). ''Chasm City'' has a communicable virus that inflicts its victims with the memories of a religious cult leader, giving them dreams of his life and causing stigmata to appear on their body.

* AlastairReynolds features these prominently in many of his novels. ''Century Rain'' has the "Amusica" virus that causes its victims to be unable to appreciate music (released as a demoralizing tool in a war). ''Chasm City'' has a communicable virus that inflicts its victims with the memories of a religious cult leader, giving them dreams of his life and causing stigmata to appear on their body.

This trope is for [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin viruses of the mind]]. They spread the same way as any other normal virus, either through exposure to someone who's already infected or through some airborne particulate. However, unlike normal viruses, they primarily don't cause any physical symptoms. Instead the virus will alter the way its victims ''think''.

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* In the film ''Film/{{Pontypool}}'', the English language becomes infected with a virus that drives English-speakers crazy.

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* The Sickness in ''Series/{{Lost}}'', which is how The Man in Black recruits people to his side.

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* In one ''{{Batman}}'' StoryArc, the villains attempt to release a meme virus into the population of Gotham which will give everybody a predisposition to addiction, thus causing chaos.

* In the film ''Film/{{Pontypoole}}'', the English language becomes infected with a virus that drives English-speakers crazy.

* CharlesStross has this in the novel ''[[{{Accelerando}} Glasshouse]]''. A virus called "Curious Yellow" has infected nearly all humans, via the ubiquitiuos and necessary WarpGates that are everyone uses to get around. It deleted memories of a recent war, giving pretty much everyone amnesia of that specific time period. Furthermore, it also deleted the memories of ''who released it'' and its full extent, meaning that nobody knows what ''else'' it might've done (or still be doing).

* The third book in the ''PlagueYearSeries'' by Jeff Carlson, ''Plague Zone'', features a mind virus that turns its victims into mindless husks that wander around, attempting to spread the virus to others (through airborne contact). They're not ''violent'' or anything, but insistent, shambling about like living zombies that don't eat or attack.

* The third book in the PlagueYearSeries by Jeff Carlson, ''Plague Zone'', features a mind virus that turns its victims into mindless husks that wander around, attempting to spread the virus to others (through airborne contact). They're not ''violent'' or anything, but insistent, shambling about like living zombies that don't eat or attack.
* [[PeterWatts Peter Watts's]] ''RiftersTrilogy'' features several mind viruses, most notably "[=GuiltTrip=]", which forces its victims to always do "good" things (and severely punishes them, through pain or death, for failing to do so). A government agency purposefully infects its employess with [=GuiltTrip=], reasoning that by doing so they do not have to worry about security anymore, since nobody would dare attempt to subvert or steal anything.

* In ''GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex 2nd Gig'' the "Individual Eleven" virus infected people who read a certain essay, becoming terrorists and (aide from Kuze) eventually committed suicide.

* In ''SchlockMercenary'', the Macarena is referred to by Reverend Theo Forbus as a "[[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2009-10-14 proven memetic infector]]."

* The Wiki/SCPFoundation has quite a few of these, which are classified under ''Memetic Hazards''.

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* Greg Bear's novel ''Vitals'' features bio-engineered viruses that manipulate their victims hormones and brain chemistry. Though the viruses themselves are undirected, the [[TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness evil government conspiracy]] will "dose" people with different strains of the virus, in combination with setting up fake evidence, in order to discredit anyone who threatens to expose the conspiracy. One character, an investigative author who starts getting too close to the truth, is infected with a compulsive anti-semitism virus that causes him to lose his reputation. Later on, another character is made to murder by use of a HatePlague. The main character is also infected with a kind of "love" virus that renders him dopey and lovey-dovey with respect to a woman who's an agent of the conspiracy.

* The Sickness in ''/Series/Lost'', which is how The Man in Black recruits people to his side.

* Some forms of the Exsurgent virus in ''TabletopGame/EclipsePhase'' simply alter how the victim thinks and/or add PsychicPowers. Turning them into an unwitting pawn of the TITANS.