History Main / YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm

* In ''VideoGame/Prey2017'', [[VoiceWithAnInternetConnection January]] explicitly warns Morgan to not scan the FinalBoss, the [[spoiler:Apex Typhon]], with [[EnemyScan the psychoscope]]. Doing so [[spoiler:reduces your PSI to 0, and your HPToOne]].

* Foxface's special attack in ''VideoGame/ShadowHearts'' is just called !!!. [[HPToOne It reduces Yuri's HP to 1 no matter what they were before.]]

** The nameless CosmicEntity in [[TheNothingAfterDeath the Empty]] is incomprehensible [[UpToEleven even to angels]]. When Castiel meets it in "The Big Empty", it appears as a mirror image of the angel. It explains that it can't appear in its [[EldritchAbomination true form]], otherwise Castiel would [[GoMadFromTheRevelation go insane trying to understand it]].

** Yet another example in Geometry is the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/myriagon myriagon]]: a polygon consisting of a thousand sides. However, on paper, the sides are far too small to see with the naked eye. What we wind up being able to see is a perfect circle.

* It is somewhat a staple in the ''VideoGame/Mother'' trilogy for the final boss to have an unexplainable attack.
** ''VideoGame/EarthBoundBeginnings'': "The form of Giegue's attack was inexplicable!"
** ''VideoGame/Earthbound'': "You cannot grasp the true form of Giygas' attack!"
** ''VideoGame/Mother3'': [[spoiler:"?!... What did Porky do?"]]

* ''WesternAnimation/Amphibia'' : The guardian of the calamity stones appeared to Anne in the shape of Domino, her cat, but Anne commited the mistake of ask it to see it's true looking...it didn't ended well...

* ''WesternAnimation/Amphibia'': The guardian of the calamity stones appeared to Anne in the shape of DOmino, her cat, but Anne commited the mistake of ask the guardian of the stones to see it's true looking...it didn't ended well...

** Yet another example in Geometry is the [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/myriagon myriagon]]: a polygon consisting of a thousand sides. However, on paper, the sides are far too small to see with the naked eye. What we wind up being able to see is a perfect circle.

* Dark Matter/Energy. A postulated form of "something" that makes up over 90% of the universe but does not have any interaction with the electromagnetic spectrum. In fact the only "Observable" effect, and hint that it exists, is its effect on gravity. Humans (and all life as we know it) is made of "normal" matter and evolved to perceive the world through a thin slice of the EM spectrum. Through technology we have been able to extend that thin slice to allow use to visualize other parts of the EM spectrum (which really makes another example of this trope: we cannot grasp the true form of any part of the EM spectrum except for the visible spectrum, only convert it into visual light which we are able to understand), but we are still limited to the parts of the universe that are also able to interact with the EM spectrum. Something that doesn't interact with it is therefore completely unimaginable.

* Many people on the autistic spectrum describe their perception of the world around them in this way due to the way they process sensory input. ''Aquamarine Blue 5'', a book of essays written by autistics, describes experiences like these.

* People exposed to something that they have literally no frame of reference for in their prior experience often fail to construct what they are seeing in their minds. A classic example is the Native Americans believing Cortez's horsemen were giant creatures with two heads, because they had never seen a horse, let alone a man riding one, before (it's believed that myths of [[OurCentaursAreDifferent centaurs]] similarly originated from garbled memories that the Greeks had of horse-riding invaders from before tamed horses were a common sight in Eurasia). Another example is the crazed German private who babbled to his superior about "a crocodile in the trenches" upon seeing a tank for the first time.

* Humans are terrible at processing [[TimeAbyss large scales of time.]] To give you an example, let's say that the entire history of the Earth was condensed into 24 hours. It takes the planet about eight-ten minutes to initially form, the moon forms five minutes later, and the planet takes about an hour to cool enough for water to form. Life don't come into existence until around four and a half later, and it takes another six hours for bacteria as we know it to even form. The first multi-cellular organisms don't emerge until ''8:30 PM'' on the clock. Where do humans fall on this clock? If four billion years are condensed into 24 hours, then we first emerged at 11:58:43 PM. Our modern civilization? ''Not even a full second.'' And this is without even getting into the timescales of the universe, which is over 3 times older than Earth. Good luck wrapping your mind around all that.
** To expand on the human point, [[https://www.newscientist.com/article/2133807-our-species-may-be-150000-years-older-than-we-thought/ a recent archaeological discovery]] found that the human race may be 150,000 years older than we previously thought. That would bump up our time frame on the clock by about...12 seconds.

* All of Planck's constants are incomprehensible except two: Planck mass and Planck energy. The rest describe things like smallest unit of time or length to maximum temperature. Planck mass, while describing something on the quantum level, is the mass of a flea egg, while Plank energy is a tank of gasoline.

* The singularity of a black hole. Try and wrap your mind around an object with infinite density and a volume of zero.

* The TropeNamer is ''VideoGame/EarthBound''. "You cannot grasp the true form of Giygas' attack!" It's a tradition of ''VideoGame/{{MOTHER}}'' series' final bosses. In ''VideoGame/EarthBoundBeginnings'', Giygas (aka Giegue) attacked telekinetically without lifting a finger; his mental power was so far beyond the protagonists they couldn't process what he was using for PSI. In ''[=EarthBound=]'' he was [[BodyHorror "reduced" to an]] EldritchAbomination so large and all-encompassing, you simply couldn't tell where his attacks are coming from; in gameplay terms you were fighting against ''the background''. In ''VideoGame/Mother3'', [[spoiler:Porky]] doesn't get an explanation, but it may be related to him having access to such ridiculously-advanced technology that it's a form of ClarkesThirdLaw. Additionally, [[spoiler:the Masked Man]] doesn't have announcements for most of his attacks like most other enemies in the game do; they simply just happen without warning.

* The True Shape of ''WebComic/KillSixBillionDemons'' is noted to be impossible to fathom. The Demiurge Jadis tried, and it drove her irrevocably insane (though she did get omniscience out of the deal). It's usually depicted as a wheel, though those who achieved Royalty can turn the wheel on its side to see in it the true name of God; I.

* ''ComicBook/DoctorStrange''. The Vishanti, a trio of higher entities who sponsor the office of Sorcerer Supreme, explicitly state that they cannot show their true forms to mortals because it would [[GoMadFromTheRevelation wreck their minds]].
* It's often said that [[MarvelUniverse Galactus]] doesn't actually look like a gigantic human -- it's just your ''brain'' that makes him seem that way...
** Turns out he was a HumanAlien in the previous universe before he became ComicBook/{{Galactus}}, but now his true form resembles a star.
** To ComicBook/BetaRayBill's people, he looks like a giant amoeba. Interestingly enough, Bill himself sees him like Earthlings do.
** In [[http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dKAQx_URcKQ/Te0TbZ9aA2I/AAAAAAAAHrs/TDiy2dnMtfA/s1600/John_Byrne_Galactus_POV.jpg one instance]] when Galactus appears before a large number of species, the page is filled with numerous smaller pictures showing how each species perceives him. Some of them do look pretty horrifying.
** PlayedForLaughs when the ComicBook/TheUnbeatableSquirrelGirl encounters Galactus. She's heard of the different species theory, so she asks her squirrel sidekick what '''she''' sees. Tippy-Toe reports no, Galactus just looks like a regular guy -- but the art reveals "a regular guy" is how Tippy-Toe describes a 400-foot long purple squirrel.
* In ''ComicBook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'', it's explained that forces and entities, like the Abstracts, sometimes simplify themselves for mortals in order to get their assistance. In the some issue, it's revealed that the setting, what looks like a giant checkerboard-like world, is actually the cloak of a gigantic Abstract.
* In the ''ComicBook/JLAAvengers'' crossover: after flying into space, {{Superman}} and ComicBook/IronMan see the forcible merger of their worlds as two gigantic hands pushing the two Earths together. Tony comments that this can't be real, and Clark says that this is simply how their minds chose to represent the event. Also in this crossover, we see Eternity (the AnthropomorphicPersonification of the Franchise/MarvelUniverse) merging with his female counterpart, Kismet of the Franchise/DCUniverse, [[http://www.comicvine.com/forums/gen-discussion/1/a-dc-equal-for-eternity/688456/ in what looks like, uh, a very intimate embrace.]]
** Left behind in the space where the "merger" took place is an egg that will explicitly become the center of a new universe someday. Make of this what you will. (At any rate, it certainly gives Big Bang [[DoubleEntendre a whole new meaning]].)

* In an early ComicBook/JusticeLeague comic, the JLA encountered a monster calling itself [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin The Unimaginable]], a creature so far beyond human comprehension that it was effectively ''invisible''.
* Toyed with in the tale of Orpheus in the ''[[ComicBook/TheSandman Sandman]] Special'', reprinted in ''Fables And Reflections.'' Orpheus visits Death and becomes confused and disoriented when he sees her in her [[PerkyGoth house clothes]] (i.e. her usual 80's-90's look). She quickly [[AFormYouAreComfortableWith cleans up for her visitor]] (though it's more of a 18th-19th century dress than the black Greek toga she was seen in earlier in the story).
* ''Franchise/MarvelUniverse:'' The One Above All, the supreme cosmic deity, much like the Abrahamic God, is utterly incomprehensible to humans (because he is literally ''everything''). The One Below All is much the same, only much less nicer. When dealing with mortals, the One Above tends to come in the form of an elderly human male. The One Below steals bodies and wears them "like a mask". That's if it's feeling nice.
* Due to miscommunication at DC, the death of the ComicBook/NewGods in ''The Death Of The New Gods'' were completely contradicted by the death of the New Gods in ''ComicBook/CountdownToFinalCrisis''. Creator/GrantMorrison [[WordOfGod says]] they ''both'' happened, and are merely different mortal viewpoints of an event completely beyond our grasp.

-->'''Order''': What that means is that I'm ''not'' really a pleasingly-shaped metallic object that can talk.*
--->'''Footnote''': *The purest form of order found on Earth is usually in the form of math problems where you have to show your work.
-->'''Chaos''': And my true form isn't a jumble of random threads of what appears to be string.**
--->'''Footnote''': **It's really entropy, which can look like string. However, [[{{Metaphorgotten}} it's very difficult to tie anything together with it]]. Chaos itself is usually found in junk drawers and the bottom of closets.
* In the ComicBook/{{Superman}} story ''ComicBook/WhateverHappenedToTheManOfTomorrow'', ComicBook/LoisLane tries to tell what Mr. Mxyzptlk's true fifth-dimensional form was: "I can’t describe what Mxyzptlk then became. He had height, width, depth, and a couple of other things, too.”

At some point in the conversation, the personification of TV Tropes drops a little MindScrew in your tea: [[TheTreacheryOfImages you are not looking at, or conversing with, all that TV Tropes is]]. You are not even seeing an [[{{Glamour}} illusion that TV Tropes is projecting into your mind]]. Rather, the sheer [[SugarWiki/SweetExists awesomeness]] of TV Tropes, the might and [[DarthWiki/ThisExists immense hideousness of it]], or [[JustForFun/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife its life-ruining influence]] bypass your eyes and occipital lobe entirely, and your mind meekly registers it as the closest, safest, yet still comparable thing on hand.[[note]]For safety's sake, just say DarthWiki/TheWikiWitchOfTheWeb put a spell on you[[/note]] You Cannot Grasp The True Form, or else you will GoMadFromTheRevelation. May overlap with BrownNote.

Imagine if some non-human entity, such as, let's say, Wiki/TVTropes, became a three-dimensional living entity with self-awareness and consciousness, that wanted to sit down and have a lovely little chat. What would it look like? Like a [[MoeAnthropomorphism surprisingly feminine, charming little sprite]] named JustForFun/TropeTan? [[MatrixRainingCode Walls and walls of binary code that resolve themselves into a house-like shape?]] Or perhaps a whole universe, a world, complete in and of itself?

** WordOfGod says that you cannot grasp the true form happens to ''everyone'' in the setting; with the whole world gone insane, everyone's brains are approximating what they ''think'' their senses are glimpsing. The Batter sees himself as a normal human but his enemies think he's a monstrous psycho mutant.

* The concept of CessationOfExistence after death. Try and imagine what true oblivion is -- you perceive nothing, you feel nothing, you remember nothing, and you ''are'' nothing. You can't. You simply can't.

** Then there's [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-3930 SCP-3930]], whose threat is ''driven'' by the fact the human mind keeps trying to grasp it. It's ''literally'' nothing, a perfect nothing where nothing exists, nothing leaves, nothing is visible, etc. But the human mind, with its tendency to see patterns where there's none, goes into overdrive and overwrites that nothing with something; the equivalent of seeing shapes in clouds, something where there's nothing, except this time it sees Russian wilderness and a building where there's nothing at all. Anyone that enters that nothing ceases to exist, too, but the brain continues to act as if it does, and anyone watching or listening continues on like the individual actually went there and saw things. But that all breaks down, loses consistency as the brain keeps lying to itself because it can't put up with actual nothingness, right until concentration is broken and the invented individual with their invented expedition stop registering. They were always gone, but that shadow the mind invented is gone too once the thread is broken. [[spoiler: And in those utter voids, even these little shadows have an influence, the edge of this void starts piling up with these invented things that aren't real, but seem real enough to manifest, and they merge together. The more people know of this void and subconsciously overwrite it with their own patterns, the more they are. If there's too much of this thought together, too many of these inventions of the mind piling up at the edge of nothingness, they start to merge into one thing, it becomes complex, gains a sentience, and realizes what it actually is. It exists now, and it would ''very much like'' to go back to not existing. That little thing is what's known as a [[EldritchAbomination Pattern Screamer]], because it's born from seeing nonexistant patterns, and it screams in hatred of thought that brought it to be. The only way to erase it is to erase the inventions that made it happen; the only way to make ''that'' happen is to send the ones who thought them into this nothingness, so they'll stop existing. The threshold is around ten people; any more than that knowing of this void, and the screaming starts]].

* In ''[[VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonGatesToInfinity Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity]]'' [[spoiler:the Bittercold's]] attacks are implied to be this. On top of [[spoiler:the Bittercold]] being an [[spoiler: OutsideContextProblem]], it also uses attacks [[spoiler:never seen in the Pokemon franchise before, hits the entire room, can confuse or vastly lower your party's stats, and the names of said attacks don't appear in the message log at all.]]

* Although imaginary numbers are ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, they actually have, more or less, practical and perhaps physical applications. Wiki/ThatOtherWiki [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_number#Applications has plenty of examples]].