Line #61 Main/HelpfulHallucination


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4	[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/{{Ratatouille}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/helpful_hallucination.jpg]]]]
5	[[caption-width-right:350:[-"What can I do? I am a figment of your imagination."-] ]]
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7	->'''Rémy:''' I pretend you exist so I have someone to talk to! You only tell me stuff I already know! I know who I am! Why do I need you to tell me? Why do I need to pretend?\
8	'''Gusteau:''' ''[chuckles]'' But you don't, Remy. You never did. ''[disappears]''
9	-->-- ''WesternAnimation/{{Ratatouille}}''
10
11	[[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment Detective Bob is a detective.]] He's in the middle of an important case when, suddenly, a whole bunch of traumatic stuff happens to him, he hits his head on an orange crate, and he somehow ends up taking a lot of drugs. Now, wherever he goes, he is followed by a talking pink hippopotamus named Oswald that only he can see. Bob is hallucinating!
12
13	This is bad for the case, right? Clearly, Bob is no longer mentally fit to do his job, and should go somewhere to receive treatment until Oswald goes away. Right? RIGHT?
14
15	Wrong.
16
17	For you see, Oswald is a manifestation of Bob's subconscious. He thus knows all about the case, including details that Bob apparently ignored or didn't quite put together. So instead of impairing Bob's ability to function, Oswald is basically akin to temporary mental superpowers, helping to point Bob in the right direction.
18
19	In real life, hallucinations usually aren't so helpful, and you probably shouldn't take advice from one.
20
21	Compare DreamingTheTruth, DeadPersonConversation, StressInducedMentalVoices, SpiritAdvisor and ImaginaryFriend.
22
23	For extra creepiness, the hallucination may know things the person they haunt ''shouldn't'' know. [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane This is usually a clue]] they are a ghost or an AngelUnaware.
24
25	'''SPOILERS to follow, as some of these hallucinations aren't identified as such until TheReveal.'''
26
27	----
28	!!Examples:
29
30	[[foldercontrol]]
31
32	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
33	* "Radar Man" from ''Anime/ParanoiaAgent'' appears to have this happening to him. Or...the sexy figurines might actually be talking to him. It's that kind of show.
34	[[/folder]]
35
36	[[folder:Comic Books]]
37	* In the ''ComicBook/SinCity'' story ''The Big Fat Kill'', while driving Jackie Boy's corpse to the tar pits for disposal, Dwight starts hallucinating that Jackie Boy's talking to him, taunting him about how screwed he is about the whole situation. Dwight answers "Sure, he's an asshole. Sure he's dead. Sure, I'm just imagining that he's talking. That doesn't stop the bastard from being absolutely right."
38	[[/folder]]
39
40	[[folder:Fan Works]]
41	* ''Franchise/StarFox'' fanfiction "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/4473762/1/One-Death-Away One Death Away]]": The main character, little better than a military dropout, spends nearly two years in a POW camp regularly suffering torture, but finds solace in the companionship of another prisoner- an old colonel who he never meets, but can speak to through the thin walls of their cells. The colonel encourages him, puts him through an exercise regime, and tells him old war stories to pass on his experience, before helping him plan a breakout. As the escaped prisoners are heading home, he asks if the colonel is there, but is told that the only colonel that was with them was executed months ago.
42	[[/folder]]
43
44	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
45	* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/{{Ratatouille}}'', where Remy hallucinates Gusteau advising him about cooking and life in general. Until Remy finds out Gusteau has a son:
46	-->'''Gusteau:''' I have a son?!\
47	'''Remy:''' How can you not know you have a son? \
48	'''Gusteau:''' I am a figment of your imagination! You did not know, how could I?!
49	* ''WesternAnimation/StarshipTroopersTraitorOfMars''. After being left for dead in the Martian desert, Johnny Rico is encouraged to get off his backside and start walking by a vision of Dizzy Flores, who died in the first movie. It soon becomes obvious to the audience that this is a literal version of this trope; a psychic vision sent by Carl Jenkins, who is imprisoned on the Moon and so can't help him directly. Rico also has trouble getting on his feet as he's dehydrated, but then finds a bottle of water. Despite drinking he complains that he's still thirsty, implying the bottle is another motivational hallucination.
50	[[/folder]]
51
52	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
53	* In ''Film/{{Gravity}}'' when [[spoiler:Stone has quietly accepted that she is stuck in a Soyuz without fuel and is probably going to die, Kowalski, who she believed to be dead, suddenly appears outside the spacecraft, lets himself in, and tells her that all hope is not lost, as there is a trick to get the spacecraft moving, urging her to not give up. Kowalski then disappears into thin air when Stone looks the other way for a second, revealing him to be a hallucination, but she realizes that his method to get the spacecraft moving actually works.]]
54	* In ''Film/MadMaxFuryRoad'' Max has a recurring hallucination of a young girl. At one point she appears in front of him and reaches towards him which causes him to instinctively cover his face, and this winds up saving his life by giving Max an ImpaledPalm instead of an impaled head. She also appears at a critical point in the movie and gives Max the idea to [[spoiler:take the unguarded Citadel]].
55	* ''Film/Adrift2018'': Tami's vision of [[spoiler: Richard]] helps her keep her focus and drive long enough to reach help.
56	* ''Film/Scream2022'': Sam Carpenter has multiple hallucinations of [[spoiler: Billy Loomis]] who encourages her to fight back against Ghostface, and shows her where the blade is hidden in the final battle, which she uses to get the upper hand on, and subsequently kill, [[spoiler: Richie Kirsch]].
57	* ''Film/TheMuppetMovie'': While stuck with his friends in the middle of the desert, Kermit hallucinates a clone of himself that helps him snap out of his HeroicBSOD.
58	* ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'': After the battle between Kylo Ren and Rey in the wreckage of the Death Star, Kylo has a crisis of conscience which appears as him being visited by his father, Han Solo, who he killed in ''Film/TheForceAwakens''. They talk, "Han" appears to forgive Kylo for his past actions and tells him to come home. This causes Kylo to finally turn from the dark side of the Force and become Ben Solo again.
59	[[/folder]]
60
61	[[folder:Literature]]
62	* ''Literature/DiarioDeUnZombi'' has Erik, a masked opera dancer who leads the protagonist to the last living humans in Barcelona.
63	* ''Literature/RedMarsTrilogy'' has Hiroko lead Sax Russel, lost and freezing to death, back to his rover. It's left open if she was a hallucination or real.
64	* In ''[[Literature/BridgeOfBirds The Story of the Stone]]'', Master Li and Number Ten Ox drink hallucinogenic tea in order to take a "mind trip" to the [[CelestialBureaucracy Chinese]] [[SpiritWorld Hell]]; it is deliberately ambiguous whether their experience is this trope or a genuine spirit journey.
65	* In the Literature/InspectorRutledge series, Hamish--the soldier Rutledge has constantly hallucinated since he executed him during WWI--sometimes points out things that Rutledge's conscious mind has missed. That being said, Hamish is just as likely to be hostile and outright disruptive.
66	* In ''Literature/You2013'', main character Russell frequently sees the heroes of the game he's working on, who offer encouragement and cryptic advice. Exactly why this is happening is never stated, since he isn't brain damaged or mentally ill; after many of the encounters, however, he mentions waking up, so this may overlap with DreamingTheTruth.
67	* [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane One interpretation]] of a chapter of ''Literature/WorldWarZ'' in which a downed pilot comes into radio contact with an extremely helpful VoiceWithAnInternetConnection, who does things like reiterate her survival training, help her navigate through semi-familiar terrain, motivate her, and even alert her to danger that she had not yet heard. After her rescue, no trace of the helpful woman on the radio could be found.
68	* One of the [[SideKick supporting characters]] of Geoph Essex's ''Jackrabbit Messiah'' is the omnipresent voice in Jack's head, which is paradoxically (though apparently [[ShownTheirWork not uncommonly]]) the only thing that keeps the rest of Jack's symptoms from overwhelming (and [[HeroicBSOD paralyzing]]) him, making him a pretty useless hero without it.
69	-->'''Amity Sheridan:''' It keeps the rest of his hallucinations and delusions in check.
70	-->'''Lieutenant Springer:''' The biggest monster in the closet intimidates the rest.
71	* In the Polish writer Anna Chmielewska's whodunit, ''Wszyscy jestesmy podejrzani'', the main character has hallucinations of a snarky, sassy BigRedDevil who gives her hints and nudges towards solving the case.
72	* In ''Literature/ThePostman'', Gordon is encouraged during his effort to escape (by pulling himself up and over the beam he's tied to) by visions of the dead, including the computer Cyclops, Ben Franklin (and [[ItMakesSenseInContext his stove]]), and the original owner of his postal carrier's uniform.
73	* In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'', Harry occasionally gets visited by his subconscious while he's asleep. It usually chews him out about something then gives him a bit of insight or information Harry himself didn't figure out and moves the plot forward.
74	* The protagonist of ''Literature/JohnnyGotHisGun'' lost all four limbs, his sight and hearing and is therefore shut in, living his days out like a vegetable in his hospital bed. In one of his fantasy sequences, Joe's father reminds him to use the morse code he learned in his youth to communicate with the outside world.
75	* This is the premise of Creator/BrandonSanderson's ''[[Literature/TheManyLivesOfStephenLeeds Legion]]'' stories. The protagonist, Stephen Leeds, has over forty hallucinations, each an expert in a different field, and each [[BunnyEarsLawyer somewhat insane]] in a different way.
76	[[/folder]]
77
78	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
79	* In the ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' episode "Three Ghosts", Oliver hallucinates three dead (or supposedly-dead) people from his past. The first two, Shado and Slade, [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech verbally tear him apart]] and nearly have him giving up, the third hallucination is one of Tommy, who [[YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre encourages him to get up and keep fighting]].
80	* Happened a few times on ''Series/{{Bones}}'':
81	** Bones hears the murder victim telling her information about herself and the case.
82	** In the Hockey episode, Booth gets advice on the investigation from a famous NHL player after being knocked unconscious.
83	** When Booth was trapped by [[SerialKiller the Gravedigger]] on a ship that was to be sunk, he received help from the ghost of a private who died in Bosnia(?) while under Booth's command. Booth knew it was a hallucination, but there were things that he did that needed two people to do.
84	*** Or, if you prefer DoingInTheWizard, he could have been hallucinating the ''obstacles'' as well as the ghost who helped bypass them. This still doesn't account for Bones seeing the guy in the graveyard at the end of the episode (though ''she'' doesn't know the significance of the soldier being there)
85	** When Booth was about to masturbate to donate sperm for Brennan to artificially inseminate with, Stewie from ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' appeared on the TV and gave him relationship advice. ''This'' one prompts some medical investigation and he ends up discovering (in time) a serious brain tumor which may or may not explain some or all of the previous hallucinations he experienced that season.
86	* In ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'' episode "[[Recap/SherlockS03E03HisLastVow His Last Vow]]", when Sherlock is shot by an assassin, he instantly enters into a not-so DyingDream, in which first his brother Mycroft appears to help him determine which way to fall down and later Moriarty, of all people, giving him the motivation to come back to life.
87	* In ''Series/CSIMiami'' Eric gets shot in the head. When he recovers, he hallucinates Speed, who died several seasons ago. The hallucination points him to evidence he missed and helps him crack the case.
88	** In another episode, Callie goes into a coma due to smoke inhalation. While she's in the coma, she has an out of body experience where she talks to the (deceased) victim and watches the rest of the team investigating. When she wakes up, she forgets most of the experience, but she does manage to give Horatio a key piece of information about how the sprinklers were disabled before the fire, which she learned from the victim. (She was shown taking note of the sprinklers before she passed out, so it was a very elaborate way of figuring out the information while she was unconscious.)
89	* In the ''{{Series/Eureka}}'' episode "The Ex-Files", Carter's hallucination of Stark seems to have a bunch of knowledge that you wouldn't expect him to. Most of that knowledge (like Stark's shoe size) is totally useless, though he does point Carter in the direction of one particular clue that's important to the episode plot.
90	* [[SixthRanger Misao]] from ''Series/DoubutsuSentaiZyuohger'' hallucinates the three [[BeastMan zyumans]] that were killed in the process of creating his powers. How helpful they are varies, but they usually do push him in the right direction. Initially, they pose themselves as ghosts that came back to haunt him but admit to being hallucinations created from his guilt not so long after.
91	* ''Series/{{Fringe}}'': while trapped on the other side and brainwashed, Olivia hallucinates a version of Peter who tries to convince her that she's in the wrong universe.
92	* ''Series/Girls5eva'': In the fourth episode, Dawn hallucinates Music/DollyParton while trying to write a breakthrough hit. While the song she writes with "Dolly's" help is lyrically a mess, Dolly does say that it's important Dawn wrote that bad first one, because better ones are on the way.
93	* In ''Series/{{Glue}}'', James, while on an acid trip, hallucinates [[spoiler:his dead boyfriend Cal, who reveals the location in which he’d hidden the contract for the horse their families co-owned]].
94	* In the last couple of episodes of the fifth season of ''Series/{{House}}'', House gets advice on a case from a hallucination of [[spoiler: Amber]], who had died in the season four finale. Unfortunately, [[spoiler: other hallucinations start showing up, which are... less helpful.]]
95	* ''Series/KamenRiderGaim'': After Mitsuzane kills his brother Takatora as part of a long string of [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope jumps off the slippery slope]], he gets followed around by a hallucination of Takatora representing his conscience, who mocks him for every evil and selfish decision he makes and how they keep coming back to bite him. It takes Mitsuzane's life completely self-destructing as a result of his own actions for him to finally grasp what the hallucination's telling him and begin the long path to atonement. [[spoiler:Unusually, Takatora isn't actually dead.]]
96	* ''Series/KeepBreathing'': Liv's hallucination of her mom offers her useful advice about how to help herself when she's out in the wilderness and also urges Liv to keep going.
97	* In a grim variant, Gibbs' former marine commander on ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' wound up a fugitive when he was suspected of stealing a cache of Saddam Hussein's money recovered in Iraq. He was goaded on in his quest to find and eliminate the real thieves by a fellow marine, who turned out to be a hallucination of a man who'd died in combat years earlier.
98	** In the episode immediately after Kate was shot, most of the cast either imagined or outright hallucinated a parting conversation with her ghost.
99	*** Same happened with Mike Franks.
100	* The entire plot of ''Series/Perception2012'' involves Daniel Pierce, a schizophrenic consultant for the FBI, whose hallucinations often help him connect the dots of a case his conscious mind hadn't noticed.
101	* On ''Series/NYPDBlue'' Sipowitz had a hallucination conversation with his dead partner Bobby Simone, who convinced Andy to take his new young hotheaded partner John Clark Jr. under his wing rather than let him go his own way, which was leading down the wrong path.
102	* The (unfortunately) [[ShortRunners short-lived]] TV series ''Series/{{Raines}}'' wore this as its hat. The main character, a police detective played by Creator/JeffGoldblum, had hallucinations of the victims of the crime he was investigating, who followed him around until he solved the case. The hallucinations would actually change slightly in appearance and manner as he learned more about the victim. He was completely aware of them not being real--in fact, the hallucinations would sometimes comment on it.
103	-->'''Raines:''' What do you want?\
104	'''Sandy Boudreau:''' It's your imagination, Detective; I'm just a figment.\
105	'''Raines:''' What do you want?\
106	'''Sandy Boudreau:''' I want you to find out who killed me.\
107	'''Raines:''' Then you'll go, back to whatever dark, twisted, malfunctioning part of my brain that you come from?\
108	'''Sandy Boudreau:''' Yeah.
109	* One episode of ''Series/SirArthurConanDoylesTheLostWorld'' sees Marguerite stepping into a booby trap and falling into a pit with spikes. She gets hurt and suffers a concussion. While Challenger gets help she hallucinates about her best friend Adrienne who keeps her awake so Marguerite doesn't fall asleep. Later it turns out to be a NotSoImaginaryFriend — which freaks Marguerite out.
110	* ''Series/StargateAtlantis'': When [=McKay=] gets trapped at the bottom of the ocean in a broken puddle jumper, he has a hallucination of Carter that's his subconscious trying to keep him from doing something that will get him killed. He tries to get her to strip down, only for the hallucination to tell him that the real Carter would never do that, so she won't either. [=McKay=] is, understandably, annoyed. When hypothermia starts being an issue, she suddenly appears in a bathing suit, presses up against him, and gives him a kiss. When a flustered [=McKay=] points out that as a hallucination she can't transfer body heat, she counters that she can still get him hot. He isn't amused.
111	* A debatable one in ''Series/StargateUniverse''. In one episode, the crew of ''Destiny'' is afflicted with ticks that cause hallucinations. Chloe's hallucination is of her father, who died in the first episode. She immediately knows that she's not real, but she enjoys talking to him anyway. Eventually, she is forced to have the tick removed, but the experience seems to have given her some closure.
112	* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}''
113	** In [[Recap/SupernaturalS09E01IThinkImGonnaLikeItHere "I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here" (S09, Ep01)]], Sam creates versions of Dean and Bobby who help him decide whether he should continue to fight or accept death.
114	** Subverted in "Repo Man". Sam accepts the help of the hallucination to solve the mystery of the week, instead of ignoring or banishing him as usual. At the end of the episode, Sam tries to banish Lucifer again but it doesn't work. [[MustBeInvited Turns out willingly accepting Lucifer's help has increased his control of Sam's mind.]]
115	* May occur in ''Series/TwinPeaks'', particularly The Giant who appears at critical moments to give Cooper hints on the case. [[MindScrew This being Twin Peaks, however, it's unclear whether it's this trope in action or something else.]]
116	* In the first season of ''Series/VeronicaMars'', Veronica [[spoiler:and Duncan]] gets vague messages from a hallucination of [[SpiritAdvisor Lilly]], who was murdered in the show's BackStory, providing hints towards solving the mystery of Lilly's murder.
117	* In the ''Series/TheWestWing'' episode "Two Cathedrals" (which is widely considered one of the greatest single episodes of television of any genre in the history of the medium), President Bartlett has a soul-searching conversation with his personal secretary, Mrs. Landingham, for whom he attended a funeral earlier that same day.
118	* The KidDetective show based on the ''Literature/HalfMoonInvestigations'' used this for a EurekaMoment (less of a form of brain damage or insanity and more of a kid's over imaginative imagination) where Fletcher argues with his own imagined version of the school's AlphaBitch to understand both how and why she didn't commit the crime of [[spoiler: dumping dye chemicals into the school's pool and delaying a swimming competition.]] Naturally, she didn't do it - [[spoiler: it was one of the school's swimming pool team who did.]]
119	* In an episode of ''Series/IZombie'', [[OurZombiesAreDifferent Liv]] eats the brain of a man, who was known to hallucinate. While investigating his apartment, a TV weatherman she has met once shows up and claims to have bought marijuana from the deceased man. They investigate the case together, with the weatherman occasionally mentioning the temperature in both Fahrenheit and Celsius scales, much to Liv's annoyance. It's not until the end that she realizes that the Celsius number doesn't match the Fahrenheit number after a simple conversion. Just then, she turns on the TV and sees a live broadcast with the weatherman on it. Her companion then vanishes. She realizes she's been hallucinating him thanks to the brain she's eaten. However, the "temperature" numbers the guy kept repeating are actually a hint to unlock the dead guy's safe. So the hallucination actually was helpful, it was just using the memories of the dead guy instead of her own.
120	* In ''Series/{{Yellowjackets}}'', Lottie is unconscious while outside in the woods in winter, and has a hallucination which involves Laura Lee telling her to wake up or she'll freeze to death.
121	* ''Series/TheCrowdedRoom'': It turns out Danny has many alternate personalities, with them all trying to help him in some way, though he isn't aware of their true natures at first.
122	[[/folder]]
123
124	[[folder:Video Games]]
125	* Cloud's visions in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' -- variously shown as a voice in his head, a spectral version of himself or a child version of himself -- spends a lot of time giving him hints. It reminds him of who Reno is even though he's forgotten, admonishes him if he decides to get sidetracked from his goals to go and mess about with prostitutes, and drops heavy hints about Tifa's [[CanNotSpitItOut evasiveness]] and where the cracks in his [[FakeMemories story]] lie. In one scene, when Cloud is possessed and trying to give Sephiroth the Black Materia, the player briefly controls one of the hallucinations running around trying to stop Cloud, but it doesn't work.
126	* ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'': At the beginning of episode two of the ''BioShockInfinite/BurialAtSea'' DLC, Elizabeth sees Booker, who's been dead for a while, and he gives her advice on how to get Atlas to trust her and release her to go find "the ace in the hole." From then on Elizabeth speaks to him over the radio, but once realizes that he's not actually Booker, he tells her that he's just an auditory hallucination she unconsciously created as a source of comfort, as well as a link to her forgotten memories of what the "ace in the hole" is and why she came back to Rapture.
127	* In ''VideoGame/BrokenSwordTheSerpentsCurse'', Marques appears in George's dream and tells him that Langham must be stopped from using Lucifer to destroy Jehovah, that George has to protect the balance and that he has the answer in his hands. When George wakes up, he holds the medallion in his hand.
128	* ''VideoGame/WeHappyFew'', being a game ThroughTheEyesOfMadness, has a few of these:
129	** In "Act III: Ollie's Story", [[ShellShockedVeteran Ollie Starkey]] hallucinates his dead daughter Margeret talking to him, and she typically gives him good advice. [[spoiler: At the end, it turns out that she's actually the child of a neighbor he turned in to the Germans, which got her killed. His guilt created Imaginary!Margeret as a coping mechanism.]]
130	** In the "Lightbearer" DLC, Nick Lightbearer gets a similar imaginary friend in the form of his agent, Virgil, who appears as a talking rat. In the beginning, Nick wonders, "Am I hallucinating that you're a rat...or, is there a real rat that I'm hallucinating is my agent?"
131	** "We All Fall Down" DLC: Victoria, coming down from her high, begins to see her MissingMom who advises her to put an end to [[FantasticDrug Joy]] production to save the Wellies from [[SelfInflictedHell themselves.]]
132	* ''VideoGame/DiscoElysium'':
133	** Your player character's Inland Empire stat gives him the ability to make unconscious, MaybeMagicMaybeMundane connections with the world around him. These include hallucinatory visions -- apocalyptic visions, conversations with the murder victim -- and these are usually right on the money, though cryptic enough that it's unlikely the player will understand what it is Inland Empire was trying to tell them until after it happens.
134	** A high Inland Empire stat will also allow the player to talk to the Horrific Necktie, although the Inland Empire skill itself ''dreads'' it talking and advises you not to listen to it (implicitly for its role in nearly killing you, though it's up to interpretation whether on [[BungledSuicide purpose]] or by [[EroticAsphyxiation accident]]). The Necktie will give advice to the player character at various points which is largely along the player character's worst instincts, encouraging him to abuse his authority to arrest inconvenient people, and ditch his responsibilities in favour of partying, substance abuse, and autoerotic asphysixation sessions. However, at one point in the game, the Necktie demands that the player buy a bottle of medicinal grade spirits and is evasive about the reason - [[spoiler: the player may be fooled into thinking the Necktie is planning to use it to kill the player, but it is instead planning for its own HeroicSacrifice in the form of becoming the wick for a Molotov cocktail against a powerful enemy]].
135	** The psychedelic drug pyrholidon temporarily boosts your character's PSY stat, [[HigherUnderstandingThroughDrugs allowing a less sensitive cop to infer more about what other people around him are thinking]]. It also allows him to see boxes that contain pyrholidon, with the description noting that he gets a sense of the box containing 'fire'. If, after using it for the first time, the player chooses to inform his partner Kim that the drug is great, the PSY stats will chime in with their observations from his simple statement, hallucinating fire in his glasses and the desire to be close to him, while also inferring exactly how he's feeling about you experimenting with psychedelics on the job.
136	* ''VideoGame/HotlineMiami'': In-between levels, the protagonist dreams of a dark room containing 3 mysterious people wearing animal masks. The leader, a man wearing a Rooster mask identical to Jacket's own speaks very cryptically, but his words eventually help Jacket to realize that [[spoiler:he's currently in a coma in the hospital, and the entire game thus far has been his coma-induced recollection of the last few weeks]].
137	* Throughout ''VideoGame/LifeIsStrangeBeforeTheStorm'', Chloe Price has conversations with [[spoiler: a vision of her deceased father William]]. It could be seen as a form of self-reflection, imagining the responses and coming to her own conclusions herself.
138	* Zigzagged in ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight''. Throughout the game, Batman has hallucinations ([[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane or something]]) of [[spoiler:The Joker. Most of these consist of him taunting or insulting Batman (as you'd expect), but he'll frequently be seen near something useful, such as a fuse box, making him helpful for ''the player''. He'll also occasionally offer advice, as he doesn't want Batman to actually die]].
139	* ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDeadSurvivalInstinct'': During the train yard mission, Daryl Dixon hears his brother Merle over the radio, giving him directions to get through the yard and escape the zombie herd. Having escaped, however, Merle is no where to be found, and another survivor points out the radio is broken, and doesn't even have batteries.
140	* ''VIdeoGame/OctopathTravelerII'', At some point in Castti's story, you encounter [[spoiler:the realization that the friendly apothecary Malaya, who has been helping Castti on the path to recovering her memories, is a hallucinory recreation of original, who died saving her]].
141	[[/folder]]
142
143	[[folder:Visual Novels]]
144	* During ''VisualNovel/HatofulBoyfriend'', Ryouta is advised by a stranger and then is given pause when another character thinks he's snapped and started babbling to the air. He asks the stranger if he's a hallucination and is told "... If I was, that would mean you're asking a hallucination whether or not he's a hallucination. Does it matter? Maybe I am, or maybe I'm not." The advice is good, but that doesn't convince Ryouta one way or another. [[spoiler: The stranger is actually a ghost and InvisibleToNormals.]]
145	** Higure Anghel exudes hallucinogenic pheromones which he is not immune to, but while his hallucinations are often strange and don't seem to have much to do with the situation, they give him insights that more sober characters lack and are excellent for EpiphanyTherapy. [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane And at some level they may be real anyway]].
146	* In the Emotion route of ''VisualNovel/YourTurnToDie'', [[spoiler:[[ShrinkingViolet Kanna Kizuchi]] reveals the existence of "kind hallucinations" of her dead siblings that support her right as she's about to cross the DespairEventHorizon. She does however acknowledge that in the long term, they are an unhealthy way of coping and that she should eventually move on.]]
147	[[/folder]]
148
149	[[folder:Webcomics]]
150	* In ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'', [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0605.html Lord Shojo]], who was killed some time ago and appears to Belkar in a dream, explains he could be this, or the actual spirit of Lord Shojo.
151	* The Goddess of Clothing in ''Webcomic/SandraOnTheRocks'' is Lavali's hallucination created from frustration and dehydration during her time with Sandra, Tatiana, and Domenico on a tropical island. So far, she's been quite helpful, for example giving advice to solve Sandra's modesty issue. She's also aware that she's a hallucination.
152	-->'''Goddess of Clothing:''' Yeah... Look, I'm going to level with you. I'm not so much a "goddess" as a "stress-and-dehydration-induced hallucination".
153	[[/folder]]
154
155	[[folder:Web Original]]
156	* In ''Literature/{{Twig}}'', Sylvester makes use of hallucinatory versions of his friends to help him plan his actions and consider new approaches, with the hallucinations occasionally acting to offer suggestions of conscience and ruthlessness depending on how Sy remembers them. He also uses them to model his friends, for example [[spoiler:his hallucination of Mary helps him shoot her through the knee by warning him she'll try to disarm him.]]
157	[[/folder]]
158
159
160	[[folder:Western Animation]]
161	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'': In "Anne Hunter", the Plantars are captured by a ferocious monster while foraging for food, and Anne tracks them down with the help of a vision of Sprig's disembodied head, who readily admits to being "a stress-induced hallucination" but ends up helping her remember the "Plantar Family hunting technique".
162	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
163	** Lampshaded in "El Viaje Misterioso de la Nuestra Homer" when Homer tried to access information from his coyote spirit guide while conscious:
164	--->'''Spirit guide:''' I'm only a memory, Homer. I can't provide additional information.
165	** The ''Series/TwinPeaks'' example is spoofed on "Who Shot Mr. Burns, Part 2". Chief Wiggum has trouble making sense of the backwards-talk until Lisa just snaps and tells him straight-up.
166	** In "The Spy Who Learned Me" a head trauma causes Homer to see the fictional Film/JamesBond-esque character Stradivarius Cain who coaches Homer on how to be a better husband towards Marge.
167	* Skipper of ''WesternAnimation/ThePenguinsOfMadagascar'' has his mind erased by Dr. Blowhole and suffers through two spirit guides trying to help him before his mind settles on Alex the Lion.
168	* After Henchman 24 dies on ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'', his ghost haunts Henchman 21, and starts warning him of danger and giving him advice in combat. Eventually, he explains that he's just a figment of 21's imagination, and all his help just gave 21 the confidence to do what he already had the capacity to do, including letting go of his dead friend.
169	* ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'': In "Episode XCV", Jack experiences a hallucination of his younger self who berates him for his actions and choices. At one point, the hallucination looks behind him and warns him that his tied up enemy Ashi is gone from where he left her.
170	* In the ''WesternAnimation/QuackPack'' episode "Ready, Aim... Duck!", a fictional video game character named Captain Jack keeps appearing in front of Donald and urges him to confess to his SnowballLie.
171	%% ** [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] in "Snow Place to Hide" when Donald sees a hallucination of The GreenEyedMonster of Jealousy (depicted as a green eyed wolf in a green zoot suit) who spends the episode goading Donald into thinking that Daisy is using a trip to a [[SkiResortEpisode ski resort]] to cheat on him with a co-worker
172	* ''WesternAnimation/WeBareBears'':
173	** In "Road Trip", after Ice Bear locks everyone out of the car in a fit of pique, he gets a talk on leadership from the picture of a sailor on the car's key chain.
174	** In "Baby Bears Can't Jump", the Bears are losing a basketball game against a gang of {{street urchin}}s, and take a time out to discuss their strategy. When the "discussion" turns into a furious argument, the Bears suddenly imagine that the image of Charles Barkley from a lenticular trading card comes to life and gives them a pep-talk about the importance of teamwork.
175	** In TheMovie, [[spoiler: when Grizz has been imprisoned while Panda and Ice Bear are about to be sent away to their original countries, he sees a younger version of himself, who helps him to remember the promise to be family that the bears made when they first met. This motivates Grizz to break out, free all the other bears in the prison, and rescue his brothers]].
176	[[/folder]]
177
178	[[folder:Real Life]]
179	* In his book ''Hallucinations'', Oliver Sacks reports that certain people who experience HearingVoices claim that they are these, with only some of them experiencing the stereotypical malevolent kind.
180	* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_man_factor The Third Man Factor]], a name inspired by a poem by Creator/TSEliot that was itself inspired by the experiences of Ernest Shackleton, is the phenomenon in which people in highly stressful or traumatic situations report that a mysterious presence offers comfort or advice. Most common among mountain climbers, shipwreck survivors, and polar explorers, some accounts simply report the sense of presence, but others refer to voices or familiar figures encouraging and directing victims to make one more effort to reach safety.
181	[[/folder]]

Context Main / HelpfulHallucination