History Main / MindVirus

* [[VideoGame/{{Doom}} Hellish influence]] works this way in ''Fanfic/ExitumEternal''. The crew of the ''Silverthread'' become infected when they probe the portal to Hell, kill each other mostly off, and then members of the investigatory mission begin succumbing as well.

* According to some studies, humans infected with ''Toxoplasmosis'', a protozoan found in cat feces and uncooked meat, have been shown to have several oddities in their behavior (up to the point that it's literally known as CrazyCatLady Syndrome). Infectees can develop mental symptoms that resemble schizophrenia, and some, particularly men, are known to lose their aversion to the stench of cat urine such that a dirty litterbox no longer bothers them. ''Toxoplasmosis'' also has an acute disease phase which resembles more traditional ills, with fever and malaise and the like, but it's the latent phase which is this trope.
** Humans aren't the only ones who are affected by the infection. Rodents with ''Toxoplasmosis'' in their brains spend an excessive amount of time running around to draw attention to themselves and completely lose their fear of feline scents, even seeking them out. This serves to get the ''Toxoplasmosis'' into a cat, which is where it really wants to be.
* 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 ensure its own transmission. The other thing it's known for is hydrophobia, an irrational fear of water which ensures that their infected saliva remains in ther mouth (but it also weakens the infectee, so they die sooner and infect fewer new victims).

* The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green-banded_broodsac Green-banded Broodsac]] is a parasitic flatworm that uses land snails as a intermediate host to get to their real host of birds. The broodsac accomplishes this by forming large broodsacs in the snail's tentacles (preferably the left one) filled to the brim with cercariae (free swimming larvae) to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aggressive_mimicry look like a fat, juicy caterpillar]] and reduces the snail's ability to sense the change in lighting so that it will mistakenly crawl up into a high place, thinking it's night time, and let a bird rip off the tentacle to allow the broodsacs to develop to adulthood in the bird's insides to start the cycle again.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'': In "Need to Know", the government agent Edward Sayers is sent to the small town of Loma Valley, Washington to investigate a mysterious outbreak of insanity. With the help of a local woman named Amanda Strickland, he determines that the insanity is spread from person to person like a contagion. He manages to track the contagion to its source: Professor Jeffrey Potts, who has recently returned from UsefulNotes/{{Asia}}. While there, Potts learned the meaning of life. He told his brother Andrew, who was unable to keep it to himself. The meaning of life is seemingly an AwfulTruth which causes anyone who learns it to immediately go insane.

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''.

Compare with EarWorm, where it's a song that can't get out of your head; InfectiousInsanity, a trope where mental illnesses are treated like a Mind Virus; MemeticMutation, and BrownNote. Compare & contrast TheVirus, where a contagion acts as an intelligent, self-directed entity (adding to "itself", having a HiveMind, etc). See ScienceRelatedMemeticDisorder, which is often--but not always--caused by one of these. Also see PuppeteerParasite.

* In ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'', [[spoiler:Hinamizawa Syndrome]] is caused by some sort of parasite that is initially compared to a virus in the sixth arc. That is the only arc where it is referred to as a virus, and the person who called it that was an UnreliableNarrator. The arcs after it tend to use the term parasite. Since there are many lifeforms (and viruses) that can theoretically be called parasites, it's a little uncertain what type of lifeform it actually is. [[spoiler:That parasite, though, is what causes just about all of the madness that winds up killing so many people in the earlier arcs]].
* ''Manga/KingOfThorn'': The [[TakenForGranite Medusa disease]] actually infects human psyche.

* ''Literature/{{Paprika}}'': [[spoiler:The deranged parade featured prominently in the second half of the movie is essentially a virus that invades people's dreams, driving the victims utterly insane. In the climax of the movie, the parade breaks into the real world, transforming Tokyo into a WorldGoneMad and the population into raving lunatics.]]

* An issue of ''ComicBook/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.]]
** Also the Godhead arc, which featured a villain with the power to turn people into his slaves.

* ''ComicBook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'': This comes up in a section of ''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]].

* ''ComicBook/{{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.
* An ''ComicBook/XMen'' story during an arc where they were fighting [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]] dealt with their human allies quarantining and attempting to cure a group of humans infected with one by a vampire that made them want to be drained by him. They were consciously aware of their condition, but will physically act to achieve it, all the while voicing praise. It took them discovering it was mental for them to gain the help of a resident telepath to make any progress.
* In the twelve-issue monthly ''ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}: The Best There Is'', the arc villain is a {{Plaguemaster}} named Contagion who is attempting to engineer new diseases to destroy literally everything. When confronted by the X-Men, he fends off Characters/{{Emma Frost|WhiteQueen}} by [[SemanticSuperpower making his thoughts infectious]], which is described as killing hers to make room for themselves.
* ComicBook/{{Deadpool}} once fought a {{telepath|y}}ic mutant assassin named Black Swan whose abilities specifically revolved around making these, but described more like a computer virus in function. He could implant a virus that slowly wiped memories and skills from victims' minds, ultimately leaving them brain-dead if not invalid.

* In ''FanFic/ThisBites'', it's stated that the reason for [[spoiler:the crew's out-of-character moments on [[Anime/BaronOmatsuriAndTheSecretIsland the Secret Island]], leading to their bonds fracturing,]] is all due to [[spoiler:Lily Carnation's spores]]. [[spoiler:And the more human someone is, the more they are susceptible to it.]]
** The only ones not as affected were [[spoiler:Luffy, Conis, Soundbite, and Robin]], one of whom is [[spoiler:a Skypiean]] and the others being Devil Fruit users.
*** [[spoiler:Chopper, Boss, and the TDWS]]'s reactions are not shown due to them being off-camera, and the latter five had already been [[spoiler:caught by Lily Carnation]].
* ''Fanfic/LulusBizarreRebellion'': The stand Hey Jude acts as this, inflicting MentalTimeTravel on anyone effected. Give in to the temptation to change something you know will happen, and you become a new user/carrier of the stand.

* In the film ''Film/{{Pontypool}}'', the English language becomes infected with a virus that drives English-speakers crazy.
* ''Film/TheCrazies1973'' centers around an outbreak of the Trixie Virus, a bio-weapon that is spread via the water and affects its victims minds. Most of them turn homicidal and without empathy while others simply begin to act odd, but they otherwise retain their personalities and intelligence. Most of the terror of the movie involve how it's ''impossible'' to tell if someone is infected just by a glance, and the military's poor and violent handling of the outbreak. [[Film/TheCrazies2010 The remake]] involves the virus as well, though in this version it does cause physical changes as well in late stages of the infection like mis-colored eyes and swollen visible blue veins.

* "Literature/{{Hostess}}", a short story by Creator/IsaacAsimov, suggests that humans die of old age because they're infected by a parasite that exists in their mind (it having adapted to not even needing a body). By the end, it's indicated that many of humanity's [[HumansAreSpecial unusual traits]] are caused by the existence of the parasite.
* Creator/GregBear'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.

* In ''Literature/TheCuriousIncidentOfTheDogInTheNighttime'', the hero fantasizes of a virus ("like a computer virus") that spreads by people looking each other in the face. He is heavily autistic, and thus would survive such an epidemic.
* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' has [[spoiler: Nemesis, a mental plague that warps its victims to the service of the Outsiders. Dropped hints suggest that nearly every villain Dresden encounters may have been influenced by Nemesis. Horrifyingly, Nemesis is so insidious that even those ''infected'' don't know about it, thinking that their actions are their own.]]
* Creator/NeilGaiman's poem ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WB2QOuy1p5M Virus]]'' is an example of this, spread via a computer game.
* In Kathleen Ann Goonan's ''Queen City Jazz'', part of her ''Nanotech Quartet'' series, a nanotech apocalypse sweeps across the world. There are several nanotech mind viruses going around, such as a virus that compels its user to [[DisappearsIntoLight go to one of several glowing spheres]] that have cropped up around the country. Further, the main character in ''Mississipi Blues'' is infected with a virus that compels her to abandon her old life and go rafting down the Mississippi river ''a la'' ''Huckleberry Finn''.

* Though the "culling song" in Creator/ChuckPalahniuk's ''Literature/{{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.
* The third book in the ''Literature/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.
* Creator/VernorVinge's ''Literature/RainbowsEnd'' has the YGBM ("You Gotta Believe Me") virus, the hunt for which is a major plot of the book.
* 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). ''[[Literature/RevelationSpaceSeries 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.
* Creator/PeterWatts' ''Literature/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 the Creator/RobertSheckley "Carrier", everyone on Earth learns to levitate. If, however, they ever doubt their ability to levitate, they lose it. Additionally, if one person sees another who is unable to levitate, it would automatically plant doubt into ''their'' minds as well, in effect becoming a fast-spreading virus.
* ''Literature/SnowCrash'' features a "biolinguistic virus" that renders its victims unable to communicate normally; anytime they try to talk, they just speak gibberish. [[spoiler:Actually, it's a "metavirus". It has ways of converting between any format... malware... biological... neurological... linguistic... it's a wonder it could be stopped at all.]]
* Creator/CharlesStross has this in the novel ''Literature/{{Glasshouse}}''. A virus called "Curious Yellow" has infected nearly all humans, via the ubiquitous and necessary [[PortalNetwork Warp Gates]] that 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 6th Extinction'', the 10th title in James Rollin's ''Literature/SigmaForce'' series, uses a Mind Virus as half of the villain's plot. [[spoiler:A scientist creates a virus which destroys human's higher brain functions, reverting them to primitive animalistic behavior. At the same time, he [[EvilutionaryBiologist genetically engineers newer, more violent animals]]. When both are released into the world, the now weak defenseless primitive humans will be easily picked off -- letting "nature" take the planet back. Why bother with the virus? He didn't want his hands to be personally bloody with humanity's extinction, instead just rendering them without tools or reasoning and letting the animals do the job.]]
* ''Literature/GenocidalOrgan'' involves the hunt for an American linguist called John Paul who has discovered a [[LanguageEqualsThought language of genocide]]. John Paul appears in Third-World countries, translates the language into a local dialect (to limit its effect so it won't spread worldwide), and six months later, the country [[HatePlague implodes into ethnic conflict]].

* The ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS3E2Flashback Flashback]]" features a virus in the form of a fake memory which spreads through mental contact.
* Rather than having a single Joker, ''Series/{{Gotham}}'' portrays Batman's future nemesis as more of a contagious ''idea'' that infects numerous mentally unstable Gothamites. Jerome Valeska was its "patient zero", and he passes it on to [[spoiler:his twin Jeremiah]] and to hundreds of followers and "fans" of his rampages.

* The ''Music/AbneyPark'' song ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lmLQRhVqr4 Virus]]''.
--> ''It feeds on the souls of the living.''
-->''And gets inside their minds.''
-->''Transforms their brains and their longings,''
-->''No consciousness it will find.''

-->''It feeds on their fears and emotions,''
-->''As it has for 2000 years''
-->''Its infected the Hindus, infected the Buddhists,''
-->''Kept them all in tears.''
* ''Arena'''s "Contagion" concept album, about an apocalyptic psychic plague called the "blue fire" (or the [[AllThereInTheManual Salamander Virus]] in an accompanying short story), a vicious HatePlague. The protagonist was a TyphoidMary who accidentally unleashed it on the world after foreseeing it, possibly even catching it from his foresight.

[[folder:Other]]
* The Game. It even has an [[http://xkcd.com/391 antivirus]]!
[[/folder]]

* Mind Seed is a particularly nasty high-level [[PsychicPowers psionic power]] in ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' 3.5 edition. It essentially transplants a copy of your own mind into the mind of a target, so that over the course of a week their thought patterns slowly transform into an exact mental duplicate of yourself at the time of implantation, including your personality and memories. Unscrupulous psionicists, including members of the Dreaming Dark organization in the ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'' setting, can use this to create spy networks of people who remain physically unchanged while having been turned into mental copies of the ringleader. Though it should be noted that while the mind seeds will share the same goals and (lack of) morality as the psionicist, they are ''not'' under the psionicist's mental control, which means it's possible for them to become TheStarscream. Also, a mind seed loses the memories and skills of the original owner of their body, so to impersonate them they will have to re-learn those things or be good at bluffing. Fortunately, if a mind seed is detected before it takes over at the end of the week of implantation, another psionicist can remove it.

* ''VisualNovel/{{Psycholonials}}'': The title refers to the way in which Jubilite ideology colonizes the mind, turning people into {{Monster Clown}}s prone to mischief and violence. It's spread rapidly ("virally") through social media, and the work draws parallels between the uncontrollable spread of COVID-19 and the spread of the Jubilite Manifesto throughout the world. [[spoiler: It's eventually revealed that the Jubilite ideology is an ancient, alien cultural virus that's transmitted from civilization to civilization throughout the universe after it colonizes an entire planet, and the ending animation that depicts it spreading beyond earth]] resembles a network diagram depicting disease spread.

* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010'': Mentioned. When Artemis drugs (and is subsequently attacked by) an evil telepath when on deep-cover, she uses this as an explanation for his odd behaviour.

* Mind Seed is a particularly nasty high-level [[PsychicPowers psionic power]] in ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' 3.5 edition. It essentially transplants a copy of your own mind into the mind of a target, so that over the course of a week their thought patterns slowly transform into an exact mental duplicate of yourself at the time of implantation, including your personality and memories. Unscrupulous psionicists, including members of the Dreaming Dark organization in the ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'' setting, can use this to create spy networks of people who remain physically unchanged while having been turned into mental copies of the ringleader. Though it should be noted that while the mind seeds will share the same goals and (lack of) morality as the psionicist, they are ''not'' under the psionicist's mental control, which means it's possible for them to become TheStarscream. Also, a mind seed loses the memories and skills of the original owner of their body, so to impersonate them they will have to re-learn those things or be good at bluffing.

* Mind Seed is a particularly nasty high-level [[PsychicPowers Psionic power]] in ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' 3.5 edition. It essentially transplants your own mind into the mind of a target, so that over the course of a week their thought patterns slowly transform into an exact mental duplicate of yourself at the time of implantation, including your personality and memories.

%%* ''Website/OrionsArm'': [[http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-topic/45b41654cd0c4 Memetics]] are a mature science.

%%* ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'': [[http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-topic/45b41654cd0c4 Memetics]] are a mature science.

* Humans infected with ''Toxoplasmosis'', a protozoan found in cat feces, have been shown to have several oddities in their behavior (up to the point that CrazyCatLady might ought to be renamed Toxoplasmosis Infectee). Infectees can develop mental symptoms that resemble schizophrenia, and some, particularly men, are known to lose their aversion to the stench of cat urine such that a dirty litterbox no longer bothers them. ''Toxoplasmosis'' also has an acute disease phase which resembles more traditional ills, with fever and malaise and the like, but it's the latent phase which is this trope.

* The Maverick Virus and its upgraded verson the Zero Virus from ''VideoGame/MegaManX'' both infect Reploids and alter their programming, turning them into murderous psychopaths that still, for the most part, retain their memories and personality. The Sigma Virus, on the other hand, is a sentient entity that [[BodySurf takes over]] other Reploids and appropriates their bodies.
* The Synthesis secret technology in ''VideoGame/AgeOfWondersPlanetfall'' is themed around RuleOfCool HollywoodHacking. Each faction's hackers has a special power fitting their faction's strengths; for the [[PsychicPowers innately psionic]] [[InsectoidAliens Kir'ko]], it's a mind-infecting "neuroscrambler" virus.

* The entire premise of ''VisualNovel/LuxPain'' revolves around fighting the spread of Mind Viruses, which cause people to either become insanely violent of suicidally self-destructive.
* The Radical-6 from ''VisualNovel/ZeroEscape'' Trilogy slows down thought processes of brain making everything around look like it's going on fast-forward and after a while causes severe urge to commit suicide.
* The Despair Disease of ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'' changes the personalities of the infected into their complete opposites. [[spoiler:The humorous GenkiGirl Ibuki Mioda becomes TheComicallySerious, incredibly gullible and unable to understand jokes. The strong, confident Akane Owari becomes a total crybaby (with Monokuma even calling her variant of the disease "the Crybaby Disease"), continuously crying about Nekomaru and her inability to save him. The [[BrutalHonesty Brutally Honest]] Nagito Komaeda starts constantly telling BlatantLies, and the extremely shy, meek and fragile Mikan Tsumiki reverts to her Ultimate Despair state, becoming mentally unstable and murdering Ibuki Mioda and Hiyoko Saionji as a result.]]

* In ''Webcomic/GiftsOfWanderingIce'', there are so-called psi-profiles which when "assigned" to a person act as a gateway for very specific mind viruses.

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

* In ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'' [[http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-topic/45b41654cd0c4 memetics]] are a mature science.
* The Website/SCPFoundation has quite a few of these, which are classified under ''Memetic Hazards''. [[SpeakOfTheDevil "Infohazards"]] and [[BrownNote "cognitohazards"]] are similar; where one starts and one ends is very much a DependingOnTheWriter thing.
** According to one article, ''human sentience'' is a sentient and pandemic Mind Virus, and as much as nobody wants to admit it in-universe, it's good that it is too or it would be wiped out by any number of things.
** The Foundation has enough cognitohazards to have [[BrownNote/SCPFoundation an entire page of Brown Notes]], and many (though not all) of those are also Mind Viruses.

* Mentioned in ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010''. When Artemis drugs (and is subsequently attacked by) an evil telepath when on deep-cover, she uses this as an explanation for his odd behaviour.

* Literature/{{Paprika}}: [[spoiler:The deranged parade featured prominently in the second half of the movie is essentially a virus that invades people's dreams, driving the victims utterly insane. In the climax of the movie, the parade breaks into the real world, transforming Tokyo into a WorldGoneMad and the population into raving lunatics.]]

* The ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode "Flashback" featured a virus in the form of a fake memory which spread through mental contact.

* Rather than having a single Joker, ''Series/{{Gotham}}'' portrays Batman's future nemesis as more of a contagious ''idea'', that infects numerous mentally-unstable Gothamites. Jerome Valeska was its "patient zero", and he passes it on to [[spoiler: his twin Jeremiah]] and to hundreds of followers and "fans" of his rampages.

** In "Manifest Destiny", the UFS ''Mercury'' receives a DistressCall from the UFS ''Rhesos'' and sends over a BoardingParty. They discover [[CouldntFindAPen strange writing in blood]] on the ''Rhesos'' bulkheads. The only surviving crew member is its captain, Milus O'Brien, who killed all of the others and jettisoned their bodies in space. The ''Mercury'' medical officer Dr. Will Olsten eventually determines that both the ''Rhesos'' crew and his ship's boarding party have been infected with a bioelectrical virus, which causes insanity, in revenge for the ''Rhesos'' wiping out the indigenous population of Trion. The so-called virus, which is in actuality the combined consciousness of the Trions, is spread by electrical currents. [[spoiler: The episode ends with another ship observing Olsten's record and the revelation that they have already sent a copy of it to Earth, where it will infect the entire population.]]
** In "Nest", the people working at the Peary University Research Station in the Arctic are infested with polar mites which cause them to go insane, eventually leading to their deaths.

* The Wiki/SCPFoundation has quite a few of these, which are classified under ''Memetic Hazards''. [[SpeakOfTheDevil "Infohazards"]] and [[BrownNote "cognitohazards"]] are similar; where one starts and one ends is very much a DependingOnTheWriter thing.

Mind Viruses usually don't have anything to do with {{brainwash|ed}}ing or [[MoreThanMindControl mind control]]. A nefarious agency may have developed and released the virus, but after that the virus is uncontrolled, spreading from one person the the next in an unpredictable manner. Rather, a deliberate Mind Virus may be used as a ''weapon'', intended strictly to disrupt. Alternatively, it might have started off [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans with good intentions]] but [[FreakLabAccident ended up mutating and spreading out of control]].

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

* Came up in a section of [[ComicBook/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]].

* An ''ComicBook/XMen'' story during an arc where they were fighting vampires dealt with their human allies quarantining and attempting to cure a group of humans infected with one by a vampire that made them want to be drained by him. They were consciously aware of their condition but will physically act to achieve it all the while voicing praise. It took them discovering it was mental for them to gain the help of a resident telepath to make any progress.
* In the twelve issue monthly ''Wolverine: The Best There Is'' the arc villain is a {{Plaguemaster}} named Contagion attempting to engineer new diseases to destroy literally everything. When confronted by the X-Men he fends off Emma Frost by making his thoughts infectious, which is described as killing hers to make room for themselves.
* Deadpool once fought a mutant telepath assassin named Black Swan whose abilities specifically revolved around making these but described more like a computer virus in function. He could implant a virus that slowly wiped memories and skills from victims' minds ultimately leaving them brain dead if not invalid.

* ''Project Itoh: Genocidal Organ'' involves the hunt for an American linguist called John Paul who has discovered a [[LanguageEqualsThought language of genocide]]. John Paul appears in Third World countries, translates the language into a local dialect (to limit its effect so it won't spread worldwide) and six months later the country implodes into ethnic conflict.

* "Hostess", a short story by Creator/IsaacAsimov, suggests that humans die of old age because they're infected by a parasite that exists in their mind (it having adapted to not even needing a body). By the end, it's indicated that many of humanity's [[HumansAreSpecial unusual traits]] are caused by the existence of the parasite.

* Creator/CharlesStross has this in the novel ''[[Literature/{{Accelerando}} Glasshouse]]''. A virus called "Curious Yellow" has infected nearly all humans, via the ubiquitous and necessary [[PortalNetwork Warp Gates]] that 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 6th Extinction'', the 10th title in James Rollin's ''Literature/SigmaForce'' series uses a Mind Virus as half of the villain's plot. [[spoiler:A scientist creates a virus which destroys human's higher brain functions, reverting them to primitive animalistic behavior. At the same time he genetically engineers newer more violent animals. When both are released into the world, the now weak defenseless primitive humans will be easily picked off - letting "nature" take the planet back. Why bother with the virus? He didn't want his hands to be personally bloody with humanity's extinction, instead just rendering them without tools or reasoning and letting the animals do the job.]]

** According to one article, ''human sentience'' is a sentient and pandemic MindVirus, and as much as nobody wants to admit it in-universe, it's good that it is too or it would be wiped out by any number of things.

* In one ''Homer Price'' story, the town gets infected with a song. A mysterious stranger comes to town and puts a record in the donut shop's jukebox, telling Homer and his friend [[SchmuckBait not to play it]]. Of course they do, and they [[EarWorm can't stop singing the song]]. They teach the song to others, who can't stop, and so on. Homer finally cures himself and the town by learning a different song (from a Creator/MarkTwain story), which makes them forget the first song, and once you pass that song on you forget it in turn. They send the one person infected with the new song out of town (she was going on vacation anyway) where they hope she'll teach it to someone else.

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* In ''Webcomic/GiftsOfWanderingIce'' there are so-called psi-profiles which when "assigned" to a person act as a gateway for very specific mind viruses.

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

* Mentioned in ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice''. When Artemis drugs (and is subsequently attacked by) an evil telepath when on deep-cover, she uses this as an explanation for his odd behaviour.

-> ''It feeds on the souls of the living.''
->''And gets inside their minds.''
->''Transforms their brains and their longings,''
->''No consciousness it will find.''

->''It feeds on their fears and emotions,''
->''As it has for 2000 years''
->''Its infected the Hindus, infected the Buddhists,''
->''Kept them all in tears.''

* There is a short story by Creator/RobertSheckley where everyone on Earth learns to levitate. If, however, they ever doubt their ability to levitate, they lose it. Additionally, if one person sees another who is unable to levitate, it would automatically plant doubt into ''their'' minds as well, in effect becoming a fast-spreading virus.