History Main / PokeInTheThirdEye

* In ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'', [[BigBad Dio]] can tell whenever Joseph is using his [[PalantirPloy Hermit Purple]] ability to observe him, though only on one occasion does he actually bother to answer when it happens.

** Modular Man is an [[Android android]] and when a telepath tries to peek into his mind he is reduced to an [[MadnessMantra empty shell that can only repeat an infinite string of zeroes and ones]] until he is put out of his misery.

** A downplayed and rather convoluted example with Lazy Dragon, whose power involves the ability to project his consciousness into animal effiges and control them while he enters a sort of coma. When a jumper girls attempts to switch minds with him, her consciousness is destroyed and she becomes an [[EmptyShell Empty Shell]], while Lazy Dragon is abruptly thrown back into his original body.

* Nana in ''Manga/ElfenLied'' can temporarily block other dicloniuses' vector usage with a literal poke in the third eye.

** Harry does this to the BigBad in ''Literature/StormFront'', to prove his point that Council wizards know more tricks than "independent" warlocks. And to piss him off.

* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'': Koishi Komeiji was so troubled by the hatred brought upon her due to her mind-reading (and her species' tendency to blurt out what they read) that she closed her third eye. This has the unintended side-effect of making her [[EmptyShell unable to read her own emotions and thoughts]]. This did give her the ability to manipulate people's subconscious, and she cannot be perceived by any being unless she allows it.

[[caption-width-right:300:"A ''palantír'' is a dangerous tool, Saruman.... They are not all accounted for, the lost seeing stones. We do not know who ''else'' may be watching."]]
[-[[caption-width-right:300: Original art by [[http://fan.theonering.net/~rolozo/cgi-bin/rolozo.cgi/image/staten?hide=-3&filename=Palantir.jpg Dan Staten.]]]]-]

-> ''"Do you have anything you wish to say to me," he asked the air, "or shall I simply strike you blind where you sit?"''

* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'': In the episode "[[Recap/TheVentureBrosS3E2TheDoctorIsSin The Doctor is Sin]]", Doctor Orpheus attempts to probe the mind of Doctor Killinger, only to for it to backfire on him, causing him to suddenly faint and suffer an explosive nosebleed. It's left open-ended whether or not if Killinger is simply immune to psychic probing and Orpheus overexerted himself trying to read, or if Orpheus accidentally discovered something that even his mystical mind could not fathom. Given what we learn about Killinger's true nature in "[[Recap/TheVentureBrosS04AllThisAndGargantua2 All This and Gargantua-2]]", it's likely that Orpheus wasn't able to see anything at all and Killinger simply overpowered him.

** During Defender of Varrock, the player is tasked with seeking the Imcando dwarves' Sacred Forge in order to learn how to use the Shield of Arrav to protect Varrock from [[{{necromancy}} Zemouregal]]'s [[NightOfTheLivingMooks zombie army]]. After the player gets the info they need, however, Zemouregal is ''somehow'' able to both detect and interrupt the vision, after which he taunt the player over the fact that [[YouAreTooLate his invasion has already begun]].

* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', Cho'Gall does this to ''you''.

* ''Videogame/GoldenSunTheLostAge'':
** Trying to Mind Read [[EnigmaticMinion Alex]] will result in him either telling you to cut it out without letting you know anything, or thinking a rebuff instead of any real thoughts. There's only one place in the entire game where you can actually mind-read him.
** When you first run into Karst, an attempt to Mind Read her has her smile at you and threaten you in her thoughts for attempting it.
** There's one woman who, rather than thinking it, snaps at you, out loud, for thinking she would hide anything from you. She is a good person, so her reaction is justified.

* In ''VideoGame/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice'' episode 304, it's a very bad idea to try to read the mind or future of [[spoiler: Charlie Ho-Tep]].
* ''VideoGame/{{Dominions}}'':
** The spell Fate of Oedipus in ''Dominions 3'' lets you burn out the eyes of whoever was foolish enough to cast Eyes of God to scry on the entire world.
** Scrying with weaker methods in provinces where an enemy astral mage is situated has a chance of the scryer's mind basically being snapped in half by the defending mage leaving him feebleminded and unable to use magic.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'', among the many random events that each foray into the [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace Shroud]] can trigger is one that has your psykers accidentally listen in on some meeting of a Fallen Empire's leaders from halfway across the galaxy. If successful, you get a nice boon like some end-game tech. More often than not, however, the aliens will notice the cross-dimensional intrusion and slap you with a hefty opinion penalty that can potentially end in them [[OhCrap declaring war on you]].
* ''Videogame/TheSecretWorld:'' A regular example, followed by a much stranger one, when you attempt to spy on [[spoiler:John/the Black Signal]]. He catches you peeking, and decides he might as well return the favor and subject you to some invasive MindRape, scouring through your memories like it was a powerpoint presentation on a projector, being [[AffablyEvil his usual self]] throughout. And then comes the unintentional example when [[spoiler:he stumbles upon your memory of your encounter with [[HumanoidAbomination Lilith]], someone John has met before and is ''utterly terrified'' of, not to mention is convinced just the memory of her will be enough for the real deal to reach him. His TraumaButton is slammed, and he turns his mental violation on himself by accident]].
* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'' has Desmond using the Animus (a device that allows him to see the lives of genetic ancestors) to watch the life of 15th century assassin Ezio Auditore. When Ezio find a recording of [[{{Precursors}} Minerva]], she answers some of his questions, then turns right to the camera and addresses Desmond directly. Desmond is justifiably freaked out.
* ''VideoGame/ShiningForceII'' has protagonist Bowie talk to a former Devil named Creed about Zeon, the ultimate evil unleashed on the land. He summons Evil Spirit, a giant floating head to provide input on the situation. Zeon channels himself into Evil Spirit, giving the Shining Force an ultimatum, and then departs. Evil Spirit is completely destroyed in the process.
* In ''VideoGame/DiabloIV'', the Wanderer uses the Sightless Eye to scry on Lilith and learns her plans, but is spooked when she turns and glares directly at them. The second use of the Eye results in a now prepared Lilith trapping the Wanderer inside their own mind unless they agree to join her [[spoiler:until Mephisto offers a way out]].

* The ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'' supplement ''Dreams of the First Age'' gives the Lunar Exalted a unique Charm that not only detects and defeats the normally very-hard-to-detect usage of Sidereal Exalted's special astrology that allows them to scry their targets and read their destinies, but can also give would-be scryers false positives at the user's discretion.

* ''Film/TheCell'': Catherine goes into the mind of the SerialKiller Carl Stargher to find where he hid his latest, still-living victim. The first time she goes in, Stargher is surprised to see her and angrily demands to know where she came from, having not conjured her up himself. The second time she enters his mind, it's a fake-out where Catherine thinks she's still awake until she realizes she has shrunk. In other words, now that Stargher has learned he's being kept in suspended animation he's become fully aware of his surroundings, enough to play mind games with Catherine.

* ''Film/TheCell'': Catherine goes into the mind of the SerialKiller Carl Stargher to find where he hid his latest, still-living victim. The first time she goes in, Stargher is surprised to see her and angrily demands to know where she came from, having not conjured her up himself. The second time she enters his mind, it's a fake-out where Catherine thinks she's still awake until she realizes she has shrunk. In other words, now that Stargher has learned he's being kept in suspended animation he's become fully aware of his surroundings.

The reason is that the subject has a rather painfully full bag of counter-surveillance techniques. Mystical and psychic voyeurs will be hit with the equivalent of a BrownNote [[AgonyBeam beamed]] [[AMindIsATerribleThingToRead directly into their brain]] (or Crown Chakra, whichever). If that doesn't make the voyeur [[ConvenientComa go comatose]], it will likely at least [[FaintingSeer make them faint]]. Especially [[MindRape sadistic]] mental traps will use ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow in place of a BrownNote... because people with PowerBornOfMadness [[GoMadFromTheRevelation enjoy making]] [[MadOracle oracles go mad]].

-->-- '''Gromph Baenre''', ''[[Literature/WarOfTheSpiderQueen Condemnation]]'' by Richard Baker

* ''Series/{{Arrowverse}}'': In ''Series/TheFlash2014'', after Cisco gains more control over his "vibing" powers, he is able to get more precise visions of his targets. However, he is freaked out to learn that [[BigBad Zoom]] can somehow sense being watched this way, even though it has never been previously established that a speedster can do this. Later, Cisco is able to use this to send a message to Zoom. In Season 4, the new BigBad [=DeVoe=] learns to do this by using [[spoiler:Dominic's psychic powers]]. The mental blow physically hurls Cisco backwards. Before that, he somehow redirected or booby trapped his personal items. With the former Cisco just gets a read on his dinner and no evidence of wrongdoing. With the latter any attempt to vibe off them rebounded on Cisco, he found this out when he was forced to witness his own birth.
** In the ''Series/{{Elseworlds}}'' crossover, the Monitor detects Cisco's vibe and is surprised to learn that anyone on Earth-1 has this power. He still tells Cisco that it won't help him.

** Lyta Alexander loves to do this. In one scene, she creeps out the rest of the cast by directly looking into the camera that they were using to watch her. When they switched cameras, so did she. In an another scene, Bester and other PSI cops are confronting her and she retaliates with telekinetically slapping them. Bester tries to call her bluff. She blusters and says that she really doesn't know what she's doing, and might "accidentally" kill someone by popping a blood vessel in their brain.
** The Shadows have their own anti-PSI defenses as well, [[spoiler:almost catching Lyta when she was trying to spy on their home planet. At one point, she purposely sets this off...and the planet explodes]].

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS11E5PlanetOfTheSpiders "Planet of the Spiders"]], the psychic Professor Clegg is killed by the feedback when he tries to use the Metebelis crystal while, at the same time elsewhere on Earth, a Spider is using the psychic link between the two planets to cross over.

** In the second season finale, the Scorpius neural clone in Crichton's brain does this to Zhaan when she attempts to connect with his mind. [[MagnificentBastard After baiting her into it, no less.]]

** In "The Door", Bran uses his greenseeing abilities to get a glimpse of the activities of the White Walkers and the Night's King. The Night's King sees him in the vision and grabs him by the arm. Things go poorly from there.
** In "Eastwatch", Bran tries to look at the Army of the Dead once again, this time by warging into a flock of ravens. As soon as the Night's King sees them, he breaks Bran's control over them.

* Downplayed in ''Series/JustAddMagic'', where the Mind-Peering Peppermints used on Mrs. Silvers are met with her saying telepathically “ I know you’re there, girls. Stay out of my mind!”

* In the ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' episode "Absolute Justice", Clark Kent meets Kent Nelson, who is always clutching a bowling bag suspiciously. Clark uses his x-ray vision to look into the bag, and sees the Helmet of Dr. Fate -- which suddenly ''turns to look at him...''

* In ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', Kes has numerous psychic abilities, most of which she doesn't understand how to control. One of these seems to be scrying, and it happened to activate at a very inopportune time -- when Voyager encountered [[spoiler:Species 8472]] for the first time, a violent reaction followed that knocked her out.
* In the ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' episode "Lazarus Rising", Pamela attempts to find the being that raised Dean from Hell. Unfortunately for her, [[EldritchAbomination Castiel is]] [[OurAngelsAreDifferent an angel.]] Seeing his true form ends in EyeScream for Pamela, although in a variation Castiel did not harm her purposely and in fact tried to warn her away.

* An interesting case in ''Series/TheXFiles'' when person that kills people in their dreams appears with a third eye and consistently deals damage to his victims foreheads.

* On the ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDragonJakeLong'' episode "Supernatural Tuesday" the ogre gladiator Maximinus has a helmet that allows him to hear his opponent's thoughts and thus counter his fighting moves; Jake bests him by having the sorcerer Nigel pull the school alarm bell and overwhelming Maximinus with a blast of tween angst.

** Happens so many times to J'onn J'onz in that he may as well not ever bother using his telepathy. [[Recap/JusticeLeagueS2E24To26Starcrossed Once]] he ''did'' decide the situation was critical enough he'd rather force his way through the poke, but the results were unpleasant for everyone involved, [[MindRape especially the guy getting read]].
** In a bit of an inversion, Gorilla Grodd had placed telepathic safeguards in each member of the Legion of Doom that prevents them from having their minds read... unfortunately, the "safeguard" is shorting out the villains' synapses!
** Two simultaneous attempts by villains and heroes results in a BodySwap between Lex Luthor and Franchise/TheFlash. HilarityEnsues.
** In one episode, J'onn J'onz attempts to use his abilities to look across the world for Morgaine Le Faye. Being a powerful immortal sorceress, Morgaine doesn't look kindly to the intrusion and overpowers him with her magic. The rest of the episode involves her tormenting him with images of restoring his family and homeworld in exchange for a powerful artifact.

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003'' plays with this trope in "Haunted". Robin keeps seeing Slade wherever he goes and to make matters worse, he's the only one that can. Disturbed by Robin's [[SanitySlippage increasingly erratic behavior]], the Titans try unsuccessfully to convince him that what he is experiencing is all in head. He insists that they're wrong, citing his many bruises as evidence and asking if they think he did this to himself. Raven uses her powers to psychically connect with Robin and [[SeeingThroughAnothersEyes see Slade for herself.]] The next punch that Slade throws is so strong that it breaks the connection and sends her flying backwards.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' episode "The Doctor Is Sin", Doctor Orpheus attempts to probe the mind of Doctor Killinger, only to for it to backfire on him, causing him to suddenly faint and suffer an explosive nosebleed. It's left open-ended whether or not if Killinger is simply immune to psychic probing and Orpheus overexerted himself trying to read, or if Orpheus accidentally discovered something that even his mystical mind could not fathom. Given what we learn about Killinger's true nature in "All That and Gargantua-2", it's likely Orpheus wasn't able to see anything at all and Killinger simply overpowered him.

* In ''FanFic/ThisBites'', Soundbite's Gastro-Scramble move fills the air with white noise, blocking out anyone who's listening, even Enel. [[spoiler:Or so he thinks...]]

* ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' has Teyla, who can enter Wraith minds, and as her powers increase, even control their bodies. The catch? It's a two-way connection with an inherently telepathic alien on the other end.

* In an episode of the ''Anime/RanmaOneHalf'' anime, a young boy named Satori is gifted with telepathy, and eager to prove it to the family, who don't believe him. He tries to prove it by reading Nabiki's mind, but is scared by an illusory wave of money crashing on him. Then Satori makes the mistake of trying the same thing on OldMaster Happōsai, but just a glimpse into the DirtyOldMan's mind is enough to give him a {{Nosebleed}}.

* "Literature/TheHoundsOfTindalos", a story by Creator/FrankBelknapLong intended as part of the Literature/CthulhuMythos, depicts an experiment in mental time travel that goes horribly wrong when the traveller is spotted by the eponymous beings, spectral creatures from another plane of existence who follow him back through time and eventually kill him.

* ''Literature/Overlord2012'': Ainz, being TheParanoiac, has anti-scrying abilties and Counter Detect spells enabled as much as possible. It's heavily implied Miko Princess of Earth has died by Ainz's explosion spell he remotely used on whoever was observing his first battle.

* In ''[[ComicBook/EarthX Universe X]]'', the mysterious Ronin is aware that Nighthawk is observing him clairvoyantly (and possibily precognitively). Nighthawk has no idea how Ronin is able to do this; apparently it's a small bit of magic that Ronin [[spoiler: aka Wong, Doctor Strange's manservant]] picked up over time. Ronin doesn't get to attack Nighthawk, but it's good for freaking him out.

* In the ComicBook/XMen[=/=]ComicBook/ClanDestine crossover, Kay Destine impatiently decides to get answers from the X-Men by just grabbing the info from one of their minds. [[MuggingTheMonster She chooses Professor X.]] Xavier responds with a psychic swat to the nose and a scolding for her [[MindOverManners rudeness]] and [[UnskilledButStrong crudenes]].

** Percy gets drawn into a vision of the [[Myth/AboriginalAustralianMyths Rainbow Serpent]] in Australia while touching ancient water in a dried riverbed. The Serpent smacks him out of the vision with their tail [[PunchedAcrossTheRoom hard enough to send him flying]], landing him on his mortal spot (causing him to black out) and leaves him drenched in rainwater… in the middle of a desert with not a cloud in sight. He is noticably rather freaked out by this. The [[WordOfGod author notes]] at the end of the chapter point out that, given the circumstances, that was actually ''rather gentle''.

* ''Series/{{Arrowverse}}'': In ''Series/TheFlash2014'', after Cisco gains more control over his "vibing" powers, he is able to get more precise visions of his targets. However, he is freaked out to learn that [[BigBad Zoom]] can somehow sense being watched this way, even though it has never been previously established that a speedster can do this. Later, Cisco is able to use this to send a message to Zoom. In Season 4, the new BigBad [=DeVoe=] learns to do this by using [[spoiler:Dominic's psychic powers]]. The mental blow physically hurls Cisco backwards. Before that, he somehow redirected or booby trapled his personal items. With the former Cisco just gets a read on his dinner and no evidence of wrongdoing. With the latter any attempt to vibe off them rebounded on Cisco, he found this out when he was forced to witness his own birth.

** Scrying with weaker methods in provinces where an enemy astral mage is situated has a chance of the scyer's mind basically being snapped in half by the defending mage leaving him feebleminded and unable to use magic.

* ''Literature/ChakonaSpace'' has a very good example in ''Tales of the Folly'' ch. 7. Neal Foster burns Windsong's tail. Later, Quickdash threatens worse if Windsong doesn't get out of hir head.

* On the ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDragonJakeLong'' episode "Supernatural Tuesday" the ogre gladiator Maximinus has a helmet that allows him to hear his opponent's thoughts and thus counter his fighting moves; Jake bests him by having the sorceror Nigel pull the school alarm bell and overwhelming Maximinus with a blast of tween angst.

* ''LightNovel/ExpectingToFallIntoRuinIAimToBecomeABlacksmith'': When interrogating some assassins sent after him, the protagonist Kururi learns that one group was sent by a TribeOfPriests to kill him specifically because anytime they try to use their magical visions to spy on his Kingdom of Kudan, they just see images of him. Kururi is incredulous of this, but the assassin says he tried it himself and only saw Kururi's nostril. This is followed by a GodTest where he successfully turns a glass of water into grape juice, poking fun at Kururi's MessianicArchetype traits.

* ''Film/DoctorSleep'': Abra attempts to spy on the True Knot by projecting herself into their minds. However, Rose knows she's being watched, and tries to reverse the spying before being rejected by the more powerful Abra.
* In ''Film/TheMagicSword'', Sybil, a benign witch, is using her magic mirror to keep tabs on the progress of her foster son George in his quest to defeat Lodac, an evil sorcerer. Lodac catches wind of this, appears in the mirror to taunt her, and then defeats its magic in the form of [[AnachronismStew a television outputting white noise]].

** ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'' novels popularized this practice. Though usually it happens when secondary functions (such as communication) are used. In ''[[Literature/TheElminsterSeries The Making of a Mage]]'' an elf given an enemy spy's crystal ball claimed "Properly used, it can burn out one magelord's mind." Archmage of Menzoberranzan Gromph threatened those spying on him with blindness (see the page quote). It's rooted well enough that ''Literature/CounselorsAndKings'' has a subversion: the wizard who fell for this ends up merely dazed instead of blindly flailing through his room, burned and bleeding from a dozen of shrapnel wounds.

*** Adventure [=RQ3=] ''From the Shadows''. The {{PC}} party may find a 5-foot-wide magical Crystal Ball in Azalin's palace. If one of them uses it to scry on Azalin, the lich can attempt to charm that person. If he succeeds, when the party faces him later the charmed {{PC}} will betray the party and help Azalin against them.

* In ''TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening'', if a mage is being scryed (or having any form of sympathetic magic cast at him) and is able to detect it, then he can cast spells back through the connection, even if he normally wouldn't be able to cast sympathetically.
* ''TabletopGame/PrincessTheHopeful:'' Princesses of Storms gain the ability to wreath their mind in a protective aura of roiling hatred, such that any attempt to read or influence their mind will provoke a nasty psychic backlash.
* ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}'' Magic contains a few spells that counter invasions of privacy, including magical ones.

* ''TabletopGame/PalladiumFantasy'' the Crystal Ball on page 256 can be countered by those who can sense it (dragons, mages about 3rd level, "most" creatures of magic and greater supernatural beings) by spending PPE to cloud it for an average of 10 hours after turning to "look directly into the camera".
* Played with in ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': Tyranid Hive Fleets travel through The Warp using special means only available to them, which casts a "shadow" in the Warp as they travel. This shadow disrupts Warp travel and blocks [[SubspaceAnsible Astropathic communication]] from any location close to the Hive Fleet, isolating their next victims from revealing the Hive Fleet's next target. With one exception, every human Psyker who has ever tried to psychically scan or pierce through this shadow to divine the Hive Fleet underneath has been driven insane.

** In ''Baldur's Gate 2'', when the [[PlayerCharacter protagonist]] and the rest of his/her party reaches [[TheAlcatraz Spellhold]], a resident Cowled Wizard takes the group on a brief tour, introducing them to Mages who have been [[GoMadFromTheRevelation driven mad]] through incautious use of their abilities. One Mage tried to scry beyond the [[AnotherDimension known planes]] of the TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms, but, as the guide {{lampshade|Hanging}}s, "Apparently whatever he saw didn't like him looking".

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': During the climactic fight against [[BigBad Yhwach]], [[spoiler:[[EnemyMine Aizen]]]] is able to use [[spoiler:[[IllusionMaster Kyoka Suigetsu's power of complete hypnosis]]]] to throw off [[RealityWarper The Almighty's]] power to set whatever future Yhwach sees in stone, blinding him to the fact that [[spoiler:[[ActuallyADoombot he's attacking Aizen instead of Ichigo]]; the latter exploits the opening Aizen has given him and attacks Yhwach from behind]].