History Main / JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind

* ''Webcomic/KaitenMutenmaru'': [[spoiler:Tear Crown enters Sissela's mind to bring Umimi back from the corrupting influence of disium]].

* In ''Manhwa/CielTheLastAutumnStory'', one of the main characters falls into a coma after overusing her magic powers, and her closest friend and love interest have to pull one of these in order for them all to wake up safely.

* "Advertising/AmericanHondaPresentsDCComicsSupergirl": ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} uses a telepathic machine to enter the mind of the comatose victim of a car crash and travel through his nightmares until getting him to wake up.

* ComicBook/{{Nightmask}} of ComicBook/TheNewUniverse had the ability to enter anyone's dreams, which he used to assist in psychotherapy.
* "ComicBook/TheLifeAndTimesOfScroogeMcDuck": "The Dream of a Lifetime" has the Beagle Boys using an invention stolen from Gyro Gearloose to enter Scrooge's mind, where they end up reliving some of his many adventures. WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck ends up going in after them, to try and wake them up before Scrooge wakes up with disastrous consequences for him and the Beagle Boys.

* Used as a character upgrade in ''VideoGame/LaPucelle'', which is the prequel to ''Franchise/{{Disgaea}}''. Complete with split personalities, EvilIsSexy, laser swords and all wrapped up inside the mind of a rebellious princess.

* At least two examples in ''VideoGame/CityOfVillains''. [[spoiler:The villain Psymon Omega has you enter his mind and destroy his fear of commitment, the unknown, and the past. Similarly, the famous singer Johnny Sonata has you enter his 'personal hell' and destroy his soul so he can get out of a DealWithTheDevil.]]

Compare the malicious version MindProbe, or a single-person variant, the VisionQuest.

[[folder:Pinball]]
* ''Pinball/TheBrain'' is a somewhat literal version of this, showing how the brain itself works.
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Compare the malicious version, MindProbe, or a single person variant, the VisionQuest.

* An interrogation technique in ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' takes the form of this. The interrogators project themselves into their victim's head, often needing to fight through layers of protective genjutsu, until they reach the core mind. From there they can access and view memories.
** The seal on the Kyuubi takes a form of this for Naruto. In the first part he needed to make a long trek through a maze of flooded corridors to communicate with the Kyuubi; by the second part the distance between their minds had been greatly reduced.

* ''Anime/YuGiOh'': Shadi goes into Yugi's mind to investigate why he has a Millennium Item. He's understandably surprised to find not one but ''[[SplitPersonality two]]'' minds there. In the manga he can also redecorate soul rooms to bend a person to his will.
* ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'': During Jim's duel with Judai while he's possessed by Haou, Jim uses his magic replacement eye to take a trip into Judai's mind to figure out what's going on with him. He finds the former [[TheAce Ace]] surrounded by images of his dead friends and listening to to a repetitive loop of [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech the reasons he sucks]] from that season's villains, sinking deeper into despair and [[IKnowYouAreInThereSomewhereFight farther out of reach]].

* ''Fanfic/InvoluntaryAdmission'', a ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' fic, involves Irmo going into Námo's mind. It's a truly bizarre place; among other things, it features Eöl, Maeglin and Morgoth having a pie fight and Galadriel as Rapunzel.

* Luke does this for Han in the ''Franchise/StarWars'' fic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2717781/1/My-All My All.]]'' It's a sequel to an earlier fic where Han is brutally tortured and raped. At first, he appears to be recovering slowly in this fic, but then begins having hallucinations and panic attacks before retreating into his mind completely. Luke senses through the Force that Han is trapped watching a dream version of himself going through his ordeal. After talking with the doctors, Luke risks a potentially dangerous (to Han, if something goes wrong) technique of entering Han's mind through the Force, so he can help his brother-in-law deal do whatever needs to be done to pull him back to reality.

* ''Fanfic/TheRigelBlackChronicles'' depicts Occlumency in terms of mindscapes. Harriett spends a fair bit of time organising and defending her mind-mountain, but then has to find her way into other people's minds [[spoiler: to fight off the sleeping plague]], which can take the form of whirlpools, forests, volcanoes, even lightning storms.

* Near the end of ''Film/FreddysDeadTheFinalNightmare'', Maggie travels into Freddy Krueger's mind, and sees his memories.

* ''Film/{{Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix}}'': Snape introduces Harry to the magical ability of Legilimency, the ability to enter another's mind. We see Snape use it to peruse Harry's memories and we also learn that You-Know-Who used to use this skill to enter people's mind and implant visions so horrible they would be begging for death. Later we see a short, but trippy look inside Harry's mind as he and... well, You-Know-Who, battle for control of Harry's body.

* ''Film/{{Zardoz}}''. Much mirror-maze self confrontation/realization with a loin-clothed Sean Connery and a Omnipotent Computer Brain.

* This also happened during ''Literature/AHatFullOfSky'' by Creator/TerryPratchett. The Nac Mac Feegles entered Tiffany's mind in order to [[spoiler: bring her some sheep's wool, Jolly Sailor Tobacco and turpentine, all things she associates with home and Granny Aching, to help her fight the Hiver that was controlling her mind]].

* In the first ''Literature/ThePaperMagician'' book, Ceony travels into the mind of [[spoiler:Emery Thane, which is apparently located in his heart rather than his brain]]. The journey has four stages. In each stage, Ceony encounters a different set of his thoughts or memories, and converses with a different facet of his personality. The first stage encompasses his happy memories, the second his dreams and hopes for the future, the third his unhappy memories, and the fourth his doubts and regrets.

* In the season four (two part) finale of ''Series/{{House}}'', Chase attempts to use medical hypnotism to unlock House's memories of a bus-crash. We can see both the inside of the bar he visited beforehand, and the bus he rode on. Most details are obscured or not present.

* One of the episodes of Disney Channel's ''Series/SoWeird'' had this as it's plot. Fi, Jack, and Clu end up going inside a young boy's dreams to find out why he's having nightmares. The nightmare-creature (represented by a huge mass of black mist) is constantly chasing them, and will only be defeated when the child stands up and faces his fears. What's he afraid of? [[spoiler:His parents are constantly fighting and he's afraid [[ParentalAbandonment that one of them will leave]].]]

* Played with in ''Series/{{Taken}}''. Several characters enter a crashed alien spacecraft and see visions from their minds. A soldier sees his mother and her delicious cookies; one sees cockroaches, his greatest fear; one of the main characters sees her dead grandfather that she never met, who claims to be how she views him in her mind. In the end, [[spoiler:it turns out the resident child psychic has been pulling these images out of people's minds and making them see them -- there wasn't even an alien crash]].

* In the TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}} adventure ''The Forgotten Terror'', the deceased [=PCs=]' souls are trapped in a realm contained in the gemstone of an cursed dagger. In addition to areas that look like they are made of ruby, there are areas based various memories and aspects of the villain's personality. In the center of the realm is the villain himself, who is all-powerful within this realm. It's like a fantasy RPG version of ''Film/TheCell''.

* In the dating sim/RPG ''VideoGame/ArTonelicoMelodyOfElemia'', there exist machines called 'dive machines' that allow someone to travel to a Reyvateil's soulspace. The point is for the diver to deepen their relationship with the Reyvateil in order to generate new spells (and costumes). 'Diving' as a intensely intimate act and so a Reyvateil will only allow someone they like and/or trust to do so.
** In ''[[VideoGame/ArTonelicoMelodyOfElemia Ar tonelico]]'' and [[VideoGame/ArTonelicoIIMelodyOfMetafalica the sequel]] the main character can 'dive' into the 'cosmosphere' of the Reyvatails in your party, which is directly similar into exploring a person's inner mind and consciousness. It is a major game play mechanic as not only does it give you an intriguing look at their inner-selves, but is a requirement to unlock more powerful [[MagicMusic song magic]] for the Reyvatail you are diving into.
* ''VideoGame/BaldursGateII'' has several dream sequences where the PlayerCharacter wanders around a recreation of their childhood home floating in a void, while [[BigBad Irenicus]], Imoen and their SuperpoweredEvilSide spout cryptic foreshadowing at them.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'': After Cloud is subjected to a ''cruel'' MindScrew [[spoiler: that leads him to believe he's a mere clone of Sephiroth created by MadScientist Hojo]] and then falls into TheLifestream, he becomes mentally-quadriplegic and sits ''almost'' silently in a wheelchair, unable to do anything. In the meantime his best friend and prospect girlfriend, [[ActionGirl Tifa]], takes a brief stint as the team leader but then stays for a while by his side, and ultimately pulls this to bring him back to his senses [[spoiler: after they ''both'' fall to the Lifestream and begin picking up the pieces of ''both'' Tifa's and Cloud's memories, leading them to see that there really ''is'' a guy named Cloud and that he is ''not'' a Sephiroth clone]].

** Roofus is wearing old army gear, and is stuck in an urban war zone. [[ShellShockedVeteran He fears going back to war]]. The tanks have Viggo's face painted on the side of them; this can be interpreted that, by not killing Viggo in the past, he is responsible for his comrades' current predicament.

* In ''VideoGame/QuestForGloryIV'' it's possible to see into the mind of a powerful enchantress in your dreams, by sleeping at certain places that have been touched by her magic. The dreams tell the hero what happened to her, foreshadow the climax of the game, and can vary slightly from character class to character class (characters who play as Paladins receive more information about what to do, while characters who have some magical ability have some dreams with [[LoveBeforeFirstSight a more romantic bent.]])

** Later on, the [[MouthOfSauron Black Signal]] subjects you to a MindRape that has him taking you on a journey through ''your'' brain: first, he subjects you to a nightmare recreation of the moment when you were bonded with one of [[EnigmaticEmpoweringEntity the Bees]] - except this time, you're infected by [[MysticalPlague the Filth]] instead; then, he puts your memories on TV and fastforwards you through the first three major bosses of the game, hammering you with [[BreakThemByTalking Breaking Speech]] after Breaking Speech... [[spoiler: right up until he stumbles into your memory of the encounter of Lilith, which frightens him so badly that he accidentally turns the MindRape on himself.]]

* This happens very often in ''VideoGame/TalesOfHearts'', with the weapons known as Soma having invented specifically for the purpose of allowing their wielders to enter the hearts and emotions of others (Referred to as Spiria) in order to rid them of the parasitic [[TheHeartless Zerom]].
* Classic RPG ''VideoGame/{{Wasteland}}'' contains a boss fight where a character has to fight his/her way though the mind of an insane robot.
* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', the [[EldritchAbomination Old God]] Yogg-Saron will forcibly bring the players into his mind. There, they will bear witness of some acts that took place in the lore (or are currently taking place) in the form of illusions that they must shatter to access the brain, which must be damaged enough to remove Yogg-Saron's invulnerability. However, if they remain inside the Mind's Eye for too long, their ''SanityMeter'' will instantly drop to zero, thus falling into the Old God's control

* In the ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}'' series, there is a machine called the Encephalon which does this. In the entire trilogy, there have been three of these uses - once when retrieving KOS-MOS's memory banks from a black box in Episode I ([[spoiler:shown as Miltia before and after the Gnosis incident began]]), and in Episode II, the crew has to dive into MOMO's head ([[spoiler:shown as the subconscious of the girl MOMO was based off of, combined with a little of Jr.]]'s) to figure out what the hell Albedo did to her back during the MindRape of the previous game. The third incident is in Episode III, where the crew dives into Shion's subconscious ([[spoiler:shown as Miltia before the whole thing with the Gnosis started]]) without even knowing they had done so. All three of them were pretty much {{Mind Screw}}s, ''especially'' the KOS-MOS one (where it doesn't even ''use'' KOS-MOS's memories, instead an amalgamation of Shion and Jr.'s).

* In "Memory of a Memory" of ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'', the main duo Finn and Jake have to retrieve a spell from their friend Marceline's memory so that she can awaken from her slumber. [[spoiler:Turns out that they were OutGambitted by [[{{Jerkass}} Ash]] (Marceline's ex-boyfriend) to retrive the memory of a break up so Marceline would think that they never broke up at all.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'' had an episode where Batman and Dr. Hugo Strange entering the mind of the Joker to find out where he hid Detective Yin before she's killed by a bomb. The latter was quickly side-tracked by trying to psycho-analyze the Joker (which he was just looking for an excuse to do) while Batman [[spoiler:pulled the Joker into ''his'' mind, and tricked him into revealing the location by [[INeverSaidItWasPoison making him thinking they already knew]]]].

* In the HalloweenEpisode of ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'', Zim and Dib gets trapped in a world filled with twisted amalgamations of characters from the CrapsackWorld the show takes place in, evidently inside Dib's mind. Of course, when they try to escape into the real world, they find it too horrifying to bear and return back to their own (apparently less) hellish dimension.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'': In "Dream a Lily Dream", Lisa, Lincoln, Lynn, Lola and Leni go inside Lily's subconsciousness to personally deal with Lily's nightmares while the others keep her asleep.
* In the series finale of ''WesternAnimation/MightyOrbots,'' when the title robots mistakenly believe they are slated to be [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman scrapped,]] they decide to prove their worth by making a likely suicidal frontal assault on the series BigBad, Umbra, a vast living computer in a DysonSphere called the Shadow Star. They physically penetrate Umbra's body, and find themselves literally ''inside his mind,'' doing battle with the physical manifestations of his thoughts. [[spoiler: Against all odds, they win and destroy Umbra. They go home, and discover they were never going to be scrapped after all. They had misheard Rob planning a party for their first birthday.]]

** "Hollow Mind" does the same, but plays it for ''significantly'' more horror, as Luz and Hunter end up in ''Belos's'' mind. Unlike Willow's mindscape, Belos's mindscape starts in a giant hallway of abstract paintings, made of all the lies he tells, and the true mindscape underneath is a dark, dead forest covered in cobwebs underneath a pitch black sky. [[spoiler:Luz and Hunter are attacked by the amalgamated Palisman souls Belos has been consuming over the years, and the Inner Belos leads them through the memories that spell out who Belos really is, and what he's done to the [[ExpendableClone previous Golden Guards]]. When Hunter brokenly begs the Inner Belos for answers, he writes the boy off as a lost cause, and tries to get rid of him by ''dragging him down into his subconscious'', illustrated by Hunter sinking into the ground like it's quicksand while Luz desperately tries to pull him out. Luz herself is horrified and devastated to discover that Belos is Philip Wittebane and that she was a would-be genocidal tyrant's UnwittingPawn. By the time Eda manages to get them out, [[HeroicBSOD the poor kids are quite simply traumatized]]; Luz is almost nonverbal with a ThousandYardStare, and Hunter, already suffering from an IdentityBreakdown, has a [[FreakOut severe panic attack]] upon realizing that Belos will know they were in there and that [[YouCantGoHomeAgain it's not safe to return to the castle]], tears off his cape and blindly runs off into the woods.]]

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/STARStreet'', the band take a trip inside Ashley's head after he starts behaving oddly. They pry through some of his memories and emotions before finding the cause of the problem, and even go as far as performing a song to get rid of it.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' episode "[[Recap/StevenUniverseS5E18ASinglePaleRose A Single Pale Rose]]", Pearl takes Steven inside [[HeartDrive her gem]] (which, given [[StarfishAliens the nature of gems]], is essentially her mind). In theory, this is to fetch her phone, which she has lost inside it, as it also functions as a BagOfHolding. Her ulterior motive, though, is for him to travel through her memories so she can ''show'' him something important which she is [[{{Geas}} unable]] to ''tell'' him. Inside, he meets several versions of her, each of which represents a stage in her life, moving backwards through time until he find both the phone and the thing which Pearl needed him to see.
* ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012'' have done this on one episode. The story about saving Mikey from Neutrinos by going into his mind and defeat it. The title of the story even called ''[[Recap/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012S4E6JourneyToTheCenterOfMikeysMind Journey To the Center of Mikey's Mind]]''.

** In the episode "Assisted Suicide" the Monarch uses a mind-control machine to go inside Dr. Venture's brain to try and kill him from the inside out; Dr. Orpheus goes in after him to save Doc from the "possessing spirit." However, it turns out that Dr. Venture's mind isn't such a pleasant place to be, and a combination of traumatic memories and Freuidan archetypes send the Monarch running away screaming.

* One common mnemonic technique is the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_loci method of loci]], in which the subject envisions their mind as a "memory palace" with specific memories placed particular locations (like a chest or drawer in a room). To help recall the memory, the subject visualizes themselves walking through their "palace" and retrieving the memory from its place.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003'', Cyborg and Beast Boy accidentally go into the depths of Raven's mind, where they meet embodiments of all the facets of her personality, including some she generally hides.

* The ''Fanfic/CalvinAndHobbesTheSeries'' episode "Socratesland" involves the protagonists going to the center of Socrates' mind to repair a malfunctioning communicator chip, where the various aspects of his personality frolic about.
* During the first arc of the ''Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries'', Twilight Sparkle does this to Trixie in order to save her from her [[MindRape Discording]] [[spoiler: and an EnemyWithin named Loneliness]].

** Then, during the Wedding Arc, [[spoiler: Trixie returns the favor by helping Cadence get into Twilight's mind to complete the process of freeing her from Chrysalis' control]].
* Similarly, in ''Fanfic/TheElementsOfHarmonyAndTheSaviorOfWorlds'', Twilight helps Megan and Morning Glory's family enter Morning Glory's mind in order to save her from the near-comatose state Discord left her in centuries ago.

* In a ''Franchise/{{Justice League|OfAmerica}}'' fill-in issue by J.M. Dematteis, ComicBook/MartianManhunter decides to show ComicBook/TheSpectre that there is good [[RousseauWasRight in everyone]] by taking him, along with the rest of the League, into the mind of ''ComicBook/TheJoker'' of all people, showing that in the impossible maelstrom of depravity and chaos that is his mind, somewhere, there is a small house with a kindly couple, representing the tiny bit of humanity the Joker still has.

* The Creator/DonRosa [[ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse Scrooge McDuck]] story "The Dream of a Lifetime" has the Beagle Boys using an invention stolen from Gyro Gearloose to enter Scrooge's mind, where they end up reliving some of his many adventures. WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck ends up going in after them, to try and wake them up before Scrooge wakes up with disastrous consequences for him and the Beagle Boys.
* In a villainous example, one story arc of the ''ComicBook/{{Sleepwalker}}'' comics had the Thought Police enter the mind of Sleepwalker's human host in an attempt to capture him.
* The final arc of ''ComicBook/SpiderGirl'' has the title heroine journeying into both her own mind and the mind of her father, the original Franchise/SpiderMan. The first version is a typical MindScrew, but the latter is much more serious, as May struggles to save her dad from being [[PeoplePuppets possessed by the Green Goblin]].

** Creator/GrantMorrison's run on ''ComicBook/NewXMen'' featured a trippy, one-issue-long sequence with no dialogue (save one line on the last page), in which telepaths ComicBook/JeanGrey and ComicBook/EmmaFrost travel into Cassandra Nova's mind in order to rescue Professor Xavier. In a later issue, when Jean discovers [[spoiler:Emma's been having an affair with her husband]], the confrontation takes place in Emma's mind.

** ''ComicBook/XMen2019'': "Jean Grey and Emma Frost" is an InternalHomage to ''New X-Men #121'' above, where Jean and Emma travel into the mind of an injured Storm. The issue features many similar panels.