Jedi Mind Trick

Model Citizen: You don't wanna fight me. You wanna help me.
The Flash: "I don't wanna fight you. I wanna..." Hey, this is like the Jedi mind trick!
Model Citizen: This is not like the Jedi mind trick.
Flash: "This is not like the Jedi mind trick."

— Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths

When characters possess powers or some kind of phlebotinum that allow them to escape the attention of guards, to improve their stealth, to erase their tracks, and to help them maintain the Masquerade. If especially strong, can function as a Compelling Voice that can control minds. If it only affects the Weak-Willed but affects them strongly, it's a form of Charm Person.

See also Perception Filter, which is more passive. Sometimes overlaps with Psychic Static, which is also more passive, but handy if there are any nosy telepaths around.

The Ur-Example and Trope Namer is a scene from the Star Wars film A New Hope (see examples below; it has a section for its own). Many examples elsewhere count as both a straight example of the trope and a Shout-Out to Star Wars; frequently the guy with those powers waves his hand and dictates the guards what to do, and they repeat those instructions as if hypnotized. Note, however, that parodies that do not work and should not have worked anyway (for example, because the guy doing it has no special powers) are not examples of this trope, only a Shout-Out to Star Wars. Help to prevent Trope Decay, and May the Farce Be with You.

Can be used to justify The Guards Must Be Crazy.

Not to be confused with the Philadelphia-based hip-hop group.

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You will read the examples below:^note I will read the examples below.

• Star Wars has its own page.

Advertising

• Darth Vader himself attempts this in one of Orange's "Don't let a mobile phone ruin your movie" ads. He tries to pitch a three-hour film entirely about him, only to be reminded they already have Revenge of the Sith to promote.
  Vader: [waves hand] This is the perfect project for you.
  Committee Guy: This is the perfect project for us. [the leader smacks him] Sorry, master.
  Leader: Your Jedi mind tricks won't work on me. Around here, I'm the Emperor. This is my galaxy. And in my galaxy, I need product.

Anime & Manga

• Doraemon: The aptly-named tool Pebble Cap has this effect. In Doraemon: Nobita's Great Adventure into the Underworld, it can even fool Demons (which themselves are Sufficiently Advanced Aliens).
• Momoko's power in Saki, Justified by being a Shrinking Violet.
• Alucard in Hellsing Ultimate does this on the Rio Hotel clerk to allow his coffin to be taken to his room.
• Usagi-chan de Cue!!: Merged being can emit low-level telepathy that makes their animal features seem commonplace. Mimika appears suddenly in Haru's household, but no one there thinks she's in any way out of place. Mimika explains to Haru that her bunny ears can project a "nothing weird here" telepathy that makes her an Unusually Uninteresting Sight.

Comedy

• There's a Star Trek-related comedy bit in which Ben Kenobi beats out Mr. Spock and the HAL-9000 computer on Jeopardy!, by invoking this trope on Alex Trebek.
  Alex: I'm sorry, the judges say we can't accept that answer.
  Obi-Wan: You can accept that answer.
  Alex: We can accept that answer!
  Obi-Wan: I've just won the game.
  Alex: You just won the game!
  Obi-Wan: Tell me what I've won.
  Alex: Here's what you won!
• The Great Luke Ski:
  • One of his dialogue pieces, "You Might Be a Trekkie", contains the following sequence:
    "If you've ever attempted the Jedi Mind Trick at the drive-through window..."
    Fast food clerk: That'll be $13.27, sir.
    Customer: You won't be charging me for this food.
    Clerk: I... won't be charging you for this food.
    Customer: And don't skimp on the french fries.
    Clerk: And I won't skimp on the french fries.
    Customer: And you'll throw in some extra Beanie Babies. Thank you, drive through.
    Clerk: Thank you, drive through!
    "...you might be a Trekkie."
  • After the release of The Phantom Menace, he added this corollary:
    "If you've ever had the Jedi Mind Trick attempted on you at the drive-through window!"
    Another clerk: [Watto's voice parody] That'll be $14.51, sir.
    Customer: These gift certificates will be fine.
    Clerk: No, they won't.
    Customer: These gift certificates will be fine.
    Clerk: No, they won't! What are you, waving your hands like you're Ronald McDonald, get out of here!

Comic Books

• Doctor Strange: Doctor Strange has done this on occasion when asked for an ID, and when he's feeling playful will sometimes even throw in "these aren't the droids you're looking for" for good measure.
• The Eternals: Sersi and Druig have both used this trick. Druig tends to make people ignore him entirely, Sersi more often nudges people to see her (and her more revealing outfits) as someone perfectly normal for the context.
• Robin (1993): After Darla Aquista came back wrong she casually convinced an airport attendant that some random papers were a passport and boarding pass, and later convinced someone else that she was the individual they'd been sent to the airport to pick up just by claiming to be them.
• Superman: In the story arc The Strange Revenge of Lena Luthor, villain Mind-Bomber makes himself functionally invisible by telepathically willing Supergirl to not see him. After being warned about his stealth mental suggestion, though, Supergirl declares it will not work again.
• Ultimate X Men: Jean Grey (and sometimes Xavier) usually uses her mind powers to do this trick. For example, when she first shows up she makes a police officer release Storm from jail, by making him think that she's a higher ranked cop giving such orders.
• Wonder Woman: Wonder Woman—at least in the Golden Age under her original creator—can use "telepathic waves" to order the weak-minded to do her bidding. It generally only works on those who are considered "mindless" or those who are already in an altered mental state like Queen Atomia's "Neutron" slaves.
• X-Men: Charles Xavier uses mental suggestions a lot when he gets in danger personally. In fact, when the X-Men were first created, he used to do it basically always, leading to Deus ex Machina endings. As a result, he was later demoted to Mission Control, to let the heroes fight their own battles.

Fan Works

• In the A Certain Magical Index fic Clash of the unlikely lovers, Fiamma of the Right ends up using the mind trick to get Vento of the Front to forget something embarrassing he said. Fiamma's power is to be able to do anything that was ever performed by a right hand, which apparently includes fictional uses as well.
• In Harry Potter and the Power of the Dark Side Harry attempts to force persuade his way out of trouble:
  Professor Snape: As for you, Mr. Potter... Fired curse or no, your actions were a disgrace to the house of Slytherin, and you will serve a detention with me on Saturday, cleaning cauldrons and rethinking how you should have handled the situation...
  Harry Potter/Darth Veneficus: I will not serve a detention...
  Professor Snape: You will not... Wait, what did you do to me?!
• Night's Favored Child: The Inquisitor has a spell that keeps anyone — even Nightmare Moon herself — from acknowledging the fact that he hasn't aged in centuries.
• In Origins, a Mass Effect/Star Wars/Borderlands/Halo Massive Multiplayer Crossover, clone assault troopers on Coruscant use this against some random cops, though said cops realize what happened afterward.
• Plan 7 of 9 from Outer Space. Annika-709 is able to do this just by using her breasts in a parody of this trope.
• Parodied in Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series.
  Mai: You don't need to see their identification.
  Kemo: I don't need to see their identification.
  Mai: These aren't the breasts you're looking for.
  Kemo: These aren't the breasts I'm looking for.
• Deconstructed in Jaune Arc, Lord of Hunger. The famous "Jedi mind trick" is given a heavy dose of realism throughout the story. Unlike in most Star Wars media, where the mind trick is a fun tool used by the heroes to outwit random mooks; here the Jedi mind trick is depicted as being extremely invasive and borderline Mind Rape for those subjected to it. After Jaune accidentally mind tricks Weiss, the way she describes the feeling seems like something straight out of a Psychological Horror.
  Weiss: I can't forgive you, because I can't hate you for what you did! Something inside of me won't let me. I still feel what I felt last night! Our friendship that could've gone even further. And how much of this my own feelings, and how much is just… manipulation!?
• There is a fan-made Malfean Stealth Excellency charm for Exalted called "Subtle Like Nuclear Holocaust", in which the Infernal starts glowing brightly and has to scream "IGNORE ME!!!" at the top of their lungs every few seconds to maintain the charm. This allows the Infernal to ignore stealth penalties for silly things like bright lights, loud noises, no cover, or thousands of people looking directly at them.

Films — Live-Action

• In a scene cut from the original US version, but present in the international ones, Austin Powers hypnotizes a mook played by Christian Slater. First with "Everything seems to be in order!", then with "I am going to go across the street and get you some orange sherbet!" and "Here, have a piece of gum!" Turning this into a Brick Joke, as Austin and Vanessa are escaping from the Collapsing Lair, the mook returns with the sherbet.
• In Invisible Avenger, the Shadow uses his psychic powers to cause others to be unable to see him. His shadow remains visible.
• Nicolae does this in Left Behind when he commits murder in front of an entire committee and then calmly remarks how tragic it was that the victim put the gun to his own head and pulled the trigger. People seem to believe it not because they were fooled but because they wanted his version to be true since they believed in him as a person, but there's also some implication that he pulled a supernatural mind trick with the help of demonic forces.
• The Men in Black have the Neuralizer for this purpose, with, strangely enough, only three settings: days, months, and years. The Neuralizer used on Tee in the second movie has an "hours" setting.
• Morganian Sorcerer Maxim Horvath uses it on a clerk in The Sorcerer's Apprentice, which is promptly lampshaded by his sidekick to hilarious effect.
• In Witch Way Love, Hot Witch Morgane (Vanessa Paradis) tricks a shop owner this way to let her go with a free bill. Justified as her baby magically colored her banknotes, making them useless.
• X-Men Film Series
  • X-Men: Days of Future Past: The man in the wheelchair and the two others with him have their passes in order. Move Along, Nothing to See Here...
  • X-Men: Apocalypse: When Stryker's soldiers search for more mutants and pass where Jean Grey, Scott Summers, and Kurt Wagner are hiding, Jean uses her powers to conceal them from sight. She keeps using it to board the helicopter and to go around the military base, staying undetected.

Literature

• In the climactic section of Angels of Music, one of the Angels uses her psychic ability to get herself and her colleagues past a checkpoint. "These are not the Angels you are looking for."
• Used in Turning Point by both Carrie and Kusac. Various forms of this trope appear through most of the sequels. The main characters are exceedingly strong telepaths, after all.
• Harry Potter:
  • Wizards have Muggle-Repelling Charms on important magical locations; for example, any Muggle who gets too close will suddenly remember an urgent appointment and rush off. They also have Memory Charms for when that doesn't work.
  • The Confundus Charm, which renders subjects more suggestible and can implant longer-term suggestions.
• Fang from the Maximum Ride series can make himself blend in so much that people have to focus really hard to notice him.
• In The Dark Tower, the turtle gives bearers the power of persuasion and can even heal constipation. The heroes don't appear to mind losing it very much.
• In Dragon Pearl, gumiho have a magic called Charm that makes it easier for them to influence and persuade people.
• In The Wheel of Time series, this is the signature power of the Gray Men, who are people that sold their souls to the Dark One; they act as assassins for the Dark One. They look so "ordinary" that people find it hard to notice them.
• The heroes of M.K. Wren's Phoenix Legacy trilogy have developed the modulated-frequency stimulus or mod-stim device, which pulses light and/or sound to induce "synergistic resonances with a subject's brain waves," resulting in a sort of high-tech hypnotism. It's very effective for, for instance, making guards forget they saw a Phoenix agent walk right past them into a secured facility.
• Frank Herbert's Dune uses a version of this called the Voice, taught only to Bene Gesserits (and Paul Atreides). It was probably the main inspiration for the Mind Trick.
• Discworld:
  • Death has this power. Not only is he unnoticeable, he also can make people around him susceptible to suggestion. Susan inherits all his abilities and finds them very useful in her career as a schoolteacher. Though not even this power is enough to get her boss to sign off on a raise.
  • The witches in Discworld (some of them, anyway) can also make their presence either incredibly strong, intimidating or persuading people to go their way and ignore any uncomfortable inconsistencies in what they said, or almost non-existent, effectively turning invisible to all but the most attentive individuals.
  • Carrot Ironfoundersson also has the ability to talk or threaten almost anyone into doing almost anything. On a good day, he can even make Ankh-Morpork citizens want to be nice.
  • Gaspode the Wonder Dog has worked out how to turn a Weirdness Censor into this. Since everyone knows dogs can't talk, the voice you just heard saying "Give the nice doggie a biscuit" must be your own voice inside your head. So apparently, you want to give the nice doggie a biscuit.

• In The Day Watch, Vitaly uses a simple Other trick to get a bag full of American dollars past customs. The scene plays out very similarly to the Trope Namer.
• The Action Hero's Handbook claims that even normal people can pull off something very close to a Jedi Mind Trick with a combination of Refuge in Audacity and clever psychological manipulation.
• The Dresden Files:
  • Sent up in Proven Guilty when Harry has to deal with Detective Sergeant Greene in the aftermath of dealing with the three fetches:
    I lifted my hand with my thumb and first two fingers extended, the others against my palm, and moved it in a vaguely mystical gesture from left to right. "That isn't Rawlins."
    
    Greene blinked at me, and his eyes blurred in and out of focus. The distraction derailed the train of thought he'd been laboriously assembling. It wasn't magic. I've taken head shots before. It takes a while for your brain to start doing its job again, and the vaguest kinds of confusion makes things into one big blur.
  • Actually entering someone else's mind to alter what they're perceiving is considered Black Magic, no matter what your reasoning. One can create veils, which simply hide objects or people from view, which is perfectly kosher, and suggestions to be elsewhere are mentioned in passing as a commonly used piece of grey magic in wards, but actually altering what the individual's mind perceives is bad mojo.
• Some characters in Percy Jackson and the Olympians can manipulate the series's Weirdness Censor to make things appear differently to mortals. In The Heroes of Olympus, some children of Aphrodite can "charmspeak," and it's hinted that children of Hermes have similar powers.
• Roman in Hemlock Grove seems to have this ability. He changes people's minds and influences their decisions.
• As a spirit-user, Lissa Dragomir from Vampire Academy is capable of these as well. She gets to use it to enter Tarasov prison while hiding Eddie Castile's real features and making Rose and herself appear as common humans.
• In Worm, when Nice Guy uses his superpower on people, they see him as just another face in the crowd—one that could not possibly be a threat (even though he absolutely is).
• C. J. Cherryh's Rider series is set on a Death World where all the native predators are telepaths who use Jedi Mind Tricks to hunt their prey. The human colonists who settled there would have been wiped out if not for the night horses, a native predator species who like humans enough to bond with them and provide them with protection.
• In Ravenor Rogue, the daemonically-possessed Carl Thonius discovers that he can make people ignore the things he says or does. At one point he murders an innocent man and compels Maud Plyton to put a gun to her own head, doing both things right in front of Ravenor, a powerful psyker. Neither Maud nor Ravenor notices anything amiss.
• This is a very common power among the vampires in The Shadowhunter Chronicles, known as encanto. They can influence a human as well as a shadowhunter in this way. However, the effects only last for a few hours, and the person concerned is then initially immune to any further influence.
• The Witch of Knightcharm: The evil witch Lauren knows how to do this. For instance, after Emily meets her in Club Bacchus-Dionysus, Lauren orders craft beers and a waitress tries to card both girls (neither of whom are twenty-one). Lauren’s response is to flick her wand and cast a spell to brainwash the waitress into just getting the beers.
• World of the Five Gods: The Weirding Voice can be used in this way; Penric uses it on an Imperial courier to intercept the message that would prevent Nikys's mother from escaping in The Prisoner of Limnos.

Live-Action TV

• Babylon 5 lets Psi-Cop Bester allude to this in an episode where he and his team are chasing a runaway Telepath, who would evade normal security personnel by being able to "spark misleading hunches" in any non-telepath who was searching for him.
• Booth from Bones quotes this trope word-for-word when describing how he thinks Sweets will fire Daisy.
  Booth: Nah, Sweets is a lot trickier than that. He'll use some Jedi Mind Trick to make her think she fired herself.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • Works for a while in the episode "Buffy vs. Dracula". Notable in that Buffy is normally immune to such hypnosis. Obviously Dracula's mind-control magic is of a different variety than what the Master and Drusilla used.
    Dracula: I knew you'd come.
    Buffy: Why? Because I'm under your thrall? [suddenly comes back to herself and pulls out her stake] Well, guess again, pal.
    Dracula: Put the stake down.
    Buffy: OK. [instantly puts it down, then looks at her hand in surprise] Right. That... was not... you. [sounding unconvinced] I did that. I did that because... I wanted to. [Dracula watches her; she looks around nervously] Maybe I should rethink that thrall thing. [whimpers a little]
  • Also done on Xander, for whom it was so effective he turned into The Renfield after a few seconds of hypnotizing. In the continuation comics, Dracula picks Xander up as a thrall again, though the two eventually become sort-of friends. He also tells a Slayer to "save [her] questions until [he's] finished," in response to which she spends the next several panels while the others talk standing, dazedly murmuring, "I will save my questions until later... letting people talk shows respect... I have an inquisitive mind. But interrupting people is rude."
  • Parodied a season later in "Flooded". A demon seeking Buffy's death demands magical help from the three loser friends Warren, Andrew, and Jonathan, but with no powers to offer, Warren instead secretly gives the demon Buffy's address. When the demon departs without further argument, Warren's friends are impressed.
    Andrew: What are you, some kind of Jedi?
    Warren: The Force can sometimes have great power on the weak-minded.
  • Also (magically) used by Willow on a cop in a season 7 episode in order to convince him that she and Giles are with Interpol. She has to keep doing it though.
• In Chuck, Jeff and Lester try to use this on Morgan and Casey when they track them down to offer them their jobs back, and it actually works on Morgan for a second.
• Doctor Who:
  • The Master is an accomplished hypnotist, and during the classic series, he'd slip past guards by simply asking them to step aside (and give him the gun). Much like the mind trick from Star Wars, it does not work on those with strong wills.
  • As people seem to instinctively trust the Doctor while not knowing why, some novelisations have implied that the Doctor is using a similar form of suggestion.
  • Used by the Doctor in "Battlefield" to get civilians out of the danger area.
    Doctor: You're very angry.
    Pat: Of course we're angry.
    Doctor: And you want to leave.
    Warmsly: No, we do not want to leave!
    Doctor: Of course you want to leave [Gives Pat a Look].
    Pat: Of course we do.
    Doctor: I wouldn't stand for any nonsense, if I were you.
    Warmsly: Look, Doctor, the situation is perfectly simple. We are very angry and we... [The Doctor gives him a Look] ...want to leave.
  • The psychic paper has a very similar effect, appearing to the victim to be whatever they expect to see. Instead of only working on the weak-minded, it works on everyone except geniuses (i.e. Shakespeare). People with "psychic training" are also resistant to its effects. For the first few seasons of the New Series, it seemed to be used every other episode. When the Doctor tries to use the paper to make a kid believe he (the Doctor) is a responsible adult, the paper shorts out because it couldn't tell such a big lie. The paper also failed to work on one Obstructive Bureaucrat because the man was so lacking in imagination he only saw a blank piece of paper.
  • In the new series, the TARDIS also uses a Perception Filter in order to prevent bystanders from wandering inside to make a phone call. It doesn't always work, however.
  • In "The Sound of Drums", the Doctor uses the same technology in order to allow himself, Martha and Jack to slip past the Master's guards. It works on them, but the Master sees literally straight through.
  • Prisoner Zero also uses a perception filter in "The Eleventh Hour". The Doctor refers to the space it covers as being the bit "at the corner of your eye" that you don't want to look at — although it turns out you can if you try.
  • The Silence. You lose memory of them as soon as you look away. ...sorry, what were we talking about?

• In Forever Knight, the vampire masquerade would be shot to pieces without this ability. Some people are naturally immune, but it doesn't seem to be due to strong-mindedness so much as a psychological quirk of those people. Although Vampire Detective Nick Knight uses it for fighting crime (and getting his superiors off his back so he can do so) several incidents involving armed criminals end badly because Nick is unable to hypnotise them into putting down their guns. He was also unable to hypnotise a photographer who caught evidence of vampires on camera, as the photographer just had to look at the photograph to remind himself that he hadn't been seeing things.
• Heroes:
  • Matt Parkman is able to do this with his powers, once they develop from simply reading minds.
    Matt: [holds up a wallet] This is a Secret Service badge. You're going to let us through.
    Random Guard: Of course, go right ahead.
  • Season One minor character Eden McKain also has this ability. Although it takes her a couple of tries, she even manages to us it on Sylar.
  • Matt Parkman and Peter Petrelli use a tag-team version of this in Volume 4 to gain access to a government building and get information about the operation hunting them down.
  • Sylar's gesture when cutting off people's skulls is similar to the hand gesture the Jedi use when using Jedi Mind Tricks.
• iCarly parodies this in a later episode:
  T-Bo: Hey, I need $20 for those smoothies!
  Sam: You don't need $20 for these smoothies.
  T-Bo: I don't need $20 for the smoothies.
  Sam: These aren't the droids you're looking for.
  T-Bo: These aren't the droids we're looking for.
  Sam: Move along.
  T-Bo: Move along.
• Kilgrave from Jessica Jones (2015) is a dark example of this. He says a command to you and you will do it, up to and including murder. Lampshaded at one point when Jessica decides to see if she can straighten up Kilgrave by using him to talk down a hostage-taker:
  [Jessica, with Kilgrave in tow, comes across two cops]
  Cops: Whoa-whoa-whoa. What are you doing?
  Kilgrave: We can go about our business. Move along. Move along.
  Jessica Jones: Obi-Wan Kenobi?
  Kilgrave: But cooler.
  • His power, though, comes across literally. For example, he tells Trish, "Put a bullet in your skull," meaning "kill yourself." Fortunately, she had used up all her ammunition so she winds up trying to shove a spent bullet into her brain. Jessica manages to convince her that placing a bullet in her mouth literally interprets the order.
• Lampshaded in Lost. When Jack helps Shannon through an asthma attack, Hurley calls it for what it is, "a Jedi moment."

• NCIS: These pop up now and then. With Tony being a pop culture fan and somewhat Genre Savvy, he can be a big source.
  • When Team Gibbs is questioning a random hotel desk clerk, said clerk claims the person they are looking for pulled one of these on him. Including dropping the trope name.
  • In S 12, Ep 8, Gibbs is talking to a "suspect" who didn't do anything wrong. Tony comes in, ready to take their detainee back to Fairfax but Gibbs says no. So Tony makes a Shout-Out.
    Tony: Right. These are not the droids we're looking for.
• QI has a segment about Oscar the Hypodog, a dog who was allegedly able to hypnotize people. He supposed got loose in Edinburgh, and people were told to look for him but not to look in his eyes.
  Phil Jupitus: Presumably, when he's running around Edinburgh, someone thought they'd found him, and they'd go, "Hah! It's Oscar the Hypnodog!" [waves hand] "I'm not the dog you're looking for. I'm a Pomeranian."
• The Magoi from Sanctuary are abnormals that make up for their physical frailty with psychic powers. They can't directly control people, but they can alter their perception of reality to make them see what the Magoi want them to see.
• A couple of times on Star Trek: The Original Series, Spock escapes from a locked cell by hiding beside the door, and telepathically convincing the guard that he'd escaped. The guard rushes in to check, and the good guys jump him. Spock also uses it on the Yang female to get her to activate the communicator in "The Omega Glory".
• Supernatural:
  • The episode "Simon Said" really lampshades this to Hell and back!
  • Early on, Dean tells his brother, "He full-on Obi-Wanned me. It's mind control, man!" after a guest character does this to him.
  • And later in the show, that character actually quotes "These aren't the droids you're looking for," when he uses the power again.

• The vampires of True Blood have the ability to "glamour" people with eye contact. Some can resist it more than others, and some with fairie blood, like Sookie, are naturally immune. Averted in later seasons as humans develop special contact lenses to block the effect.

Music

• The Piano Guys did a parody of Star Wars involving its music, and finished the video with Steven gesturing in a reference to the Force gestures, informing you that You will like this video, You will annoy your friends with the constant posting of this video on Facebook, and You will not leave a lame comment about Chuck Norris, among other things.
• Just like The Piano Guys did, Peter Hollens (in Obi-Wan costume) pretends to pull one off behind the scenes of the Star Wars video that he and Lindsey Stirling made, gesturing and saying that, "You will like this video a lot. You will share this video."

Radio

• In what may be the Trope Maker, The Shadow's radio incarnation had the ability to influence the mind's thoughts and perceptions, and he used this sometimes to persuade other characters into doing what he wanted, much like the Jedi. In 1938 episode "The Silent Avenger", The Shadow does this to stop a crazy man from throwing a live grenade into a crowd. ("Your mind obeys mine.")

Tabletop Games

• The ability Push in Psionics: The Next Stage in Human Evolution. It allows the user to briefly alter a target's perceptions or make the target follow a simple command.
• In Mage: The Ascension a background, Arcane, is made especially for that at low levels, where it improves stealth and makes people's memory of you blurry. But it doesn't just affect people's minds, it affects cameras, computers, record systems, etc... it's a reality warping effect you can't turn off, which means that high levels of it can get inconvenient (like your landlord trying to rent out your apartment because they forgot you live there, your bank accidentally losing all records of your accounts, etc) or, at the maximum levels, downright scary (like close friends and family members forgetting you exist)
• In Exalted, the Sidereals have a permanent version of this. Their Arcane Fate makes it easy for them to take on any identity, as long as it isn't a specific person. They are also generally forgotten swiftly, and magical creatures can have difficulty remembering the details of an encounter (often, they remember nothing more about the Sidereal than "some Sidereal" or "an agent of destiny"). It's a mixed blessing, as, while it makes it easy to disguise themselves, and hard to track down, they also can't form powerbases in Creation, as non-supernatural entities will lose memory of them if they don't meet daily. And they can't turn it off.
• In GURPS the college of Mind Control spells includes a low-level "Daze" spell. A dazed guard will look and act normal, but will not notice anything going on around him until the spell wears off, even if an intruder walks right by.
• The Shadowrun Adept power "Compelling Voice" allows the user to force someone to obey a simple command. Uses range from the sensible ("Drop the gun!") to the sadistic ("Shoot yourself!") to the silly (*walking into a crowded shopping mall with a megaphone* "Everyone! Strip!"). The "Influence" spell allows mages to do the same.
• This is how Obfuscate actually works in Vampire: The Masquerade. The user does not actually disappear or become invisible, he just make it so his presence is imperceptible, and everyone instinctively avoid him. He will still show on electronic devices, and bumping into someone or getting bumped can quickly ruin this power.
• The Dark Eye players can use the friendliness-spell "Bannbaladin" for this purpose. Usually combined with a "Not the Druids you're looking for" pun.

Theatre

• This trope comes up in Ani, naturally. Obi-Wan Kenobi stumbles into a bar...
  Bartender: Whoa, buddy, you just came in here, but I think you've had enough!
  Obi-Wan: I'll Tell You When I've Had Enough!
  Bartender: You'll tell me when you've had enough!

Video Games

• The Stone Mask of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask makes Link effectively invisible to minor enemies by rendering him "as boring as a stone." You obtain it from an unfortunate soldier who put it on and then collapsed from exhaustion—but couldn't get anyone to help him because of the mask's effects. Link himself can only perceive the soldier using the Lens of Truth.
• In Second Sight, one of the powers the protagonist, John Vattic, unlocks is "Charm". This calms people down, allowing him to stop allies panicking (only useful in one mission, where he has to escort an ally from a mental asylum) or more usefully to generate a Somebody Else's Problem field. This makes him essentially invisible (but guards still turn their heads to look at you, they just don't care). Obviously the effect doesn't work on machines, and if it's used on someone who's attacking you then the feedback drains your Psi bar.
• City of Heroes:
  • The Placate power used by Stalkers makes a hostile enemy turn docile just long enough for another Assassin's Strike (or to run). It even has the hand-wave animation.
  • One of the kidnapped people that you can "rescue", Dr. Stephen Fayte, seems to use this on both his captors and the player character(s) to convince everyone that he is "merely a gifted surgeon, and nothing more."
• Parodied in Armed and Dangerous (published by LucasArts):
  Rexus: You don't need to see our papers.
  Guards: ...We don't need to see your papers.
  Rexus: Good. Now, you... uh...
  Guards: We... uh...
  Rexus: Uh... uh... quick, what should I say to them? I'm running out of power!
  Guards: Quick, what should he say to us? He's running out of power!
• Guybrush can attempt this in The Curse of Monkey Island on the Cabaña Boy who is keeping him from getting into the Brimstone Beach Club. It almost works.
• In Ratchet & Clank (2002), Fred tries to utilize his invention The Persuader to control Ratchet. It doesn't work, since its only function is getting discounts from vendors.
  Fred: You will find Raritanium for me.
  Ratchet: [deadpan] No I will not.
• The Witcher:
  • The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings features the Axii magic sign, usable in combat to temporarily mind-control a foe to your side, or in dialog situations where a Compelling Voice is handy. Geralt gives a straightforward order, and does a subtle hand signal to trigger the effect... and then it's up to how strong you've made the sign and how frequently you use it in that manner as to whether or not it's successful.
  • Axii returns in the same capacity in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. However, there are some scenes where it will not work at all and can make the situation a lot worse, usually if there are witnesses around to see you do it.
• NBA 2K15. Invoked in the MyGM mode, where the GM can perform one on a free agent (with a cost to earned credits).
  GM: This is EXACTLY the contract you're looking for. You won't be able to find a better deal with any other team.
  Player: You are 100% correct. This is EXACTLY the contract I'm looking for and I accept your contract offer.
• During the raid on Eternia Central Command in Bravely Second, the party finds itself coming upon a group of guards on patrol. Tiz, who had just woken up, attempts this on the guards to get them to go away. It works.
• The Legend of Heroes - Trails:
  • Wazy in The Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure uses his Dominion abilities on a group of guards to send them away from guarding the hospital.
  • Emma in Trails of Cold Steel II is capable of using her magic for this.
    Emma: We're just common travelers and we aren't on that list of yours. Which means we can pass, right?
    Provincial Army Soldier: ...Hmph. Why're you still standing there? Go along inside. Just don't go causing any trouble unless you want to find yourselves arrested.
  • In Cold Steel III, Emma, now aided by Gaius as well, uses the trick again, this time to not only trick to soldiers at a gate, but to implant the suggestion in such a way that it will spread to the other soldiers throughout the town as well.

Web Animation

• Predictably, this shows up in the DEATH BATTLE! episode, "Obi-Wan Kenobi vs. Kakashi", with Obi-Wan attempting this on Kakashi. As for the results? Well, to put it bluntly, it doesn't work, and this is how the fight starts proper:
  Obi-Wan: You want to go home and keep reading your book.
  Kakashi: I want to go home and keep reading my book... after I KICK YOUR ASS!
• Spoofed in Super-Hero-Bowl!: Rey tries to use the trick on Batman in order to strip him of his weapon and body armor... it works, but not on the intended target.
  Batman: Honey, do I look weak-minded to you?
  Deadpool: Done, and done! What else has to happen?
  Rey: Ew! You will put your clothes back on immediately!

Web Comics

• In Drowtales, This turns out to be how◊ Ash'waren has been convincing everyone that she's actually a drow for the better part of a millennium when in truth she's a dark elf. Being one of the most powerful empaths in The 'Verse probably helps.
• In The Last Days of FOXHOUND, Psycho Mantis uses this to accomplish various tasks—and for petty cash.
• Skillfully executed in Last Res0rt. To recap: The Vaeo family is more than just a little pissed off at Daisy and Adharia over some Forgotten Phlebotinum and a Chekov's Gun, respectively, and Jigsaw figures out she's likely to lose in a fight over either of them, let alone both... at which point she gives Nate a 'casual' reminder to check the ratings for tonight's episode, after which everything is apparently forgiven.
• In The Non-Adventures of Wonderella, this is indirectly parodied. Penumbra is asked to do her "Star Wars trick," setting up an expectation for this trope, and, well...
• In The Order of the Stick, Haley uses a +30 Bluff potion and her already impressive bluff stats to convince a guard he's not actually human.
• Parodied in the Punyverse arc of Sluggy Freelance where the Darth Vader expy Lord Grater thinks that he has force powers.
  Grater: You will lie down and take a nap!
  Guard: Huh?
  [Torg hits the guard over the head with large rock]
  Guard: I will lie down and take a nap. [passes out]
• Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic has this as an "Old Illithid Mind Trick".
• The Adventures of Dr. McNinja has this in the form of Mustaches of Authority, which are grown out of sheer willpower by both Dan McNinja and the 12-year old Gunslinger Gordito.
• Malloy outright performs this on Adrestia in Morph E.
• Zebra Girl: Crystal might not know as many spells as her brother, but the "Jedi" one comes in handy when she's in public riding a werewolf.

Web Original

• One of the powers of Vanessa Jackson, codename Vox, in the Whateley Universe. Also used by supervillainess Obsession in "Ayla and the Birthday Brawl" to lead several SWAT teams to their death.
• In Stars In Black, he doesn't need any references.

Western Animation

• Danny Phantom parodies this while using the Reality Gauntlet to erase all memories of The Unmasqued World:
  Danny: From now on, you're going to leave Danny Fenton and his family alone.
  Guys in White: Why?
  Danny: Because... he's not the ghost you're looking for.
  Guys in White: He's not the ghost we're looking for...
• Dexter's Laboratory: In "The Muffin King", Dexter's Dad uses a mind trick on Dexter to force him to turn over the muffins he was guarding. Dee Dee slaps Dexter to snap him out of it.
• Futurama:
  • Averted by Fry, who is immune to the brainspawn's idiocy-inducing powers due to his superior, yet inferior mind.
  • But played straight with the greatest character of all: The Hypno-Toad.
    Judge: And the winner is... The Hypno-Toad.
    Hypno-Toad: [angry Turbine sound]
    Audience: [single simultaneous clap; pause; single simultaneous clap]
    Judge: All glory to the Hypno-Toad.
• Oberon in Gargoyles directly copies Obi-Wan to gain entrance to Xanatos Tower, though unlike the Obi-Wan example, the victim translates the order into his own words.
• Men in Black: The Series has the Neuralizer for this purpose. While its stated purpose is to erase memories, the ability to write new ones, seen more in the movies than the show for the most part, could make it quite the Mind Control tool in the wrong hands, by making someone "remember" a really good reason to do whatever it is you want them to do and forget you were there in the same stroke.
• Lampshaded in Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths:
  Model Citizen: You don't want to fight me, you want to help me.
  The Flash: I don't want to fight you, I want to— wait a minute, this is like the Jedi Mind Trick!
  Model Citizen: This is not like the Jedi Mind Trick.
  The Flash: This is not like the Jedi Mind Trick.
• Robot Chicken:
  • Hilariously parodied:
    President's Advisor: Hello Mr. President, people are still wondering if we found weapons of mass destruction.
    President Bush: [while doing the hand motion] You have found weapons of mass destruction.
    President's Advisor: Uh, no sir, we haven't.
    Bush: You have! [Bush waves]
    Advisor: Hello there sir. [waves back]
    Bush: You will bring me a taco.
    Advisor: Yes, sir!
    Bush: Heheh, tacos rule.
  • And before that, there was:
    Bush: You are not tired. You want to have a threesome.
    Laura: I'm not tired. I want to have a threesome.
    Bush: [into a phone] Get me Condi.
  • From the Star Wars sketch:
    Obi-Wan: These aren't the droids you're looking for.
    Gary: "These aren't the droids we're looking for."
    Jessica: Yes they are!
    Gary: Move along.
    Jessica: Daddy! You're not even trying!
    Gary: Baby! It is a 165 degrees on this planet! I can't hear in this thing! I was just repeating what the guy was saying, it's not like it wasn't my own thoughts alright!?
    Jessica: [cries]
• The South Park episode "Terrence & Phillip: Behind the Blow", the Earth Day Brainwashing Society (Yes, that's what they're called) uses this on the crowd at their show.
• Irma in W.I.T.C.H. has this as one of her minor powers. Cornelia has a similar power in the comic. Himerish also does this to some guards near the end of the 4th saga. Subverted that it only works to stall them for a little while.

Real Life

• Two men at a train station in Britain actually got a free ride by telling the ticket inspector, "you don't need to see our tickets."
• The power of suggestion is surprisingly keen. If two flavors of candy are offered but one is subtly emphasized, possibly by being pointed to or vocally named, many people will choose it for no other reason.
• See that security guard there? No one's ever tried that "you don't need to see my credentials" trick on him.
• Using Politeness Judo will make it seem like you can do this.
• Anyone who has worked in any form of customer service has no doubt experienced the customer who tries this by simply ignoring the worker and repeating what they want over and over. Mileage is highly variable, and this sort of behavior really doesn't improve the worker's day, so please Don't Try This at Home.
• Rootkits are a type of malware whose best-known trait is essentially employing this with computer systems. This kind of software infects systems by gaining and installing via its highest-possible privilege level access (e.g. UNIX's "root" account). The software can then conceal its own or another piece of software's presence by assuming control of all the system's other software, including any software trying to detect or remove it.

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This isn't the trope we're looking for. We'll move along.

Hang on...this paper's blank!

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