open/close all folders
Anime and Manga
"I must say, I like to show a nightmare after I show someone a good dream. I love to see the contortions of a human face! To gaze upon someone struggling with their grief and suffering—so much fun!"
— Enmu, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba
"My mind's being eaten away... Kaji, it's unraveling my mind... What will I do? It's defiling my mind..."
— Asuka Langley Sohryu, Neon Genesis Evangelion
Comic Books
Luke: Nothing...
Emperor: You. Are. Nothing.
Luke: Where am I?
Emperor: Alone.
Luke: No — Help me—
Emperor: There is no one. There is only the Dark Side.
Luke: I... am... a Jedi. Aaaaah!
Emperor: You are not Jedi. You are nothing. You have no name.
Luke: My name — is — Skywalker! AAAAAAH!
Emperor: YOU. HAVE. NO. NAME!
Luke: I—
Emperor: Listen to the Dark Side. You have no name.
Luke: I have... [dully] no name.
Emperor: You serve the Dark Side.
Luke: I... s-serve...
Emperor: You. Are. Nothing.
Luke: Where am I?
Emperor: Alone.
Luke: No — Help me—
Emperor: There is no one. There is only the Dark Side.
Luke: I... am... a Jedi. Aaaaah!
Emperor: You are not Jedi. You are nothing. You have no name.
Luke: My name — is — Skywalker! AAAAAAH!
Emperor: YOU. HAVE. NO. NAME!
Luke: I—
Emperor: Listen to the Dark Side. You have no name.
Luke: I have... [dully] no name.
Emperor: You serve the Dark Side.
Luke: I... s-serve...
— Dark Empire, the audio drama
"For showing compassion, Granny would condemn me to a thousand mindyears of all-pain."
— Big Barda, Gotham City Garage
The touch of the King comes from all directions simultaneously. He is outside and inside and somewhere else. Suddenly she can't remember the name of her husband or the sound of the voices of her daughters. All she can remember is the time when she was twelve and she let the man in the swingpark touch her. He gave her ten shillings and she bought chocolate and was sick. Shame. Disgust. Humiliation. The king is talking to her, touching her that way.
Barry: This is merely the prelude — to this... the seizing of your mind!
Supergirl: My head... suddenly feels so hot... throbbing...!
Barry: That is me, Supergirl. Your mind may differ from normal humans, but it is still vulnerable to attack from within — an attack most painful!
Supergirl: Gnngh! N-no! Get... out of... my head...!
Barry: Do not be ridiculous, child! You are mine now! It ill serves me to relinquish my control... before you are dead!
Supergirl: S-stop... it...
Barry: I think not. Please... Do not resist. It only makes the process that much more painful — and prolongs the agony!
Supergirl: My head... suddenly feels so hot... throbbing...!
Barry: That is me, Supergirl. Your mind may differ from normal humans, but it is still vulnerable to attack from within — an attack most painful!
Supergirl: Gnngh! N-no! Get... out of... my head...!
Barry: Do not be ridiculous, child! You are mine now! It ill serves me to relinquish my control... before you are dead!
Supergirl: S-stop... it...
Barry: I think not. Please... Do not resist. It only makes the process that much more painful — and prolongs the agony!
Fan Works
"Ponyville used to be the nicest, simplest, all around friendly town ya could hope ta settle in. But now it's feelin' like a little filly whose lost her innocence a little bit too soon."
— Applejack describes the aftermath of Discord's attack, Pony POV Series
That had led Desaad down the right track. For tortures of the mind can be even worse than tortures of the body, and Apokolips has mind-probers aplenty.
I retreated. As Esplin 9466 cheerfully tugged on my pleasure sensors, my pain receptors, as he started issuing orders and surveying his domain, I retreated. I would become just a body again, trapped in my personal, inescapable torment, that haunted me even after death.
— Alloran's narration, What Tomorrow Brings
He grabbed [Dia] behind the head. She went limp. All the breath rushed out of me, and I fell to my knees.
It was as if I had woken up to find him demorphing next to me under the covers, half-roach, half-human legs squirming against my chest. But no, as horrible as that would be, that doesn't do it justice. It was as if he had cut my skull open, pulled out my brain, and ran his tongue along the crevice between the hemispheres, then licked his lips at the taste of it.
I didn't beg for him to let her go. I was beyond that. I made noises in the back of my throat that sounded more like a wounded animal than anything human. Everything in the universe was wrong, twisted, disgusting, and it wouldn't be right again until he stopped touching her.
It was as if I had woken up to find him demorphing next to me under the covers, half-roach, half-human legs squirming against my chest. But no, as horrible as that would be, that doesn't do it justice. It was as if he had cut my skull open, pulled out my brain, and ran his tongue along the crevice between the hemispheres, then licked his lips at the taste of it.
I didn't beg for him to let her go. I was beyond that. I made noises in the back of my throat that sounded more like a wounded animal than anything human. Everything in the universe was wrong, twisted, disgusting, and it wouldn't be right again until he stopped touching her.
— Marco's narration, The Cowardice of Lions
“Thoughtcrime’s when you think something like ‘yeerks suck’ and then next thing you know you get to spend the next six hours feeling like your head’s about to explode. So you stop doing it. Stop even thinking the things you’re not allowed to think.”
— Tom, These Are the Damned
And the creature that had once been Shamuhaza was obliterated utterly as it saw without seeing, as it heard without hearing, felt without feeling, unceasing agony as the man who had once been Kyril Sutherland showed it what he looked like behind his mask. The creature that had once been Shamuhaza screamed as nightmares, dreams and hate bombarded its empty brain like a torrent.
Film
"I'll begin with how I peeled back the layers of the boy's mind. Oh, he bravely tried to fight it at first. You would've been proud to see him so strong. But all too soon, the serums and the shocks took their toll, and the dear lad began to share such secrets with me. Secrets that are mine alone to know... Bruce. It's true, Batsy! I know everything. And kinda like the kid who peeks at his Christmas presents, I must admit, it's sadly anti-climactic. Behind all the sturm and bat-o-rangs, you're just a little boy in a playsuit, crying for mommy and daddy! It'd be funny if it weren't so pathetic. Oh, what the heck, I'll laugh anyway. HA HA HA HA HA HAA!"
— The Joker on how he tortured Tim Drake into insanity, Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker
"Anyone can torture, but to break a person without harming physically, that's an art."
— Paul Schafer, The Colony (2016)
Literature
"You scream all the time, but it's the inside kind. You scream and scream, but you can only hear it when you're asleep. Otherwise, it's quite lovely."
It was as if an alien hand had reached right inside where no hand had a right to be, and wrenched at something deep and precious. She felt faint, sick, dizzy, disgusted, limp with shock. ... It wasn't allowed. Not supposed to touch. Wrong...
— Lyra's reaction when a stranger grabs her dæmon, The Golden Compass
[Glaurung] constrained her to gaze into his eyes, and he laid a spell of utter darkness and forgetfulness upon her, so that she could remember nothing that had ever befallen her, nor her own name, nor the name of any other thing; and for many days she could neither hear, nor see, nor stir by her own will.
AM said it with the sliding cold horror of a razor blade slicing my eyeball. AM said it with the bubbling thickness of my lungs filling with phlegm, drowning me from within. AM said it with the shriek of babies being ground beneath blue-hot rollers. AM said it with the taste of maggoty pork. AM touched me in every way I had ever been touched, and devised new ways, at his leisure, there inside my mind.
The mental images grew more intense: Kihrin with his old teacher Mouse, with Morea, with any number of girls and boys from the Veil velvet house. Kihrin saw him doing things to them — terrible, non-consensual things. The demon showed Kihrin image after image of himself as a cruel, sadistic monster of a man, a demon clothed in human skin who delighted in the pain and terror of those around him. He fed on it in the way that crocodiles fed on anyone foolish enough to come too close to the river. The demon drove deep into Kihrin's mind and pulled up the memories of everyone he'd ever known and loved and then had Kihrin tear them apart — or murder, torture or rape them. Even in the Copper Quarter, even for a boy who had grown up in Velvet Town, sins existed beyond his experience or comprehension. The demon emptied one atrocity after another into the boy's head until he had seen them all.
Kihrin screamed and screamed.
Kihrin screamed and screamed.
— The Ruin Of Kings, by Jenn Lyons
Amy Fremont got up from the rocking chair, and came across the porch. She was a tall woman, thin, a smiling vacancy in her eyes. About a year ago, Anthony had gotten mad at her, because she'd told him he shouldn't have turned the cat into a cat-rug, and although he had always obeyed her more than anyone else, which was hardly at all, this time he'd snapped at her. With his mind. And that had been the end of Amy Fremont's bright eyes, and the end of Amy Fremont as everyone had known her.
There had been no pressure behind that touch, but he had caught, dimly, the implication that there could have been, if she had wished. That this Troi had wanted him to realize that, or more likely to be reminded of it. There was also something uncomfortably sexual about the touch, like being fondled without permission or desire. This Troi's manner suggested that such minor harassments were a pleasure to her, one she indulged whenever she liked. And from the fear the other crewmen seemed to evince in her presence, no one was safe.
The icy thoughts of the Queen of the Norns crept through him, wrenching at his very being with cold, heedless claws. It was an agony beyond anything, beyond fear or imagination. She emptied him, and he was a helpless witness. All that had happened, all his experiences leaped from him, his innermost thoughts and private self ripped out and exhibited; it felt as though she had slit him open like a fish and pulled free his struggling soul.
"Power is tearing human minds apart and putting them back together in new shapes of your own choosing."
— O'Brien, Nineteen Eighty-Four
She was nothing. She was insignificant. She was so worthless and unimportant that even something completely worthless and exhaustively unimportant would consider her beneath contempt. In laying hands upon the Queen she truly deserved an eternity of pain. She had no control of her body. She did not deserve any. She did not deserve a thing.
The disdain sleeted over her, tearing the planetary body of Magrat Garlick to pieces.
She'd never be any good. She'd never be beautiful, or intelligent, or strong. She'd never be anything at all.
Self-confidence? Confidence in what? The eyes of the Queen were all she could see. All she wanted to do was lose herself in them...
Ahmadi: I thought it would be like... being with people. Like a dream, but it's not. It's being part of an idea that's too big to think. Being one part of a brain that's so vast and interconnected, it's not human. It's made of humans, but that's not what it is. Not any more than we're neurons and cells.
Tanaka: You still think this is intimate assault?
Ahmadi: Oh yes, yes.
Tanaka: You still think this is intimate assault?
Ahmadi: Oh yes, yes.
Sam: What happens when it reaches [out to] you?
Caine: Pain.
Sam: Bad?
Caine: Like someone took a white-hot knife and stabbed it into your head and twisted it back and forth, again and again.
— Gone
Live-Action TV
"Somewhere on Beta Colony there is an institution. In one room of the institution, there is a man who spends his days and nights screaming at things that only he can see. Things we planted in his mind. They have to keep him in a straitjacket twenty-four hours a day or he'll claw his own eyes out just to make it stop."
— Lyta Alexander, Babylon 5
Oh, you want to cry, young creature? I will show you something that will make you cry forever!
— Stark unleashing his wrath upon Jool, Farscape
"It's sticking in me! You cutitoutyoucutitoutYOUCUTITOUTYOUCUTIT—"
Roose Bolton: What did you do to him?
Ramsay Snow: I trained him. He was a slow learner, but he learned.
Ramsay Snow: I trained him. He was a slow learner, but he learned.
"Hollow him out. Take everything."
— Noah, Heroes
"You don't know, Robert, you don't know. They took everything I was. They used me to kill and to destroy, and I couldn't stop them! I should have been able to stop them! I tried. I tried so hard. But I wasn't strong enough! I wasn't good enough! I should have been able to stop them."
— Captain Picard, Star Trek: The Next Generation, "Family"
The Doctor: [panting] It's burning me up, I can't control it! If you don't get rid of it, I could kill you! [through gritted teeth] I could kill you all... [screams in agony — whimpers] I'm scared... I'm so scared...
Martha: Just... Stay calm! You saved me, now I return the favor. Just believe in me.
The Doctor: IT'S BURNING, KILL ME! Then it won't happen! [pained gasping]
Martha: That's enough! I've got you! [...] You ready?
The Doctor: No!
Martha: Just... Stay calm! You saved me, now I return the favor. Just believe in me.
The Doctor: IT'S BURNING, KILL ME! Then it won't happen! [pained gasping]
Martha: That's enough! I've got you! [...] You ready?
The Doctor: No!
— Doctor Who, "42"
Music
Distrust that brews every single time that I think of you
Rape my mind to make me blind
Thought I would forget?
Rape my mind to make me blind
Thought I would forget?
— Dimestore Hoods, "Blood In My Eyes"
How much deception can you take
How many lies will you create
How much longer till you break
Your mind's about to fall
How many lies will you create
How much longer till you break
Your mind's about to fall
— Muse, "MK Ultra"
I'd love to see inside your mind and tear it all apart
To cut you open with a knife and find your sacred heart
To cut you open with a knife and find your sacred heart
— Oingo Boingo, "Insanity"
Radio
The Doctor: The damage to his mind, it's unmistakable. The creature got in there... and did that to him.
Stephen Keyser: Try to imagine what it's like! Twitching so much you can't fall asleep; finally you drift off — smack into the hardest nightmare you've ever had. You wake up screaming again, but of course... the nightmare's still there.
Stephen Keyser: Try to imagine what it's like! Twitching so much you can't fall asleep; finally you drift off — smack into the hardest nightmare you've ever had. You wake up screaming again, but of course... the nightmare's still there.
"Listen, you can kill a man, destroy his body, break his spirit, but only the Total Perspective Vortex can annihilate a man's soul. The treatment lasts one second, but the effects last your lifetime."
Tabletop Games
"Knowledge is such a burden. Release it. Release all your nightmares to me."
— Ashiok, Magic: The Gathering, "Thoughtseize"
The cruelest tortures leave no mark upon the flesh.
"To break another's mind is to deliver a Fate Worse than Death. It is a terrifying power."
— Jace Beleren, Magic: The Gathering, "Psychic Corrosion"
An open mind is like a fortress with its gate unbarred and unguarded.
— Imperial Proverb, Warhammer 40,000
If awareness yields to Awakening, the initiate finds himself impaled on the icy horns — or more appropriately, phallus — of Enlightenment. For one who pursues the darkest Mysteries, this moment is a rape of the soul. Every fear, every doubt, every screaming terror the initiate has ever felt rips through him like a gutter's hook. At this moment, he stands at the edge of Hell, and gets a taste of it. The experience isn't pleasant. [...] It may be a prelude to a wondrous career, but the Cold Thrust is always torturous. It literally scars the soul, tears it open on a spiritual level. No matter what the diabolist does, this moment will haunt him like no other. Some initiates snap forever at this point and become demented Marauds. Some even die from the shock. Those who endure with their wits intact become the most dangerous kind of mage: those who have gone to hell and returned.
— Mage: The Sorcerer's Crusade — Infernalism
The merger isn't a wholesome symbiosis or a sharing of souls. It is more akin to a spiritual violation. [...] The Bane forces the human to see everything — friends, family, music, art, anything the human once loved — in its own terms. That means friends and family are just sacks of meat waiting to be used for whatever purpose the Bane sees fit. Music and art are distractions, mind-numbing and maddening enigmas that the Bane doesn't have any way at all to appreciate. Love is not compatible with the Bane's outlook — it is, in fact, the Bane's very antithesis.
Adding to the horror, the victim keeps his own perceptions and thoughts during all of this. They may be tainted or colored by the Bane's to be sure, but the human's mindset is still nowhere near as simplistic as the Bane's. That means that a father looking at his son sees the child not only through his own eyes but also through the Bane's — and the Bane is part of him, at his most basic level. Is it any wonder that most fomori lose their sanity?
Adding to the horror, the victim keeps his own perceptions and thoughts during all of this. They may be tainted or colored by the Bane's to be sure, but the human's mindset is still nowhere near as simplistic as the Bane's. That means that a father looking at his son sees the child not only through his own eyes but also through the Bane's — and the Bane is part of him, at his most basic level. Is it any wonder that most fomori lose their sanity?
— Werewolf: The Apocalypse — Possessed: A Player's Guide
Cainites fear Dementation more than any other Discipline. Dominate might erase your memories, Vicissitude might reshape your form, but Dementation can destroy your soul.
— Vampire: The Masquerade — Dark Ages
Video Games
"The scientists were always hanging cores on me to regulate my behavior. I've heard voices all my life."
— GLaDOS, Portal 2
Clyde: Coon, what happened?
Kyle: Timmy got away?
Cartman: He... he completely raped my mind. No seriously you guys, he fucked the shit out of my brains, his mental powers are too strong.
Kyle: Timmy got away?
Cartman: He... he completely raped my mind. No seriously you guys, he fucked the shit out of my brains, his mental powers are too strong.
Kokonoe: So, the mask creeper was bad-touching your brain-meats, huh?
Makoto: Yeah, that's right. He was pulling out memory after memory. Especially all the bad ones I'd hidden away.
Kokonoe: Yep. I bet he got all your most embarrassing moments. Y'know, the ones that make you wanna cry into a pillow and kick your legs?
Makoto: Yeah, that's right. He was pulling out memory after memory. Especially all the bad ones I'd hidden away.
Kokonoe: Yep. I bet he got all your most embarrassing moments. Y'know, the ones that make you wanna cry into a pillow and kick your legs?
"First the pupils dilate, muscles tighten, hysteria replaces rationality, and then... [the warden screams in agony] ...The mind shatters."
— Dread Master Raptus, Star Wars: The Old Republic
Come to me...
Bring your sword, bring your wife,
bring adoration, bring me your life.
You are mine, fall in line,
only in death will you wake.
Cattle and Swine, I will dine
on your mind, honey and cake.
never to cease, never to end,
never to question, always to bend.
Come to me...
Bring your sword, bring your wife,
bring adoration, bring me your life.
You are mine, fall in line,
only in death will you wake.
Cattle and Swine, I will dine
on your mind, honey and cake.
never to cease, never to end,
never to question, always to bend.
Come to me...
— The "Domination" spell, Fall from Heaven
"I tried to stay hidden, but there was no escape! He cornered me, wrapped me tight and brought me close..."
"Mary had a little lamb, Little lamb, little lamb, Mary had a little lamb, whose fleece was white as snow."
— Last transmission from Assassins' Redoubt, after the Dream Twister special project is completed, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
"Baptism is the rebirth of the spirit. But sometimes the mind gets in the way. If the mind will not yield, then you must expose the mind to every version of itself. Either the mind will yield, or be reduced to a blank."
— Elizabeth Comstock, Bioshock Infinite
Visual Novels
Get out of my head. Get out of my head. Get out of my head. Get out of my head. Get out of my head. Get out of my head. Get out of my head. Get out of my head. Get Out Of my head. Get out of my head. Get out of my head. Get out of My Head. Get out of my head. Get out of my head. Get out of my head. Get out of my head. Get out of my head. Get out of my head. Get out of my head. Get out of my head. Get out of my head. Get out of my head. Get out of my head. Get out of my head. Get Out Of my head. Get out of my head. Get out of my head. Get out of My Head. Get out of my head. Get out of my head. Get out of my head. Get out of my head. Get out of my head. Get out of my head. Get out of my head. Get out of my head. Get Out of my head. Get out of
Get.
Out.
Of.
My.
Head.
Get.
Out.
Of.
My.
Head.
— Sayori, Doki Doki Literature Club!
Web Original
Webcomics
"AUHG! THAT NOISE!! SHE'S IN MY HEAD! STOP! Tell her to STOP!!"
— Ava Ire being subjected to the "Judgement" of Nevy Nervine, Ava's Demon
"I can't- ANHGGH-!! Nightmarish- screeching-! Mind- Probing- HORRORS!!"
— Ava Ire still being "Judged", Ava's Demon
Western Animation
"Son of a bitch, he mind raped me!"
— Stan, American Dad!, "Failure is not a Factory Installed Option"
"G-Get... out of me! GAAAH!"
— Danny Phantom, trying to fight off possession in "Kindred Spirits"
Niko: Because unless you're a Poe, that thing is deadly. It's a battery... a storage battery. It contains one million emotions. A hundred thousand kinds of fear, a quarter-million kinds of anger... jealousy, love... One touch, and it's—
Goose: The emotional electric chair.
Goose: The emotional electric chair.
— Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers, "One Million Emotions"
The Flash: I thought you said you couldn't read their minds.
Martian Manhunter: [eyes glowing] I'll just have to try... harder.
Martian Manhunter: [eyes glowing] I'll just have to try... harder.
