Belief of Illusions

[Scott Adams]

At 04:54 PM 1/18/01 -0500, you wrote:
>Scott,
>   Pretty much what the spell reads is that if they believe it is real it
>does real damage EVEN AFTER it is disbelieved by anyone who believes it. In
>other words it is actually made real in the game until it is disbelieved.
>But the tricky thing is that it has no substance. IN REALITY it pretty much
>states in the County Mordor (sp?) module that Illusions have no substance
>(see the pit trap illusion entering the mouth of the cave for the harp?). So
>the only way you really can have them per the game is that the mind reacts
>to the illusion and thus stops your swing. How you are left with physical
>wounds is a matter of physical projection. The mind can actually cause
>physical wounds to appear (I read an interesting medical text on this,
>concerning male menstruation as well as female, as well as other oddities
>such as menstruation from previous wounds and from the eyes, ears, etc... it
>also was an excellent reference for stigmatic versus menstruation from these
>locations... it also had some interesting hypnotism cases where wounds were
>(re-)created physically on the body due to recall on subconscious memories
>of previous accidents). Whew, suffice to say illusions are not real (can be
>passed through if one has to obey the laws of physics). One such distinction
>would be the proverbial "Solid Wall". Character one can see it is an
>illusion. Character two cannot. Character one walks through the wall,
>Character two can now disbelieve (if he has reason to believe the person
>cannot "stone walk"). If he still believes the wall is solid, he cannot pass
>(his mind won't let him). Alternately, if Character one had simply picked up
>Character two and threw him through the wall he would have  landed on the
>other side. I would say the actual self passing through the wall would be
>like a x5 multiplier and the simply seeing someone else do it would be a
>recheck or 1-3x multiplier depending on additional coaxing.
>
>... I would note also that a good GM trap is to have a real wall/pit with
>illusionary spikes... keeps them form actually having something to climb out
>with... grin.


Well I take it on a case per case basis for the illusion.  If its a cave and a
illusion
of a waterfall to guard the entrance then the person seeis its as an illusion
and
believes it.  But his mind knows that if its just a waterfall he can walk
through it
thus can do so.  Whether there is a wall or what behind is another question.
However if its a waterfall of flame the character knows flame hurts thus he
will not try to walk through it thus believes it to have some solid form.
This
is pretty
much what I do.  Hypnotism can make one believe something is there for someone
the
same thing can go with mental belief if its strong enough.  I always felt if
you believe
a wall is there and you swing at it then somehow your brain works to stop the
swing (likely the swing goes a wee bit inside the illusion due to force of
motion but does
slow down).  I do recall the module and such but thought I'd get other
views.  
Thanks

Course theres the evil god who created Mime...they believe they are in a
box :)