THE MAN OF YOUR DREAMS… OR NIGHTMARES

Visitors to dreamland report encounters with a mysterious stranger appearing globally – but is “This Man” haunting our collective unconscious, or merely the face of an elaborate hoax?

In the shadowy realm where consciousness fades and dreams take hold, a peculiar phenomenon emerged in January 2006. A woman in New York, visiting her psychiatrist, repeatedly drew the same unfamiliar face – a man who appeared in her dreams offering personal advice, though she insisted she’d never encountered him in waking life.

This curious occurrence might have remained an isolated incident had another patient not recognized the portrait resting on the psychiatrist’s desk. This second patient claimed the same mysterious figure had frequented his dreams as well, despite never having seen him in reality.

Intrigued by this strange coincidence, the psychiatrist shared the portrait with colleagues treating patients with recurring dreams. Within months, four more individuals identified the face as a regular visitor in their nocturnal visions. All referred to this enigmatic dream-walker simply as “This Man.”

Since those first reported appearances in 2006, the phenomenon allegedly spread. According to a website dedicated to tracking these occurrences, approximately 2,000 people worldwide claimed to have seen this identical stranger in their dreams. Reports emerged from cities spanning the globe – Los Angeles, Berlin, Sao Paulo, Tehran, Beijing, Rome, Barcelona, Stockholm, Paris, New Delhi, and Moscow.

Perhaps most unsettling was the apparent lack of connection between these dreamers. They shared no common traits, backgrounds, or relationships. Even more perplexing – no real person had ever been identified as resembling the man in the portrait.

This mystery spawned numerous theories attempting to explain why this specific face kept materializing in unrelated dreamscapes. Some psychologists cited Carl Jung’s concept of the collective unconscious, suggesting “This Man” represented an archetypal image that surfaces during periods of emotional turbulence, stress, or significant life transitions. As an element of our shared unconscious, it made sense that multiple individuals might encounter this same figure across years and continental divides.

Others embraced religious interpretations, proposing “This Man” was a divine manifestation – one of many faces through which God reveals himself to humanity. Under this belief system, his dream messages were considered sacred guidance to be followed without question.

Perhaps the most fascinating yet scientifically dubious explanation was the “Dream Surfer” theory. This hypothesis suggested “This Man” was a real person possessing extraordinary psychological abilities allowing him to enter others’ dreams at will. Some believers maintained he appeared identical to his physical self, while others thought his dream appearance differed from his corporeal form. More conspiratorial minds wondered if he represented part of an elaborate psychological experiment orchestrated by a powerful corporation.

A more grounded psycho-sociological theory proposed that the phenomenon spread mimetically. People who encountered stories about “This Man” became so captivated that their minds eventually conjured his image during dreams. This explanation aligns with how urban legends propagate through cultural consciousness.

Another practical theory suggested that people typically don’t remember precise facial features from dreams. The widely circulated image of “This Man” simply provided a convenient template onto which dreamers could project vague dream-memories of male figures.

For years, this mysterious tale circulated across blogs, forums, and social media, generating intense debate regarding its authenticity. But eventually, a simpler explanation emerged that required no supernatural or psychological theories whatsoever.

The website ThisMan.org was revealed to be the creation of Italian sociologist and marketing strategist Andrea Natella, whose company Guerrilla Marketing specialized in “subversive hoaxes” and unusual art projects. The site was later briefly acquired by horror movie production company Ghost House Pictures to promote a planned film titled “This Man,” intended to be directed by Bryan Bertino.

Despite being debunked, the phenomenon’s viral success likely stemmed from the portrait’s deliberate design. “This Man’s” face combined numerous common facial features, creating an image that felt strangely familiar to many viewers. This sense of recognition – feeling they’d seen him somewhere before – likely fueled the story’s spread across the internet.

Though “This Man” joined countless other fabricated internet legends, the extent of public fascination with this hoax remains remarkable. And perhaps we shouldn’t be too quick to dismiss those who still insist they’ve encountered this figure in their dreams. After all, in the mysterious landscape where reality meets imagination, how can we truly know what’s possible in the collective dreamscape of humanity?