Do you recognise this man?
The creepy phenomenon of ‘this man’ began back in January 2006, when a New York psychiatrist’s patient reported seeing the same mysterious face in his dreams repeatedly. Since then, a website was launched claiming that thousands of people worldwide had all seen the same face in their dreams, cementing this psychological phenomenon deeply in internet folklore.
Also referred to as ‘the Dream Man’, he always followed the same description – bushy eyebrows, a slight smile, neutral expression, and receding hairline. People described a multitude of different encounters with him in their dreams, with some claiming he resembled a good-natured guide, and others recalling more sinister interactions. There were even reports of romantic or sexual interactions with this man, contrasting various other stories of him giving cryptic life advice to some dreamers.
The impact of this oddity sparked extreme online debate, with several forums and social media platforms buzzing with discussions and recounts of interpretations, speculations and and own experiences. In 2008, a website named ‘Ever Dream This Man?’ was set up by Italian sociologist and marketer, Andrea Natella, and quickly became full of various different accounts from individuals across the world who claimed to have seen him in their dreams.
The backstory of this man was published on the website, and recounts how once the psychiatrist sketched the original image, one of his other patients saw it and immediately recognised it from his own dreams. After sending the image to associate psychologists, four more individuals claimed the same thing, which gradually increased to 8,000 people worldwide.
The website posed five main theories about the existence of this man, claiming that these ideas were the ones of the greatest interest to dreamers:
- Archetype Theory – this man is an archetypal image that people may see during difficult life situations, according to Carl Jung’s psychoanalytic theory.
- Religious Theory – this man is a form of God, meaning his indications in dreams should be followed.
- Dream Surfer Theory – this man is a real being, and enters people’s dreams using psychological skills.
- Dream Imitation Theory – the exposure to this man has left an impression on people, leading them to start dreaming about him.
- Daytime Recognition Theory – it is hard to recall faces we see in our dreams, so this man is an assumption of who we dreamt of.
However, in 2010, this viral internet phenomenon was publicly revealed to be a conceptual art project and hoax created by Andrea Natella. He confirmed that the story was completely fabricated on the website KOOK Artgency, an art agency company that he had founded himself. According to Natella, the original sketch he made of this man was inspired by an old picture of his father in his youth, and that he wanted to explore the internet’s ability to virally spread myths and legends.
Not only does this reinforce how impactful the power of suggestion can be, but it also demonstrates how easily things are picked up and spread online. This taps into the way that our brains are designed to naturally recognise and store faces, making it easy for a distinctive image like this man to embed itself into our subconscious.
When we see a face, our brain essentially lights up and recognises how the face is shaped and where their features lie. We then compare the new face to ones we already have stored in our brain, and if it’s important, we store the new one for the future.
Despite this experiment being announced as a hoax, people still recall seeing this man in their dreams to this day. This raises the question of whether one of the theories listed above is actually true, and resonates with individuals so much due to the fact that it could be accurate – or whether people are simply seeing this image and it’s getting stored in their brain and surfacing while they sleep.
Either way, this man is still widely recognised globally, and is still sending shockwaves in dreamland. Whether the image of this man is simply a figment of our imagination, or a real spectre haunting our dreams, we are certain of one thing: once you see his face, it’s impossible to forget it.
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