{"id":5605,"date":"2026-07-12T22:45:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T21:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/?p=5605"},"modified":"2026-07-25T22:50:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T21:50:21","slug":"dream-malls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/2026\/07\/12\/dream-malls\/","title":{"rendered":"Dream Malls"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/dream_mall.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5683\" srcset=\"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/dream_mall.png 800w, https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/dream_mall-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/dream_mall-768x432.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I often dream of being in a public space with other people who are just milling about, sitting, talking.  Often, the place is a park or college campus.  Railway stations are another common theme. Sometimes I recognise people from earlier dreams, but none from waking life.  We chat about ordinary topics. No significant action happens. I do not remember anything unpleasant happening in these situations. Maybe half of my dreams are like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I call these &#8220;public space&#8221; dreams. My hypothesis is that after breaking out of personal space dreams, you find yourself shuffling about aimlessly with others in the same situation. This is the default post-personal experience. It is also the launching pad for psychedelic dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last night I dreamt of an 18<sup>th<\/sup> century shopping mall.  As usual, people were just strolling about. There was a food court on the ground floor, shops nearby and on a mezzanine. That is typical for mall dreams, other than the 18<sup>th<\/sup> century styling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But this time, I noticed something unusual: a woman on the mezzanine was beleaguered by other people asking her questions.  She seemed to be some kind of manager or co\u00f6rdinator.  <em>There was someone who seemed to know what was going on.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I thought I ought to note this in case someone else can make sense of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Update<\/strong>: since writing the above, I discovered that I am <a href=\"https:\/\/oneironauts.io\/blog\/mallworld-dream-phenomenon\">late to the game<\/a>.  There is even a subreddit called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/mallworld\/\">mallworld<\/a>. It has been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/10\/16\/style\/mall-world-dreams-tiktok.html\">written about<\/a> in the New York Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;m encouraged to think that the other regularities I have written about have been or shall be discovered by others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eventless public space dreams seem to be the default.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5683,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[108],"tags":[31],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5605"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5605"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5771,"href":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5605\/revisions\/5771"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlywithdrawal.net\/tolton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}