""I always dream of the same mall." So begins a recent post on the popular subreddit r/The MallWorld. The post continued: "It has a very vintage feel to it. It always has warm amber lighting and wooden guard rails. It has 3 main floors, and one secret lower floor. "The lower floor is usually kept pristine, a time capsule of the 90's. The stores are closed, but the merchandise remains. It smells like my kindergarten class did..""
"But this is no ordinary shopping mall. While not always identical, many say their mall worlds share similarities. It has endless stairwells, forbidden floors, and looping elevators. Some have dreamed of the same food court, others of an arcade. Sometimes the dreamscape is not even a mall at all but a water park or an airport. People have tried to draw maps of Mall World. "I finally don't feel alone," wrote one on Reddit."
A subreddit created in 2021 attracts 10,000 monthly visitors who share recurring dreams of eerie, often empty mall-like spaces. Users describe a consistent aesthetic: warm amber lighting, wooden guard rails, three main floors, and a secret lower floor preserved like a 1990s time capsule with closed stores and lingering smells. Dreamers report endless stairwells, forbidden floors, looping elevators, repeated food courts, arcades, and even non-mall spaces such as water parks or airports. Community members map the dreamscape and express relief at finding others with similar experiences. A TikTok video claiming 20,000 people have identical dreams gained over 400,000 views. Some explanations link the phenomenon to Carl Jung's collective unconsciousness.
Read at Fast Company
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