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What are stranger dreams about?

Strangers are people in your dream who you simply do not know. You might have a sense of who they are or you might not. This symbol is identified by words like unknown person, crazy person, faceless, etc.

Strangers in dreams is a relatively common dream symbol, occuring in about 2.6% of dreams. That's about 1 out of every 40 dreams.

What are the major highlights of stranger dreams?

Strangers is a normal dream symbol. Having strangers in a dream changes the dream in the same way as most other dream symbols.

Stranger dreams are very social

Dreams of strangers contain more characters than most other dream symbols. While dreams are often about other people and social relationships, dreams of strangers are especially related to having lots of characters. Other symbols that are like this include friendly interactions, puppies, going, senses, lions, teenagers, dragons, crushes, qualities, and worms.

How does the dream symbol of strangers affect the different aspects of a dream?

Explore different elements related to dreams of strangers

Who is in strangers dreams?

Overall, dreams with strangers are much more related to characters in dreams. Specifically, dreams of strangers are much more related to distant people than dreams in general. They are less related to animals, less related to insects, and less related to different roles.

Animals

less than usual

Insects

less than usual

Different roles

less than usual

Fantastic beings

less than usual

Distant people

much more than usual

Close people

the same as usual

Family

the same as usual

Romantic partners

the same as usual
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What are the emotions in strangers dreams?

Overall, dreams with strangers are aren't really related to emotions in dreams. Specifically, dreams of strangers are more related to grief and sorrow, more related to embarrassment, and more related to love than dreams in general.

Happiness

the same as usual

Sadness

the same as usual

Grief and sorrow

more than usual

Embarrassment

more than usual

Confusion

the same as usual

Fear

the same as usual

Pain

the same as usual

Hatred

the same as usual

Fun

the same as usual

Love

more than usual
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Who is in strangers dreams?

Overall, dreams with strangers are less related to places in dreams. Specifically, dreams of strangers are less related to human places, less related to natural places, and less related to magical places.

Home

the same as usual

Work

the same as usual

Human places

less than usual

Transportation

the same as usual

Natural places

less than usual

Magical places

less than usual
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What happens in strangers dreams?

Overall, dreams with strangers are aren't really related to events in dreams. Specifically, dreams of strangers are more related to sex than dreams in general. They are less related to disasters.

Aggressive interactions

the same as usual

Friendly interactions

the same as usual

Sex

more than usual

Disasters

less than usual
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How do strangers in dreams related to other dream phenomenon?

Overall, dreams with strangers are aren't really related to dream events in dreams. Specifically, dreams of strangers are more related to waking life than dreams in general.

Lucid dreams

the same as usual

Nightmares

the same as usual

Recurring dreams

the same as usual

Recurring nightmares

the same as usual

Sleep paralysis

the same as usual

Sleeping

the same as usual

Waking life

more than usual
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How do strangers in dreams related the senses?

Overall, dreams with strangers are aren't really related to senses in dreams. Specifically, dreams of strangers are less related to hearing, less related to smelling, and less related to taste.

Hearing

less than usual

Smelling

less than usual

Taste

less than usual

Vision

the same as usual

Touch

less than usual
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How can you make sense of strangers in dreams?

Stranger dreams are relatively common. Among other things stranger dreams are normally interconnect and very social.

Do you think this is true for your dream of strangers? How might your dream of strangers be different?

All dreams have meaning

You can gain insight from thinking about any dream, no matter how strange. Only you, as the dreamer, have final say on what your dream may or may not mean. Each dream is unique.

Look for the differences

The DreamWell dictionary provides information on how each dream symbol appears in dreams in general. Finding how experience strangers in dreams can be a key to understanding its meaning.

Return to the feelings

Our emotions in dreams can help us understand its meaning. Pay attention to how you felt in the dream. Pay attention to how you feel about strangers in dreams. See how you feel about strangers now, in your waking life.

What are possible meanings for dreams of strangers?

To decode the symbolism of a stranger in a dream, begin with what’s strange and foreign to you, such as people, behaviors, subjects, and situations. “Stranger” can symbolize feeling strange or out of sorts, or dealing with something different or new. “New” and “strange” are used interchangeably.

You start working at a new job, or attending a new school, and feel like an outsider. Or you tackle a new subject or learn a new skill. You are in a new place in your life. Being outside your comfort zone really stirs the deep reaches of the mind and is likely to spark dreams in response.

You’re like a stranger when you’re unwelcome or feel like a foreigner. It can mean you feel uncomfortable, unwelcome, or tense. For example, you find yourself in a circle of people you don’t feel comfortable with, or outside a social clique. Or a business situation turns tense or goes into uncharted territory. Strangers are associated with tense and unpredictable situations.

A stranger can symbolize someone you haven’t seen in a long time. See: Locks

When you say that someone you know is a stranger, it means you don’t really know the person, so a stranger or foreigner in a dream can symbolize not knowing who the person really is, or the person doesn’t really know you. See: Masks

Dreaming about being in bed with a stranger can express the feeling that you don’t really know someone close to you, or that person is acting out of character.

A stranger can symbolize an unknown or estranged aspect of yourself. This use of the symbolism is quite common because a stranger is a human character and a sort of blank canvas on which a dream can paint your self-portrait.

Dream characters are usually projections of something about yourself, so if you dream about a foreigner, ask yourself whether you’re seeing something about yourself depicted as a dream character. Many aspects of a person are unconscious, meaning outside the scope of conscious awareness and control. They can be depicted as foreign because they are foreign to you, but they’re still you.

The meaning of a foreigner in a dream is often found in his or her culture and your associations with it. For example, you dream about a Frenchman and associate French people with high society. Doesn’t matter if your association is accurate, it’s something your dreams can use to tell a story. You think back on the day before your dream and remember that you dined in a super-formal foreign restaurant, a situation that could be described as “foreign,” and thus be summed up in the image of a Frenchman in your dream.

Another possibility to consider is a foreigner in your dream could be sparked by something you watched on television, read about, or heard on the news. Also, consider whether you recently interacted with someone from the same foreign culture as the character in your dream. The character could be a surrogate for that person.

See also: Borders, Darkness, Foreignness, Orphans, Trespassing, Ufos

This interpretation is from ""The Dream Interpretation Dictionary: Symbols, Signs, and Meanings" and is provided by J.M. DeBord aka "RadOwl". He is the author of several acclaimed books about dreaming, the host of The Dreams That Shape Us podcast, and is a moderator of r/Dreams, one of the largest dream sharing communities on the internet.

Examples of dreams of strangers

Read some real dream reports of stranger dreams.. These real life dream reports come from the moderated dream sharing communities of Reddit including r/Dreams, r/Nightmares, r/DreamInterpretation, or r/thisdreamihad. Please note that some of these may contain graphic, sexual, or violent images and text. Use the source link for each dream to view and join the discussion of each one.

Dreamt I was interacting with a large group of people. How did my brain make up 100+ strangers?

Most people were complete strangers to me. I was interacting with them as they were all interacting with each other. The interactions were fun, joking, flirting, etc. I wasn't the center of attention, the group had something else going on and I wasn't involved with it. How did my brain make up a ton of people I've never seen before?

I did recognize a small number of people (maybe 3) that I believe I've seen or met in awake life but even they were basically strangers to me as well. I interacted with them as if I hadn't seen them in a long time. I felt that I was seeking them out because they were more recognizable to me and I felt some kind of small connection to them. I was hoping they would help me find what I was looking for.

From what I gathered, the group was working in my industry so I was trying to find the leaders of the group to make a connection. While interacting with multiple people and sorting out who the leaders of the group were the police arrived and started searching for the same people/person. The group disbursed and I ended up finding the leaders who stayed behind but now they were dealing with this police situation. I waiting around trying to find an opening but ultimately decided to leave them alone because it would have been seen as bad taste to try to make a connection while some of their friends were getting arrested.

Then my alarm went off.

Most people were complete strangers to me. I was interacting with them as they were all interacting with each other. The interactions were fun, joking,...

Source | Show dream

“We must find each other in real life”

About a month ago I had a dream that felt so intensely real. I don’t remember much of it, except I was in a house and hunted by something, and there was another person there (female) I never seen before and we where fleeing together, even trying different clothes to try and blend in and confuse whatever was hunting us, I remember we where in a store changing room at one point. Somehow we realised it was a dream, and on the floor in one room we found two pendants. We took on each and said to each other “we must find each other in real life!” I will not describe them because somehow I have some faint hope that maybe someone out there dreamt this too (i know, I know..)
Anyhow we got separated. When I went outside the building to look for her I saw a bright light that really hurt my eyes (And I thought it was weird because I knew it was a dream) that turned out to be a meteorite roaring down from the sky, and slowly drifted over a big lake before crashing down. People and kids were running towards it cause they where curios. But two more came and I saw that they would smash into the people and not the water. I forgot it was a dream at this point and was shouting for everyone to get out of the way. I felt the impact of the second meteorite in my whole body. At the third I woke up.

Anyone know how to interpret this? Been thinking about her a lot...

About a month ago I had a dream that felt so intensely real. I don’t remember much of it, except I was in a house and hunted by something, and there was another...

Source | Show dream

dream about deadly syringe

the dream was kind of foggy so this might not make sense

last night i had a dream where this stranger grabbed me tried to inject deadly poison into my head. i ran away from him but he came back and restrained me. i would twist my body a bunch of weird ways and he repeatedly got super close to injecting me. then he finally killed me. what could this mean?

the dream was kind of foggy so this might not make sense

last night i had a dream where this stranger grabbed me tried to inject deadly poison into my head. i...

Source | Show dream

What Does A Recurring Nightmare Mean?

For the last 8 years of my life I have had the exact same nightmare once every year. Doesn't matter what time of the year but only once in that year and it's really creepy. The nightmare goes like this and every time there's a slight change. I'll mention the most notable ones but they always start and end the same way: the in between is also extremely similar with maybe one or two changes.

1. It always starts off with me opening my eyes in a black room and then it shifts into third person in a black and white city and I'm on a roof
2. I start jumping from roof to roof and I'm always screaming to see *someone*. I don't know who.
3. I get in some sort of vehicle with a faceless person (the person I was looking for) and we just kinda teleport to some stall selling coloured oranges because everything else is black and white and the person with me begins to develop the face of someone from my family. Then they pick up an orange and get poisoned by it and die
4. I wake up in a coloured city this time and then I get teleported into the same black room I was in before but this time there's floating numbers. I reach the number 100 and then I just die. Flat out die just like that.

Then I always wake up and I always instinctively walk out of my bedroom. Always the same. The only difference is the person who gets 'poisoned'. What the hell does this mean? I'm not scared of the dream anymore since I've become aware of it but it just creeps me out.

For the last 8 years of my life I have had the exact same nightmare once every year. Doesn't matter what time of the year but only once in that year and it's...

Source | Show dream

I was Told “You have 72 hours”

I had a strange dream last night. There was this faceless woman who appeared before me with a contract.. She said “ You have 72 hours to decide” and pointed to a cave. She then explained if I wanted to go inside I would need to sign a contract. I asked her what’s in the cave.

She preceded to tell me that the cave was filled with everything I ever wanted to know about who I am. She refereed to it as a genetic museum and that I would be able to access my ancestors memories and talk to them.

I felt extremely sketchy about it “ I told her I wouldn’t sign anything just to access information that is rightfully mine and why did I need to go through her anyway”?

She snickered and said “ You’ll change your mind like the rest, your genetic makeup is a bit complicated.

I woke up feeling extremely weirded about the whole ordeal. What does this dream mean?

I had a strange dream last night. There was this faceless woman who appeared before me with a contract.. She said “ You have 72 hours to decide” and pointed to...

Source | Show dream
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