I haven't had this dream for a long time, but I remember years ago having it recurrently, and I am not entirely sure what it means.

You're in a huge house. It's a standard suburban home, but it goes on practically forever. Room after corridor after staircase after room. You wander from room to room, noticing that there are reminders of every place you have ever lived (I've done a lot of moving in my time). As you explore the house, you see furniture, mementos, random belongings, and after a while more and more of them are covered by white cloth sheets.

Then you come to that one room where the lights aren't on, like in some stereotypical horror movie. IT emerges and starts chasing you.
IT is almost indescribable. It looks sort of like a cross between a 7 foot tall thundercloud and a black hole special effect. It literally sucks the light out of the rooms as it moves. Somehow you just know that if it touches you, you're dead. And not physically dead. You'll lose your ... soul? identity? whatever you like about yourself, whatever defines you, all meaning, would be simply destroyed if it catches up with you. And you feel this horrible malevolence, as if it's coming for you personally and enjoying every minute of the ensuing chase.

You run, of course, and in that horror movie way where everything is slowed down as the monster gradually gets closer and closer. Somehow, you always manage to get outside. You know you're safe if you can make it outside: for some reason it never follows.

You fling open the front door. Looking around, it's night, and the street is totally empty. No-one to turn to for help. The house, from the street, isn't that big at all. It's actually impossible for all those rooms to fit inside it. You don't really think about that, you're just thinking about how you want to get back inside but that thing is going to be waiting for you. And then the dream ends, usually with the sound of your own screaming in real life.

The nightmare has some variations, occurring in the following frequency:

* The monster's after you, and you run, but you never see it.
* There is no monster, but you open a door, and find yourself in a big party. It's never the same party, but it is always some formal affair going on. You want to join in, but nobody reacts to you ... because they all have no faces. Desperate to get some reaction, you grab one of the faceless people by the arm, they then all "look" at you, and then resume partying like nothing happened. (Waking up screaming blue murder is probably an understandable reaction to literally faceless crowds, lol)!
* You never meet the monster, just wander around the house and wake up before anything bad happens.

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I've had other nightmares too, never as similar or recurrent as this series, and all involving being pursued, persecuted or attacked in some way, or being in a huge natural or man-made disaster. I think these are all persistent themes of powerlessness and social irrelevance or overwhelm, personally. The meaning of the "soul destroying creature" is still a bit vague.

Any ideas???