Hello,
I am new here, but I have been have some re-occuring dreams for a few years that seem pretty strange to me. For some background, I have always had very vivid dreams, especially as a young child (I am now 27), and I can remember lucid dreaming as young as about 3 years old, and I also remember being able to wake up from a dream to get a drink or use the bathroom, etc. and then I could fall asleep again and the dream would pick up right where it had left off. As a teenager, I suffered from horrendous nightmares on a nightly basis, always involving some sort of catastrophic weather-related scenario where either myself or my family or friends would succumb to the massive vortex or tidal wave, and I would awaken feeling terrified and I would dread going to bed.

Now that I've sorted out the issue (mostly) that caused those dreams, I have been having dreams involving particular places that I know don't actually exist - or don't exist in the way they are presented in the dreams - for example, my dream will begin and I will be on my way to my destination, and it is always the same portrayal, it is a beautiful mansion that is open to the public for museum tours during the day, and the view from the balcony is absolutely incredible; it looks kind of like how I would imagine the coast of California to look like (I live in the Florida Keys), with the cliff faces and winding highways. I am always happy to be there, but at some point during the dream I will become aware that I am dreaming, but I will just as quickly forget and get back to it. Leaving the place is always difficult, as I can seemingly never catch the right bus or sea plane or whatever, and it becomes a stressful event. Another of these locations is a non existent little shopping village (way cooler than what we actually have down here) that is tucked away at the end of one of our local neighborhoods. Again, the feeling is happiness, and then disappointment upon awakening. This will happen with malls that don't exist, incredibly awesome bookstore/museum hybrids with slides, neat little islands with abandoned buildings, and imposing clock towers with places that you can sit and read or enjoy the surroundings. I used to travel frequently, but I haven't been able to do so for a few years now, so I'm wondering if it's just my brain's way of trying to keep itself occupied? Any ideas?