Dreams in which you aren't yourself?

Over the years I've kept dream journals, and something I've noticed is that in many of my dreams I am someone else entirely.

I don't mean I'm myself but merely in circumstances that are different.

Rather, I mean I am a completely different person with a different appearance, different name, different people around me, unfamiliar places, false memories, and my thought process and views within the dream are totally different than how they are when I'm awake. Some times I'm not even male.

In the average week I generally have 3-4 nights where I have a dream like that.

I know everyone has dreams where they're different, but is it normal to be that different so frequently? Where there is absolutely no recollection of not only your real life, but also of yourself?

In the dream interpretation course I took, we were encouraged to think we were everyone in our dreams, not just the "character" that obviously felt like us. I was a bear once and can still feel the rollicking roll of running down the street as a bear.

I think our unconscious grabs whatever we need to become "us" and then stages the feelings of the dream appropriately. I guess one of the major dream themes for me is "stairs" for example. My supporting characters are more often "not me" than the one that feels like me. Just the night before last I was fighting off a small dinosaur, a large yellow boa constrictor, and a baby caiman who were coming out of the swamp at the foot of my bed? I finished that dream only to get bitten in the neck by an unknown black snake and was holding it out at arms length, trying to get my husband to cut or chop off its head but he was dithering.

I think you must just do better when "you" move around and look out of different eyes, rather than having a zillion symbols to interpret, like I do. It does sound like an easier point of view to me! I would think of it as you trying on different "costumes". I don't see anything abnormal there, I don't think dreams can be abnormal? LOL

Thinking about it, I'm an over-thinker/reader, probably my "sight" is my best learning sense? You may learn by doing/physically or something? I think, so I get symbols to interpret. You may feel or do best?

The dreams may mean you are seeing yourself differently at times.

A lot of my dreams totally abandon subtly. Some are unexplainable, like being chased from a swingset by a knife-wielding half-goat half-lady, but I have a lot of talking dreams in which I'm in a discussion with a dream character. There is one recurring dream character I've had for around a decade now, and she'll flat out tell me things like "You need to take more risks", which doesn't leave much to interpretation, hehe. Oddly enough, I don't recall a single dream that included that recurring character where I was not myself.

Perhaps, yeah. I do have a rather weak sense of self, so maybe I'm trying out different roles in dreams to see how I feel in them? Sort of like trying on different outfits to see which fits best.

"Self" is a great gift from the Universe. Work on developing a good sense of self. One needs a good spiritual connection to Self.

Happens all the time, that's why they are dreams.

Do daydreams count? I don't dream in my sleep anymore for some reason...

I think that dreams are dreams because they are not bound by our basic conscience that we face on a daily basis. I have been everything from famous athletes to animals to fictional comic book characters. I find that it might be relaxing to think of things that might never become a reality.