They saw you in your underwear, and they actually exist.

There is some commotion going on at the park, or maybe it’s the grocery store--everything is extremely strange and continually morphing before your eyes. You aren’t fully aware of where you are, or if you are even yourself. You can’t see yourself, after all. Where’s a mirror when you need one?

Looking down at the ground, you notice something unsettling. You recognize that your legs are there, but there seems to be a lack of pants on them. There’s actually no fabric of any sort on them whatsoever. Well, that’s not right. You know that you’re in a public place. You are definitely not at home. You would never leave the house without pants, right? You don't think you would ever do something like that. However, here you are, standing out in the open with very minimal cloth covering your bottom half.

Your body temperature skyrockets while you start getting that dreadful panicked feeling. Your hands feel clammy as you pull down your shirt to cover your exposed skin. You realize that the shirt you're wearing is just not long enough, and you grow more frustrated and flustered.

Looking around for an exit, you suddenly notice that there are other inhabitants of the planet Earth present to witness this mortifying event. You see several faces snickering at your body while you gape in shock. The unsurpassable feeling of embarrassment looms over you. Thoughts race in your mind as you scramble to think of an escape plan. Could you maybe dash out of the door and to your home from here? Wait, where are you again? You try to think about it, but everything is still very hazy. Within moments, the room suddenly starts to fade and the air around you shifts.

Your eyes open lazily after a long night of wild dreams. Your mind is still swirling while you blink through the haze of thoughts that soon escape your mind. One dream remains in your mind, specifically the one with multiple strangers in the background. It's one of those anxiety driven nightmares. There are people in that dream that you have never met before, figures that you clearly conjured up in your head.

Incorrect statement.

Every face that you have dreamt of before is someone who you previously saw in real life. This could be a person who walked past you in a grocery store, a classmate from long ago, or perhaps a coworker you saw only a handful of times.

So, yes, remember that dream from a few moments ago where you were in your underwear in a public place and multiple strangers saw you? Those were people that you've seen before--people who actually do exist and who live here on this very planet. They will never know that you dreamt of them, but that knowledge makes the dream all the worse. You can no longer brush off the dream as something silly that you completely made up in your mind. Those people are real, and they are out there somewhere.

Never again will you be able to have any dream without waking up and pondering the following questions. Who were those people? Where did I see them before they stared at me in that dream?

How many people are dreaming about me? Has anyone recognized me, and then seen me afterwards in the waking world?

Am I committing heinous acts in anyone’s dreams?

Think about how many people you have seen before. Now think about how many people have looked upon your face. We have so many dreams every night, and we don't recall most of them. It's very likely that you've been present in another dreamer's nightly escapade, and they may not have even remembered it.

There's also the possibility that another human being saw you in their own version of the mortifying, pants-lacking dream that you just had. Hopefully, of course, you were the one laughing. We will never know, will we?

I hope you have pleasant dreams tonight. Try not to think about this new knowledge too much. I would also recommend packing an extra pair of pants in your dream suitcase. Just in case.