This Man (Ever Dream This Man)

About

This Man (a.k.a “Ever Dream This Man?”) is an Internet myth associated with a picture of a man with beady eyes, bushy eyebrows, thin lips, and a receding hairline. Reports of this man appearing in dreams have come from around the world, typically portrayed as a benevolent character.

Origin

The main site for this “phenomenon” is Thisman.org^[1], a site registered by Andrea Natella of the Italian Guerriglia Marketing. The site was later acquired by Ghost House Pictures, a horror movie production company, in promotion for a new film called This Man^[2] written and directed by Bryan Bertino.

While the exact origin is unknown, the copypasta from thisman.org claims that the portrait was drawn by a mental patient of a well-known psychiatrist:

In January 2006 in New York, the patient of a well-known psychiatrist draws the face of a man that has been repeatedly appearing in her dreams. In more than one occasion that man has given her advice on her private life. The woman swears she has never met the man in her life. That portrait lies forgotten on the psychiatrist’s desk for a few days until one day another patient recognizes that face and says that the man has often visited him in his dreams. He also claims he has never seen that man in his waking life. The psychiatrist decides to send the portrait to some of his colleagues that have patients with recurrent dreams. Within a few months, four patients recognize the man as a frequent presence in their own dreams. All the patients refer to him as THIS MAN.

Spread

The website also explains that since January 2006, at least 2000 people from all over the world have claimed they have seen “This Man” in their dreams, from Los Angeles, Berlin, Sao Paulo, Tehran, Beijing, Rome, Barcelona, Stockholm, Paris, New Dehli, Moskow etc.

Since the launch of ThisMan.org in 2009, search queries for the specific keyword “This man” increased as well. The topic has been discussed on various news websites and forums, sparking debates with skeptics who have come up with debunking theories to disapprove it as a hoax.

The urban legend of “This Man” has been covered by various blogs including Neatorama^[3], Tosh.0^[4] and Disinfo^[5] among others. People also began deriving theories about “This Man”, ranging from Dreamskipping to Memory Replication and even mentions of him being Jesus or God Himself. A full list of theories are on the “Theories” page of Thisman.org.

Parodies

Parodies of “This Man” ensued as well, ranging from parody sites such as “Who is this woman?”^[6] and the recently defunct Shaq version, to image macros, such as this: