Has anyone ever had a dream where the characters told YOU that you weren’t from there, before you even said it?

I see a lot of posts about people announcing “this is a dream” and then getting excluded or having characters react badly. But what happened to me was different. The dream told ME first.

I was in a place I didn’t recognize but somehow felt familiar, like a distorted version of somewhere I knew. I was already aware I was dreaming but I was actively trying to blend in and not say anything.

The first sign was a woman working at a small shop nearby. She looked at me, said “you’re not from here, are you?” I said no. She just stared at me for a second and walked away without another word.

My mom and sister were both in the dream but they weren’t acting like themselves at all. I pulled them aside because I needed to talk to someone I trusted. I told them “I’m not from here” and instead of helping me they got scared and basically shut me down. Like I had said something dangerous. They didn’t want to hear it and didn’t want to be around me after that.

Then there were these girls I had never seen before in my life but in the dream they were apparently my friend group. They came up to me confused and almost offended, asking why I was spending time with my best friend who was also in the dream. Like “why are you with HER? We’re supposed to be your people.”

I slipped up a third time and said something that made it obvious I didn’t actually know them. That was it. They completely shut me out.

The wildest part though was one of them started pinching me. Hard. Like she was trying to wake me up. And something in me just instinctively knew to play along, so I did the whole thing, closed my eyes, gasped, looked around confused, said “oh my god where am I, what happened?” She seemed relieved. Like she thought she’d brought me back.

But then I slipped again and said something that gave me away. And after that they were done with me completely. They all turned their backs to me.

What gets me is that I never announced I was dreaming. I was actively trying NOT to. But something about me kept getting recognized anyway. Has anyone else had the dream clock them before they said a word?