Can anyone help decipher this? Very real dream about stranger that turned out to be a real person!

[WiggyClawsThe2nd]

Really hoping someone has some knowledge of this because it's freaking me out. I had a very real dream involving a strange man. Felt a real connection with him. And he told me his name. Next day, because the dream just seemed to be on my mind a lot, I idly googled him. Right down at the bottom of the images I saw him. What is even stranger is that we studied in the same place a quarter of a century ago, but I left and moved away the term before he started. We even have some acquaintances in common from way back. I'm pretty sure that I've never even heard his name before as it's a very unusual name. That's one of the reasons I looked it up as I assumed my mind had invented it.
Does anyone have any idea as to how on earth this is even possible?

look up his facebook

Do you think I should message him?

I once had a dream about Lake Tahoe, I'm from Manchester UK, have never ever been to the States and had never heard of it.

When I googled Lake Tahoe, I found it does exist, it is a large, freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

I read somewhere that your brain is incapable of imagining a face from scratch. If you see a face in a dream, you have seen that person before, even if it was too brief for you to be able to really take it in, your brain makes a copy of it and may bring it up later.

You have seen this person before, therefore, even if you dont remember it.

It's the fact that I somehow knew his real life name that is confusing me

I think you should check he's alive

He is definitely very much alive!

Spooky!

Once I had a dream where I was given an otter and I called it Rayley. Rayley Otter. 😐

My conscious brain has never even registered Ray Liotta’s existence, but my subconscious brain apparently decided to store his name to make a hilarious pun… brains are strange and mysterious things.

Apparently you can also only dream about faces you’ve seen, even without them registering - your brain can’t create a fictional human face. I’ve no idea if that’s 100% true but it seems plausible.

It's so intriguing. Maybe he was having an out of body experience

So who thinks that I should contact him?

Yes! Definitely

youshould definitely contact him

and definitely report back

Yes please contact him. Just tell him the truth that you had a dream and he told you his name and see what he says. You've nothing to lose. I'm so curious about this

I know he's probably going to think I'm a real loon but this is really bugging me now. It's not beyond the bounds of possibility that we've actually met in real life, but I'm sure we haven't.
What on earth should I say?
Should I just say something about our shared educational connection, then somehow casually ask if he knows if we've ever met, or just tell the truth?!

If you have friends/ acquaintances in common there a reasonable possibility his profile for social media could have popped up in "people you might know" with a photo in one of a variety of platforms, You just didn't notice it at the time. Your brain subconsciously registered it but consciously ignored it. The "memory" then came back to you in a dream, especially as it's an unusual name, you're brain was trying to make sense of during dream state which is what dreaming is known to do, try and make sense if things and decide what to keep and what to throw away, memory and experience wise. It's only that something disturbed you during the dream process which is why you are aware of the dream now and remember it clearly.

I would just say, hello this might sound a bit weird but I had this dream about you and now I've found you in real life. Maybe then say is there a chance we've met before, to take the edge off I admit it's a really funny situation to be in for you OP
Wouldn't it be the weirdest thing if he was just like, yeah I know

He’ll think it’s a come-on though so there’s that to consider

No, I seriously wouldn't contact him. He'd going to think that you are weird. Leave well alone.

Lol

He has been in your subconscious all this time.
Something has triggered a memory. Your OP is misleading to say it's a stranger.
He is he, you are you. Your paths crossed. He is not a stranger.

Why would you contact someone you don't know?

Don't contact him. He'll think you're a complete loon. Think how you'd feel if someone did that to you. What's he meant to say back?

I think I misread who was posting there.

Your phone listens to you, you know that?
It could be putting names in your mind. I can't remember the names of people who won a competition on the tele, but if it came to me in a dream then I'd think I knew them.

Maybe your next dream will be about being given a rhinoceros called Neil: Rhino Neil.