By The AsiaOne Techbot

Click on thumbnail to view (Photos: Internet)

Each night, hundreds of people will dream of this man, yet none of them have ever seen him before in their waking life, and probably never will.

At least, this is what a website, aptly titled 'Ever dream this man?' claims.

The man in question has a rather round, broad face, large eyes, thick brows and a wide mouth framed by thin lips. He is fair-skinned, but does not appear to have features that identify him with a specific race or ethnicity.

According to the website's history section, the case first came up in January 2006 at a well-known New York psychiatrist's office. A female patient had reported seeing the same man repeatedly in her dreams, and the man had even given her advice, but she claims never to have seen the man in real life.

The patient then leaves behind a portrait of the man, which was left forgotten on the psychiatrist's desk until several days later. This time around, a male patient saw the image and said too, that he had seen the same man in his dreams.

Since then, the image had allegedly made its rounds in psychiatrists' offices and some 2,000 people have since claimed to have seen this man in their dreams. All of them have allegedly referred to him as simply 'This Man'.

The website also claims that no living person has been recognized as the mystery man, and there is apparently no relation of any kind between the people who have dreamt of him.

Theories ranging from the spiritual to the supernatural have also been posted on the website, and readers can write in about their dreams too, if they have the same experience.

Is this website an honest effort to help solve the mystery of a strange, mass-recurring dream, or simply a hoax?

While the story sounds intriguing enough, it seems suspicious that the 'well-known New York psychiatrist' was never named. And for all the thousands who have seen him, only ten short testimonials were featured on the site.

The site also features an online store, in which 'This Man' T-shirts sell for about US$20 ($28) each and button badges got for about US$3.

According to a report on Chinese newspaper Shin Min Daily News, experts who have seen the site also pointed out that all 'This Man' stories seemed to have originated from the site, and that no other source have come up with a similar story.

Experts also hinted that the website might have been created for marketing purposes, or some other activity that has yet to be made known to the public.

A check with the domain registry database showed that the website was registered under the name of an Italian marketing firm.