Liminal Spaces: Why Thousands of Strangers Are Dreaming of the EXACT Same 80s Mall

⚠️ VIDEO FEED GLITCH: READ ME! ⚠️

Party people, we have an important update! It turns out the universe took our "liminal space" topic a little too literally this week. A literal ghost in the matrix completely swallowed our camera data into a digital void. Because of this bizarro tech glitch, Episode 51 will be brought to you in glorious, immersive AUDIO ONLY. 🎧✨

Don't panic, you can still sit with us in the cozy dark! The full audio experience is streaming right here, on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and yes, even over on YouTube with a nice static visual placeholder so you can still hang out with us in the comments. Grab your headphones, fire up the mugwort, and let your imagination render the background extras. 🌀💻

Huzzah! We are BACK from our Canada Day mid-week hiatus, and we are kicking off Episode 51 (look at us doing numbers and math!) with a topic we mention constantly but have never actually explained: Liminal Spaces. 🌀✨

Ever been in an empty school hallway, a dead quiet airport lounge at 3:00 AM, or driven past a towering office building late at night with all the lights blazing but zero human souls inside? That's the ooky spooky magic of liminality. The literal in-between.

This week, we dive deep into the internet folklore, psychological triggers, and the absolute brain-bending dreamscapes that connect our waking reality to our sleeping subconscious.

• What the Heck is a Liminal Space?: From the Latin word limin (threshold) to the transitional architectural spots that give us major Kenopsia—the eerie feeling of a place usually bustling with life that is now dead quiet.
• Dream Core & Impossible Geometry: Horizons that end in pixelated voids, staircases to nowhere, and why some of us dream of entities with giant singular eyes or blank television heads. 📺👁️
• The "Mall World" Phenomenon & Psychic Meetups: Millions of people on Reddit and TikTok claim to visit the exact same mega-structure in their dreams (an 80s mall mixed with a cruise ship and an airport). Jacklynn shares her personal, millennial-gray, maroon-striped Mall World layout.
• The Science Bit (The Overfitted Brain Hypothesis): Why cognitive scientists think your brain purposely strips away background extras and warps geometry while you sleep to protect your mind from exploding.
• Sigmund Freud & The Uncanny: Familiar yet fundamentally alien. Plus, a spooky meditation exercise that leaves people feeling like they're being watched from the other side of a screen.

Dream well, party people... and we'll see you in Mall World. 🛌🛒

Want more Weirdos of Whimsy? Check out https://bio.site/weirdosofwhimsy to find everything in one place! From there, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel, grab some official merch, or follow us on Instagram to chat!

Have a bone-chilling story of your own? We want to hear it! Send your scary encounters to weirdosofwhimsy@gmail.com or DM us. Your story might just make it onto a future episode! 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Welcome to Weird as a Whimsy, a podcast where we will be discussing all things weird and you guessed it, Whimsy.

SPEAKER_03 0:37

Hi, my name is Jacqueline.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

And I'm Stevie.

SPEAKER_03 0:39

And I can move my arms again. If you tune into not last week, because last week we were off enjoying Canada Day. Happy day of being off in the middle of the week.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

We love that.

SPEAKER_03 0:54

Oh man. Hope it was great. Hope it was wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Yay.

SPEAKER_03 0:58

But we're back. The week before we had our 50th episode, which means this is our 51st episode. That's Matt.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

Numbers.

SPEAKER_03 1:05

Woo! And we looked good and we looked great. But my goodness, as soon as that camera went off, just shedding everything that was uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_00 1:15

I like looking good.

SPEAKER_03 1:16

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

But very good at looking good. Oh right back at you. Fancy clothes just kind of suck though.

SPEAKER_03 1:23

It was also like I had to be very aware of my posture. Your boobs looked great. Oh my goodness. Woo! Wowza. Yeah. I felt really good about myself. Hey, oh, but uh yeah, wow, that was uncomfortable as F. How do we do your entire wedding day?

SPEAKER_00 1:38

Oh my God.

SPEAKER_03 1:40

Which, by the way, those wedding photos are spectacular.

SPEAKER_00 1:44

Oh, I agree.

SPEAKER_03 1:45

Stunning, gorgeous, beautiful. That was such a fun day.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

Yay.

SPEAKER_03 1:49

Yay. Okay, well, hi, welcome back. Hope you had a great little break. We are back, back, back, back again with another exciting Weirdos of Whimsy episode. Um, who, show of hands, who's gone back and listened to all 50 episodes before this? Anyone else?

SPEAKER_00 2:06

We're both raising our hands.

SPEAKER_03 2:07

I hope you have. And if you have, thank you so much. If you haven't, what are you waiting for? What are you waiting for? You can use it every day of your day.

SPEAKER_01 2:16

I love it.

SPEAKER_03 2:17

Um, go back, download, listen, check them out. Check them out. Check them out. We are so thankful to have all of this the um, what do we call? What are we calling them? Subscribers. Subscribers. Subscribers that we do have. And for um everyone who's listening, all the followers, yeah, we really appreciate it. So thank you. We love you. We love you. Um, so let's kick things off. Today we're getting really weird and really whimsical. Not that that's anything new, but this one, she's a weird one.

SPEAKER_00 2:46

It's a weird one.

SPEAKER_03 2:46

It's a weird one. I don't even know, like, I feel like some people won't know what it is.

SPEAKER_00 2:51

I know. I don't think a lot of people will.

SPEAKER_03 2:53

Yeah, so let's dive into it, shall we?

SPEAKER_00 2:55

Shall we?

SPEAKER_03 2:56

Today we're talking about liminal spaces.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Liminal spaces.

SPEAKER_03 3:00

Um, they sit right at that delicious intersection of internet folklore, psychological unease, and nostalgic wonder. Truly.

SPEAKER_00 3:10

It's funny, um, side note, if you if you've gone back and listened to some episodes, there are some times where I'll say like liminal spaces frequently.

SPEAKER_03 3:19

We it's all we mentioned. All we mentioned. And we're always like, we'll talk about it, we talk about it. We never actually explain what it is. So this is our moment to actually follow through and explain what a liminal space is.

SPEAKER_00 3:29

It's happening.

SPEAKER_03 3:30

Because you're right. We just yell, liminal space. Liminal space.

SPEAKER_00 3:33

That's a liminal space. So uh if you did ask what a liminal space is, I'm about to tell you. And thank you for your patience.

SPEAKER_03 3:41

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 3:42

So the word liminal comes from the Latin word limin, which makes sense, which means threshold. Boom. Boom. There you go. In anthropology, a liminal phase is the middle stage of a ritual or transition. Sure. Like being engaged, no longer sing single. Why can't I say that word? I don't know. But not yet married. So you're in the in-between. Uh, but in our whimsical and weird world, liminal spaces refer to specific areas in everyday life that should be hustling and bustling, full of people, but aren't.

SPEAKER_02 4:17

Right.

SPEAKER_00 4:18

No people.

SPEAKER_02 4:18

Not happening. Zero people.

SPEAKER_00 4:20

How I like it.

SPEAKER_02 4:21

Honestly, most of the time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:23

Uh it can be a physical place that is transitional, abandoned, or devoid of its usual purpose. Right. Think of maybe a school hallway, an airport lounge, a gate, a train tunnel.

SPEAKER_03 4:35

There's so many places. Think of it as like a location that's meant to get you from point A to point B. Yeah. But when it's empty, it loses its identity. Yeah. Right? Just like with the things that Steven mentioned. Like when you think airport, it's like tons of people all the time. Well, guess what? What happens when there's no one there? It's creepy.

SPEAKER_00 4:54

It's creepy. Like a subway station.

SPEAKER_03 4:56

Yeah. It feels frozen in time, waiting for something to happen.

SPEAKER_00 5:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:01

Um, these places just feel freaky, creepy, ooky, spooky.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

Ooh. You know? Which is our vibe. Ooky spooky. Right.

SPEAKER_03 5:07

But why does this make us feel like that? Um, well, there are a few psychological triggers at play here.

SPEAKER_00 5:16

Over to you, Stevie. That's me. I was repositioning.

SPEAKER_03 5:20

Whoops.

SPEAKER_00 5:21

Uh, so it could be nostalgia for a time you never knew, which is actually called anomoya.

SPEAKER_03 5:29

Anamoya.

SPEAKER_00 5:29

Anamoya. Yeah. Animoya. Oh, yeah, right there. Many liminal space photos feature 80s, 90s, and early 2000s architecture. Yeah. Think faded pastel carpets, old tube TVs, or lots of concrete. Yeah. It triggers a memory of childhood, but a warped, lonely, weird version of it.

SPEAKER_03 5:49

Sure. Which by the way, we were we were alive both in the 80s, 90s, and 2000s.

SPEAKER_00 5:54

We sure were. It's mostly the canopsia effect.

SPEAKER_03 5:59

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 6:00

Which we described earlier. Yeah. This is the eerie, forlorn atmosphere of a place that is usually bustling with people, but is now completely abandoned and quiet. Yeah. Your brain expects activity, and the sudden silence makes it feel like a ghost town. The eerie feeling of a ghost town.

SPEAKER_03 6:16

Yeah, truthfully. Very that. Right. So um, just like Steven said, like just picture it. Or um store. Sicily. Stores. Yes. Um uh offices. Like, do you ever drive by when it's late at night and for whatever reason those gigantic office buildings are all lit up and there's just chairs. No one is in there. First of all, turn the lights off, right? Second of all, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

Um, when my when I go into the office, sometimes on Fridays, there'll be like no people there or very little people. And even during the day, it's just an empty office is weird and creepy.

SPEAKER_03 6:53

Uneasy. Yeah. Just exactly how we I already hate a cubicle office.

SPEAKER_00 6:57

And then, you know.

SPEAKER_03 6:59

It's a nightmare on its own.

SPEAKER_00 7:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:01

So our brains hate when things don't do their jobs. Um, a hallway is supposed to lead somewhere. When an image shows a hallway that seemingly goes on forever and ever or ends in, say, a blank wall, it triggers a mild existential dread. Just like those open cavernous sort of museums or stores or office buildings where it's just like it just keeps going and going. And you're like, where are all the people? What's going on? I cannot compute. Truly. But party people, did you also know that liminal spaces can also be linked to the dream world?

SPEAKER_00 7:34

They sure can, which we have briefly talked about before. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 7:38

So connecting liminal spaces to the dream world is where this topic goes from an interesting internet subculture to a massive mind-bedding exploration of the weirdness. The weird yet weird friends.

SPEAKER_00 7:52

Online, this crossover has spawned two massive phenomena that you may absolutely recognize. So we've got Dreamcore, which is an internet art aesthetic movement, and the bizarrely widespread online conspiracy of the Maul World. Good old Maul World.

SPEAKER_03 8:10

Show of hands, who knows about Maul World? Woo-hoo!

SPEAKER_00 8:14

Here is how the subconscious mind transforms ordinary transition spaces into Dreamscape folklore. So we've got the Dream Core aesthetic. Right, let's go over it. Let's go over it. Also, I just love that everything lately is something core. Yeah, what is that all about? Right? It's just like, I don't know, that's like the the lingo term. The new term, the new lingo, like cottage core, goblin core, I really like. Witch core, all of that. Love it. So, dream core. If liminal spaces are about physical reality feeling empty, dream core is about reality feeling completely untethered. Sure. It mimics the specific warped logic of human dreams. Make sense? In a typical dream core setting, much like the endless corridors or giant empty stadiums or the peopless airports we talked about, the environment layout makes emotional sense, but physical nonsense.

SPEAKER_02 9:11

Yes. Which I love.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

Well, I know. So cool. Very weird. Notice how the ceiling lights warp, the walls feel damp or decaying, and random objects exist without explanation. Right. Very, you know, dream vibe.

SPEAKER_03 9:25

Yeah, like when you're dreaming and you're like, there none of this makes sense, but you know what's going on in your dream.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:30

That is what we're describing.

SPEAKER_00 9:32

So that perfectly captures that specific dream feeling where you know you're in a hallway, but you also know the hallway has no beginning and no end.

SPEAKER_03 9:41

No.

SPEAKER_00 9:41

You kind of know where you are, you kind of know what's going on, but just things are off.

SPEAKER_03 9:45

Things are totally off. And it's unsettling and strange.

SPEAKER_00 9:48

Unsettling.

SPEAKER_03 9:49

So a few key dream core tropes. Um, perhaps you've experienced this. Let us know if you have. The endless horizon. So looking out of, let's say, a school window to only see a void, or looking out and seeing an endless ocean, or a massive pixelated blue sky with like clip-out car clip-out cars? Clip out cars. Clip art clouds that just go on and on and on and on. Yeah. Um, or impossible geometry. Yeah. Um, staircases that lead directly into ceilings, doors that open into massive outdoor fields, shapes that don't make sense, or maybe are moving and aren't static. Um, and then of course, this one has happened to me. Which I don't like at all. It doesn't happen often. Usually, I don't know what this means about me, but like usually my brain can form faces fully in dreams. But what has happened before is that objects or entities in these spaces often have a giant singular eye. Creepy. Potentially television screens for heads. That's never happened to me.

SPEAKER_00 10:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 10:51

But no faces, like blank faces.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

So like it'll be it'll it'll be like a human head, but no features. Like just skin?

SPEAKER_03 11:00

Just open just just a or like a void. Like a void. No, it's like like a like a cream-colored something. Creepy. Just fully not there.

SPEAKER_02 11:12

Oof.

SPEAKER_03 11:12

Yeah, yeah. It's like you've colored in the face of something and provided zero features. Wow. That's happened to me.

SPEAKER_01 11:19

There you go.

SPEAKER_03 11:20

Um, so going back to the television screens for heads, that has kind of been explained that like this is representing the feeling of being watched by your own subconscious in those dreams, which is wild. And you shared something interesting with me uh earlier about meditation.

SPEAKER_00 11:35

Oh, yes. So um it's in a book I've been reading on um basically how to um connect more with your spirit guides and spirit and stuff like that. But when you're meditating, one of the exercises was to sit there and what you're looking at, so your whole field of vision, um, basically imagine, try to picture it in your mind that it is a screen, like a television screen or a movie theater screen, and kind of try to picture through the screen.

unknown 12:09

Crazy.

SPEAKER_00 12:10

And then a lot of people report getting this feeling once they've kind of figured out how to make this meditation work, that they have a feeling of being watched from the other side of this screen. And it's just it's so it's like, is that you watching yourself?

SPEAKER_03 12:26

Is what that's supposed to emulate?

SPEAKER_00 12:27

It could absolutely be that. It could be, you know, spirit guides from the other side watching, tuning in. It could be your consciousness, yeah. It's a whole thing. But it's very cool, very, very ooky-spooky weird.

SPEAKER_03 12:42

Very ooky-spooky weird.

SPEAKER_00 12:44

Love that. Love that.

SPEAKER_03 12:45

So here's a little bit more about the Maul World phenomenon.

SPEAKER_00 12:49

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 12:52

It's something.

SPEAKER_00 12:53

Mall world and all those similar liminal spaces.

SPEAKER_03 12:56

Yes, yeah, which we'll get into for sure. We'll break down a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 12:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:59

But in terms of mall world, so there's a massive community of people on platforms like Reddit or TikTok, um, who all claim to visit the exact same recurring location in their dreams, which is the Mall World. Mall World. Supporters of this phenomenon, um, not just supporters, but people who experience it, experiencers. Um, wonder if it's a glitch in the matrix, a shared astral plane, or just the human brain processing modern architecture. But if that's the case, how is everybody dreaming about it?

SPEAKER_00 13:27

Right? Truly, though.

SPEAKER_03 13:28

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:29

That's why the human brain in consciousness is so fast. Yeah. There is so much stuff we don't know.

SPEAKER_02 13:34

Wait, TBT about brains.

SPEAKER_00 13:38

Um, so when people describe the mall world, the similarities are so eerie.

SPEAKER_03 13:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:45

So we've got the architecture. It's a massive multi-level megastructure. It combines an 80s shopping style mall, an airport terminal, a cruise ship, and a hotel. It kind of combines all of these. Think of like, yeah, when malls were at their peak. Peak. Like peak mall. Oh, I miss those days. Yeah, me too.

SPEAKER_03 14:03

We were we were mall kids. Oh my god. I was a mall kid for sure.

SPEAKER_00 14:07

100%.

SPEAKER_03 14:08

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

Um, it has glass elevators that go up way too high. Yeah. And escalators with no railings that span terrifyingly deep chasms. So scary. So scary. Um, I've started having a weird fear of escalators. Really? Because there's been a lot of stuff lately about people getting um stuck in the escalator or like going into the innards and getting like torn apart.

SPEAKER_03 14:37

Hold on. That was like a really old urban legend. Is that coming back?

SPEAKER_00 14:40

I also just saw a movie with it. I forget what movie it was.

SPEAKER_03 14:43

Well damn it.

SPEAKER_00 14:44

Um her hair gets caught in it and then she gets pulled into the escalator.

SPEAKER_03 14:47

Was that not like one of the most recent final destinations?

SPEAKER_00 14:50

It could have been from that. No, this one was from um, I think it was Forbidden Fruits. It's like a it's like a witchy mall vibe. Well, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:58

There you go. Yeah, yeah. Interesting.

SPEAKER_00 15:01

Um People often report a massive indoor water park or aquarium built inside the lower levels of the mall. Uh. Always smelling intensely of chlorine.

SPEAKER_03 15:11

That's wild. Maul World sounds sweet. Sweet. Which, like, well, hold, hold, please hold.

SPEAKER_00 15:20

So the vibe of Maul World, you are casually trying to find something, a specific store, a bathroom, or your flight. Uh, but the layout keeps shifting. You are forever lost in this transitional maze. Yeah. I've seen some videos, I think, where people will try to recreate what they've seen.

SPEAKER_03 15:37

Yes. An artist will draw it out or do the rendering.

SPEAKER_00 15:41

Um, there's YouTube videos, and then you just walk through and it's just so unsettling and creepy.

SPEAKER_03 15:46

Yeah. Really, really, really interesting.

SPEAKER_00 15:48

Yeah. So, why our brains dream in liminal? Yeah. When we sleep, our brains process memories by stripping away specific details and focusing on the archetypes of places we visit often.

SPEAKER_03 16:02

Listen, if I might interject, my my brain strips a lot of people in my dreams, okay?

SPEAKER_00 16:07

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 16:08

Woo!

SPEAKER_02 16:08

I'm sorry, I had to. Ditto.

SPEAKER_00 16:11

I'm not I don't even have to sleep to strip people down. I love it. Uh so you might not dream of your exact high school or local grocery store. Instead, your brain pieces together a very generic, hyper-stylized version of a hallway or a store.

SPEAKER_03 16:31

It happens to me all the time. You just know what it is. You're like, I know that this is my house, but it's not at all my house.

SPEAKER_00 16:36

Just it's off. It's different. Yeah. So because dreams are per purely internal, these spaces lack the one thing that gives them life in the real world. What is it? Other people. People. People. Your brain doesn't have the processing power to render a bustling crowd of background extras. So you end up wandering these massive, echoey architectural structures completely alone. It's literal biological liminality. Why would you do it? She's smart.

SPEAKER_03 17:07

God, how do you know these things?

SPEAKER_00 17:08

I just, I just do. Just comes to me.

SPEAKER_03 17:11

So let's speak of science. Science? Science. Uh, you know how much we love a scientist here.

SPEAKER_00 17:17

Well, we love a science.

SPEAKER_03 17:18

Let's kind of go over what's called the overfitted brain hypothesis.

SPEAKER_00 17:23

Okay, let's do that.

SPEAKER_03 17:24

Why does the brain dream of strange, empty, slightly corrupted versions of everyday architecture? Why? A major neuroscientific theory proposed by cognitive scientist Eric Hole. Hole, known as the overfitted brain hypothesis, suggests that dreaming in an evid and oh my god, suggests that dreaming is an evolutionary defense mechanism against a cluttered mind.

SPEAKER_00 17:48

Makes sense.

SPEAKER_03 17:50

During the day, our brains experience a massive influx of repetitive, highly specific data. If the brain only processed this exact data, its neural networks would overfit, meaning it would become too rigid to adapt to new situations and our heads would probably explode. That's not in here, but I'm willing to guess that that could happen.

SPEAKER_00 18:12

I can see it happening. Yeah. Uh so biological dreaming serves as an offline data augmentation process.

SPEAKER_03 18:20

Sure. It's like downloading everything, off, offloading everything.

SPEAKER_00 18:24

100%.

SPEAKER_03 18:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:25

Uh by generating distorted, empty, and physically impossible sensory inputs or hallucinating corrupted samples. Oh, yes. The brain resets itself, making its cognitive processing more flexible and robust when waking up. Your brain, your brain purposely strips away the crowds, warps the geometry, and leaves you in an empty airport or hallway to regular regularize your neural representations. Our brains are basically one big computer.

SPEAKER_03 18:54

It's a giant computer trying to wipe away, not wipe away, store. Store everything. Yeah, processing store. Right. It doesn't store the things that they don't see, you know, necessary. Yeah. Right? Why blank faces, whatever. Hundred percent. Interesting.

SPEAKER_00 19:09

Um so for a deeper psychological twist, look to how modern psychotherapists view dream geography. Good old Sigmund Freud. We love them. We love them.

SPEAKER_03 19:22

Him? Him? Him. I don't know why just you never know. Why not? We don't know his truth. It's real truth.

SPEAKER_00 19:27

Sigmund Freud famously coined the term the uncanny, which I I do love. It just it paints a picture.

SPEAKER_03 19:34

Yeah, it's a good phrase.

SPEAKER_00 19:36

The uncanny describing a subtle, unsettling feeling that arises when something is simultaneously deeply familiar yet fundamentally alien.

SPEAKER_03 19:44

Which is exactly what we talked about at the beginning of the episode, right? Like normal, but not totally right. Something is off.

SPEAKER_00 19:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:51

So modern psychoanalytical studies show that when the human self feels threatened by underlying stress, disassociation, or emotional fragmentation, the brain attempts to resolve this internal danger by covering indefinite and frightening processes with defined visual images. That is a direct quote. As most of this scientific speak, actually, it's from a publication from 2021 called Research in Psychotherapy: Psychopathology, Process and Outcome by a bunch of scientists. A bunch, a bunch. So when we, you know, that that was a lot of scientific speak to say we understand that our brains are doing this.

SPEAKER_00 20:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:32

However, let's get to the whimsical side of it. Do it. And we're gonna riff a lot on this.

SPEAKER_00 20:37

I love it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:38

Um I think I've mentioned this here. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 20:44

I think it was during our dream episode or nightmares and dreams. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:46

So I experience Ma World from time to time. Yeah. I go to Mall World. What I don't see, I don't see the airport that's associated with what a lot of so what Steven kind of covered was let's say the average um experiencers sort of um thoughts, what they see, what they experience in Maul World. I don't see the airport. I don't see planes flying around. God, I'm so glad because I am so afraid of flying around.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

I mean, that yeah, makes sense.

SPEAKER_03 21:13

Um I don't see an aquarium.

SPEAKER_00 21:16

Any pools, anything like no, is there ever water? Yes.

SPEAKER_03 21:19

There is sometimes a um it's very long. Like so it it fully, I'm trying to see it in my mind's eye right now. So I'm sorry if my eyes are closed. But it is like a long fountain bed that just goes down the center of the mall. And I do absolutely experience it never ends. So cool. It's never ending. It just and in mine, it curves. So like my eye can only see so far, and then it starts to bend. And I can't, I I'm forever walking in this curve.

SPEAKER_00 21:53

In a it's not like a like a world curved.

SPEAKER_03 21:57

It's a like a hallway that's curving.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Interesting.

SPEAKER_03 22:01

And when I get to the curve, it just keeps going and going and going and going.

SPEAKER_01 22:05

It just keeps curving. Crazy. That's so cool.

SPEAKER_03 22:08

There are often a lot of kind of what I call like dark spaces. Like literal black spots in what I see when I'm walking around Maul World.

SPEAKER_00 22:20

That's just like not filled in, versus void.

SPEAKER_03 22:22

Yeah. Yeah. Um very cool. What I do also see, so I'm usually alone when I'm in Maul World.

SPEAKER_00 22:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 22:30

However, there have been many, many times where there are people passing me going the opposite direction. Oh. No one is ever walking with me. They're walking past me. Huh. Like as if they're going on the like if you're on, you know how everyone like chooses to walk on one side of the mall and they go up. They're like walking by me and I'm on the other side walking.

SPEAKER_00 22:52

Do you ever recognize the people?

SPEAKER_03 22:54

I never recognize the people. They do always have faces.

SPEAKER_00 22:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 22:58

Um we never talk to each other. We never interact.

SPEAKER_00 23:00

I that's just Do you ever like do you make any sort of eye contact, nothing, or you just kind of like keep on looking straight and walking?

SPEAKER_03 23:07

I just keep going.

SPEAKER_00 23:08

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 23:09

Um so typically what happens with me is when I'm in mall world, I know that I'm in mall world. Okay. I know that I'm dreaming.

SPEAKER_00 23:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 23:17

What happens is when I go into a store, the dream changes, starts, whatever. It's like I'm walking into a dream and then I don't know I'm dreaming.

SPEAKER_00 23:27

Like the dream, the that current dream starts, kicks off.

SPEAKER_03 23:29

Kicks off into whatever it is that's going on. I don't know I'm dreaming, I'm experiencing it. Um, I also never experience the feeling of walking out of that, let's call it storefront. It just all of a sudden I'm in the middle of mall world. Okay. And it's not all the time. So sometimes I go to sleep and I just immediately start to dream and I never experience mall world. Sometimes I dream and then I come all of a sudden I'm still dreaming, but I'm in mall world. Other times I'm just always walking around world.

SPEAKER_00 23:58

Crazy. Have you? I know this is potentially hard to answer, but have you noticed any sort of like has anything been going on in your life or that day when you do end up in Maul World?

SPEAKER_03 24:12

That's a really tough question because I don't track it.

SPEAKER_00 24:14

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:15

I don't track, I think that's a really smart question. Um I can't answer it. I don't know. No, that's a tough one for sure. I don't know. But it is like when it talks about 80s, like, why is my mall so boring? It is full of, it's just gray, lots of gray. Okay. But it also has like Millennial Gray. Yeah, big time millennial gray, but it also has like that maroon and blue that you see. Yeah, you know. You know what I mean? Where it's like maroon and blue stripes all the way, like, all the way, always on like the very top, like what would be above the storefronts, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 24:50

You need me to come and decorate your mall world.

SPEAKER_03 24:52

Yes, please join me in my mall. It's so sad looking. It just like when there are people who talk about it, there are a lot of people that I do not connect with at all. And I'm like, nope, that's just we're not. And it makes me think like maybe it's my own little world and it's not, you know. Um, but what I also know, you actually educated me about this when we first started talking about it. Um, there are people who claim that they can do meetups.

SPEAKER_00 25:18

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:19

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 25:20

There's like um one person I'm thinking of specifically, but I know there are other people. Um, but she's like a, you know, kind of like a psychic witch medium. Yeah. Um, and she'll put calls out to other people who can kind of maybe not control it, but do visit Mall World or these liminal spaces, and they'll have or they'll try to do meetups in these places. And like, again, it's hard to control what you do there sometimes, or so I've heard.

SPEAKER_03 25:51

I can't at all.

SPEAKER_00 25:52

Yeah. So they'll plan to meet up, but then once you're there, it's whatever happens, happens. But then they'll come back the next day or in a in a week or something, and they'll all be able to describe the same seeing the same things.

SPEAKER_03 26:08

That's it.

unknown 26:09

That's wild.

SPEAKER_00 26:10

Very cool.

SPEAKER_03 26:10

It's fascinating.

SPEAKER_00 26:11

Fascinating.

SPEAKER_03 26:12

I wish. Man, if I don't know what I would do. Maybe my brain is protecting me when I'm sleeping when this happens, because if someone came up to me and was like, yo, I'm a real person, we're experiencing this together. I don't know how to be able to handle that.

SPEAKER_00 26:25

I wish. Yeah. At least you get Maul World.

SPEAKER_03 26:27

I mean, listen, at least I remember my dreams.

SPEAKER_00 26:29

I know.

SPEAKER_03 26:29

Yeah. But you're getting there. I'm getting there.

SPEAKER_00 26:31

I was I was telling Jacqueline earlier because I I'm attributing it to I'm burning mugma more. Yeah, sure. And it's helping with the dreams and lucid dreaming and spiritual awakening and stuff like that. So I've I know I am dreaming a lot more. Yeah. But again, I'm really bad at jotting down right when I wake up because my sleep inertia when I wake up sucks.

SPEAKER_01 26:53

Oh man.

SPEAKER_00 26:53

And I am like basically hung over from sleep for like at least a good an hour or two. Um so I forget to write it down. But I need to because I know it's happening. I know I'm dreaming. And I know it's happening because maybe I'm burning some more fun stuff.

SPEAKER_03 27:08

Maybe. Having more mushies. Right?

SPEAKER_00 27:11

But I, if I could choose, I would want um there's the Victorian Hotel one.

unknown 27:18

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 27:19

Um, Gothic vibes, just Victorian Hotels, hallways. Although, don't get me wrong, like 80s retro mall world would be fantastic. I mean I don't know if I want yours though. Yours sounds boring.

SPEAKER_03 27:31

Yeah, it's really boring. No, I I that would be cool. If I could choose, it would definitely be the Victorian Hotel. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:39

Really neat. Very cool stuff.

SPEAKER_03 27:40

The um I haven't looked into a lot of like if people are experiencing um like office spaces, but that happens, or like um knowing my luck, I would get the office space. That's so true.

SPEAKER_00 27:51

100%.

SPEAKER_03 27:52

Or um, you know, bizarro um grocery stores where like the shelves are just empty and you go down different aisles. I know that is.

SPEAKER_00 28:03

I'd potentially get that too because I hate grocery shopping. Unless it's like a pretty grocery store. Yeah. I hate grocery shopping.

SPEAKER_03 28:08

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love it. I just love it. I don't know. I find it there.

SPEAKER_00 28:12

Any other kind of shopping. I fair enough. Yeah. Especially now with the prices. I can't even tell you. Let's not even bring that up.

SPEAKER_03 28:19

Don't even want to talk about it. I'm dreading driving home because of the gas as well. Um, but yeah, it's it's fascinating, it's cool, it's interesting. It truly is like one of those in-between spaces because for me, it's literally that definition of in between my dream. Yeah. I am not yet awake, I am not yet dreaming, I'm wandering through this dream.

SPEAKER_00 28:39

You're in like the lobby waiting room before your next dream.

SPEAKER_03 28:43

And there are some theories that like, is this um oh my God, what's the word?

SPEAKER_00 28:49

Limbo limbo? Limbo. Limbo.

SPEAKER_03 28:52

Yeah. Like, is this what is in between whatever happens in the afterlife?

SPEAKER_00 28:56

Well, like if we're in the matrix, this could be kind of some sort of glitch.

SPEAKER_03 29:02

People think it's a glitch in the matrix, and that's us actually experiencing what the real world is like.

SPEAKER_02 29:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:07

God, that would be really really, really shitty because it would be so boring. Um, what is the word? Pa pa pa. People are screaming it at me. Purgatory. Purgatory. That was really loud. I'm really sorry about your little ears. Purgatory.

SPEAKER_00 29:21

Purgatory.

SPEAKER_03 29:22

Erupted from my brain. Um, it it definitely is that vibe.

SPEAKER_00 29:26

100%.

SPEAKER_03 29:27

Right. Um Well, that's like in what?

SPEAKER_00 29:29

Beetlejuice, where it's literally just the waiting room.

SPEAKER_03 29:32

A waiting room. Oh my god, that it can't that can't be it.

SPEAKER_00 29:36

That can't be it. It's not.

SPEAKER_03 29:38

It's not. Um, but I mean, listen, it's again, we went through the scientific stuff for a reason, because we are real life human beings who do believe in science, but also there's a whole lot of whimsical weird things that happen that we cannot explain.

SPEAKER_00 29:54

We don't know over half of what the human brain and mind can do.

SPEAKER_03 29:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:59

So this could be some sort of weird, weird thing.

SPEAKER_03 30:02

The meetups is wild. The meetups is wild. I wish I wish that would happen to me. Uh I do experience a lot of strangers in my dreams. Like, even so, and I'm not referring to Ma World. I'm meaning like when I'm in my dream.

SPEAKER_01 30:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:14

Or what will happen to me, speaking of like things that are real but not real, um there are I know that someone is, for example, you, but it's not you. Like you as your image right now, okay. It's not you. But I know that that person in my brain is supposed to be is Steven in my dream. But you're not, it's not you.

SPEAKER_00 30:34

Weird.

SPEAKER_03 30:35

But it's also like a fully formed face and person. And I'm like, how do I do that? How do I just create that? But you countered that point for me. Anyone that you pass in the street, your brain is actually downloading and experiencing. Even if you see them as you're driving by at the red light, you soak that in.

SPEAKER_00 30:55

Yeah. You might not remember it, but like your brain does capture it in the moment. Yeah. Um, so in dreams, when you do see faces, it's it's people you've seen. Um, but there was another thing where if there are some times where the face you know you have never seen met this person at all. And uh lore states that those are spirits coming to visit you in your dreams.

SPEAKER_03 31:24

That makes a lot of sense for me.

SPEAKER_00 31:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:26

That makes a lot of sense for me.

SPEAKER_00 31:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:28

Interesting. Well, I get those too, so sorry.

SPEAKER_00 31:33

I know. God dang it.

SPEAKER_03 31:35

I'm sorry. Yeah, wild, wild stuff.

SPEAKER_00 31:37

Well, wild stuff.

SPEAKER_03 31:38

Liminal spaces, man.

SPEAKER_00 31:40

Very cool.

SPEAKER_03 31:41

There's a lot of information out there, um, a lot of rabbit holes to fall down, a lot of videos.

SPEAKER_00 31:46

I haven't seen the full trailer yet, but there's a movie.

SPEAKER_03 31:49

Oh, yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_00 31:50

There's a movie coming out very soon called uh Backrooms, I believe. Yeah. And it's all about liminal spaces.

SPEAKER_03 31:56

It's wild how many movies are coming out that are parallel to like these weird topics that we're touching.

SPEAKER_00 32:02

It's so true.

SPEAKER_03 32:02

Hollywood, are you listening? Are you listening? Also, like Thanks. Call us. Yeah. Like, will the budget that you would save pay us instead of big time actors be huge and worth it? I think we could act. I sure I pretend to be someone I'm not every day. I'm just kidding, but am I?

SPEAKER_00 32:24

I pretended to be straight for a long time. I don't know how good of a job I do.

SPEAKER_03 32:31

I'm really sad. And I hit myself on my microphone. That made me sad. Didn't mean to bring it down. That's okay. You we're still oh no, we're in July at this point. I was gonna say we're in June. We're not also even in June here yet. Oh, yeah. But um, you know, happy pride. Happy Pride. Don't do what Steven did. Right. I understand. Um, yeah, no, that's uh the dream world, liminal spaces, wild stuff.

SPEAKER_00 32:56

Very cool.

SPEAKER_03 32:57

If you have ever experienced any of these things, please write in. It can be anonymous. Yep. Um, we are harping on it a lot because we have this episode planned and we have the date that we want to do this episode. We do. We need more stories.

SPEAKER_00 33:10

We need them.

SPEAKER_03 33:10

Yes. So please send in your spooky, weird, bizarro tales. It could be anything, it could be something creepy that happened in real life that has no paranormal thought behind it at all. Um, but we have some ready to go.

SPEAKER_00 33:24

It could have happened to people you know that's permission to tell us.

SPEAKER_03 33:29

But like I've got one I'm gonna include.

SPEAKER_00 33:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 33:31

Um, we've got some from some people who have written them in, which is great. Thank you for doing that.

SPEAKER_02 33:36

Yay.

SPEAKER_03 33:36

But send them in.

SPEAKER_00 33:37

Send them.

SPEAKER_03 33:38

Send them. All right. Well, anything else to add on liminal spaces?

SPEAKER_00 33:43

I want to go. I want to go to one.

SPEAKER_03 33:45

I want I hope it happens for you. Thanks. I hope it happens. And I hope it's like the cool Victorian one.

SPEAKER_00 33:50

I hope so.

SPEAKER_03 33:50

See, being in a aquarium or water park would be cool. Would be cool. That'd be fun.

SPEAKER_00 33:54

But it would be empty, so there wouldn't be all the cool stuff in the water that you know us.

SPEAKER_01 34:01

That is a whole other world of ick.

SPEAKER_00 34:03

Right.

SPEAKER_01 34:03

Things in the water that you don't know. Oh, it's creepy.

SPEAKER_03 34:05

No, no.

SPEAKER_01 34:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:07

All right. Well, so thank you so much for listening and watching Weirdos of Whimsy. We will be back again soon with another episode that guides you through the weird and whimsical journey that is our brains. Be sure to follow us on Instagram and TikTok and YouTube at Weirdos of WhimsyPod. Watch that space for updates, release dates, other treats, and delectable morsels. And say goodbyes, TV.

SPEAKER_00 34:33

So long farewell, everybody.

SPEAKER_03 34:35

Goodbye. Dream well. Dream well. And as always, pink gulp, say. Well, see ya later. In Dream.