I had another dream of somebody else's last night. I have these relatively frequently. They basically consist of people and places I don't know and have never seen. If I'm anyone in the dream other than a vaguely “me” feeling first-person perspective thing (um, like Duke Nuke'em, only not so pixelie), then I'm a whole other person, who, again, I don't know and have never seen. Last night 'I' was in a mental institution, populated by the most vivid, life-like people to ever show up in a dream. Of course, as is often the way with dreams, I don't remember most of them now... just that there was one guy (I think his name was John) who was very nice, but subject to bouts of extreme, overpowering rage, and he somehow got a crow bar. I dimly recollect some of the other people, but he sticks in my mind the most. I'm pretty sure 'my' name was Chris.

Anyway, my question (and apologies if I've asked this before) is: does this happen to anyone else?

I've shared dreams with my little sister and stuff before, or had a common but random element show up in my and my parents' dreams on the same night, but that's different, I think. That is more of a familial connection thing, which, to my mind, makes some degree of sense... The other people's dreams, though, weird me out, somewhat... They're almost never about pleasant things... usually not happening to the “me”, but around me... but I'm not just a passive observer; I'm part of it.
The most upsetting ones I had were a series... I had three of them; basically me and this completely creepy, yet strangely seductive, abusive bastard. In the first one he stole (and I mean stole a kiss), holding so tight to “my” arm that I half-expected to look for a bruise when I woke up. In the second one he hit me, then apologized and I took him back and in the third one, chased me down and tried to rape me. The really alarming things were a)Part of me wanted this guy... like the emotions I was having belonged to someone else (maybe whoever owned the dream) and b) when he was holding me down, I closed my eyes and kept repeating to myself, “this isn't a dream; closing my eyes isn't going to make it go away.” Then, right at the last second, I opened my eyes and said “Okay. This part is the dream,” and stabbed him through the eye with a pencil... but it was me-me who said the last part... Dude didn't show up in my dreams after that.
So yeah, the purpose for this rather uncomfortable article (I feel like I'm betraying someones' trust by posting this, like I'm sharing things that aren't mine to share) is to ask the above question, which I have, and so will now shut up and await your answers.