Recurring Dream Locations

The reoccurring places and scenarios in my dreams have been on my mind often since starting this project. It seems that more often than not, my dreams involve fictional places I know I have been before while dreaming or having an OBE. After a night's sleep where dream recall was successful, I am left to ponder an explanation.

Whether or not any of us will uncover the truths of our dreams is unknown and my guess is that it will not be in this lifetime. Still, my curiosity has taken me to researching other people's experiences across the web. I now realize that I am not alone with this experience. The very odd thing is that many people seem to have the same locations as each other they visit in their dreams. Cobblestone villages, a mall, A market like city w/ connected segments, "Summerland"...

So here are some of my theories I have been questioning: 

1. Are our brains or subconscious creating these complete fictional places as a reflections of ourselves? I almost feel like it can depend on the dream. Sometimes these locations feel like pre-rendered constructs and not completely subjective to us. 

2. Remote Viewing? Are we tied to someone else in a mental frequency and seeing through their eyes? 

3. Past lives? For some the biggest validation of reincarnation is dreaming of themselves as another person in an unknown place. This answer seems too simple for me. I feel the answer is not so simple.

4. Another interesting theory I came across: What if dreams are like channels that we join, channels that we share with other dreamers or souls? 

5. I have come to believe that time is irrelevant as it is a man-made construct. What makes sense to me is that we co-exist in a number amount of universes or possibilities of time and space and that through our subconscious we can get glimpses of these other lives.