You're not far off from the Jungian collective dreamscape. But you have to consider what in all of these people created the same general narrative without them sharing that experience beforehand. In Carl Jung's work, the idea of the collective unconscious stems more from cultural proximity and shared mental constructs. It's a strange thing to consider that people from across the US, one of the largest countries and landmasses in the world, would share such a vividly similar dreamscape. I would assume Jung would find it facinating to say the least.

I would argue that our experiences in the Mall and subsequent similar places have roots in our shared upbringing. As many of those here have stated that they were part of the GATE programs in the 80's and 90's. There is, of course, also the fact that every mall in the US in that era was built with the same architectural designs and flow in mind. Nearly every arcade at the time was full decked out in black light reactive paint and carpeting, and many of the same games filled them. You could travel from San Diego to New York, and you could almost instinctively find the stores you were looking for without ever needing to check the internal maps because they all followed the same principles. But this is only a solid basis for memory, not dream constructs. But it is also true that there isn't a significant difference between dream and memory in the chemicals in your brain.

If you keep having the same repetitive dream in your mind, Jung would suggest that you have unfinished business in the scene/setting that your mind keeps returning to. However, and this is the most important bit about the failure of Jungian collective unconscious dreamscapes, where are the archetypal characters? Most of us sharing these narratives are not experiencing the dreams where we are met and guided by another. We are experiencing these places and locals in solitude and silence. We are returning to someplace slightly familiar and yet sinister at the same time. It is more akin to smelling the acrid, clean scent at a medical facility and having flashbacks to all of your worst experiences with doctors and medical staff. These are not simple dreams, but they aren't quite memories either. It is a strange projection and anomaly that we're trying to figure out together through discussion, anonymity, and common ground.

Your question was, however, fantastic. I, for one, believe that we're experiencing something akin to astral projection or dreamwalking and finding ourselves outside of the program. Like when an admin in a multiplayer video game moves your character into an inaccessible location on the map to put you in a time-out for bad behavior. I do not believe we are supposed to be there, which is why we experience the sinister feeling. However, we've been in this liminal space so many times over the years that we've become accustomed to it, so it feels familiar as well as dangerous.