For no particular reason, I woke up this morning and became especially intrigued with my dream and my past dreams. I woke up vividly remembering my dream and pondered it for quite some time. I recalled many similar dreams, and began to go over all the dreams I could remember. I noticed several consistencies and patterns and would appreciate some input by other people.

Starting off with the dream I had today, it was a foot race on the basketball court of my Junior High School. I have had many dreams in which I was racing or using my natural gift of speed. I am very confident in my ability to run quickly ever since I was a small child. I was always the fastest kid in my class all the way through high school. However, in these races I either lose the race or I win but don't feel accomplished. When I do win the race I can visibly see the lack of effort by the participants and feel as if I won due to their lack of ambition. I feel dissatisfied knowing they did not try and most likely would have won had they put out the effort.

I researched the concept of racing in dreams and their details. The person that I beat in this particular race was an old childhood nemesis who was jealous of the girlfriend I had in Jr. High School. Racing can represent people being jealous of your acquisitions and in this case I feel that is what it represented. However, there are other circumstances in which I win seeing a lack of effort or flat out lose the race. As previously stated, I do not see why I would be insecure about my abilities, being that this particular ability I consider to be one of my strengths. I should also explain that when I fail to move quickly I am frustrated. My legs move and I run as intended, but I cannot achieve top speed. Either I feel my body is not reaching maximum capacity or when I thrust with my leg to move forward with great force I am propelled into the air. The more effort I put in the harder it is to stay on the ground. It is like I am attempting to run on the moon, when I try to run hard I float and have to wait to come back down to the ground the push again.

Some dreams when I am running from a malicious entity with perceived pernicious intention my attempts to run are hindered. This entity is often equipped with a butter knife, and wearing tight black clothes covering everything but his hands and face. He is bald and has blue eyes, and like me is Caucasian. The setting is overcast skies and always in a street, usually at my childhood home from 14 years ago. Even though it is a public place, the street and town are deserted and nothing is visible or alive other than the two of us. I am aware of what this usually represents in dreams but I hope that putting into detail the appearance and setting may help explain what the entity actually represents. I can never escape the pursuer and take to two courses of action. The first course of action is where I attempt to ward off the attacker, but my attempts to fight him off are thwarted. I am never armed with a weapon and when I attempt to use my strength or land a solid punch I lack the ability to do any damage. Once again, I am very confident in my abilities physically and consider myself a strong, able-bodied adult and am completely befuddled by this result. The second course of action is my complete surrender. It is almost as if I can remember my futile attempts of past dreams as I simply sit down and await my demise. Also, I would note that when I do this the attacker never effectively attacks me. When I await death there is no struggle and I am not usually harmed. I can remember times where he would draw his weapon and grab me, but no harm was done.

An additional note to make is that in a large portion of my dreams I am walking in the middle of a street. Also, I have never once seen a moving or parked car. There are no stripes on the street to indicate traffic laws. The streets are most commonly my childhood street or my grandparent’s street, if I am not in one of those areas I am usually at my Elementary/Junior High School. Also, I am never aware of what age I am or what I look like. I am always in first person view and never see a reflection or anything other than what I normally see in my everyday life. I am never in any current settings or even High School or College, it is always the distant past or I am unaware of the time frame.

My dreams, good and bad, never involve anyone I would consider close to me. My lifelong friends and immediate family are never involved or mentioned in any portion of my dreams. The only recognizable people in my dreams, for the most part, are distant family members. The kind of family you only see on holidays. However, I never mingle with them or are even near them, but I can always see them in distance. Often times it’s a spring like setting; sunny and green with sprinklers on occasion and as always I am in the street. The most recent recollection is seeing my holiday family members arrive at my grandparent's house and it’s unclear to me as to whether or not there were parked cars, but as previously mentioned there are never any cars. The only person who is in my dreams that is close to me is my younger brother. However, the brother in my dreams is often the little brother I remember from when we were kids, as we are both now 19 and 22 years old. There is no question, however, whenever he is involved in the dream I feel calm, safe and settled.

Adversely, in nearly all of my dreams I am either alone or accompanied by people who don't exist. I know the people in the dream but to my knowledge they do not exist in reality. Often times they have a grayish purple haze that never seems to bother me and have unclear appearances as I could never point them out distinctively. I speak to them as if I know them, and in my dream I do, but in reality they do not exist. The only recognizable person is my consistent girlfriend. Now, I do not have currently have a girlfriend and I can only remember her in dreams when I am single, but it is always the same girl. She is about shoulder height to my 6'1", with a petite build, brunette hair and gorgeous brown eyes. She is always understanding and there is an obvious connection of our souls, however she has never had a name and I cannot recollect any intimate actions or even eye contact for that matter. I can remember feeling down in one situation and she put her hand on my shoulder and offered comforting words. Either we are sitting on steps or walking down a street talking; but she is always looking forward and never at me, even when her soft spoken words are uttered. There is never any conflict and every dream I can sense that we are together and that she supports me and I her. As pleasant as that sounds I am always sternly disappointed waking up to find out she indeed does not exist.

Those are the constant characteristics of my dreams. I have never had a dream involving animals, bugs, teeth, body parts, nudity or castration. No sense of addiction, confusion or clarity. Hopefully someone can give me a bit of incite to my dreams and help me to improve my life by doing so. I have given the most detailed explanation possible and look forward to reading the responses. Thanks and have a great day!

Hi Kyreian

Something that I have noticed from your post is that you seem to feel somehow separated from other people. For example, you say that in waking life you were always the fastest kid in your class - that means that you stood out from the other kids. Your dreams often seem to take place where it is basically deserted, and the other people in your dreams aren't real people in your waking life.

In your race dreams, you never get the satisfaction of winning - even if you technically win. Maybe it's a sign that you need to re-evaluate your goals in life. Maybe you are starting to realise that even if you get what you are working towards, in the end it won't really make you happy.

It's also interesting that your attacker is armed with a butterknife, which we think of as something soft and harmless (compared to other types of knives). Yet despite his seeming lack of power, he always either beats you or you just surrender without a fight. This gives me the impression that you just don't care, or just can't be bothered making an effort about something, which relates to the point about you possibly needing to re-evaluate your goals.

I wonder if the girlfriend who constantly appears in your dreams is your anima,

https://www.dreaming.life/dream-themes/dream-archetypes.htm

Is there anything noticeable about the other characters in your dream? Perhaps they represent different aspects of yourself? You say that your attacker is Caucasian, like you. Is there any other way in which he resembles you? Maybe the reason you can't hurt him is because he is a part of you, perhaps an aspect of yourself that you have been avoiding. Instead of trying to fight him or giving up, would it be possible for you to try to talk to him calmly in your dream and find out what he wants, or if he has a message for you. Maybe instead of running away or sitting down and waiting for your demise, you can just turn around and face him.

Basically, it seems like you are thinking about the direction you want to take in life, and maybe having some concerns about the path you've tentatively chosen which considering your age, I think is expected.

It has been a long time since I had a dream of being chased, I just brought that up to give an example of my inability to run or use strength when needed. He has no qualities of mine, I have a full head of hair, am more tan than pale and have brown hair/eyes. I will make a mental note to attempt to talk to the pursuer, as attempts to run or fight have proven futile. In relation the butter knife, I believe that stems from a quote from my grandfather when I was a child, "Butter knives are the most dangerous type of knives, people often use excessive force, due to their dullness and hurt themselves as a result of it slipping." You are, however, correct about me giving up or not caring easily. I do have a tendency when things are difficult to go "Oh well," and make the best out of the inevitable. I wonder, also, if you could analyze the method for which my run is hindered, the floating thing. The illusion that I am attempting to run with no gravity, that when I push with my foot to move I am suspended in the air momentarily. This happens a lot in my dreams, especially when people are watching me run and it is very frustrating.

I think perhaps you are correct about the woman in my dreams being my Anima, but that almost makes me sad in waking life that my subconscious does not crave a partner, for I am almost always alone without her or my brother. I had another dream with my brother last night where I was driving at sunset and we were delivering a pizza. The sun visor came down in my view and I could not see the road as the road began to make a complete 180 in the shape of a U. I pull over in the gravel very angry as he quickly removed the visor from my vision and I sped up to pull back onto the road as a silver SUV was behind us. After coming to the stoplight later at night we did not know where the street was we needed to go and I wanted him to use his cell phone. That is all I remember from that dream. AS I said in my initial post, he is usually the little brother I remember from childhood. Is it possible when he is in this form that it is really my inner child? It may not be, because I always recognize him as my brother, but sometimes hes young and sometimes he is waking life age. When I think about it I am more comforted at the thought of it actually being my brother in both occasions, otherwise I am quite often completely alone in my dreams if that is the case.

I also had a second dream that involved two of my lifelong friends and my Junior High teacher that shows up a lot in my dreams. We came in from recess and I was helping her to move a large object, when I attempted to get the object out of the storage area that was dark with many boxes is split into two. The one I attempted to carry was multi-colored with all the bright colors and it broke into pieces inside the net that contained it when I picked it up. When she showed up she was especially nice to me and I was able to carry it down the stairs that were wet and I warned her to watch her step. I was thinking there has to be some significance in that sequence. Additional information to my waking life is that since I had decided to pursue obtaining my PHD in History I have had no chasing dreams or bad dreams at all. I have gotten the races that I win, but am not satisfied, and have had many with 0 or only 1 or 2 real life friends.

In relation to the real life friends, in this same dream with my teacher, we came down to see my two lifelong friends. They were painting decorations for some event that we were doing as a class. They did not speak to me, even when I spoke to them, other than 1 gave me a head nod. One was painting incomplete hearts with gray and brown colors. The hearts were the top end that resembled a bosom and lacking the lower V shape to complete them. My other friend, who I attempted to talk to, was drawing very small hearts with a brown marker, and I commented about "Doesn't it suck when those run out in the middle of a drawing," to which he gave a nod without acknowledging my presence.

I also had a dream about my ex-girlfriend from high school who had sent her grandmother to guide me to a residence in a city I was not familiar with. As she pulled up I was parked under an overpass with my truck and she nicely noticed that I would need to grab my shoes first. I was wearing shoes, but there was a pair of old, dirty shoes under my truck on that opposite side that I had to reach under and grab before leaving. This metaphor really stuck out to me and I cannot decipher its meaning. I appreciate you input and hope to see some more! Thank you!

Hi Kyreian,

I think it's interesting that you often dream about people you don't recognize. I don't know how usual or unusual that is. Are there any characteristics of these dream people that remind you of people you know in waking life - not just people you know but maybe TV or film stars, characters in books, etc. Maybe one of your dream characters is a compilation of a bunch of different people?

Your grandfather's quote about the butterknife is interesting. It's true, although I think that symbolically most people (who didn't have your grandfather) would associate a butterknife with something weak an ineffective. Is there something about the quote itself that would have meaning to you now - that is, the idea that somebody might use too much force with something and cause damage in the process? Maybe your tendency to go "oh well" comes from a fear of approaching something with too much force?

I think your method of running and the floating is partly a physical thing - you really are paralysed, and you really aren't feeling gravity because when you're asleep you don't sense the outside world. Your brain makes up an alternate world that has gravity and you running in your dream, but it can get mixed up between the dream world and the waking world, which is why you're sort of floating. But of course, that doesn't explain why you dream of running in the first place. Maybe the reason it happens when people are watching you run is that you become more conscious of things around you, so your brain becomes more aware of what is happening to your body in the waking world.

Yes, it's possible that he's your inner child. He may also just represent things that happened in your past.

I think what is significant here is that you tried to get something bright out of something that was dark but you were unsuccessful - it broke.

This shows that with help you were able to succeed after all in a difficult situation. The fact that you were both nice to each other - you warned her to watch your step - could be a sign that you can be more successful when you co-operate with other people.

I don't undestand what you meant by that? Do you mean you only have 1 or 2 friends in real life? That's normal for some people.

Is there something in your waking life that makes you feel like people don't pay attention to you? Maybe the incomplete hearts that are gray and brown (sort of dead-looking) are a sign that you don't get the chance to express your emotions, or that people don't pay attention when you try to.

The old, dirty shoes remind of the grey and brown incomplete hearts in the other dream and the dark storage area with the bright box in your other dream. As if there are dull, dirty areas of your life that you need or want to brighten up.

When I think of shoes in dreams I always think of the Freudian meaning but I think that comes from my going to too many Junior High School Intro to Psychology classes.