a dream of being chased

"In my dream I was at my kid's dad's girlfriend's house in the ghetto. I was talking with her and actually getting along with her oddly enough. Then these guys walked by me staring at me. I thought they were just being pervs but the way they were looking at me was crazy.

Then later in my dream they showed up again. (I can't remember what was going on in my dream between that except that she took me into her house and I remember looking around and seeing where my kid's dad slept and feeling kinda sad) Then all of a sudden we were back outside and the guys showed back up with a knife in their hand. I ran and they chased me. I remember feeling scared cause they were catching up to me but I had nowhere to run. I was thinking in my head that they must have been one of my old drug connections from a long time ago but they didn't look familiar. Then all of a sudden my mom was there and I didn't want to say anything to her cause I didn't want them to know she was my mom for fear that they would try to hurt her. Just as they caught me I woke up!" - Elizabeth, 26, Las Vegas

Thank you so much for submitting this dream to me, as it is a particularly great example of how a person's mind creates a dream that is very specific to their personality and life. There are many interesting points here that deserve some attention. First of all, I think it's interesting and telling that in the dream you are at your child's father's girlfriend's house, with your child's father, his girlfriend and your mother. Where is the child? As the one person conspicuously absent from the narrative, one could suggest that your child is exempt, at least in your mind, to the dangers represented by the action of the dream.

A person's feelings within their own dreams are often as significant as the actions themselves. You are noting feelings of sadness over your lost love, and his place within the life of another. These feelings are followed by the surprise of getting along with the other young woman in the dream. I think we can assume that while you feel sad that your relationship with your child's father has changed, you have an understanding that the split can be OK for everyone involved. Though you might fight with his girlfriend in real life, in the dream she poses no threat to you.

Finally, you feel fear, both for yourself and for your mother. In the most general sense, a chase dream is typically a reflection of a fear of being caught by the issues that we are all "running from." Knives in dreams are often seen as symbols of masculine aggression, and the fact that these men first leer at you and then return with a knife suggests some anxiety of the danger that men present to women.

In the case of this dream, you reference the fact that you believe that the men you're running from may be former drug contacts of yours, and you feel afraid that they will recognize your mother as your relative and then hurt her. Clearly you have a concern that your past may "catch" you, and further, that your past will harm your mother. However, these particular men do not seem to be people that you know; in this way they simultaneously embody both the fear of your past and the fear of the unknown.

While chase dreams are very common, plaguing nearly everyone at some time or another, even a simple chase dream can have many layers of meaning. I hope this interpretation helps!