[soldier100]

Very often I dream that I'm running away from soldiers, suppossedly they are killing every body and in my effort to hide from them I find myself hiding in old houses along with my stepmom and sometimes my children. What does this mean?

[excon]

What does this mean?

Hello soldier:

Nothing.

excon

[J_9]

It means you had a dream. Nothing more, nothing less.

[CliffARobinson]

A simple answer to your question is to concentrate on the chase itself rather than the soldiers or other details. Being chased is a very common dream for most people and a generic answer could be given that it points to anxiety over something on the horizon you need to deal with like a decision you have to make - something you do not want to have to face but are being forced to.

There has been a lot of confusion over the years concerning dreams and how, or, if to consider them a valid psychoanalytic tool. Freud published work on the subject which has been cause for debate to this day. Very respected professors, researchers and psychiatrists believe in the effectiveness of using dream study as a tool to determine, among other things, why someone is hiding from issues which cause the patient duress or depression. Recent published work in the area looks at dreams as an extension of your waking life rather than a secret to be unlocked or deciphered. As with all psychoanalysis - the work of figuring this out is up to you in the end.

Much of the "quack factor" with relation to dream work has to do with the mythical and supernatural aspects ascribed to dreams. Ancient societies believed dreams were actually messages from the heavens. In current day, a search on Google will find all sorts of "interesting" sites dedicated to assigning all sorts of explanations to your dreams from the generic to the fantastical.

The bottom line is you will not find a dream dictionary that will decipher this dream for you. The answer to what is going on in your waking life to create this imagery will come from working on the meaning and your total psycho-emotional state with a qualified professional.

I come to this subject with very powerful personal experiences that affected me profoundly. I was lucky to have found a Psychologist in my twenties that was open to listening to my dreams and encouraged writing them down. The imagery from this activity helped me see what I was choosing to ignore in my personal life and has led to my reconnecting with family members and forming life-long, healthy adult relationships.

Aside from my personal experience, below are links to respected research on the subject. My suggestion? Consider some couch time :) And, good luck!

Working with dreams in therapy: What do we know and what should we do?... N. Pesant, A. Zadra / Clinical Psychology Review (2004) [pdf]

Adam Schneider and G. William Domhoff's research site - University of California, Santa Cruz