It’s the middle of the night. You’re running. Something is behind you, something dark and fast, and no matter how quickly your legs move, it’s gaining on you. Your heart pounds. Your breath comes in gasps. You can feel it getting closer.
Then you wake up, drenched in sweat, your heart still racing.
If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Being chased is one of the most universally reported recurring dreams. And when we look at it through Joseph Murphy’s understanding of the subconscious mind, the meaning is both revealing and liberating.
Why Recurring Dreams Matter
Murphy taught that recurring dreams are the subconscious mind’s way of repeating a message you haven’t yet received. Think of it like a friend who keeps calling because you haven’t picked up the phone. The subconscious isn’t being cruel. It’s being persistent.
“The infinite intelligence of your subconscious mind is always seeking to reveal the truth to you. Pay attention to its messages.”Joseph Murphy
If a dream keeps coming back, it’s because the issue it represents hasn’t been resolved. The subconscious will keep sending the same signal until you acknowledge it and do something about it.
What’s Actually Chasing You?
In Murphy’s framework, the thing chasing you in the dream is almost never an external threat. It’s an internal one. The pursuer is a part of yourself that you’ve been avoiding, suppressing, or refusing to face.
Unprocessed Fear
The most common interpretation: you’re running from a fear you haven’t confronted. It could be fear of failure. Fear of rejection. Fear of a specific situation in your waking life. Your conscious mind has pushed this fear aside, saying “I’ll deal with it later” or “It’s not that bad.” But your subconscious knows the truth, and it’s showing you through the dream.
Guilt or Shame
Sometimes the pursuer represents something you’ve done that you feel guilty about. A lie you told. A person you hurt. A promise you broke. The subconscious keeps replaying the chase because the guilt hasn’t been processed. It’s asking you to stop, turn around, and face what you’ve done.
A Disowned Part of Yourself
Murphy would find this particularly interesting: sometimes what’s chasing you is a part of yourself that you’ve rejected. Maybe it’s your ambition, which you’ve been told is selfish. Maybe it’s your anger, which you’ve been trained to suppress. Maybe it’s your desire for change, which feels too risky to acknowledge.
When you disown a part of yourself, the subconscious doesn’t delete it. It stores it. And in dreams, those stored parts come back as pursuers, shadow figures demanding to be seen.
Why You Can Never Outrun It
Notice something about chase dreams: you never get away. No matter how fast you run, the pursuer keeps pace. In some dreams, you can’t run at all, your legs feel like they’re moving through mud.
This is the subconscious making a profound point: you can’t outrun yourself. The fear, the guilt, the disowned part, it lives inside you. Running only makes it grow larger and more menacing. The dream will keep recurring, growing more intense each time, until you stop running.
Murphy’s Solution: Stop Running
Murphy’s approach to dream work was always practical. He didn’t want you to just understand the symbol. He wanted you to resolve the underlying issue.
Step 1: Identify the Real Fear
After a chase dream, sit quietly and ask yourself: “What am I running from in my waking life?” Don’t censor the answer. Don’t judge it. Let it come. It might be something obvious, or it might surprise you.
Step 2: Face It Before Sleep
Murphy’s most powerful technique was the pre-sleep state. As you’re drifting off, deliberately imagine yourself in the chase dream. But this time, instead of running, you stop. You turn around. You face whatever is behind you. And as you face it, you imagine it dissolving, or shrinking, or transforming into something harmless.
“Whatever you impress on your subconscious mind before sleep will be expressed in your life.”Joseph Murphy
Step 3: Affirm Safety
As you fall asleep, repeat: “I am safe. I face all aspects of myself with courage and love. There is nothing within me that can harm me.” Let these words sink into the subconscious as you drift off.
Step 4: Take Waking Action
If you’ve identified a specific fear or guilt, address it in your waking life. Have the difficult conversation. Make the apology. Take the step you’ve been avoiding. The dream will stop recurring once the underlying issue is resolved.
When the Dream Changes
Here’s the beautiful part: when you do this work, the dream actually changes. People who have faced their pursuers in imagination report that the chase dreams either stop entirely or transform into something positive. The monster becomes a guide. The dark figure becomes an ally. The thing you were running from becomes the thing that sets you free.
This is the subconscious confirming that the message has been received. It doesn’t need to keep calling because you finally picked up the phone.
The Deeper Lesson
Murphy’s greatest insight about chase dreams is this: the pursuer isn’t your enemy. It’s your teacher. It’s the part of you that holds the key to your next level of growth. Every time you run, you miss the gift. Every time you turn and face it, you grow.
So the next time something dark and fast is gaining on you in the night, try something radical: stop. Turn around. Look it in the eye. You might just find that the scariest thing in the dream was never the pursuer. It was the running.
