Compete Competition

We can compete for attention, compete in a sport, game or competition. Also we can feel we are competing with our siblings and peers. The meaning depends on the feelings and plot of and in the dream.

Attempting to repeat or compete with the virtues of a parent is a misapprehension of the true nature of our own personality.

Example: “I am at a wedding at which we are being served a celebratory Chicken Lunch. Whilst my back is turned for a moment one of the other guests on the table who is female but whom I do not know removes my plate and substitutes it with a plate of food which doesn’t contain chicken. When I challenge this, I am told that there is no more. At this I rather petulantly decide to leave the wedding.” Brian Y.

Brian uses a plate of food to represent the good things he feels are rightfully his in life; but his negative emotions in a relationship with a female rob him of this. The dream shows what is available to him but he may have to compete for or share – in work, relationship, life.

In his book The Dreaming Mind, Robert van de Castle describes research he did on the subject of menstruation and dreams, with the help of nursing students in Miami. He found that the dreams changed their character with the different phases of the menstrual cycle. Prior to ovulation the dreams showed more male characters appearing. The dreamer showed interest in these males and found them appealing. Women appearing in the dreams of this phase tended to be pushed into the background of the dream events, and were often shown as competing with the dreamer. Following ovulation the dreams tended to depict men as less attractive, and the dreamers feeling some hostility toward them. The women in the dreams were people the dreamer tended to develop working relationships with.

Competition is a feature of life. A rare minority of the mutations of humans have, by chance, some feature which makes them better able to compete with other creatures in the constant quest for food and other essentials and will thus tend to survive and reproduce their own variations, while the majority of mutations come with a disadvantage of some kind and therefore tend to be eliminated. The laws of the jungle still apply here. The most daring, sexual, reproductive, intelligent of the species will grasp the leading roles in this emerging drama. The rewards will be that standing in this enormous and augmented energy flow will bring tremendous influence and possibilities of reproduction and financial reward. See Gods Walk amongst Us

That view gave rise to thoughts such as these, quoted from Landscapes of the Night by Christopher Evans. “Now the whole pattern becomes clear. The variations in the biological systems are all to do with successful competitions in a terrifying planetary game of life and death, where danger is omnipresent and only the most vigorous, adaptable and ruthless survive”.

Fortunately there have been a great deal of development from the idea of the most physically fit would be the survivors. It has now been seen that none of us survive unless we are an intrinsic and balanced part of our total environment. This points to a form of symbiosis.

Useful Questions and Hints:

Do you feel you are in competition, and with who or what?

What sort of competion does the dream show you are involed in?

Are you an active go getter or a passive person?

See Active Passive – Plot of the Dream – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams