Dislike

What you dislike most in your dreams or in others is usually what you hate most in yourself; and so you refuse to see it in your own actions.. The problem is we cannot see our own faults and tend to put the blame on others without stopping to look more deeply within.

Like and dislike are a very deeply buried level of our instinctive responses. Some times we dislike things or people from our reptile or mammalian brain, and it is worth noting to see if you can find out why you feel this way. “In simple facial expressions, gestures or silence I always picked up on the fact that I did not please my father.”  See Reptilian Brain

Even matter shows a form of like and dislike in magnetism – like poles repel, opposite poles attract. A child may scream if someone it dislikes gets near it, but an adult will probably tolerate the nearness, or refrain from expressing displeasure – a pity to stop a child expressing its real feelings.

Example: Jane had for some time been living with a friend, Eileen, who kept on irritating her by her gushing, immature outpourings, her never-ending flow of small talk, which even kept the servants from their work. Jane had never given vent to this irritation but had remained silent, although underneath she boiled. One lovely summer’s day she went for a walk: all nature seemed to smile. She sat down on a tree-trunk in the sun, and her mind for a moment ceased to function and she thought of nothing. Suddenly a great wave of hatred for Eileen flared up in her. She let it develop until in her mind’s eye she seemed to be strangling her. This was deliberate on her part and she felt no remorse. Instead, indeed, she felt herself enjoying her cruelty. When this happened there was a sense of relief, and a feeling of affection took the place of the former irritation and continued throughout the day. The next morning, when Eileen came down, she narrated a dream she had had that night, which was something she never normally did. She dreamed that she had opened a drawer in a cupboard and there she had found a little kitten half crushed and nearly dead. She took it in her arms, and gave it milk and coaxed it back to life. Then she took it into the garden, where a cat sat looking at it. She was afraid of what the cat would do and told it not to hurt the kitten.

Jane realised at once that the dream was a representation of what had actually been happening. Eileen was the little kitten and she herself the sinister cat. Until late in life Eileen had been at the beck and call of her invalid mother and had never had a life of her own. Then her mother died, and the half-crushed little kitten struggled back into life again. But the cat was a danger. It disapproved of the little kitten’s first efforts to make new and independent contacts, its own contacts, with other people, and disliked its gushing ways, now that at last it could say what it really felt without fear of mama’s displeasure. So Jane came to realise the situation emotionally and thus could really sympathise. She no longer felt irritated, or, if she did, could laugh at herself over it, so that the whole situation was changed.

We also have dislikes for the work we do and also people like neighnours or competitiors – especially in love. Sometimes it is worth asking yourself if the person is an enemy. We do not have to love everybody, and it is good be real about who is an enemy, and whether it can be worked out so you do not feel tension near them. Your dreams will give excellent advice about that.

Dislikes can be caused by having a different belief, and this will show in your dreams and also a way of growing beyond it. Or jealousy can cause tremendous dislike.

Useful questions:

What and who is showing the dislike?

Is it something I cannot recognise in my self?

Ask your close friends if they can reconise it in you?

See Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Characters and People in Dreams – Life’s Little Secrets