RAt Dreams
Last night before I went to bed I had a combination of chills and hot spells. I could barely keep my eyes open when watching TV. Then when I slept, I dreamed of being in a car that had rats in it. I could even grab the rat in front of me. When I woke up and started processing the dream, I realized that I had spent a great deal of my life trying to get rid of the rats in myself , and also in others. The major rat I saw in myself for much of my life was shyness, timidity. The mistake in the dream and in my life was trying to fight or get rid of the rats in myself or others. The idea of getting rid of something in yourself rests on the belief that if you get rid of a bad quality or energy then everything will be great. Most of modern medicine is built on this principle. When you get rid of the tumor, for instance, you can go back to normal. The problem is that normal is what got you the tumor in the first place. Getting rid of it does not change the environment in which the negative was created. The more effective process is to let go of the ratness (shyness) instead of fighting against it to get rid of it, and at the same time opening up more of the positive quality, which in this case is the courage to initiate relationships and actions with others.
When I let go of the rat (timidity) and remember instead all of the times when I had courage to initiate action in relationships and other parts of my life, then the big changes in my life really happen. The origin of the dream was when I was a youth, around 18-19, leaving home for university and being out on my own in the world. I became very angry at myself at that time for being so timid (not more courageous). I was focused on the rat and not on my courage and initiative. It also made me see the rats in others. In working through it by letting go of the rat, I remembered how much courage I had and how many positive relationships I had and how much initiative was there also. Then I could really see the positive in others and run with any goal that I have.
The fundamental starting principle of transformation is that your being (true self) is always wanting to actualize new potential. It is ever-advancing, ever-growing. In the process of the development, the ego puts up big resistance until the new energy if fully in place. Then it magically lets go easily, but until the process is learned.
So the goal today with the rat dream is to become more courageous in initiating action and in relationships. If it were a brand new process that I needed, it probably would not have been a rat that showed up. It would have been more like a hungry, vicious tiger or poisonous snake. The rat let me know that I was annoyed, but not completely fearful as in a lion dream. Letting go of the anger opens me up to the realization that I already have tons of courage to initiate.
Now you listen to the same post by pressing on this link. It is not my voice, but a new way to make a podcast for me from Spotify.
https://anchor.fm/richard-hastings/embed/episodes/RAt-Dreams-evmnjv
Richard Hastings is an expert in change work and dream work and author of Dreams for Peace. He is a 
Dreams For Peace 
“Getting rid of it does not change the environment in which the negative was created. ” Isn’t this the conundrum? the environment we are connected to is probably something we have developed a series of connections since infancy. Now at some time in our life we have this realization or just a hunch that some pattern of enduring behavior is causing the problem. Is it so simple to self-diagnose the various ways that we have inherited the connections to this behavior? And then to perform a operatiion on ourself? At this point I have to pause. I don’t have ready-made answers for these questions. I have to admit boundaries .” Doctor heal thyself first.” I can hear this whispered in my ear. And I go and turn on Netflix, because the enormous ness of the task makes me sleepy. I was recently pondering what kind oif encouragement to give one of my learner-friends, a 75 year old business executive, who has lived all over the world , has a fine home, model seeming family of grown , married daughters with cute children, He was repeating to me his 40 day abstinence from alcohol.
this isn’t the real rat in his life
Althought he may think it is.
The real rat is what continues to cause this activity, and the society he surrounds himself, reinforcing this enjoyment of alcohol. It is in my opinion “the old world order”.
But what are the harmful effects? I don’t know what has caused him to repeatedly try to stop. in recent years.
He has acheived all that he as dreamed of achieving.
And his friends are the “elite” of the capital city of this prefecture
ONe would wonder, “Why bother at this stage of his life” as he seems to have successfully managed this activity without it stopping his progress to social and financial achievement? to my knowldege he has not considered it a problem until very recently.
And this get s back to why I have mentioned this story. It is obviously “a rat” now in his life, and he wsihes to simply say “No!”. I know he wants somethiig more from me, and from other class members …..The battle is within himself, and we are bystanders, or a sympathetic audience….watching a performance
thomas