“Throw away your dream dictionaries. There’s nothing you can find in them,” Dr. Johna Pointek said last Wednesday in the second of a two-part dream interpretation workshop held by Pace’s Psychology Club and the Paragon House.
Pointek, who is a professor in the psychology department and the adviser for the Psychology Club, continued her presentation stating that the only person who can truly interpret an individual’s dream is the individual.
“It’s about you, but most importantly it’s about your emotional response or feelings,” she told students in regards to interpreting dreams of their own. “I’m just a facilitator or dream interpretations, not an interpreter.”
Pointek encouraged students to keep records of their own dreams, bearing in mind that most memory of the specifics of their dream is lost after five minutes from waking up.
For those who claimed not to dream or to remember their dreams, Pointek urged students to make a conscious decision to do so before going to bed.
“Tell yourself before you go to bed, ‘I’m going to remember my dream tonight,’” she said, further stating that with this advice, students would begin to dream within a week or two.
Pointek added that dreams often try to help an individual sort through or figure out something that is worrisome to them in the conscious world.
“You wouldn’t dream of something happy,” Pointek said. “There’s nothing to figure out.”
Sophomore psychology major and president of the Psychology Club Christina Miller said that Pointek’s dream interpretation workshops are among the most popular events that the club holds.
“A lot of people are interested in dream interpretation,” Miller said. “They’ll briefly cover it in their Psych 101 classes, but they don’t really get into it. Plus, [Pointek] really loves teaching it.”
In addition to hosting the dream interpretation workshop, the Psychology Club is looking forward to multiple other events throughout the school year, the soonest of which is an ice skating trip scheduled for Nov. 24.
The Psychology Club will also be hosting a Game Night and an event on “Hookup Culture” for the month of December, and hopes to plan a Zombie Walk for the spring semester.
“We just wanted to make Psych Club more popular and known on campus,” Miller said of the many events going on this year. “It’s also good to have good relations with the other organizations.”
The Psychology Club meets Wednesdays during common hour in Miller 25.
“We want to raise awareness about anything psychology related on campus and offer people who may not have time to pursue a psychology major or minor an opportunity to learn more,” Miller said.