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Déjà vu and the Brain, Consciousness and Self
Biology 202
1998 Second Web Reports
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UGH! I Just Got the Creepiest Feeling That I Have Been Here Before:
Déjà vu and the Brain, Consciousness and Self
Julia Johnson
We have all some experience of a feeling, that comes over us occasionally, of what we are saying and doing having been said and done before, in a remote time - of our having been surrounded, dim ages ago, by the same faces, objects, and circumstances - of our knowing perfectly what will be said next, as if we suddenly remember it! (Dickens in David Copperfield - chapter 39 (1))It happens to me and it has probably happened to you. It is sudden and fleeting, leaving as unexpectedly as it came. While the experience is striking in its clarity and detail, it is difficult to recapture or recount. Generally, it is left unexplained and is described in a vague sense, often simply as, "Wow, I just got the strangest déjà vu." Because it is so difficult to research and seems to have no deleterious effects on daily and long-term nervous system function, déjà vu has been left largely to the wayside of neurobiological investigation. In all of its ambiguity, déjà vu is still a perplexing phenomenon that has not yet been fully explained. The value of truly understanding the source of déjà vu and its circuitry is in uncovering one of the many keys to the role of the conscious self in the functioning of the brain.
What is déjà vu and how does it work? Déjà vu is considered a common phenomenon. Surveys show that about one third of the population has had the most common form of déjà vu sensations (1). Due to the subjective and often indescribable nature of the associated feelings, it has been difficult, to determine who is actually experiencing déjà vu. In general, however, déjà vu is "any number of hard-to-explain sometimes upsetting occurrences of unexpected recognition, in which the person involved has trouble identifying an antecedent for the events and/or places which seem so strangely and intensely familiar (1)." Déjà vu has been defined as "familiarity without awareness (13)." While the situational cues of a déjà vu are familiar, there is a definite lack of awareness about the specific source of the memory.
Arthur Funkhouser (1) defines three types of déjà vu in an attempt to more clearly delineate between associated, but different, neurological experiences. These are déjà vecu (already experienced), déjà senti (already felt) and déjà visité (already visited). Déjà vecu is the most common déjà vu experience and involves the sensation of having done something or having been in an identical situation before and knowing what will happen next. These sensations are often felt through several senses: seeing, hearing, taste, touch and proprioceptive perceptions. The experience is often incredibly detailed and is usually connected to very normal activities. Although the episode itself lasts from only a fraction of a second to several minutes, it can often be remembered in minute detail long after the episode has occurred. One experiencer says, "There came this strange, almost physical up-welling of visual experience, a visual warping, and at the same time an eerie realization that everything happening now had happened before, maybe many times (11)."
Déjà senti is different from déjà vecu in that the episode of recollection feels more like the recovery of long sought after information. The sensation is one of satisfaction at having retrieved a memory although the memory was not actively sought. This form of déjà vu does not involve any feelings of premonition and the episodes quickly dissipate from memory. Déjà senti has been strongly associated with the partial seizure experiences reported by temporal lobe epilepsy patients. The extended nature of these episodes has allowed for more detailed descriptions of the feelings associated with a déjà senti event. "It was as if one of my dreams had simply been sucked out of the actual, physical environment and set to playing again in every detail (11)." Déjà visité is a more rare event in which a person visits a new place and feels that it is familiar. It is associated more with spatial dimensions while déjà vecu is associated with situations and processes. Déjà vu experiences can be in one of the three forms described above or can be a mixed version with a combined déjà vu effect [The above from (1)].
What causes a déjà vu episode? There are several possible explanations for what is occurring during a déjà vu experience. One possibility is simply the occasional mismatch made by the brain in its continuous attempt to create whole sensical pictures out of very small pieces of information. Looking at memory as a hologram, only bits of sensory information are needed for the brain to reconstruct entire three-dimensional images. When the brain receives a small sensory input (a sight, a smell, a sound) that is strikingly similar to such a detail experienced in the past, the entire memory image is brought forward. The brain has taken the past to be the present by virtue of one tiny bit of sensory information. It is this mismatch of past and present sensory information that causes the sense of disconcertment and unease associated with a passing déjà vu [The above from (2) and (3)]. This theory provides a satisfactory explanation for the physical effects of déjà vu. These appear to be similar to the effects of mismatch between sensory input and corollary discharge signal information to the brain. It does not, however, seem to provide sufficient answers to individual (even my own) accounts of déjà vu, where the memory image pulled up is not necessarily from a true past event.
Another explanation for déjà vu is that there is a slight malfunctioning between the long and short-term memory circuits of the brain. Somehow, specific information shortcuts its way from short to long-term memory storage, bypassing the usual mechanisms used for storage transfer. The details concerning this shortcut are not yet well understood. When this new, recent piece of information is drawn upon, the person thinks that the piece is coming from long-term storage and so must have come from the distant past (6). A similar theory says that the error is in the timing of the perceptive and cognitive processes. Sensory information is rerouted on its way to memory storage and, so, is not immediately perceived. This short delay causes the sensation of experiencing and remembering something at the same time, a very unsettling feeling (2). One other explanation is that déjà vu is actually the process of remembering memory connections, of following the impulses and synapses (4). All of these neurobiologically based explanations for déjà vu seem plausible and intriguing and perhaps there is some overlap or combination that accounts for the different experiences we call déjà vu.
Other explanations for déjà vu have been given by psychoanalysts, such as the manifestation of wish fulfillment. Here, déjà vu is the subconscious repetition of a past experience, but with a more positive ending (2). The realm of parapsychology proposes that déjà vu is a chance for reincarnates to get a sneak peak into a past life. Most scientists scoff at these "magical" explanations for neurological events, citing that they break many of the laws of nature (6). Some, however, point to more recent findings in physics, such as the possibility of particles that can travel backwards in time (tachyons), time loops and multiple universes. They say that these may give cause for more non-traditional ways of seeing causality and for the possibility of neurological "time travel" (1). This means that, maybe, just maybe, understanding déjà vu as a means of seeing into the past or future cannot be so immediately dismissed. It is certainly food for thought for the rising debate, anyway.
It is important to note the level of consciousness involved in a déjà vu episode. There are common threads that run through many déjà vu experiences. "When you are in the midst of such an occurrence, you are conscious that everything conforms with your 'memory' of it" (1) and "I know exactly what is going on around me when it happens. (9)." This implies that the participation of the entire brain capacity is not required to produce a déjà vu experience. Perhaps more importantly, there is a significant role played by at least a portion of the conscious person and the I-function. "It was like being in a long-running play, complete with the sense of being 'on' and standing
What is this role of the self in déjà vu? "To what extent is it possible for the core awareness to preserve ... images and emotions before they're swallowed up again and sealed tight? (11)" One epileptic déjà vu experiencer claimed that he could consciously recapture the feelings and notions associated with déjà vu simply by writing down the images that appeared during the experience. Later, he found that the memories had not vanished as before but could be brought back to a conscious level simply by reading the notes. The experience was brought back to him as if it was a conscious daydream (11). The striking implication here is that part of the conscious self, the I-function, is intimately involved and may be communicating with the processes of a déjà vu.
Perhaps to some, déjà vu is not worth its research weight in synapses. It may seem to many to be just an oddball, quirky brain trick that we learn to incorporate into our daily routine. Investigation into the implications of this neural event, however, seems to lead towards more in-depth knowledge of ourselves.
Quite a few of us who have "already-seen" would dare to see even more---would actually follow that dangerous, disappearing, inbound road consciously and witness for the first time what is usually jamais-vu and hidden, and I mean the steady dark frolic of neurons and the ghost that is called ego (11). A better understanding of déjà vu may lead us closer to an understanding of the complex relationship between ourselves and our memories. It may light a path for a clearer view into how we incorporate ourselves into our memory and into how our memory is incorporated into our conscious selves. How can this be futile?This Has Happened
(1) "Three Types of Deja Vu," in Perspectives - A Mental Health Magazine, on mental health net, by Funkhouser, Arthur.
(2) "Been There, Done That," by Geary, James, TIME Magazine 149/18, May 5, 1997.
(3) "You're Not Really Losing Your Mind," by Peterson, Karen, USA Today
(4) "If You Think About It...," by Shaughnessy, Ed.
(5) "Scientific Approaches to Consciousness," a volume in the Carnegie Mellon Symposia on Cognition Series, edited by Cohen, Jonathan and Schooler, Johathan.
(6) "Do Dreams Predict the Future," in FAQ Maintainer.
(7) "Premonitions or Deja vu Sensations?" by Dr. Dewey.
(8) "Partial Seizures," by Ryan, Diane.
(9) "deja vu feelings," by Moyers.
(10) "Mind, Body, and Seizures," by Benak, John.
(11) "Yellow Brick Road," by Media, Frank.
(12) "Reincarnation," in The Skeptic's Dictionary, by Carroll, Robert Todd.
(13) "MEMORY: a record of the past."
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Continuing conversation
Dear Sir or Madam, I have read your article regarding de javu on the Internet. I experience that starnage phenomenon very often approximately twice a month. That caused me to find some information or explanation about it. Your hypothesis regarding the time delay in processing of the visual information looks quite reasonable. There is one thing I would like to note. In that article you said that the phenomenon is exclusively visual. However, when experience de javu not only my visual sense remembers the situation but also all my other senses are at work (I remember sounds, tastes and even smells). I would like to hear your comments on my case since you are a specialist in this field. Sincerely, Galymhzan T. Koishiyev Kazakhstan, Almaty k_galimjan@ok.kz
Thanks for referencing my MGH post. I took that work quite further and developed a formalized theory for seizure control based on my own research. This work culminated in a trip to Prague in 1999, where I presented a paper on my research at a neurology/epilepsy conference in Prague. That paper was subsquently published in 2000 in the British medical journal "Seizure." If anyone is interested in a copy I'd be happy to email it to you. While the seizure frequency has subsided quite a bit over the last ten years, I still have the experiential seizures a couple of times a month. I'm more than willing to discuss any questions anyone might have about this or related subjects. Thanks! John Benak jbenak@austin.rr.com
I have experienced a deja vu and it was very strange.When i do a definite action i have the feeling that i have done it before.It also heppened to me to know people who i have never seen before(to have the feeling that i know them).But the strangest thing happened when i was in the States for the summer the previous year.(I am from Europe and i have never been in the States before).It happened during my visit of Six Flags.The moment at which i heard the music and saw the entrance of it i felt something.It was something like fear.........something very strange.I did not know where was this coming from.I had that strange feeling all the time we stayed there but i was trying to interpret it like a great exitement that i am there.At the time we were about to leave it happened.I was there waiting for my friends to come.For a fraction of a second i felt i am somewhere above the others.I could hear vopices but they seemed very apart.I was stared and moveless.I was looking at a small bench almost unnotisable.There were many trees around it.What i remember is vouge because it was so strong and i was so upset after it.I felt that i am sitting in that same bench with somebody and i can almost say that i pictured myself there.The feeling was very strong.I even knew the time (i can say it was a long time ago when people were wearing these funny renessance clothes ).Then i could feel only how my friend took my hand and the whole scene disapeared suddenly.I remember being very scared after that.My friend kept on asking me if everything was all right.I was left without answer.I deceided to try again .I went to the same place but this time i could remember nothing.Everything had disapeared.It looked so normal.But the feeling of fear was left.I dont know if it is normal to be afraid.I have always been afraid of the dark and unknown and i was always trying to prove to myself that whatever it is happening it has an explanation.But now i feel afraid more than ever becauser there is no explanation on what happened.I am not afraid of the feelings that i am repeating an action (because i calm myself down by saying "ok maybe i dont remember when i have done it") But how to calm myself with what happened.I felt not only that i have been in a place where i actually have never been before but i pictured myself there, i felt the time separating my moveless body from the bench i was sitting maybe in some of my past lifes.I hate the idea of the past life.I am afraid to know that there is something beyond.Can you give me some explanation to what i have experienced(scientific)? Thanks
Hi, I have just read your article about Deja Vu's,My name is Timothy, I am currently 18 years old and am having a real hard time with deja vu experiences. I have had the casual experiences throughout my life, even in childhood, but these experiences would come and go in a matter of seconds. This brings me to my "problem". For the past 2 or 3 months I have been experiencing deja vu everyday, literally. Not just once a day either. Sometimes I might have the experience throughout the whole day. This is driving me insane. I have been looking and searching everywhere for some type of answer but have found very little. When I experience deja vu, I get a fearful feeling along with the feelings of familiarity and confusion. I get this feeling of fear from the deja vu itself and from past experiences with deja vu. In past experiences when I would have frequent deja vu's, a tragedy (such as a death of a friend or family member, or even the 9/11 attacks and the Tsunami) would occur. So I started to see these experieces as a sort of warning. So now every time I have a deja, I get really afraid and almost paranoid, fearing that soon I may lose someone dear to me or that some type of catastrophe will occur. Over these past months, only one distant family member has died. Yet the deja's continue to occur. I am wondering if there is some sort of way I can control how the deja experience effects me. I don't expect you to have any answers for me, but I am hoping that maybe somehow you could try to help me and possibly help stop these things from happening or at least lessen the occurence. I deeply thank you for listening. Sincerely, Timothy J.
I have alot of dreams that you could say come true but they are really insignificant (i.e. I had a dream I hit the ground really hard and someone shouted "God D*** It!! about a week later I was playing a football game (I'm a highschool athlete by the way) and I was running the ball and I got tackled and the exact same scene, though only a few seconds, occured which I realized right away. I'm not really expecting an explanation though it is welcome I just happen to notice alot of people write so I thought I would.
To Timothy and the other deja vu'ers writing here...research is ongoing regarding deja vu / deja vecu...if you would like to help with it, I'm also beginning to post some links (at http://myspace.com/espiralli), including those to Art Funkhouser's article "Three Types of Deja Vu" and to the Deja Vu Survey.... Timothy, you are what I refer to as a "perpetual", meaning someone who has gone from the usual fleeting dv incidences to a continual state. Don't be frightened - it doesn't mean catastrophe...it's a different form of consciousness, and one that you can become accustomed to and that can be beneficial to you and to others if you do not succumb to doubt and fear. Art Funkhouser's survey includes the choice of "continuously", and in so doing I suspect it will eventually clarify that there are many functioning perpetuals "out there"...which may in turn eventually help to clarify the true meaning of deja vu / deja vecu, elevating it out of the realm of "dysfunction". That will take time, and your help, and the help of many other deja vu'ers, perpetual and otherwise. Together we change the status quo. Espiralli
I find that the article about déjà vu provides an excellent overview of this intriguing phenomenon (or, better, phenomena). I am trying to collect data about déjà vu and it would be a great help if persons who have experienced or who are currently experiencing it in any of its forms would fill out a questionnaire I now have up on the Internet at silenroc.com/dejavu Many thanks and best wishes, Art Funkhouser, Bern, Switzerland
FOUND THIS PAGE WHILE SEARCHING,A VERY GOOD EXPERIENCE TODAY, I HAD AN EPISODE OF DEJA VU AND MY WIFE HAD THE EXACT SAME EPISODE AT THE SAME TIME,HOW CAN I EXPLAIN THIS????IN OTHER WORDS ,CAN TWO PEOPLE HAVE THE SAME FEELING AT THE SAME TIME????
i am a 21year old indian girl doing my B.E in electronics n communications.i stay in the hostel(india).my parents are in england.its been a year or so when i was travelling by bus alone,i felt voices ringing in my ears that sounded very familiar n that i hav heard b4, n all of a sudden my hands felt numb n cold n i felt weak. it stayd on 4 abt 2 mins n den i cudnt remember wat it was. wen i reachd hostl i narratd dis 2 my friends n again i felt the same but it was mild den. then it came once or twice after dat n i consultd a doctor n he said it might b dejavu n i need 2 do an EEG n a cat scan after my xams since iam busy wid my xams. but nowdays thi dejavu is disturbing me frequently on the mornings of every xam n even during the xam...its not true dat dejavu is only prominent in the sense of sight coz in my case it is the hearing. pls help me.
Hi, I've had many expierences on, the feeling of reliving a moment, where I know I've been in the same place before, and that evrything and everyone is where they should be, and say what i knew they were going to say. But there is something else that happens often. It happened more when i was younger but still happens to this very day. This may sound crazy, and i'm not making this up, but say today i think of a movie or a song i haven't heard in a long time (briefly), and i wont say anything about it. I wont even try to listen or look for the movie that briefly popped into my head, but usually a day or two later its on tv, or on the radio. I mean i know it doesnt sound right, or sounds lame...but it's eerie. Its almost as if I have a sense of something that i want to see, and somehow it appears. Its never rapid, and its not in my control. And i wasnt reading the tv guide, it just happens. How is that possible? its not just one time or me even trying to make it happen it just does. What would your answer be to this? Like any explanation? Deja Vu happens to me once in a blue moon, but i can remeber the last time i had it, probably a year ago, and the time delay sounds relevent but, couldint it be possible that our dreams, and daily life can connect on another level? not magic or any of that but what if we are just reliving our lives in a constant pattern, where we've done this before, and that deja vu is an echo through time. I know there is no evidence, and i'm just thinking and typing but any answers or response would be extremly intresting, and helpful. thanks again -tom
greetings! i am also one of those who often experience this sense of deja vu. the delay in the visualization and conduction to the brain is somehow reasonable. however, howcome my other senses can also experience it at the same time. especially my hearing. there's also one other thing i want to share with you and the readers. when i was a kid, i always thought that i've been in a place where my parents and i were riding a yellow bus. we were having a trip along a rocky mountain with sculpture of different faces on it. it was only in highschool that i realized it never really happened when i saw that particular mountain on the television. the twist is i've never gone to any other country other than philippines. what could this particular feeling be...? thank you very much. my this help you explore more discoveries regarding deja vu.
Throughout my life I've experienced feelings of deja vu', but one particular incidence was of great importance. For me, the sensation is not "just visual", as some have written, but the totality of the entire experience of what is going on, including sounds, words, smells, everything. In fact, I've felt that I've known exactly what someone is going to say and have deliberately not said anything in a desire not to disturb the moment. One day while having a deja vu experience, one of the people I was with an was very aware and they asked me if I was O.K. I said, Yes, and that I'd just had this deja vu experience. His reply was, he'd observed my pupils dilate, my muscle tone slacken and my cheeks flush! For the 1st time in my life someone had witnessed physical changes that accompany this mental state. Although I've never come to a complete understanding of why this experience occurs, it is totally random, I can confidently say it's nothing mystical, but definately physiological.
Dear Sir, I have been having these so called "Dejavu" experiences right from my teen years and they are still persistent now, at the age of 30. I don't think that any reasearch is advanced enough to explain this phenomenon yet. Though it was scary at first, I eventually leart to like and even enjoy such experiences, as its just a part of life.
I have been experiencing deja vu for almost my entire life, but today I had the most vivid of all: I was watching a TV show, one that I have never seen or heard of before, and then the feeling started, I saw that before and I actualy recited three lines before they were spoken on the show. Unfortunatley now I cant remember much. My question is if deja vu is caused by some temporary mulfunction of the brain, how could I have known the future ?
Dear Madam / Sir! Deja vu... I anwered my professor during a lesson when he asked the students: "..what do you think is de-javu?" Answer given: "..if I can explain our brain in simple terms as a computer..the eyes, ears (and feeling) - the input devise see under certain circumstances "something" - which information is then send to our Microprocessor to interprete and to send this info the "concious" mind and in the same time to the memory from which we can draw when we are in "muse"... But some time our "microprosessor" has a little malfunction and gives this information to our memory only (or first (more likely) and the "concious mind" receives it from there first.(or double with time delays in x. 10-x seconds(?)) So, we "think", we have seen this already, we have been there...heard - can in fact foresee whats happens next - because our "computer" is to fast - but can be tricked." We had a long, long quiet moment in the classroom. I have sometimes (2-3x year)this feeling and mostly accours when I come home, had stress in work... and hungry (think "feast of the tibetan Monks and others) It seems that your own body energy which drives us plays the trick. Our brain contains light, which is a certain frequency,-visible. We are in fact moving (more or less) antennas in a light (protons...photons...)surrounding atmosphere, our head being at least 170 cm above ground and moves with ~1300 km/h through the air. So we are quite exposed to "field" out there. In situations where our energy "balance" goes to one side we can expirience this. To some "it happens", others are able do it.. I am not a fan of a sect or simmilar, I just took long journeys (by reading and trying to conclude) through history and as engineer I can say I stay by impirical methods first - so I don't loose the big picture. B.T.H.O.T.G.A.O.T.U. best regards Manfred Kraus, Durban South Africa
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I've lived with it for so long that I feel that I own the subject. I would appreciate anything you could offer on my particular situation. Thank you ... Angel, 13 August 2005
Hello, I have just recently been thinking about my past deja vu experiences as well as any precognitions, but deja vu more due to a topical class that I am having today for discussion in an English School (maybe a little heavy for ESL).
When I have a deja vu experience it feels like I had dreamed it and that it is a memory. I rarely have these experiences though I have had them since childhood. I mean rarely by maybe one or two a year. Sometimes more or sometimes less. Though at present I have had a hard time recalling any of these experiences. I know that once it was in a discussion among four or five friends and we were talking about something. Another time it was in another country but again in a group setting. And there is a vague memory of an early experience going somewhere with a friend. Now when these happen, I'm never afraid or alarmed but surprised actually and intrigued by the possibilites of life and consciousness or subconsciousness.
I wonder if there is a possibility that I actually dreamed of the future but with my mind or brain not having anything to associate the dream with the experience is in my subconscious waiting for the arrival of the future. This leads me to believe that perhaps there is a destined path or a predetermined future, but perhaps it is just a physiological weakness common to mankind...? ... Charles Osburn, 6 March 2006
ok my names ricky de lacruz but im just saying this is all very weird to me becuz i have 5 to 6 deja vu's a week and i dont know...its not just dreams i have either i mean like ive had all three of those different deja vu's and they're cool and all but its all confusing...cuz i dont just dream it now and feel it now i predict some things...i dont know if im just putting the obvious together and saying a date and stuff but i dont know like i use a feeling in the pitt of my stomach to make decisions and it works most of the time and i mean thats alot 90-100% the other 10% is school haha but yea im amazed by the feeling and i love it but i dont know I want more ... Ricky De La Cruz, 2 April 2006
When I was 17years ols - 36 years ago - my parents & I were arguing while in my room. I was hit in the head/face and knocked out by my father. When I came to I noticed the onset of an intense deja vu. At the time I didn't even know the term, and really didn't know what was happening. As my parents spoke to me, I could tell exactly waht they were about to say. I could see their actions before hand. For my part I kept silent. After about 15 minutes of this I became fairly scared and announced - speaking for the first time myself - that I couldn't take it any longer and so I wanted them to leave, to break this off. My mother left the room. As a 17 year old by my room was most often quite a mess, with things and clothes all over the floor. Among the items was a Marine Corp knife my father had given me years before. It was in its sheath on the floor in front of where I sat on my bed. I saw it there and also saw in my mind my future actions as though seeing them from my own eyes as I would see anything from my own perspective,I did not see these actions as though from an outside observer. I saw each step of the next few seconds as a separate step. First, while still seated on the bed, I saw myself reach for the knife. Seeing this, I felt compelled to act it out. I did not feel I could stop it from happening. As I fullfilled this image by following through, I saw the next step I was about to do. I saw myself pick up the knofe and unsheathe it.So I di it. As I picked it up and unsheathed it, I saw myself approach my father who was standing above me, watching. So I did that. As I unsheathed the knife and approached my father, I saw myself put it to his throat and tell him to get out of my room. So I did that. As I did, I saw myfather grip my wrist, take the knife from me, and put it behind him and walk away safely. Then he did. All along I felt calm, reassured that nothing would happen. This more or less broke the spell. But then for about a year I would experience deja vu at least two or more times a month, which would last as long as I wanted them to - five minutes at a time easily. I could stop them by doing what I have called 'changing the script', or simply deciding on what I knew was an incorrect scenario. As I knew A would say to B such and such, I would decide , for example, that A would get up and leave. As this was not 'scripted' it would bring the deja vu to an end. This lasted about a year or so and since then I still have deja vu, but nothing like that. Mostly, as afar as I know, I have them as anyone does - infrequently and only in a flash ... Kim Emerson, 21 April 2006
I NEED ADVICE.
There are a lot of paranormal things I have been experiencing. I need to get them out there and be known, for some reason, and if I don't I don't know what to do.
I am a 22 year old, female, college student, majoring in criminal justice. I have no real interest in psychic, or paranormal happenings, but apparently they have an interst in me. I didn't realize that what I experience as deja vu is very uncommon. I've recently started to research this subject just for my own personal interest. I am having a hard time writing this comment because the recent urge to tell someone about my experiences is almost overwhelming. I consider myself an intelligent, well educated person, who is level headed, and so what I am about to say makes me very anxious. I know that there is something amazing (I can't think of any other word) going on in me, and every day it seems to intensify. I believe I've always been in tuned with my sixth sence, but for the past six months it has just exploded. Deja vu is a big part of it, but there's more to it. For me, deju vu happens at times of change in my life, but really it happens all the time, but I seem to be more aware of it at those specific times. The following happens as an "either-or" kind of thing. Deja vu is either like I'm reliving an actual experience for the second time, or it's a reacuring dream. I have deja vu of having deja vu. The moments last for about 10 seconds, but they hit like a ton of bricks, and it takes a few breaths for me to calm down and shake it out of my system. I can feel the deja vu coming on, and then I can literally see what is about to be said, heard, felt, inhaled, done, etc. It is so crazy, and emotional, and strange, and I'm amazed as to how long I've been able put those moments aside and go on with my life. I can't put this aside anymore. It's impossible to explain in words the vibes, and feelings I have been having. I have been always able to sence when something big is going to happen, either personally, individually, or globally. My sister and I share these feelings, which we just discovered a few years ago. My sister and I also seem to share this very real, and very apparent mind connection (telepathy??). We have lived 3 hours away from eachother for over 7 years, and we talk maybe twice a week, but we always seem to be experiencing the same concerns, thoughts, motives, emotions, etc. We call eachother at the same time often, and like I said, we only talk two or three times a week. Really random things that come up in conversation turn out to be the thing that will solve one another's problems. I don't know, it's hard to explain, but I need advice. I need to tell someone who knows something in this realm in the chance that they can point me in the right direction. I'm really not this scatter brained usually. My experiences go so much deeper, I wish I had more time and space to write about them, but maybe someone will get my drift!
Thanks for your time ... Evann, 24 April 2006
I'm another person who has had multiple deja-vu experiences, including two particularly "deep" experiences where I actually said to myself "this woman is about to say this" and she then said exactly what I predicted.
So I am one of those who finds the "standard" explanation completely untenable.
I suspect we have precognitive experiences from time to time in the dream state, then remember them when the events take place as deja vu ... Matthew Cromer, 4 May 2006
I was interested to come across your review of deja vu. It may be of interest for you (and your readers) to be aware that in my book 'Is There Life After Death'(Arcturus in the UK and Chartwell in the USA - available in bookshops and on Amazon). In this book I come up with a totally original explanation of deja vu. I propose that we are all existing in a three-dimensional 'recording' of our own life - a recording of a life that was once lived for real but is now on permanent re-run (like the film Groundog Day). In the book I attempt to explain the hard science behind such a seemingly bizarre suggestion. The sensation of 'living this moment before' is brought about by a 'judder' in the replay mechanism like a jump in a DVD recording. Recall what happens to Neo in "The Matrix" when he perceives his 'deja vu'. What is happening is the 'reality programme' was being amended ... Anthony Peake, 25 September 2006
I started searching for info on deja vu specifically to see if there are any theories/hypotheses on more than one person sharing a deja vu experience simultaneously. It looks as though one of your readers in Nov 2005 also had the same question. I have always had a passing interest in deja vu because it seems so unnatural and mysterious but fleeting. There was an occasion during a phone conversation that I stopped to announce I was "having a major deja vu", only for him to say he was too. The sensation of reliving a moment is startling enough but to share it was altogether another matter. If you've come across any sources that have explored it, I'd greatly appreciate knowing. Thank you ... April, 25 October 2006
Hello there, I am a 15 year old guy who has experienced deja vu. This has been happening to me for about 2 years since i can remember which was at the age of 13. It is very sudden and it always happens sometime later in my life. Its mainly me seeing the image I dremt about, or sometimes a sound. But when it occurs, I know its deja vu and I know I've seen or heard this before. I am aware that I have seen this in the past, but I am also aware that it was definitly in a dream I had. Unfortunatly I can never remember the dream until it happens and I see it when I am awake. Another unfortunate thing about it is that it is always an insignificant experience. I would really like to know if there is some way to trigger these experiences, and maybe some sort of way to expand what I see into the future. Thank You, and hope to hear from you. =D ... Adam Bridges, 8 November 2006
I have always had deja vu to a degree, coming and going...Two years ago, deja vu lasted almost three months, non stop, went to bed with and woke up with it. My doctor is aware of it and suggested a mental health issues. I do not believe it is a mental health issue...It comes and goes, sometimes a few second, few minutes, few hours, all day...I am 49 years [old] ... Robert, 15 November 2006
In referrence to de javu, I have my own theory. Recently, within the last year or two, I have had feelings of de javu quite often. What I find strange about them is i know why i feel so familiar with a persons face, conversations, situations, and settings. I have very vivid dreams and remember most of them, definetly more than most people. I've come to find that most of my "de javu" instances are portrayals of scenes had in previous dreams. I believe that somehow, we have de javu because we have dreamt of situations, conversations, etc. Since most people tend to have little or no memory of most of the dreams they have, this could explain the reason they do not know why they have that sense of familiarity. I know for a fact that most of my feelings of de javu are related to previous dreams I have had, even some which I have had when I was a young child.
I also can say that I have had precognitive as well as clairvoyant experiences. On these "psychic" abilities, I believe most people have or will experience some situation where these are apparent to them. However, other people seem to possess these qualities moreso because they simply understand how to control or grasp these concepts easier than others ... HM, 24 November 2006
My best friend passed away in November last year and ever since then I have been experiencing frequent deja vecu. I was doing research on deja vu, because initially that is what I thought it to be, however I knew my experiences were somewhat different from your "typical" deja vu. It feels as though I am reliving certain moments of recent happenings all over again. Once I get that flashback, I try recount to where it was when it happened, to see if maybe I am confusing it with something else and then I get a huge Shock, because I have a memory of the exact same thing that happened a while back, I remember conversations etc. I then came across an article posted in the New York Times about deja vecu and it seems very similar to what I am experiencing. I went to a therapist and she said that it is related to PSTD and the mind can manifest or distort memories. However, I am not yet convinced and these flashbacks are very real to me. Please help, as I find this to be hugely distressing ... T, 26 January 2007
I know this seems to be an old site but it is intriguingly interesting. I have had those common deja vu experiences as does everyone, but lately they have been getting weird, lasting for up to 5 minutes maximum. Every time I say something it brings me straight back to the deja vu. I even deja vued once that I was having a deja vu ... Cayla, 1 February 2007
Hi, i do not see much point talking about my experience here, but if someone is willing to explain the Deja Vu I had today to their best knowledge, it would be much appreciated. Please e-mail me at steviedeee@hotmail.com and i will tell you what i felt and percieved. Thanks! ... Steve D, 27 February 2007
i have dejavu and im pretty sure i ben and done that same thing b4, im pretty sure because sometimes i could tell what my friends gona say b4 he does when im having a dejavu. but the weirdest one i had was yesterday. i was in another country for more then a year and i had a really weird dream i was with my friends and we went to pick up someone else from an apartment and we weere making fun of him cuz he came out looking real goofy and when i woke up i told myself not to forget this dream because it seemed so real and so i could find out if dreams come true. About 8 months later me and my friends went to the apartments because one of our friend lives there and thats when i had the dejavu he came out wearing shorts and being real goofie and we started making fun of him and thats when it hit me that i really had ben through this and this is what i saw in my dream that seemed so real ... Turk, 3 March 2007
The answer to deja vu is simple. It's God. Scientists and philosophers just can not explain certain things. That's why it is the way it is. Have some faith. It is simply God's way of telling us he is greater than we are and smarter we humans ever could even possibly get ... Christina, 16 April 2007
serendipity (i have been here before) yes, perhaps you have. but how? it may be a memory from your life in the spirit realm. is it a clone of another experience?
is it an aspect of spiritual reality? in other words, is it a look into the spirit realm? perhaps there is a certain significance bearing upon your personal search for something, a reminder perhaps, or an opportunity to relive a certain experience and to try again. but it is startling and the important part may be that it is a very awake and conscious experience. serendipity is super real. there is no doubt whatever that it is not imagined. i can only speculate and guess and ask questions
about it. however i hope i have made a positive contribution to the study. i may have further insights, so please keep in touch with me. fond regards and read me on "BLOGGER" by google ... Doug Rosbury, 20 April 2007
I have just finished reading your DÈj‡ vu and the Brain, Consciousness and Self.
Personaly I thought it was fantastic.. I have always thought that Deja Vu was somehow important and I totaly agree with you that the study of deja vu could reveal so much about yourself. So I thought I would discribe my feelings when I come accross a time of Deja Vu.
I am a 22 year old Male and I have had plenty of Deja vu already.. some weak and some strong. The way most people describe Deja vu is a little different to how it comes to me, most people have the feeling they know what is going to happen next or that they have been there already. But when I get Deja Vu (this is going to be hard to explain so bare with me) like you said its unpredictable when its going to happen but when it happens i dont know what is going to happen next its only when i see what happens i know in my head ive seen it befor e.g i cannot predict what someone is going to say or do, but when they say or do whatever it is druring the Deja Vu its more of a reminder.. also when I have Deja Vu im more relaxed than most people.. normaly someone who encounters Deja Vu stops and says they are having Deja Vu and tries describing what is happening to someone else, I used to do the same.. untill i turnned about 19-20 I just started "going with the flow of it" keeping the moment to myself and analysing it after it had finished.. some people believe a dream can be interperated into real life such as a pot of gold could mean you win $20 on a scratchy.. and so forth, I tried this method on a few of my Deja Vu times and found that some were quite acurate and some way off key. The other thing i have noticed about myself is that when i dream my sleep feels very short and dried out but when i dont dream its like im dead... I have no clue weather dreams and Deja Vu are related but they could be. both unpredictable when u get them and some dreams can even be extreamy familliar. well its late and i got work in the morning.. i hope you reply with thoughts on what i have said.
and sorry about the bad grammer and spelling. but i was never one to study in a class room instead i would be Day Dreaming :D
I hope you can make some sence of all this.
oh and the other thing I was going to mention is that I have a terrible memory.. its actually that bad i have "conditioned" myself into a few things i would normaly forget or lose. such as my keys wallet and mobile phone have to either be in A. wallet and keys in right pocket and mobile in left or B. on my bedside drawer. haha... odd how someone with such a bad memory has alot of Deva Vu ... Ashley Parker, 16 June 2007
Interesting articles on Deja Vu. I've been trying to research it as a particular incident happened to me in 1991 that I still think about on a regular basis. I was on a aquisition trip to England for the company I was working for. I had never been there before. We were driving, in a limo with 4 other peers, to a business location near Norwich. Suddenly I felt a warmth, like taking a hot shower on a cold morning, come over me with an extreme sense of calm. I looked out the window at the fileds & village homes and felt like I was home or in my old neighborhood? I certainly didn't say anything to my peers as I thought it pretty strange. It only lasted about 2 minutes. I immediately started to try to analyze it. Never said anything to anyone about it until 10 years later. I had become interested in tracking my lineage. After much research, I found that my 10th great grandfather was born, raised, & married within 10 miles of where I had had the experience. Coincidence? I don't know. It was real to me ... R. George, 20 June 2007
okay i have been having deja vu a lot lately. It is about stuff where i have never been and people i have never ever seen before are in my dream. Then a fews weeks or months later my dream occurs. I don't understand how people i have never met be in my dream so vividly and then i meet them and they look exactly the same ... Caitie, 23 July 2007
One person asked, "How can two people have the same exact Deja Vu episode at the same time?" Well, I had the same experience. I told my girlfriend about what I just experienced and she said she also had just experienced, the asked me, "what did it have to do with Rex?" was floored because my just occurring episode had Rex (one of our friends) as part. So, 1st we had simultaneous episodes and 2nd, we ad a common link to the content, in this case Rex. Any comments or thoughts? This certainly suggests something more than individual brain function ... Jim, 25 October 2007
man!!!i still cant figure out what causes this ''deja vu'' thing..its creeping me out..i mean,its not gestures or anything,its the real thing,everything is moving except you.first,im watchin a movie,and then,i stopped or paused for a sec. and looked at the movie screen,then there it was,deja vu, and it really is getting on my nerves and thats not the only one..there are thousands of times that i encountered somethn like this..some PARTS of this deja vu thing,i HAVE already dreamed of,yah know,before it happened,i just realize it when im done doing that certain action,pissing me off man.i dont know how to stop it ... Nicole, 29 October 2007
hey every1 check this dajavu must be connected to epilepsy because ive had both at the same time . Il talk through it. When i was younger i was walking down the street then i noticed this guy . I swear right then everything came back to me like it was watching tv or a film over and over again you know . Then i thought this has happened before. Right then i had a feeling in my stomach, i ran home dazed got down on the sofa and had the seisure the worst one ive had ever and ive had over 40 seriously. I also had an elusion then on the sofa of a rainbow-coloured parrot. This when i was like 8 iam 16 now and i dnt have then hardly now. Ive also heard epilepsy goes back to jesus times (on this picture i seen it had it annoted that a kid on it had a seisure . Email me your experiances . Because its all an interest of mine badboy_tomo_2006@hotmail.co.uk ... Mr. T, 15 November 2007
Julia wrote an awsome article on deja vu. i think people shouldn't freak out about it i am very happy that i have deja vu cuz sometimes it helps me realize what's around me. there's been numerous times that i've had a dream (usally with houses)and i'm in this place for a while and unusual events start to happen. Then later on usually days or weeks i'll see that same place that i thought would have ever existed. Sometimes when there's alot going on and i'm really busy during the week i'll have deja vu every day. There's also those days when i can remember my dreams and it actually happens. i think it's pretty awesomed ... Claudia, 13 December 2007
Hello, I'm 18 years old...I'm from Italy and I've experienced several strange dej‡-vu...I mostly don't remember what they were about, - I just know I had a dej‡-vu but not what were the words or actions I considered familiar at the time - but I happened to remember one of my last dej‡-vu clearly enough...besides,some weeks ago, I had another and it was like I had foreseen all that was happening...still, according to my dej‡-vu I should have said a particular sentence that in reality I didn't say...pretty weird ... Maurizio, 5 January 2008
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Comments
very confused
Hello my name is karen I am a 20 year old female and I am in a cross point in my life where I can have anything I want but each road goes different directions. Any who I say this because since this I been having deja vu Bt in a scary way where I feel like I'm dying. Everything goes silent and its like a replay in front of me but instead of a recognition feeling its a scary recognition. Is this a sign that I'm taking the wrong path. Is this a sign that I'm given a second chance to change my path. May I add I am very religious and the path I been taking is against my religious morals. I feel crazy right now but this dejavu feeling has been happening at least 5 times a day.
You're not alone with this
You're not alone with this one. A lot of people feel very strange and inhuman when experiencing deja vu. Or maybe feeling in their own world, unable to concentrate on the real world, only on the deja vu. Sometimes visions may be blurred or hearing may be partial but these are common symptoms when experiencing deja vu.
DEJA VU
I have had plenty of deja vu's. I came to this site to find out more about them. Then I began reading peoples stories, and your stuck out to me. You belief in religion and feel like you are going on a wrong path and that you are being given a second chance. This could be true. Why can't people explain this phenomenon? We have soo many people in the world who find cures and diagnosis' for many things, why is this such a hard thing to find the answer for? My deja vus seem like they manifest from dreams. I will dream of one thing, and then a few days or years later, the dream will happen in real-life. It is very confusing. I think what you should do is follow your conscious, because if you feel like you are going on the "wrong" path then change it. In the end, you concious is always right!
deja vu
i am 49 years old. i have experienced a lot of deja vu in my life. sometimes daily sometimes weekly and others less often. i never actually documented the frequency though now i wish i would have. I just recently realised i no longer experience deja vu, it's been at least a year and at the same time i feel unexplainably happy with my life. I've always believed deja vu came from living a past life. I believed our spirits go on life after life until we right the wrongs or in other words finally get it right.. currently for some unknown reason after all the ups and downs ( and most recently very down) i have this unexplainable peaceful feeling within myself, i feel like i have a secret a good secret, but i'm not sure what it is or how to share it. There has not been an abundance of anything good happen to cause this, i just suddenly feel all is right in my life and i'm curious if there is anyone else who has experienced the same.
Deja Vu
I have been getting deja vu more often now than before. It used to happen only now and again. When it happened I would say to myself 'I know what is going to happen next' but it never does happen. I had a very traumatic incident happen to me and suffered from Post Traumatic Stress.
I need an explination.
Hi,im a 12 year old girl named ana deborah,
mabye too young to be searching
things that mabye only grownups study about,but i was discusing Déjà vu with my brother last night and we couldn't
figure out why this happend so often and how perfect the images where.My dad said it might me like a 3rd dimension something mabye somone else in other galaxies already went through.We also started talking about how mabye in other galaxies there might be people living our exact life ahead of us.Mabye to some people this might seem ridicoules but it can be true.If anyone has any awnsers or opinions pleas reply.
da ja vu
OK.... Da Ja Vu is a description of how u feel and think but the reason why it happens i will explain.
This happens because you do something in the future that has to happen you don't know its coming u can't change it. u only know u have da ja vu when u get that feeling agree? its like a chosen path u can't avoid or change. in everyday life u can change ur future like walking home u can chose to walk the long way or the short way but with da ja vu it must happen no matter what!! I have had da ja vu and deep down inside i know it had been waiting for me for years before i experienced it.
Its very strange but my conclusion on this topic is that da ja vu is an event that must happen in the future which i can't change so please stop with all this brain problems and crap but i do take the parallel universe theory could be involved but thats not my belief but its a possibility ..
Konnor, I feel the same
Konnor,
I feel the same way, like the situation was waiting for me for a while. My problem is that everytime it happens to me it's the dumbest things, and then a day later the big life changing thing happens. It's like it's a little bit off. The dumbest conversations ever are where I experience a lot of DV. Then soemthing great or devestating happens a short while later.
What the heck.....??
Hai, I'm a 16 year old girl, and I NEED to know I'm not the only one.... I've read multiple comments on this site, but none of them are like my deja vu experiences... all of these seem to point to big events, or things that may happen in the future, that people remember, then think about, then wish they'd listened to... or at least the ones I've read so far... my deja vu's are totally different... they' don't seem to have any meaning at all really.... I mean, I see random scenes that are impossible to have seen before... I know I'm not recalling a memory becuase its usually something like someone's new camera, or remembering seeing a new person at my lunch table who has never sat there before (They're a new kid at school), none of them ever mean anything, but they do have a certain feeling of doom about them... like... it's just creepy... >.< But ya... also, I don't remember my deja vu stuff until it happens... like I won't wake up from a dream thinking "Who was that other person eating lunch with us?", or, "Oh! So-and-so got a camera!", I don't even recall seeing any of it before until it happens, and then I just get a creepy feeling and I recognize everything about the situation..... I don't know.... I've been reading alot of great advice about the other deja vus, but what if mine are just insignificant.... what on earth could that mean? It's not like a forewanrning for me.... just an even that I could never have possibly seen before...... I don't know... I just need to make sure I'm not loosing it I guess... please someone tell me they have this kind of deja vu's to.....? >.<
You aren't alone
I don't think you're losing it, in fact I'm sure you're not. What you described is exactly like my deja vu, and I have had those experiences for over 35 years. It doesn't happen frequently, just every so often, but I always have the same kind of feeling. Someone says something and it instantly "clicks" with me that I recognize everything about the current situation-- their words, the setting, everything is an exact re-run. It doesn't freak me out anymore because I realize that the moment is fleeting and if you just accept it and go on there really is no consequence. So many humans have similar deja vu experiences that I consider this a normal part of our condition and I think that over-analyzing anything will just lead to discontent, so why bother? Relax and enjoy the journey knowing you are not alone:)
Well i somewhat have the same
Well i somewhat have the same type of deja'vu as you but in a weird sence my deja'vu is that it actually come's true like seing into the future its actually freaky but then i do have some that just dont even make sence so well your not the only one
deja vu reply
Dont worry, I have same exact feeling. Just a conversation about something and out of nowhere I know exactly what they will say, but like you, not a significant moment or knowing before hand, just comes instantly.
You're not alone.
to charley
How long have u experienc this, i am a beginner at this and i need help or sum one to talk too. i have it everyday and one more thing does anybody get this cool or cold sensation on their head?
AHHHH
Ok, so I'm 16, and I guess it's normal from the comments I've been reading on here, but I'm still REALLY freaked out.... I know I'm not psychic or anything; I couldn't predict anything to save my life, and yaz... but I've been having increasing amounts of deja vu's lately... I'm not trying to sound special of different in any way at all because I know it's common, but still.... I'll have experiences that could never have possibly happened before, and get deja vus durring them... for example:
I was at my 16th birthday party, at a resturant I had never been to before, wearing new shoes, and me and my friends went to the park next to the resturaunt after eating, and played people bowling. Well, I got tired and laid down, and glanced over for a moment for no apparent reason, and saw my shoe laying next to my head (It had fallen off when we were 'bowling" and I got a deja vu of that moment, with that shoe, in that park... which is impossible....
Another time: I was reading a new comic book that had JUST come out in math class, and I could never have read it before, because it had come out that day and I hadn't flipped through it yet. But, when I flipped one of the pages and saw one of the pictures, along with the colors from various math projects that had been due that day behind it, I got a HUGE deja vu feeling that I'd seen it somewhere before....
And today... I had my boyfriend over to celebrate easter with me and my extended family. He had never come over before, but he did today, because he really wanted to meet them. It's a tradition to have intense easter egg hunts, where my unclues will bury the eggs as far in the ground as possible, so I was down, reaching for one, and finding two. My dad told me to share, and I looked up and saw the flowers that grow in our yard for a few days every year, and saw my boyfriend passing, and had a major deja vu... I even remmebered thinking "deja vu" after it happened.....
Sorry this comment is so long...... I'm just REALLY freaked out right now... I've had more in the past few weeks, but I don't want to make this any longer then it already is..... anyways, if anyone can explain this, I would love you forever! I'm SUPER freaked out, and my nerves are all messed up now...... Oks..... thanks.
Deja vu!!
Hi i'm 15 years old. i always experience deja vu that really creeps me out imagine in one day i had 3 experiences. i really don't understand why it happens to me. i researched already but i cant really understand it. coz its very weird and eerie.
NEED HELP
Please, I need REAL help for a deja vu speech! I need people's perspective on deja vu explanations!
I am 10 but in need of help... real ADVICE please.
Pls help
Hi,
Sometimes i feel that whatever is currently happening around me had appeared in my dreams sometime ago. It does not happen very frequently but it does. What does it mean? pls help
The Role of Deja Vu
I am a 40 year old, white male. I have experienced DV my entire life, and I would have to say, w/o arguement, that because of my experiences, I am still alive today.
As a teenager, I had a "gut feeling" that I would die, in a carcrash, by the time I was 35. This didn't scare me, it was just fact. I didn't hound on it and let it depress me over the years. It was just there. Occasionally, aspects of the crash would become clearer. The section of road that I was driving, the vehicle, my passenger. Still, nothing clear, but added information.
Now, as for the DV experiences, I like most, had short ones and long ones. I knew what one was going to say, do, etc. I asked myself one day, "What if I change it? Will my world end?". So, I did just that. I interupted what was going to happen. My world didn't end, it just "shifted".
Another aspect of my life: hypnosis. I have "viewed" past lives, and one of them was an untimely (if that truly is) death. I experienced the feeling of death. It was not pleasant. I now know that feeling and can identify it moments before it's arrival, or even just it's presence.
Going back to the carcrash: It was 6 weeks before my 36th birthday. My girlfriend and I were driving down the interstate. It was a lovely fall afternoon. We were talking and singing to the radio, when it hit me. The road, the vehicle, my passenger, and the "feeling of death". At that instance, I told her to take off her sweatshirt. (We had discussed everything previously mentioned, so she understood what was going on, and acted w/o question.) The moment past w/o incident. I/we were still there. Within the next mile, her derranged ex-husband, who had threatened both of our lives, passed us at an accessive rate of speed.
I, obviously, lived to see my 36th birthday. On that day, I felt that it was the first day of the rest of my life. I have questions as to where I am in the scheme of life, but I feel free. And, I had stopped having any DV experiences, until this week. It was just a momentary "blip", but it was there. 4 years of just living free, but now there is another purpose.
That's what I want to tell you: Don't be afraid or "weirded out" by these experiences. They are here to help us "develop". Some may be memories, some may be the future, but absorb them--don't fight them. Play around with what you can do with them. This isn't the only role we will have. Our souls need to grow in order to move on to the next level. This is just a step in evolution, not the stop of evolution.
im afraid of deja vu..................
i was afraid to tell this but this really happen to me..once,when there is a adventure camp i was walking pass by the old hall..there, i saw the place that i have been there before but i didnt know where ive seen it..its hard to explain what really happen to me..i was scared when i met with people that ive known before and know why i must meet them again..how do you feel when u do something and suddenly u noticed that u have done those thing before that..when i got this feeling,i mean deja vu..i will gonna be stressed and afraid to see other people..i think that i want to kill myself but i was so scared to leave my room...and now,the most safe place for me is my room..help me to handle my problem.im afraid if someday im gonna be crazy..
Deja Vu
Whether or not you belive deja vu to be nurological or mystical here is some food for thought.Everytime i experience deja vu it is before something significant in my life occours i.e., when i was 17 me, a cousine, and 2 friends were partying together. That night, before my friends and cousine showed up to my house i had a strong feeling of being there before. We were remodeling the house and this was the first time, construction only began the day prior we moved scaffolding into the house that day.Basicly i have never been in this situation before this nothing was familliar to me. This feeling i had in my gut was telling me not to do something but i couldnt quite put my finger on it.Every fiber of who i am knew something was going to happen that night. Nothing felt right we went to get alcohol, every store turned down my 22 year old cousines i.d. so we scrounged grabbed all the beer and liqour we had left over at eachothers houses. The feeling got worse and worse and all of a sudden everything began to feel familliar and i knew i didnt want to be in this situation anymore.I spoke my mind to my cousine, he told me i was just haveing deja vu. About three o'clock in the morning we were crusing around. This was all good and fine until my cousine, who was driving my car at the time, put it into a fishtail and slid into a tree. It wasnt totally his fault the roads were icey but regardless we shouldnt have been out there, we were drunk.One person ended up in the hospital with a broken pelvis but, this was all after we decided to lie to the cops about what had happend so my correction officer cousine didnt lose his job. Two weeks later i get a subpeona to go to court, I was facing 15 years in prison. I ended up getting off with 2 years of probation and pretty much ruined my life from there, my own fault.So you get those feelings of deja vu pay attention to them. If i'd have payed attention maybe i would actually be going somewhere in life. Long winded this may be if you took the time to read this use it as advice.
I have dejavu on various
I have dejavu on various occassions, though it seems the older I get the less frequent it happens but everytime I do I immediatey recall an experience I had that is quite unbelievable. I was living in NCarolina and while sleeping I had a dream. In this dream I was in a classroom and I was asleep in this classroom, with my head face down in an open book. I was waken by the teacher, verbally and from a distance, and I wiped my mouth because I was drooling and it was then my dream ended. Well, a few months later I ended up moving to Georgia and my dejavu occurred I was asleep head in book and everything and I was dreaming about being at a football practice and I was wearing a blue and white jersey and running across the field. In my dream I jumped in the air to catch the ball and while at my highest point I was hit in the legs and cut a flip. I landed on my back and the impact had made me lose my breath. It was then i was awoke by my teacher verbally from across the room. I lifted my head wiped my mouth and looked down at the book. It was then I saw the page number and I recalled the page number and text from my previous dream while in NCarolina. I recognized this as dejavu and quickly dismissed it as it happened quite often. Later on in the same day I felt perplexed about the dream i was having in class. I played football but I played quarterback so catching a pass was not something I would really be doing and furthermore, the team I played for had different colored jerseys than that of my dream. It ended up I moved back to NCarolina and had to live with my father. I was at football practice, my very first at my new school, and they were looking at me for wide receiver because they already had their quarterback. I ran a post pattern and had to jump pretty high to catch the pass an the safety came over and undercut my legs. I flipped through the air and landed on my back and lost my breath. It was then I remembered it all as having happened before. This was the most unusual episode of dejavu that I have ever had and everytime I have it now I recall that previous occasion. I think it significant because it seemed as I had two occurances that intersected each other in such a short period of time and I know distance is of no consequence in the realm of the mind but it just seems so crazy that I often wonder about it. Help explain if you can?!
deja-vu
well... in my point of view,it seems that everyone in this world wide experienced the deja-vu.. so do i.. im from malaysia.. i guess...deja-vu is something no matter who u are...u will experience it.. and it is common..so far for me.. what can i share is past couple of years.. i had this deja-vu for about a week.. first,im eating with my frends n a restaurant...suddenly i had a feeling that this thing ad eve happened before..but im not sure when and where... but the surprised is every faces of my frends in my deja-vu is eating together with me in the restaurant... so.. u all out there mustn be so worried bout this..but if its really distrect u,better see an expertise..
hi, my name is ruthie. i just
hi, my name is ruthie. i just had a deja vu few days ago and it really creep me out. i was so in stock that i couldnt barely move. i dont experience deja vu often as others people. it comes when i do know something is weird. (this may sound weird but please bare with me). i was with my boyfriend friend house and i was sitting in the living room watching tv. i started to freak out when i was watching a show that i never seen it before but it was i did seen it before, then i started to freak out more when they change the channel and it was giving wheel of fortune and i knew everything whats gonna happen next, then my boyfriend was talking with his friend, and i knew what they gonna say next. its like i been there and done it before. my boyfriend realize something was wrong with me and he ask me if everything is okey, i told him to look at the tv, and i said everything before the show say it, he freak out for a moment. i need your advice.
Help me please...
okay, first of all i know that this may sound crazy to anybody, but it's the real way i feel.
my name is dixsa and am from an island in the indian ocean. i am of asian origin. since a few years i have strange senses of deja vu. the most strange thing is that i remember smell, flavours, actions. colours.. it's so vivid that at times it gets creepy. well this might not have been a problem but to addition to my deja vus i have premonitory dreams. all the time i can sense it when something is going to happen. once i had a dream in which i was suffering and i was bein thrown from heights, i woke up just before crashing and all the pain was there, like i had really been tortured. not all my dreams are real, sometimes when i dream,i know in my subconscious mind that it is just a dream but when the premonitory dreams come,they look so real. please help me understand what's going on with me,am scared.
my three most memroble deja
my three most memroble deja vu's were 1. after a swim practice, 2. on my way to church one day, and 3. during a big test, when i forgot an answer, then i had dejavu, and it showed the answer!!...today i read on another site that one theory for deja vu was that our lifes are already mapped out, and we only experience deja vu when we are exactly on course!!! i thought that was REALLY true,
hello, I just thought I would
hello, I just thought I would tell you my story. I have been getting deja vu for over a year now. It started out rare, maybe once a month, then continually grew, to where I get it twice a day or more. I can drive to places never seen before, and navigate easily through buildings. Also movies are no fun to me. Usually the deja vu is no help, because it comes late, but other times it comes early, presenting a fork of choices. all senses are there, almost like picked up and dropped into a scenario. Dreams directly correlate the next day also. so strange. I want to say it is a gift because, I pray to God for guidance....
Drawing Pics
I have had deja vu scince I was 4. I'm 11 now, and for the past 9 months i get deja vu in my sleep, and everywere I go.
I'm not an artist but also for the past 9 months i've been drawing images of my deja vu that are very... grafic. Teachers don't see them but my friends are worried. They are afraid that I'm going to become crazy, I am too what can I do
Hi, my name is Ana, i am from
Hi, my name is Ana, i am from Europe, i hope you`ll understand my grammar. i have experienced almost all the kinds of deja vu that the others had. a few weeks ago, i had a nightmare, of me having an awful experience: throwing up, dizziness, feeling ashamed, talking to people that i knew they are friends but couldn`t see their faces so i was in doubt about their identity. when i woke up, and i saw that i was in my room and knowing that it was a dream i felt relieved. a week ago, it passed a good time from the day with the nightmare, i went with some friends in a club. they bought legal weed. i wanted to see how it feels so i smoked 5 fumes. after 10 minutes i experienced exactly what i experienced in my dream, with all the awful things that i was scarred of. my friends were asking me exactly the same things as in my dream, and all the other things that happened to me with persons i didn`t knew where exactly like in the dream. i can`t say much more because it is very long and complicated and it`s pretty hard because i have problems with the writing. hope someone is interested about my story. Good bye
I had a very similar
I had a very similar experience.. last night I smoked weed and felt like everything was deja vu.. I don't think I actually ever dreamed any of it but it was just something that the weed was doing to our brains.. anyway I'm done smoking. That was the scariest thing I ever experienced
DEJA VU EVERYDAY!
I have been having DeJa Vu, Almost everyday now. I see somthing, i feel, i have lived EXACTLY but had seen it the day before in a 'vision'. This phenominon is causing slight dementia. I cannot stay calm when i have an episode. I have bad ties to DeJa Vu to where now when it happeneds, i fear for somthing bad to happen ALL the time. Once somthing DOES go wrong, that fuels my need to believe that i can see things that WILL go wrong but cant fix them. When i get DeJa Vu, i do what they call "Change The Script", if i have a vision of me reaching for a drink with my left hand, i will stop and reach with my right, if i have a vision of myself picking up an object, i dont. This is ruining everyday enjoyment, i feel like my life is already planned out for me and i only see some parts, like a friend whom only tells you about the 'good' parts of the movie and the rest is up to you. I dont feel like my life is MY Own. I am 17, i am not taking any medication, but i dont want my girlfriend to think im crazy, but i love her, and i told her all of this and she accepts me and still loves me, i just dont want it to effect me this way anymore!...
My account
Hello.
I happen to stumble to this page by accident, and I am interested in the conversation. I am 14 and I have been having these 'occurrences' ever since I was younger. I would be doing something, and out of the blue, a scene would appear in my mind. They are almost as bright as day, all color. (Unfortunately, no sound, or I would be able to be tipped off to when my scenes would reoccur to me.) It only appears for about a second or so, but if I'm lucky, I'll be able to catch it and be able to look back upon it afterwords. One of my recent Deja vus just came true: I had a scene appear to me,a very long time ago, and just a few minutes ago, it took place. What I have come here to ask is how this happens. It never gets me out of trouble, it never scares me, just arouses my attention every now and then. It's a strange thing, and I'm curious to find out its secrets.
~Shroom
deja vu
How can I have seen the place where I lay right now before. I remember telling my cousin I had a dream of a girl I have never seen and man united curtains and a blue bunny teddy months ago and yet today I have seen what I dreamt months ago. Is déjà vu something that went wrong at a point months later but then safeguards that point you will go back to. Or is it a place or situation you have dreamt of or seen I believe it to be extremely weird but perhaps mind has done this before. Perhaps u live life over and over till it becomes perfect where you have déjà vu something bad happened someone died even yourself maybe it is a total mystery. I have done some reading but scientists and others believe it is a familiar situation you have been in before and you believe it’s the same thing as you see in front of you. I have never seen anything to resemble anything in that room before so tell me how and why I have seen this. i have read most peoples work and they assume ideas i have had them more than anyone i know and can detail exact things i would like to know some one i could talk to more in depth and learn about what it is.
Deja Vu
For some reason i seem to have this feeling every day of my life, Every momeny, every and every second of my life i am experiencing this, Is this normal
um not realy. i have been
um not realy. i have been expericing the same thing but in spans of 45 secconeds. my friend has been doing some test and this is not normal she has no explanation but most people dont have this. she thinks it has something to do with history repeating itself from a past life or something.
I enjoy my deja vu!
The first time I had an experience was a flashback in time. I was swimming and before I knew it I had almost travelled back in time to when I was child of 6 some 24 years before! The smells and sounds changed, the room changed and I could see my father and uncle when they were young. I heard a tannoy message saying "can all of the red bands get out of the pool now" - this used to happen at the pool I swam in as a child, but not the centre I used as an adult. I came round and realised what had happened.
Then I started to predict what songs would come on the radion and TV before I pushed the button. People would hear me singing the songs, or I would say, did you ever see that film, actor etc...put the the TV on sometime during that day or the next day and ....bingo! Friends and relatives would call me and say...how do you do that?
These days I just get more regular deja vu moments when I predict what people ill say. There is almost enough tim to write it down before they say the words....
It IS a pleasant feeling, IF you go with it. I had ECG tests and a brain scan at point, because I was told it was epilepsy and lost my driving licence for a year. Then the consultant said....some people will say it is a form of epilepsy, but in my experience 9/10 people suffer from something similar, it is worse in some more than others, I think it will stop one day and I wouldnt worry to much....
So I got my driving licence back one year later, and never looked back. These days, I just enjoy the feeling, when it comes, it's not threatening and they are not often...I feel gifted and lucky!
Continuous Deja Vus
After reading the article and the subsequent comments I am no longer feeling like a freak. :-) I constantly have deja vu experiences, often around once or twice a day and about 7-10 times a week. They also seem to increase the more active I become. Now, because this has been happening to me since I was a child I have just learned to accept it and live with it but have always been curious as to how this works and why it is. As far as being a reincarnate experience, this seems highly unlikely to me because the things I see, hear, smell, live are very much a part of my present and only life (that I know of) and seem only to be glimpses into that particular event that I have somehow lived before. It is a very strange thing and has never made me feel scared but rather intrigued and I wish I knew more people who had this occurence as often as I do. From the breakdown of the three types I can say that I have experienced all three types although the most common has always been deja vecu with a heightened sense of deja visite. I would love to hear more from people who are researching this phenomenon so that I can at least better understand myself through these occurrences. Thanks for posting this article!
Sincerely- Nadia
I recently just came back
I recently just came back from college for Thanksgiving break and smoked weed with my friends back home. I had the CRAZIEST Deja Vu experience ever. My Deja Vu trip extended for a whole 2 hours, and every word, phrase action was a repeat of the near past (about 2-3 weeks ago). I was basically reliving the past, just at a different time, location, and different faces. It was freaky because how can two different people say EXACTLY the same things. What tripped me out was that these experiences are not repeats of dreams, but of reality. I also did things I normally wouldn't do to try to change the outcome, but these Deja Vu experiences continued for 2 hours.
Does anyone have an explanation?
Deja Vu: A type of precognition?
Like so many people, I also have deja vu, but what type it is I can't quite define.
When I have my deja vu, it is completely random and unexpected. It just happens. I get that wierd deja vu feeling and the feeling that I have seen the certain place, person, or action before. The thing is when I have deja vu, it's usually in places where I have been before, but I know I'm not replaying a memory, because I have the faintest recollection of the past experience where I had my "vision" about the future deja vu experience. But I don't remember it until I have the deja vu. I know that this is a horrible explanation, I can't explain it right, but maybe someone can reply if they experience the same or something like it.
My recent dejaVu experience
Strange yet clear to say. I hope that we can, & will, be friends. For you know what i was going through, my deja vu senario. It did involve you & I did want to take a chance on that. In my deja vu scenes, the scenes before moving in w/ you were earie & tasteless; the sex was horrid, even your head game. Thinking why I took the chance was from the way you held me that night as we sat on the floor & cuddled, etc... So I didn't go by that deja vu/intuition. So I moved in w/ you & time went by & it was pretty good. The sex & head game was off the chain. But, as my mother told me after the fact, some deja vu's have meaning to them & something w/ angles looking out for me, for although the visual was off, towards the end, or @ least@ this present time, it is not in my best interest... To you, my child's mother to be.
This is not real
OMG....just as I started to write this, I had de ja vu! I have done this before!
deja vu
i didnt read all the other ones but read some, but yea i have it around 3 times a week almost, i had another time today, which made me want to research, coming apon this site which seems kinda familiar as well lol, also im 15 so may be disregarded as some kid guy, but still have issue all the time. the end on my issue
Maybe this Deja Vu stuff
Maybe this Deja Vu stuff means we are getting closer to unlocking our higher brain functions. Soon we might all transform into savants with the ability to remember everything that could be remembered and gain the ability to calculate like a computer. Now that would be cool.
BTW: I get this alot too.
Deja vu
I have a theory that came to me one night. In fact, I woke up and wrote down bits and pieces of the memory. The subject of deja vu has always interested me and I have experienced it a few times and they were always memorable. I believe the experience is much more than just our mind playing tricks on us and I would enjoy your input upon finishing what I am about to propose to you.
In its shortest form, here is my theory which may not be original but I have not heard or read anything like what I believe deja vu is. In the reality we live in there is a set pattern of time and our relationship to time. If time travel is possible (which it would have to be for my theory to be correct) than we could never experience the experience and remain in the reality we exist in in the present sense. The problem with remaining in our own reality while changing another parallel reality is the destructive nature of it. Two parallel experiences cannot co-exist without destroying one or the other.
The theory which I believe explains deja vu (and there is no possible way anyone in our reality could prove)is the replacement of a set period of time due to the transition from one time reality to another. If a human experiences a transition from his own time to another, all that exists within that different time would be subject to destruction from a force created by two realities "crashing" into each other. The first reality, our own time, cannot exist within, or attached to, a second reality. This second reality, a different time or set of circumstances, can only sustain itself for a brief period and it cannot be a conscious visit by ourselves as portrayed in many sci-fi movies. We, as mortal humans, are defined by a set of physical, mental, and even spiritual parameters which confine us within certain barriers that cannot be escaped.
The feeling of deja vu is a sort of loophole to the barrier imposed upon us by the above mentioned parameters. In the transition from one reality to another, the sense of familiarity comes from actually existing within that experience but experiencing it within a different moment. In other words, we have actually experienced the experience but have not true memory of the present but a vague feeling of a memory that cannot exist within the reality we currently exist in. No two realities can exist within each other. So the reality we have experienced is replaced by the reality we exist within in the present moment.
To explain it in a more scientific way, deja vu acts as a portal from a reality we have experienced (not necessarily time travel but an alternate reality) to a existing reality which we are supposed to be in. The two realities can exist at the same time but not be shared in a conscious sense by humans due to our vulnerability. We could not survive the transition. All physical senses can be recalled from the prior reality but cannot be retained in the same exact reality once we are in the reality we need to exist in.
This transition is similiar to time travel but only occurs due to the influence of the alternate reality which is only temporary. This fleeting feeling is our only recollection consciously of an alternate reality which we have come from.
Deja Vu
Did this theory come to you after you had seen "Back to the Future?" You are so full of it!
Deja Vu Deja Dream
This is weird, I figured out a while back ago that when ever I have dreams that I can't remember the next day, they are going to happen. When they do, that's when I get my deja vu feeling... so much it makes me dizzy. I just wish that I could remember my dreams before they happened, cause what good does it do?
Deja vous, or memories recalled?
After I read your article I still had questions. I wanted to pose these questions to you, or any other reader of this article.
My first question is this: Is it possible to experience deja vous and there be some kind of stimuli to set it off? What I mean by this is I experience deja vous only rarely, maybe once or twice a year. The last time I experienced it I was doing something that I normally do not do. The only reason it felt familiar was because I was in my car and a familiar song came on. So can a stimuli be the culprit to these feelings of deja vous?
My second question is this: Is it possible to have an adverse reaction to deja vous? I regularly feel a wave of uncertainty but once or twice I felt deathly ill, such as in the situation I mentioned in my last question. I understand that synapses are firing and thus release different chemicals in the mind allowing for varying feelings to occur, but has there been any "normal" feeling documented, or does it vary from person to person?
Many Thanks,
Michael Miranda
deja vu
I have had deja vu countless times I have rally not worried about it til now.. I started talking to this girl that a friend hooked me up with that go's to a different school than me he gave me the number and we got to talking turns out that I had the deja vu the day before about the girl and never knew her and I knew her name b4 she told me.. I can feel things B4 they happen and have picture deja vu, memorys and dreams... Like two days ago my mom gave her a ring to get fixed that I never seen and I know I have seen it on her hand a few days later she said she felt like she has know this ring b4.. The ring dates back to the 1600 or later... Don't know what to think but I know things just don't happen this... Kinda believe its us reliving our past life,something psyche, or that god puts a small fragment of him in us when were born to show us these visions to tell us were on track in our life.. Would like some feed back If possible
Thanks Ryan
Deja vu
I have deja vu frequently enough for me. I am intelligent enough to know that I cannot know the future because it hasn't occurred yet...at least not to me. Someone, somewhere knows the future though...not only knows it, owns it. It exists already although in a fabric I don't recognize. I believe they are markers of some kind, or a learning tool to make us think and remember impossible things that actually can and do happen to us. How is it possible?? If Gods' word can bring light, what must His thoughts do? Before creating this existence He blueprinted it surely. He thought it all out. Perpetual life from the beginning to the end. It's already happened, it's already over, somewhere at some time.
consistant deja vu
I have been experiencing this phenomenon consistantly lately and its starting to bug me, I dont know what to think or say about it. its weird cuz ill have that strange feeling of deja vu then not even 5 minutes later it'll happen again...i would appreciate any advice or any info there is to offer
Deja Vues seem fine with me
Im 23 yrs. old and i have had deja vues my whole life. They are surreal as hell and, when experiencing one, I kind of go into a pause mode. mostly they are like small parts of dreams playing out in front of my eyes. When one begins i immediately recognize what is happening, look around, get my bearings and can start to play it out. It could be conversations, situations, or being somewhere new i've never been before and knowing that i have been there before in some way. To me they are amazing and they always put a smile on my face when they start happening. So to me they are enjoyable and i would love to find out more about them although i have a feeling there isn't much more to know then the sensation.