Deja Vu

[darkglobe]

Hi.

Swim's been having more and more experiences of Deja Vu, lately. It's getting to a point where it's either worrying him/convincing him he's some sort of psychic (he hasn't decided yet!). SWIM recounts his feelings below...

Now, from my (limited) understanding (an understanding also known as Wikipedia), Deja Vu:

"....refers to a psychological phenomenon which describes the experience of feeling that one has witnessed a new situation previously."

This is exactly how it feels. I will be in a situation which is totally unique and new, and I will think "hmmm - I swear I've dreamt about this before... no, I've been here before.... no, I dreamt about it".

For instance, I was driving around a roundabout I've never been around before, and I was thinking about buying a new Metallica album, when all of a sudden I thought "I've been here before!!" and then realised it was just a dream. Sometimes (often) I think "I've dreamed this!" not "I've been here before".

Is this proper Deja Vu? If so, what on earth could possibly be causing this?

SWIM hopes you can help.

[fnord]

Read "2012, the return of quezacotel" it might explain nothing or allot.

weird someone on another forum just asked something like this.

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haha

[Powder_Reality]

SWIM experiences the phenomenon of Deja Vu quite often. He'll just be in some arbitrary situation (watching TV, working on an essay, talking with friends, etc.) and this weird feeling of familiarity will come over him.

He says that it feels like everything he's experiencing at that exact moment has been experienced by him before (like he's remembering it from a dream or something). And when SWIM says everything, he really means everything; every thought SWIM has at that moment, everything in his point of view, everything that is happening around him is the exact same as in his memory.

And then of course the feeling just fades away and he just forgets about it. SWIM's not exactly sure how deja vu works, or whether any studies have been done on the subject (although he wouldn't mind reading through them if there were). Either way, it's a pretty weird phenomenon.

[Metomni]

I have deja vu, but it does not happen very often. Maybe a couple times every year, but for some reason when it happens it is very intense. Even a moment of deja vu can completely change the way my day was previously headed.

It's really quite an odd, and sometimes for me, unsettling, phenomenon. It's unsettling because it makes me feel like some sort of mystic or all-knowing being, when just a moment ago I was normal. It's like never believing in magic and then being shown that it exists for a moment and then having that knowledge ripped from you after a few moments.

Deja vu occurances usually last for about a minute for me and afterwards I realize that I felt pretty weird for about 10 minutes, sometimes I even notice I feel weird and the last few occasions I have known deja vu was coming before it did so it was even more surreal than usual.

A part of me believes that it is linked to dreams because whenever deja vu hits, it feels as if my closeness to the event is not due to living it previously exactly, but feels as if I have already dreamed it and thus know all about it without having lived it. Therefore, it's still an original event that has no fate set, but I have pre conceived knowledge of the entire experience.

Nevertheless, it's pretty weird and cool when it happens.

[N0ly]

I have had profound deja vu. one morning I had a dream about my friend being hit by a car on our way to school. and sure enough while we were going to school that day deja vu kicked in, I looked over at my friend while we were talking about something and had the "Ive seen this before, Ive said these words before" feeling. I remembered that I had dreamt it that morning, grabbed my friend by his back pack before he was about to cross the street and saved him from being hit by a green dodge durango.

Dreaming and reality are very closely related. Im currently reading a book called the dreaming universe by Fred Allan Wolf. so far I dont actually have any specific facts to add as i have not read the whole thing. but I will add them as if there are any interesting ones.

[Pino]

One explanation, but not all: If swim is really tired, he will fall asleep really short, this is called a micro sleep. When he wakes up again, he will have the feeling he saw this before. Which is right. He did; a couple of seconds ago.

[darkglobe]

Originally Posted by Powder_Reality

He says that it feels like everything he's experiencing at that exact moment has been experienced by him before (like he's remembering it from a dream or something). And when SWIM says everything, he really means everything; every thought SWIM has at that moment, everything in his point of view, everything that is happening around him is the exact same as in his memory.

And then of course the feeling just fades away and he just forgets about it. SWIM's not exactly sure how deja vu works, or whether any studies have been done on the subject (although he wouldn't mind reading through them if there were). Either way, it's a pretty weird phenomenon.

That is precisely how it feels, except you worded it better than my clumsy attempt.

Does anybody have any interesting further reading on this subject?

[Lethargy]

No reading to contribute, but I used to get Deja Vu all the time, averaging 3-5 minutes each time and upwards of 6 times a week. At some point I decided to change how I acted and related to the world by challenging my set behavior patterns and the Deja Vu vanished for about 2 and a half years.

Recently I have experienced it a few times (5 or so times in the last 12 months) and have started to wonder if it comes due to my "life path" overlapping with other possible realities and my brain picking up on the frequencies of other realities. Or my brain just started getting wonky again, who knows.

[Melalicious]

swim often gets Deja vu, and like a few other swimmers have mentioned, swim is dead set that she has been there/seen that before, it feels so fermilia! swim has had times when she has had the same deja vu, of the same thing/place etc, has kind of freaked her out, spesh when shes in a totally different setting from the first time she experienced it!

[mybloopwentsplat]

love the song on ur quote disco shyt...

[Greenport]

The best way I can explain Deja Vu is the way that somebody explained it to me.

Seemingly ironic and paranormal events such as Deja Vu can often occur when you are following your life goal. Everybody has a path that they are meant to follow while they are here, and sometimes when you are following that path, or not following that path, strange things can happen. It all ties into fate, which basically just signifies the passing of events.

Why are we here? Why is your dog here? Why are we the only animals on this planet smart enough to study things too far away or small to see? Fate has to be behind it somewhere, so I think. Maybe Deja-Vu is just a glitch in the way things happen. A time-glitch, so to speak.

[I<3Salvia]

Swim will try to explain it to you in from a textbook perspective. Deja Vu works because of the way that memory is stored in your mind (chunks). Your brain saves these chunks into kind of clusters of useful information in memory. When you see something that matches up with a bunch of chunks from the same cluster from a previous experience you've encountered (i.e. dream, memory), this causes you to think that you've actually experienced this occurence before which is why Deja Vu happens. Swim is however not saying that he doesn't believe in psychic abilities. Swiy very well be psychic. Try testing it with little things, (i.e. guess the m&m before you pull it out of the package) then move up. This should at least put your mind to ease so you don't freak out. Hope this helps!

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Good post :)

[RJeez]

Maybe you've become conscious that what you experience outside is affecting you inside. . .or the other way around.Do happy films make you feel happy?

[darkglobe]

Personally I'd say it's got bugger all to do with multiple realities, fate or anything. Not knocking your opinions, though, if you do believe in that. I'm just saying I personally don't.
It's quite obviously some form of neuro-brain-boffin-stuff I don't understand, but either way - the effects can often be shit scary!

This morning I was sitting in my friend's car and I had some emotions (I believe I was thinking about why the speed camera had a smiley face drawn on it), and I suddenly thought "jeus - I had a dream about this the other night... oh my god, in a few seconds we will have a crash", because I had "dreamt" previously about a car crash, and the things I was thinking right up to the "crash" were exactly what I was feeling at the time, and I found myself bracing for impact!

Whether I do have premonitions, or the actual thing about deja vu is that you HAVEN'T dreamt about/been in situations prior to the present time, you just think you have... I don't know. Luckily there was no car crash, but frequently I think "wow this is happening... I dreamt about this the other night!"

Who knows. Maybe we'll find out one day. For now I'd like to believe I really did have a dream about that situation prior to that situation actually occuring, but chances are it's just a dodgy brain defect. Meh.

[lexifer]

swim semi-frequently experiences deja vu. just the other day swim was over this girl's house sitting on a couch watching tv. now keep in mind that swim hasn't chilled with her for a good 7-8 months at least and had never been in her house before this occasion. all of the sudden it hits him that he had a dream of this exact situation. the way the living room was set up, where people where sitting, who was there and lastly the conversation topic were all identical to his dream he had a couple of months prior. this hit him so profoundly that he interrupted whoever was talking at the moment and blurted out the incredible feeling of deja vu he was having.

now, swims theory up until this occasion of deja vu had always been that deja vu occurs when some kind of stimuli affects our brains and causes the feeling of having already experienced something. why, how, and what this stimulus is, swim has never had much thought on but after this experience swim has reconsidered the possibilities of what he once thought unlikely. such as the possibility of some sort of psychic ability humans may have or alternate realities, etc.

truth is swim doubts mankind will have any kind of true understanding of topics like these, at least in his lifetime.

[Powder_Reality]

I've had a few ideas similar to those in the above couple of posts. I had this theory that deja-vu is similar to an endoprhin rush; that is, the brain may release some sort of chemical that creates the feeling that we associate with deja-vu. For some (so far) unknown reason, our brain may release some unknown chemical which creates a feeling of familiarity. I really don't know too much about human biology, but I can see this being at least a viable theory.

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Very interesting point :)

[Metomni]

That's a really good idea, it's just a matter of finding that event that is setting it off. Then, imagine the possibilities, deja vu seems very intense, I could only imagine what it would be like to be able to harness that.

[bacontheking]

I think its just an occurrence of our brains overprocessing. Our brains are weak.

[TMM]

Originally Posted by darkglobe

Whether I do have premonitions, or the actual thing about deja vu is that you HAVEN'T dreamt about/been in situations prior to the present time, you just think you have... I don't know. Luckily there was no car crash, but frequently I think "wow this is happening... I dreamt about this the other night!"

I have feelings of deja vu every now and then, like everyone else. Often I think I must have dreamed about it - it's the logical conclusion to make if you know you haven't actually been in this exact set of circumstances before. I've never actually been able to recall a dream in which these events took place, though, not once. Usually when I remember snippets of an actual dream, more of it comes back to me, whether it be a sequence of events or just the 'feeling' of being in the dream. With deja vu, though, it's not 'this was a dream', it's always 'this must have been a dream'.

Personally, I just think it's a sign that our memories can trick us a lot more than we'd like to believe. Our brains, as machines, are subject to slight glitches, just like any other.

[aerozeppelin123]

Originally Posted by Powder_Reality

the brain may release some sort of chemical that creates the feeling that we associate with deja-vu.

Yeah I've wondered about how deja vu works before, and I think it must be something along those lines. It's a bit like when you're really happy (or high for that matter ), looking at say, a tree, might cause you to feel a sense of appreciation and beauty. Even though that tree might be nothing special at all and the feeling just comes from the chemicals in your brain at that particular time. In the same way there may be a chemical that causes feelings of familiarity, and those feelings get superimposed onto what you're seeing or thinking at the time, so you mistakenly believe the situation to have happened already.

[mybloopwentsplat]

Or maybe the situation has happened previously, and we are constantly reliving our lives ...

[pillpopper96743]

Swim has heard that feelings of Deja Vu are caused by excess or remaining amounts of DMT in the brain from sleeping or some shit like that. For swim, Deja Vu's occur at least 5 times in a week and it seems like he did something before that has just occured, or was in the exact same situation and everything looks and feels the same. From all of the posts, id concur that it is natural to have them, and the amount just depends on the person. Swim was also wondering about this and if something was actually wrong with him, but he is convinced otherwise now.

[Euthanatos93420]

Originally Posted by darkglobe

Personally I'd say it's got bugger all to do with multiple realities, fate or anything. Not knocking your opinions, though, if you do believe in that. I'm just saying I personally don't.
It's quite obviously some form of neuro-brain-boffin-stuff I don't understand, but either way - the effects can often be shit scary!

This morning I was sitting in my friend's car and I had some emotions (I believe I was thinking about why the speed camera had a smiley face drawn on it), and I suddenly thought "jeus - I had a dream about this the other night... oh my god, in a few seconds we will have a crash", because I had "dreamt" previously about a car crash, and the things I was thinking right up to the "crash" were exactly what I was feeling at the time, and I found myself bracing for impact!

Whether I do have premonitions, or the actual thing about deja vu is that you HAVEN'T dreamt about/been in situations prior to the present time, you just think you have... I don't know. Luckily there was no car crash, but frequently I think "wow this is happening... I dreamt about this the other night!"

Who knows. Maybe we'll find out one day. For now I'd like to believe I really did have a dream about that situation prior to that situation actually occuring, but chances are it's just a dodgy brain defect. Meh.

Swim thinks time is repeated. ALMOST exactly the same every time. DEJA VU happens when they change something. This is the fifth DImension. So on and so forth.

That was momentary epiphany as Swim sees fit to have it added to his original piece:

http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=56319