THAT WAS “DEJA VU”…

“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)

Long time mates Shaina and Sarah. Sarah closest to the camera. Photograph taken by me – I have no idea when but well over a decade ago….

As I blogged last week our mare Shaina returned to us after a four year lease in Sydney. Having her home is wonderful. This morning she was moved from the top of the property down onto the flats, in a paddock with her old mate Sarah and the two mares happily wandered off, Sarah trailing Shaina. Then both turned their heads and stared at me.That’s when it hit me an incredible flash of “deja vu”. It happens to me quite often and no doubt it happens to you. It’s sudden and fleeting, leaving as quickly as it came. While the experience is clear in detail, it’s frustrating when you try to recapture the experience. Generally, you go “ that was déjà vu” and go on with what you’re doing. At least until the next experience, and I know personally I have experienced the same “deja vu” moment several times. What about you?

Below vjkrishna from the Critical Thoughts Blog www.vjkrishna.com touches on Deja Vu and I also added an excerpt from Wikipedia  www.en.wikipedia.org

Déjà vu From Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia  www.en.wikipedia.org
Déjà vu (French pronunciation:, literally “already seen”) is the experience of feeling sure that one has already witnessed or experienced a current situation, even though the exact circumstances of the previous encounter are uncertain and were perhaps imagined. The term was coined by a French psychic researcher, Émile Boirac (1851–1917) in his book L’Avenir des sciences psychiques (“The Future of Psychic Sciences”), which expanded upon an essay he wrote while an undergraduate. The experience of déjà vu is usually accompanied by a compelling sense of familiarity, and also a sense of “eeriness”, “strangeness”, “weirdness”, or what Sigmund Freud calls “the uncanny”. The “previous” experience is most frequently attributed to a dream, although in some cases there is a firm sense that the experience has genuinely happened in the past.

The experience of déjà vu seems to be quite common among adults and children alike. References to the experience of déjà vu are found in literature of the past, indicating it is not a new phenomenon. It has been extremely difficult to invoke the déjà vu experience in laboratory settings, therefore making it a subject of few empirical studies. Certain researchers claim to have found ways to recreate this sensation using hypnosis.

How do you explain Deja Vu? This article was written by vjkrishna Critical Thoughts Blog www.vjkrishna.com

Deja vu? One of the many things science has not explained. I don’t know how to call ‘deja vu’. You can call it an experience or a feeling. Let me try to explain the term ‘deja vu’ for those who are not familiar with the term. Have you ever gone to a certain place for the first time in your life and have felt ‘man, I’ve been here before’? Have you ever thought ‘Wait a minute, we’ve had this very discussion before, in the same place with the same people, all exactly the same’?

It has happened to me, many times. There are places in different countries where I felt that I’ve been there before. It’s not all that cinematic that I could find my way through the gullies and canals. It’s just that in certain places, you get this feeling that ‘I’ve stood in this very place and have looked at this image in front of me, but don’t know when’. By definition, it is an ‘already seen’ feeling. Some sense of familiarity. There were many occasions when I thought I’ve had this very discussion before, this statement, this laugh, this posture, this set of people, this time of the day, this very place and all together. Sometimes they are interesting, some time they are downright scary.

How would you explain this? I see that this is being explained from various angles. There is this convenient explanation that says this has something to do with a mental disorder. That’s a bit lazy to call it that way. Even dreams would then be a case of mental disorder. Also, as far as I know, most of the people I’ve talked to on this topic have said that they have experienced deja vu. You don’t have so many people walking around with mental disorders. The world’s not so bad.

There is also this sub-conscious memory angle. Some believe that the deja vu feeling you get is from your own memory. If during my first visit to London if there’s a place where I get this feeling that I’ve been there, that’s all from my own deep lying memory. The conscious memory records all your real life experiences that you’re part of, things that you experience, read, see and hear. If you had seen something in your dream and if you forget the dream when you wake up, that piece of recording goes out of your conscious memory and stays within your sub-conscious memory. When in real life, if you get to see one of those places that you had seen in your dream, in a flash, your conscious memory and sub-conscious memory meet to make that connection. Guess I’m making sense.

Some even extend this to say that the memories of your previous births are also hidden deep in your mind and the deja vu moments are the ones where your mind googles the current image and finds a match from your archives of previous lives. It doesn’t make sense for someone like me who does not believe in previous births or lives. Anyway, these sub-conscious memory rationale doesn’t explain how I get the deja vu feeling when I’m talking to a bunch of people. How could this situation be recorded in any part of my memory? This is an event and not an image. This event of discussion is just happening or unfolding as I get this feeling that I’ve had this very chat before. What could this be?

I’ve thought about this and I’ve given up too. It’s a strange phenomenon indeed. What is your understanding or explanation of deja vu? Have you had any such moments? I’ve had a lot of those deja vu moments. Many a time I also pause and freeze to fully realise that. I’m sure you’d have had yours too. The next time I do get a deja vu, I’d get back right here and update you. Wait a moment, do you think you’ve read exactly a post like this on deja vu on this very blog some time back? You’re being ‘dejavued’.