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Have you experienced deja vu?

07/22/2008 8:12 AM

I was sitting in a meeting yesterday and experienced deja vu twice in one meeting. I got to thinking I can't remember the last time I experienced deja vu, although I know I have before. Everytime I experience it I start wondering what it is and why whatever triggered it seemed so familiar to me. Is it just the memory of a similar event that my brain seems to think is the same event?

So I thought I'd throw it out there to the CR4 community. Do you experience deja vu? How often? And what do you think it is?

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#1

Re: Have you experienced deja vu?

07/22/2008 8:29 AM

Maybe this meeting was very similar to a dream you experienced a long time ago. As for my deja vus, i have had a few, but i won't talk about them here since they are so incredibly nerdy and geeky

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#3
In reply to #1

Re: Have you experienced deja vu?

07/22/2008 8:50 AM

oh I don't know, having deja vu about process flow charts in an engineering meeting seems pretty geeky to me!

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#2

Re: Have you experienced deja vu?

07/22/2008 8:32 AM

I don't know how often, but it would seem there's periods of déjà vu when it'll occur several times in let's say a month. Then there'll be a month(s) without any events. It's rather odd feeling indeed, and when I experience it, I immediately start and try to predict the next sequence of events or visualize the next scene. BTW this never really seems to work, but I still "try"

it is what it is...

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#4

Re: Have you experienced deja vu?

07/22/2008 9:03 AM

I knew this topic was going to come up. I just knew it.

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#5

Re: Have you experienced deja vu?

07/22/2008 9:05 AM

Yes. Now when was it? Um, er..........

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#6

Re: Have you experienced deja vu?

07/22/2008 9:16 AM

I experienced a few times, but i believe that it relation with brain activity.

dejavu

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#7

Re: Have you experienced deja vu?

07/22/2008 10:06 AM

As I get older, I experience more and more vuja de's. That when I know I've been here before, but have absolutely no recognition of it....

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#8
In reply to #7

Re: Have you experienced deja vu?

07/22/2008 10:22 AM

Sleep walker!

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#21
In reply to #7

Re: Have you experienced deja vu?

07/23/2008 3:49 AM

You experience new things more than once too

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#43
In reply to #7

Re: Have you experienced deja vu?

07/23/2008 9:15 PM

They also say one good thing about senility , is that you meet new friends every day.

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#9

Re: Have you experienced deja vu?

07/22/2008 10:59 AM

I'm going to try to avoid the 'funny answer'.

I think it is just a familiar juxtaposition of stimuli.

Often when driving somewhere new one can get that feeling as the scenery unfolds...but you only have to think that the cute bridge over the canal...was built to the same pattern as a thousand other bridges over similar canals...
If you go into just about any town centre in the UK it looks identical.

I think smells is a big trigger too, or just the angle of the light at a certain time of year...or maybe that first chill in the air as Summer turns to Autumn.

Having mentioned the word pattern...we all have patterns of speech and behaviour and our brain tends to recognise these things.

Del

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#10

Re: Have you experienced deja vu?

07/22/2008 11:03 AM

Yes I have, I think everyone does sometime in their lives. When it happens, I seem to know what will happen depending on a certain action or decision, as if we have gone through the same situation before. This time I had better get it right.

I have also had a premonition of 9/11 almost 10 years prior to the event as we walked past the building. My buddy dismissed it as not likely to ever happen. But when it did, It made me rethink my understanding of premonition and time.

Putting the two together, plus other predictions by many prophets etc. I think we have to rethink the concept of time. It seems that any significant event will echo through time in both directions + or -.

I think that the deja-vu and premonitions are an echos in time, and when the harmonics add together, they are strong enough that we can actually perceive them.

We are also probably more sensitive to events that affect ourselves.

On the lighter side..

We could also all have a mild case of Alzheimer's. 'Deja vu' (already seen) is actually 'deja faite' (already done)

We are all in an alien science experience doing the same maze over and over until we get the big cheese - testing our learning ability

Yes I have, I think everyone does sometime in their lives. When it happens, I seem to know what will happen depending on a certain action or decision, as if we have gone through the same situation before. This time I had better get it right.

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#11

Re: Have you experienced deja vu?

07/22/2008 11:12 PM

Have you ever had it occur simultaneously with another individual nearby? Happened to me twice. As a friend and I looked at each other my friend said: "What the hell just happened?" Another occasion was with a complete stranger. I said deja vu!! The guy said: "I know. I don't want to talk about it"... and walked away. Very strange.

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#12

Re: Have you experienced deja vu?

07/22/2008 11:19 PM

I think the answer is, "sure, many (or all) have experienced it at one time or another".

For the scientific community, it is often passed off as being some 'mix up' between short-term and long-term memory. We are currently experiencing 'something', and the information is somehow passed from our short-term memory to our long-term memory, and we 'think' / 'feel' like this happened 'before'. Indeed it is a strange feeling.

I tend to believe this, because our memories are a mysterious collection of information, and we can't always know what is 'correct'. Consider that in contemporary surgical or invasive procedures, we are given a drug that makes us 'forget' the process or procedure. Been there and done that [I think ], but it was most revealing when I saw it happen to a close friend who underwent a scope procedure on his lungs ... meeting him later in the hall, when he was being discharged from the outpatient procedure, he was angry that he came all that way and they never did the procedure ... memory totally erased. There have been many times when, upon waking, I knew the elements and details of an interesting dream, yet as I lay there, half awake, the details slipped slowly away, like sand slipping through my fingers, and no matter how I tried, I could not hold onto the memory of that dream ... nothing ... just the memory that there was a dream, but no details.

Consider also, on the 'flip side', sci-fi concepts of 'planting' memories, such as in Total Recall, where those who couldn't afford or take time for a vacation, simply had the memory of an adventure 'planted'. Sci-fi for sure, but an interesting concept.

Deja vu and premonitions exist, but maybe a larger consideration, at least for me, is, "what, if anything, am I supposed to do with this information?" I don't believe in 'accidents', so if something 'happens', I believe it is for a reason, so ... what am I supposed to do with this?

In the case of deja vu, regardless of the reason, I can't find a purpose other than to intrigue me with the 'feeling'. In the case of a suspected premonition, I have taken action before, but thankfully (very thankfully in some cases), 99% have been false.

I can't and won't discount the multi-dimensional, prior-life, "echos in time" possibilities, because, last time I checked, I don't know everything , but in my own experience, based on the fact that this 'information' seems of either no purpose or value, or the 'information' proved to be false, I will categorized these just an interesting phenomena of the mind, and little more.

Good post ... thanks.

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#13

Re: Have you experienced deja vu?

07/22/2008 11:20 PM

Yes, I have experienced this on numerous occasions and always wondered where it originated from. Well I'm still not clear on that one, but I have began to notice how I am connected to the next person in so far as experiencing something of their feelings when I get "tuned" closely in to them.

In my experience this is not something the brain is doing, it is more likely the "body" bringing up this feeling... of perhaps an earlier experience (maybe even a past life experience???)

I would love to hear more on this...

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#14

Re: Have you experienced deja vu?

07/22/2008 11:21 PM

Deja vu is a feeling that something you've just experienced is something you've experienced before, but your mind tells you what you just experienced is something you've never experienced before. This conflict leaves you with a weird sensation.

If you tend to follow logic and reasoning in your thinking, you will be inclined to think this is a trick your emotions are playing on you, you dismiss the issue and move on to other things.

If you tend to follow your emotions, then the more you think about the incident, the more convinced you become that you remember the incident happening twice, or that you had a "preview" of the event.

I do not dismiss the possibility of the preview coming through a dream, vision, or your imagination. Generally, when a "message" comes through a dream or vision, it is something of great importance.

But then, Yogi Berra once said, "It's like daja vu all over again." He also said, "It's tough making predictions, especially about the future."

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#15

Re: Have you experienced deja vu?

07/22/2008 11:55 PM

Hello julie:,

I have had several lots of deja vu, especially when driving through places I have not been before. It is so real on several occasions I can predict what is round the corner and the way out of the Town.

I am not sure if it is deja vu but, on three occasions I have watched myself walk downstairs from my bedroom when I was already downstairs. This happens always after an Epileptic attack. I had just come down stairs. Stopped to open the kitchen door and noticed myself walking downstairs. I do not know what 'caused' it. And it may well be a crossed link between my short term and long term memory, I don't know. I do know it scared the hell out of me. And, after calling the doctor as I sometimes do after a serious Epilepsy attack, the Doctor had me in hospital in 20 minutes and I went through a weeks intensive tests. They could not say why this had happened either.

I was worried it would be shunned as just a dream but, it was more serious than that judging by the time and effort put my way by psychologist etc. It was the single most frightening thing ever to happen to me.

babybear

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#16

Re: Have you experienced deja vu?

07/23/2008 12:02 AM

Weeks before the disaster, I heard that a civilian, a teacher, Crista McAuliffe, was going to ride in the space shuttle, Challenger. I told myself that something disastrous was going to happen during the flight. Then, when I heard the report that my premonition had been confirmed by the explosion, I told myself, "I told you so."

I, immediately, was overwhelmed by a wave of guilt for not having called NASA before the launch to tell them of my premonition . But, if I had called, what would they have done other than say thank you and laugh?

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#17

Re: Have you experienced deja vu?

07/23/2008 12:21 AM

I used to have similar experiences as a kid.. till 10-12 yrs old.. I clearly remember one incident when my aunt visited us and i knew I had seen that scene or snap shot before - like what she was doing , what she was gonna say.. n it happened! I was not nothing I could have anticipated, like a similar event occured before. I would say I have experienced deja vu 3-4 times as a kid.

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#18

Re: Have you experienced deja vu?

07/23/2008 1:00 AM

Yes. About once every 10 or 15 years. Somehow I have the impression that about half of those experiences were somehow related to mental telepathy (whatever that is), and the other half were not.

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#19

Re: Have you experienced deja vu?

07/23/2008 3:07 AM

Yes, many times in my life...Really good, weird feeling of sorts...I find myself waiting with intensified senses to see how the rest of episode falls into place..Often left feeling dissapointed that something wonderful didn't happen......Is this a good or bad thing?

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#20

Re: Have you experienced deja vu?

07/23/2008 3:08 AM

Hi all,

I think most people have experienced that. It can be (according I've read) by that already mismatch between short and long term memory as well as for a delay in the signal processing between two brain hemispheres: One send the information quicker than other, so when the second information becomes "perception", it seems it was the same as sometime before (dejà vu).

Some of you have spoke about premonitions. I think this is a different thing and I've heard no scientific serious explanation. But it seems to exist too.

I've had a couple of that. The first when my elder daughter was a child. I dreamt one night I was called to see my daughter who had fallen and hit her forehead against the cement ground. I could see her on my dream and suddenly awake sweating and upset. I dreamt the same thing several times over the whole night. After wake up, I went to the job and when I came back home in the evening I found my daughter with her forehead distorted by bump and hematoma produced when she fell down and hit against the cement ground. I was so impressed that start crying, my wife asked me about the cause and after explain her my dream, from this day when the clock buzzer awakes me she turns and ask me: What have you dreamt this night?

As our north west people use to say " I don't believe in witches, but there are some of them"

Kind regards

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#22

Re: Have you experienced deja vu?

07/23/2008 3:57 AM

Yes several times in exact detail nothing hit or miss about it...

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#23

Re: Have you experienced deja vu?

07/23/2008 5:43 AM

Hi, there's a lot of weird manifestations out there, only until we get the knowledge that explains it. I found the book "The Field" by Lynne Mc Taggart very informative to explain the unseen. Hope this will put you on the track of "knowing". Enjoy life, we can make it such fun for ourselves.From B.

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#24

Re: Have you experienced deja vu?

07/23/2008 6:19 AM

Are they really thinking about making "Groundhog day 2".

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#25

Re: Have you experienced deja vu?

07/23/2008 7:05 AM

Hello julie

Yes Yes I I have have

The true difficulty, is while one is in a state of deja vu, one has a simultaneous extra deja vu experience.

Thus the same thing is extperience thrice, not twice.

Deja vu, is generally caused by the brain processing the experience, and taking two differeing paths to memory storage, and because one path is shorter than the other, when the second same information arrives, the information is already stored, perhaps 1/100 of a second earlier, and thus the deja vu thus: "I have been here, in this very situation, before" syndrome occurs, because there is a genuine memory stored already, of exactly the same experience.

The person experiencing deja vu is generally puzzled, because although there is a certain memory stored, often it is impossible to know exactly when the information was stored, as the second information arrives before the first "information recognition" is consciously realised.

Kind Regards....

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#33
In reply to #25

Re: Have you experienced deja vu?

07/23/2008 11:35 AM

Sparkstation, sounds good to me....Can these occurances be manually manipulated to re-occur????? Bewilderment can be fun......

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#26

Re: Have you experienced deja vu?

07/23/2008 8:01 AM

I think we all have feeling of deja vu. I certainly do, at least once a week I suppose.

But in meetings I usually sleep.

I have no idea what the brain triggers are for either.

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#27

Re: Have you experienced deja vu?

07/23/2008 8:04 AM

Yes. In spurts. I will go a long time between events, then for some reason, a series of events will occur over several days. Then the effect fades for a while...

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#28

Re: Have you experienced deja vu?

07/23/2008 8:09 AM

Rarely do I remember my dreams. About eight years ago, I was wakened during a very intense and detailed dream. It was startling enough that I knew at that time that I HAD to make an effort to burn into my memory every minute detail and spent at least two hours that night and often after that, reviewing the dream. It was about a specific future event, the time of which I will be able to set up at my will. I expect this opportunity to occur at least a year or so from now. At the time that I attempt to initiate the sequence, I am anticipating that every detail will fall into place. If it all does, after I pick myself up off of the ground, I will know that, like the radio signals we are emitting out into space, events in time are flowing past us and deja vu is a state of consciousness that allows us to sense/receive past information that is occurring to us presently, and dreams are a state of consciousness that allow us to sense/receive future information as well as review past experiences. In other words, past, present and future are occurring simultaneously, and we occasionally, or in the case of psychics, at will (that third eye stuff), are able to sense it. I feel dizzy.

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#29

Re: Have you experienced deja vu?

07/23/2008 8:38 AM

Ok all this serious talk about deja vu is weirding me out.... again

I think it's just the matrix reloading.

Seriously I always wondered what could be considered deja vu and what is really a brain mix of reality.

I find myself remembering events that haven't occurred yet quite often but always just as it's happening. On a flight to the UK about 3 years ago it happened several times and I had never been there before. Throughout the entire trip I would say it happened to me about a dozen time over the course of the 7 days I was there. Events occurring as if I had done them before people I met and even while driving on the M5.

I was quite fascinating, but after the trip was over and I got back home the episodes subsided and things got back to normal. I still experience deja vu at least once or twice a month but it seems that I have always been that way. Geeky and weird I know but it's better than my wifes problem with premonitions. She seems to have them alot and it almost always involves family. Consequently she worries about everything.

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#30

Re: Have you experienced deja vu?

07/23/2008 9:37 AM

I've had experiences that have come up that seem to remember dreaming about it a long time before.

Then I've had experiences where I arrive someplace and remember seeing it before. One time it was visiting one of my Dad's old friends and recognizing the house and furniture because it was exactly the same as when I saw it as a baby sixteen years earlier.

I've read articles about Deja vu being a result of the information perceived by one eye being processed slower than the information perceived by the other eye to be the cause the cause of a deja vu experience.

I'm inclined to believe in the dreams. Even though some dreams are complete non-sense and fantasy, I believe some of our dreams are forwarnings of things to come and we don't realize it until it happens and you weren't prepared because you didn't take the dream seriously but when it happens you somehow knew it was going to happen.

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#31

Re: Have you experienced deja vu?

07/23/2008 10:26 AM

It's the parallel (sp?) universe!