The Shared Experiences of Deja Vu Thread

There have been alot of discussions about Deja Vu on ATS. The purpose of this thread is for myself and others to share their experiences. Until recently, I would not speak of my experiences because I felt that others would not understand or draw conclusions about my sanity. It wasn't until I commented on this post My strange 3am experience that I found that there are alot of others like me.

My experiences
My deja vu always begins with a dream. I will dream about normal day activities that dont seem to have much importance. It is always about a conversation, a series of movements or gestures and light. By light I mean the time of day and if it is sunny or overcast. Also there is a touch factor. Someone slaps me on the back, holding hands, etc. You would think that you would just forget about these types of unimportant dreams, but I always awake the actions of my dreaming self burned into my memory.

Several days or weeks will pass. There is no fixed time of when the events occur. Then, whamo! I will start to relive the events that I have dreamed. It scares the hell out of me. When I was a teenager I would have a panic attack as a series of already seen things unravels before me. They were not generalizations of what I had dreamed but to the smallest detail the same. I could not understand what was happening.

My parents of course were concerned. They sent me to a doctor, who with little exploration, perscribed me a anti-anxiety med. The result was that I was asleep half of the time, and the deja vu actually increased. He then perscribed an anti-seizure med. I have never had a seizure. Again, only the side effects occured with little result to the greater issue. At this point, I felt that medicine and doctors could not help me. I felt alone with no help. My decision was to try and hide the experiences. Just not to talk about them and blame the incredible reactions that I had due to my dreams coming true as anything else that what they were.

I lived like this for the next 17 years, I am now 35, and am pretty good at controlling my adventures into the future. I have then less often but they still occur atleast once a month. I still have no explanation for what happens to me but it is just how I live my life. I even kind of enjoy it. How many people get to have little glimpses into what will happen tomorrow.

Scientific Explanations
Possible explanation for deja vu.
This is the closest thing that I have found to an explanation. Take a look and draw your own conclusions.
As much as 70 percent of the population reports having experienced some form of deja vu. A higher number of incidents occurs in people 15 to 25 years old than in any other age group.

Deja vu has been firmly associated with temporal-lobe epilepsy. Reportedly, deja vu can occur just prior to a temporal-lobe seizure. People suffering a seizure of this kind can experience deja vu during the actual seizure activity or in the moments between convulsions.

Since deja vu occurs in individuals with and without a medical condition, there is much speculation as to how and why this phenomenon happens. Several psychoanalysts attribute deja vu to simple fantasy or wish fulfillment, while some psychiatrists ascribe it to a mismatching in the brain that causes the brain to mistake the present for the past. Many parapsychologists believe it is related to a past-life experience. Obviously, there is more investigation to be done.

Thank you for taking the time to help me, and others who live their lives this way. I look forward to reading other experiences. Maybe we can all feel a little less strange and alone.

Another Article
What is Deja Vu... (Read More)

"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."

I have had Deja Vu once or more a week sense January. It's getting really annoying. Any ideas on why I have it?

reply to post by Phlynx


I always thought that maybe I was just a little better at guessing outcomes than most people. That I was able to predict what may happen just because I was more aware of possible conclusions to a situation. But, the odds of this happening as much as it does makes it less likely than some other situation. Let me ask you this...

1) What happens when you experience deja vu? Is it the same everytime? Is there something in particular that occurs before you have the experience?

2) Do you have any ailments? I have always been pretty healthy so I cant attribute my experiences to any medical reasons. I even had a PET and CAT scan.

3) Have other people in your family experienced Deja Vu? I found out that my father had similar experiences, which I wish he had told me earlier. They told him that it was low blood sugar. This turned out to be false.

Thanks for your reply. I am looking for patterns in this shared experience.

axiomuser, thanks for starting this thread.

I've had déjà vu for my entire life, I'm now in my early 40s. Like you, my experiences start with dreams. They're not normal dreams, they are dreams which have a certain clarity to them...and are in color. Most are just brief glimpses usually of some innocuous sort of action in day-to-day living. Once I wake up I simply file them away.

There was a time when my déjà vu experiences actually stopped and I feared it meant something was going to happen to me in the future so there was nothing to dream about...but eventually they did come back.

I've discovered that my déjà vu experiences are related to stressful times. As something stressful in my waking life approaches I begin to have déjà vus...the closer to the event the more frequent the occurrences. Most of the time I don't know what that even is until maybe a couple of days before. I use my déjà vu as an early warning system that something stressful is on the way.

Over the last year or 2, the déjà vus aren't as accurate as the original dream. The event happens, the "dream comes true" so to speak, but it's not exactly as previewed. I'm not sure how to interpret that.

In my studies to try and understand what's going on I've come to the conclusion that all time exists at the same time...we however are experiencing it in a linear fashion...because our little brains wouldn't be able to handle it. There are however cracks in the system...and those cracks you and I experience as déjà vu.

1) What happens when you experience deja vu? Is it the same everytime? Is there something in particular that occurs before you have the experience?

It's always something different. There is nothing that is ever alike in the experiences.

2) Do you have any ailments?

None that I am aware of.

3) Have other people in your family experienced Deja Vu?

Yes

reply to post by mightymouth


Thanks for your post. Im glad to see that there are others with the same "affliction? / Gift?" You reminded me of something. The dreams that I have are vividly in color. That is one of the things that I remember and often reminds me of the dream as I am experiencing it's real life replay.

Sometimes they aren't as accurate as other times. Maybe only a part will be 100%. I have attributed this to my being more comfortable with what is happening. Maybe your right that the fear and stress makes it more accurate. Something to look into.

My understanding of time, more accurately, my feeling of time, is less linear than others. I have a great memory of the past. I recall things that happen to me when I was very young. The same sort of mundane details that I dream about, which is strange. Could we be living our past, present and future lives at once?

reply to post by Phlynx


I have a trigger event. It is usually a touch or the way the light is in the room. That is why the "doctors" thought that it maybe some sort of neurological misfire. They couldn't find any. Something sparks my memory and I say "OK, here we go" and I can see what is going to happen as if it is written in a script.

The person(s) in your family who experience deja vu, what side of your family are they on? Just thinking, that if this is a genetic trait, that it maybe passed through mother or father.

Originally posted by axiomuser
reply to post by Phlynx

 

I have a trigger event. It is usually a touch or the way the light is in the room. That is why the "doctors" thought that it maybe some sort of neurological misfire. They couldn't find any. Something sparks my memory and I say "OK, here we go" and I can see what is going to happen as if it is written in a script.

The person(s) in your family who experience deja vu, what side of your family are they on? Just thinking, that if this is a genetic trait, that it maybe passed through mother or father.

It's mainly mother... I'll observe for a trigger event next time. Usually my trigger is something like a dream.

To help us all, and I have done this for the past few months is to write down your dream when you have it. I have them in the middle of the night so I usually write 5 words that I think best describe what has happened. Then after a few months, go back and read what you have written. You will find that you have deja vu more often than you think.

Here are some more links to people who have expereinced this also

www.sleepnet.com...

ezinearticles.com...
"Predictions are possible because reality is created before it occurs, what could be verified through many discoveries made through biology, which show us that each organism is well prepared to defend itself in a dangerous environment where it has many enemies, and it is also well prepared to attack and kill its prey, even from the first moments of its adult life."

reply to post by axiomuser


I have had what I call Deja Vu dreams, all of my life.

I dream something and a day, two weeks, or five years later, it happens.

Exactly how it was in the dream, item for item, moment for moment.

After thirty years of this, I'm thirty-six, it's been happening since I was six, I now pick and choose if I want to let it happen the same way, or change the outcome.

It was explained to me, that when we have these dreams, it mean we're on the correct path for whatever mission we are on, in this life.

I started the below thread in 2005 back when I first got onto ATS.

Okay, has this happened to anyone ever?

reply to post by SpartanKingLeonidas


Thanks for your reply. Wow, isn't it strange that this happens to all of us. The patterns are clear as it seems that it is a pretty similar experience. I think that it started for me around the same age, 6. I moved at that age, which may have been tramatic, so maybe it sparked something. I'm just thinking that alot of people who experience this say that stress may have something to do with it.

With all of us in this same situation how come it isn't talked about more?