Deja vu theory

[Emecom]

So I just had an idea and thought I would share it and see what other people think. What if the reason we have deja vu in real life is because we have already experienced that moment in a dream (dreaming about the future). The reason we don't know we have dreamed it, is that most of the population has terrible dream recall.

[saltyseedog]

yes I agree. Things like deja vu and sychronocities are starting to make me think that free will is an illusion. Those like what are the chances type things seem like they could be put off by the tiniest change in events.

[nina]

The more experiences I have with deja vu, the more I think it's just a little glitch in the brain's processing. It's what makes the most sense to me.

[Queen Zukin]

The more experiences I have with deja vu, the more I think it's just a little glitch in the brain's processing. It's what makes the most sense to me. If it's a glitch, I'm screwed. Ever had a deja vu in a deja vu in a deja vu in a deja vu in a deja vu in a deja vu in a deja vu?

[Pheenix]

Deja vu happens when your subconscious starkly realizes something once, and then stores it, and your conscience starkly sees something similar later.

[nina]

Deja vu happens when your subconscious starkly realizes something once, and then stores it, and your conscience starkly sees something similar later. Citations? You say this as though it is a fact. There are many theories about deja vu, but I don't think any of them have exactly been proven. They are good theories though.

[Pheenix]

Citations? You say this as though it is a fact. There are many theories about deja vu, but I don't think any of them have exactly been proven. They are good theories though. A friend said it as if though it were fact. I haven't checked it up.

[nina]

I posted this in another deja vu thread but I'll post it again since this is such a popular topic. excerpted from the Deja Vu Wiki... In particular, this may result from an overlap between the neurological systems responsible for short-term memory and those responsible for long-term memory (events which are perceived as being in the past). The events would be stored into memory before the conscious part of the brain even receives the information and processes it. The strongest pathological association of déjà vu is with temporal lobe epilepsy.[5][6] This correlation has led some researchers to speculate that the experience of déjà vu is possibly a neurological anomaly related to improper electrical discharge in the brain. As most people suffer a mild (i.e. non-pathological) epileptic episode regularly (e.g. a hypnagogic jerk, the sudden "jolt" that frequently, but not always, occurs just prior to falling asleep), it is conjectured that a similar (mild) neurological aberration occurs in the experience of déjà vu, resulting in an erroneous sensation of memory. déjà vu may be a form of familiarity-based recognition (recognition that is based on a feeling of familiarity with a situation) and that laboratory methods of probing familiarity-based recognition hold promise for probing déjà vu in laboratory settings. Another possible explanation for the phenomenon of déjà vu is the occurrence of "cryptamnesia", which is where information learned is forgotten but nevertheless stored in the brain, and similar occurrences invoke the contained knowledge, leading to a feeling of familiarity because of the situation, event or emotional/vocal content, known as "déjà vu". It will be interesting when they can accurately replicate the experience of deja vu in the lab setting.

[MindGames]

I posted this in another deja vu thread but I'll post it again since this is such a popular topic. excerpted from the Deja Vu Wiki... In particular, this may result from an overlap between the neurological systems responsible for short-term memory and those responsible for long-term memory (events which are perceived as being in the past). The events would be stored into memory before the conscious part of the brain even receives the information and processes it. The strongest pathological association of déjà vu is with temporal lobe epilepsy.[5][6] This correlation has led some researchers to speculate that the experience of déjà vu is possibly a neurological anomaly related to improper electrical discharge in the brain. As most people suffer a mild (i.e. non-pathological) epileptic episode regularly (e.g. a hypnagogic jerk, the sudden "jolt" that frequently, but not always, occurs just prior to falling asleep), it is conjectured that a similar (mild) neurological aberration occurs in the experience of déjà vu, resulting in an erroneous sensation of memory. déjà vu may be a form of familiarity-based recognition (recognition that is based on a feeling of familiarity with a situation) and that laboratory methods of probing familiarity-based recognition hold promise for probing déjà vu in laboratory settings. Another possible explanation for the phenomenon of déjà vu is the occurrence of "cryptamnesia", which is where information learned is forgotten but nevertheless stored in the brain, and similar occurrences invoke the contained knowledge, leading to a feeling of familiarity because of the situation, event or emotional/vocal content, known as "déjà vu". It will be interesting when they can accurately replicate the experience of deja vu in the lab setting. That's an interesting analysis. Considering deja vu is an anomalous phenomenon, maybe that anomaly could be explained by dreams in which we experience future events. Dreams are experiences which are forgotten, but still reside (somewhat) in our memory, so if one were to experience something similar to which he had dreamt, in waking life, this could trigger the sensation of deja vu, but not quite the entire memory of the dream in which it occurred. So from where I'm standing, deja vu could be the waking experience of a previous precognitive dream.

[kidcrow]

Deja vu happens when your subconscious starkly realizes something once, and then stores it, and your conscience starkly sees something similar later. I agree with what Pheenix said. Me and my friend had deja vu at the exact same moment at the exact same time because we had a similar conversation a week ago...yet the problem is we tried it again for a third time and we didnt get the same feeling. I know i just contradicted myself but it was still weird that that had happened.

[Ketsuyume]

It's a glitch in the Matrix. Duh.

[ChaybaChayba]

Deja-vus could also simply be explained as the minds ability to predict any possible future situation so yeah I pretty much agree with the OP. What else would be the evolutionary purpose of dreams? Look at animals, birds for example, must be able to predict the near future of a fly who he is going to eat. Before the bird jumps the prey it has a deja vu of the exact location where the fly is going to be in the future moment when the bird is going to grab it. If the bird did not have a deju vu, it would not be able to accurately grab the fly. How else would a bird calculate the path of the fly if not through dreaming? How can a bird know where the fly is going to?

[Eonnn]

Deja-vus could also simply be explained as the minds ability to predict any possible future situation so yeah I pretty much agree with the OP. What else would be the evolutionary purpose of dreams? Look at animals, birds for example, must be able to predict the near future of a fly who he is going to eat. Before the bird jumps the prey it has a deja vu of the exact location where the fly is going to be in the future moment when the bird is going to grab it. If the bird did not have a deju vu, it would not be able to accurately grab the fly. How else would a bird calculate the path of the fly if not through dreaming? How can a bird know where the fly is going to? birds eat flies? :S

[ChaybaChayba]

birds eat flies? :S No birds eat sheep.

[Raspberry]

Most of the time when I get dejavu I am absolutely certain i've dreamed it before. But that might not be accurate

[Emecom]

Most of the time when I get dejavu I am absolutely certain i've dreamed it before. But that might not be accurate Yeah I agree thats how it feels to me too.

[saltyseedog]

ya when ever I have deja vu its like crap this happened in a dream before!! but then I didn't remember the dream until it happened in waking life.

[kenietz]

For me there are two types of deja vu; dreamed one and the one which ive seen/felt while awake(like a vision).

[Bryonyh]

For me there are two types of deja vu; dreamed one and the one which ive seen/felt while awake(like a vision). What do you mean ? ie. like a vision , deja vu isnt a visual thing its just a sense of familiarity with a situation, like you have already been through it once

[ShinodaCM]

I get deja vu all the time. I obviously have no tangible proof of this, but to me, it always feels as if I either daydreamed it before or it came in my head when I was not paying attention to my thoughts. When I was younger, I felt like I could predict certain events. "I'll get a phone call from X today telling me that Y can't come over to play" and it happens. Now I'm older and I'm more of a "Man of science" but I'm very open-minded. I mean... I can't deny my past experiences.

[saltyseedog]

I just got deja vu from this thread

[Eonnn]

I just got deja vu from this thread yeah me 2 lol this is my belief also, that we dreamt it before precognitively (is that a word?) but forgot the dream. Another theory is that we experienced the moment before but in a parallel dimension.

[MarkieP52]

Haha that's what I was thinking too. I like the "future has happened before" explanation but the theories here seem much more plausible :p

[Skicanoe]

I've always wondered about this. For part of two years, decades ago, while I was in Jr. HS., I went through an extreme period of deja-vu. It was mostly just dropping in on conversations in the hallways, and I'd be wonder struck to be hearing and feeling the exact words and emotions I'd seen in a dream about two days earlier. It was happening almost on a daily basis for awhile. Rarely experienced that since.

[saltyseedog]

I had it twice in the past two days. Both times looking in the mirror doing something. The first one feels like I just had the dream a couple days before, like a fragment.