What Is... Deja Vu.

[Lobosque 0]

This is quite interesting, and i dount found any topic about it
Here it goes:

"The term "déjŕ vu" (French for "already seen", also called paramnesia) describes the experience of feeling that one has witnessed or experienced a new situation previously. The term was coined by a French psychic researcher, Émile Boirac (18511917) in his book L'Avenir des sciences psychiques (The Future of Psychic Sciences), which expanded upon an essay he wrote while an undergraduate French concentrator at the University of Chicago. The experience of déjŕ vu is usually accompanied by a compelling sense of familiarity, and also a sense of "eerieness", "strangeness", or "weirdness". The "previous" experience is most frequently attributed to a dream, although in some cases there is a firm sense that the experience "genuinely happened" in the past. Déjŕ vu has been described as "Remembering the future".
The experience of déjŕ vu seems to be very common; in formal studies 70% or more of the population report having experienced it at least once. References to the experience of déjŕ vu are also found in literature of the past, indicating it is not a new phenomenon. It has been extremely difficult to invoke the déjŕ vu experience in laboratory settings, therefore making it a subject of few empirical studies, recently researchers have found ways to recreate this sensation using hypnosis."

Edited December 22, 2006 by Lobosque (see edit history)

[shadowx 0]

Hey, word of warning, if you copied any of that from anywhere put it into quote tags, [-quote-] text [/-quote-] without the "-".According to the new film coming out here in the UK deja vu is a government tool r something for going back in time a few days, its all rather confusing! But the government have a tool or something they can use to send agents back in time or let them veiw things back in time and the lead character is an agent who doesnt know about this and finds out and has to go back in time or something to save a boat getting blown up. I think deja vu could be a few things, like a memory of an event, EG someone saying hello, being badly recalled when someone else says hello and as its badly recalled, sort of corrupt, you don't feel it as a memory just as deja vu. Or a similar thing but something that happened in a dream/daydream Or even a sort of premonition that hasn't happened and when it does you get a similar thing to the corrupt memory idea and you feel deja vu.I don't think we will ever know for sure though.

[master_bacarra 0]

deja vu is a tool? that's silly. it's not like a time machine or something. clearly that would confuse anyone, and even mislead.i've experienced a lot of that before. but the events of the future usually happens in my dream. i remember one instance that i was cleaning our backyard, then it felt as if i've seen that exact moment before, i just couldn't remember. but there was one instance that i knew it was really deja vu, and i clearly remember the dream where i saw the same event before. when i was about 10 or 11 years old, i dreamt that i was in a different classroom, sitting beside the wall, i had different classmates and i saw a different teacher. i was still in gradeschool but i know very much how our classroom looked like, and my classmates and my teachers, so that dream was kinda weird for me. a few years later, i was in highschool, i was sitting beside the wall and was listening to our teacher with the lesson for that day. suddenly i had felt woozy, and it gave me a feeling that i've seen that particular event before. that's when i realized that the event was the dream i saw when i was younger.in psychology, they have a scientific explanation for that. although i can't remember, because i wasn't listening clearly to my psychology professor at that time. :lol:oh, and by the way, that quoted text was taken from wikipedia.

Edited December 22, 2006 by mbacarra (see edit history)

[salamangkero 0]

The parapsychologist, Carl Jung, once coined the term synchronocity: a phenomenon characterized by seemingly meaningful coincidences (for example, suddenly calling to mind, out of the blue, memories of a high-school classmate only to receive a call from him later on in the day); deja vu is said to be one of the manifestations of this synchronicity.I've read the wikipedia entry and I was shocked to find that there are different kinds of deja vu. I had no idea deja vu actually encompasses different phenomena and what I knew to be deja vu was but only one of them.I think subliminal stimuli, dreams and conscious thought factor into a deja vu in the making.For example, you could very well be in a classroom listening to the teacher. Your conscious thought is focused on the lecture, effectively overriding other stimuli from leaking into your conscious thoughts. However, it could very well be that you are overhearing talk of something, let's say a hotel lobby. We could very well be unconscious that descriptions of this hotel lobby is secretly being encoded into our memory. Indeed, we'd have no idea of it since our mind is pre-occupied with this lecture.Now, dream. There is a theory that dreaming is like a survival strategy machine where the mind tries out random possibilities and attempts to predict the outcome. We all know nitroglycerine is highly unstable but ever and anon, we may dream of ourselves, or someone else, shaking nitro and ending up in fine pieces. This is how the mind, through simulation, re-affirms that nitro, indeed, is dangerous.Sometimes, the dreaming mind might retrieve from our memory something we are not aware we know, like our hotel lobby, for example. From this stealthily encoded data, our mind could very well conjure us a scenario where we'd be in this lobby when the bomb goes off.Now, let's say you have finally made it to the hotel in question. Entering the lobby, we'd get that strange feeling that we have been here. In reality, we have our suspicion that we have dreamed of this. True enough, we have; what is eerie is the accuracy of that dream owing to a conversation we have unknowingly overheard.Well, that's just my n cents on deja vu concerning places. I'm not so sure how deja vu for experiences works. As a matter of fact, I have no idea how deja vu really works.Then again, it could just be the Matrix reprogramming something.

[Dagoth Nereviar 0]

My view of the "after-life" is slightly odd. Basically, my view is that when you die, you are re-born to your same life, but so you can make it better. And you keep being re-born until you have it how you want it. But, the first time you live your life is what other people see. For example, the first time someone famous (Say Hitler) lived their life, he created the holocaust. This is the life that went down in history. But when he died, he re-lived his life and he might not of created it the second time.Often, your "paths" cross. Say, when you do something you did in one of your previous lifes again. This is what I think Deja Vu is. Something had happened, and you're seeing it happen again. I also feel that in dreams, you can sometimes tell the future, which then ends up being deja vu (I swear it's happened to me )Weird thinking? Yes. Change my view later on? Yes. But? Meh.

[Kioku 0]

I don't see how deja vu could be a tool. It's just an event seeming familiar.

[TeeCee06 0]

Actually deja vu is a movie

[styfer 0]

yes there is a recent movie named deja vu. And what the peps are discussing here is what does the term means..

 

to sidetrack: the movie deja vu is quite nice thou.. althou i see quite a few loopholes in there.. lol

Edited December 23, 2006 by styfer (see edit history)

[salamangkero 0]

Often, your "paths" cross. Say, when you do something you did in one of your previous lifes again. This is what I think Deja Vu is.

This... altered view on reliving one's life is, well, quite interesting. So if it were true, I could very well be on my second or billionth life but most certainly not my first, as evidenced by the mere existence of the deja vu phenomenon I've encountered.

However, there is one grave flaw I have observed in this theory. If, indeed, what goes down in history is a person's first shot at life, then we shouldn't be hearing of anyone encountering deja vu. As a matter of fact, we shouldn't even come to know of such a phenomenon. If deja vu really is the result of a glimpse into an event in a former life, then everyone who had been remembered in history and, also, have encountered deja vu will:

1. Be on his/her first attempt at living a life.
2. Have had a glimpse of a previous life.

Quite contradictory if you ask me. It's very interesting, though. Your ideas had my mental gears a-running.

[quakesand 0]

That happened to me everytime, but now it happens less since I'm growing bigger...I trying to practice it these days but i don't see any better results.I had no idea why that happen

[Dagoth Nereviar 0]

This... altered view on reliving one's life is, well, quite interesting. So if it were true, I could very well be on my second or billionth life but most certainly not my first, as evidenced by the mere existence of the deja vu phenomenon I've encountered.[cut out text to keep short]
Quite contradictory if you ask me. It's very interesting, though. Your ideas had my mental gears a-running.

Damn you and your reasoning Only joking...I knew the theory would be very flawed, but is interesting/weird I'm glad it got you thinking Maybe the deja vu's you get in your first life...are...uhm...pretend ones? *hides* I still believe my idea, but i'm sure I'll end up thinking differently.

Now, dream. There is a theory that dreaming is like a survival strategy machine where the mind tries out random possibilities and attempts to predict the outcome.[cut out text to keep short...again ]
True enough, we have; what is eerie is the accuracy of that dream owing to a conversation we have unknowingly overheard.

All of this post got me thinking, and alot of it is amazing (were you taught that, or did you think it up yourself?) because it's close to what it could possibly be. But it was the dream thing that got me the most (again because it could actually be that)...but it (and a previous post) made me recall when I had a dream when I was younger. I was in my brother's bedroom, with my brother, playing some sort of hand-held console (it actually looked like a toy gun I had). It wasn't until a year or so ago that I realised, it had actually taken place in my brother's current bedroom, which is a converted loft. Back when I had the dream, it was still a normal loft. I also realised that the colour scheme and some of his drawers where similar/the same as to what he has today.

It could be, however, that I couldn't fully remember the dream (I do have very bad memory) and filled in "blanks" of the dream with recent information (I think something like this was also said in a previous post?)

But, I am going slightly off topic here, so I'll shush before I go too far
Edited December 25, 2006 by Dagoth Nereviar (see edit history)

[tonzi 0]

i read somewehere that this regards in our past life. Our life before we exist had been on those places that you actually felt the dejavu ..

[csgaming 0]

hmmmm... It's like teleportation... Well at least i saw it like done by Criss Angel...

[Jimmy 0]

That happened to me everytime, but now it happens less since I'm growing bigger...I trying to practice it these days but i don't see any better results.
I had no idea why that happen

Very true...
I used to get this really ALL the time, but now I'm older I don't experience it; on a significantly less frequent basis... interesting to hear someone else say that!! very interesting.

For example, you could very well be in a classroom listening to the teacher. Your conscious thought is focused on the lecture, effectively overriding other stimuli from leaking into your conscious thoughts. However, it could very well be that you are overhearing talk of something, let's say a hotel lobby. We could very well be unconscious that descriptions of this hotel lobby is secretly being encoded into our memory. Indeed, we'd have no idea of it since our mind is pre-occupied with this lecture.
Now, dream. There is a theory that dreaming is like a survival strategy machine where the mind tries out random possibilities and attempts to predict the outcome. We all know nitroglycerine is highly unstable but ever and anon, we may dream of ourselves, or someone else, shaking nitro and ending up in fine pieces. This is how the mind, through simulation, re-affirms that nitro, indeed, is dangerous.

Sometimes, the dreaming mind might retrieve from our memory something we are not aware we know, like our hotel lobby, for example. From this stealthily encoded data, our mind could very well conjure us a scenario where we'd be in this lobby when the bomb goes off.

Now, let's say you have finally made it to the hotel in question. Entering the lobby, we'd get that strange feeling that we have been here. In reality, we have our suspicion that we have dreamed of this. True enough, we have; what is eerie is the accuracy of that dream owing to a conversation we have unknowingly overheard.

Then again, it could just be the Matrix reprogramming something.

All very accurate ideas. I would go as far as to say I agree 99.9%
i would have given 100%, but I may just be re-thinking this, and so in a few hours i may have decided that I do not agree!
Especially the matrix one. Those films really hit me as I can get the entire idea into my head and it could well be an explanation to everything...!

Interesting topic. I shall follow this one

i read somewehere that this regards in our past life. Our life before we exist had been on those places that you actually felt the dejavu ..

sorry, but I don't agree. For example, if in my previous life I was a bug, how would the situations I feel deja vu in now, such as walking along a part of a street or past a certain person take place, since a bug has a really different perspective, different view of "seeing things" and massively larger sizes of everything - just doesn't seem to be a valid argument... sorry ! Edited January 14, 2007 by Jimmy (see edit history)

[salamangkero 0]

sorry, but I don't agree. For example, if in my previous life I was a bug, how would the situations I feel deja vu in now, such as walking along a part of a street or past a certain person take place, since a bug has a really different perspective, different view of "seeing things" and massively larger sizes of everything - just doesn't seem to be a valid argument... sorry !

Perhaps it is this "skewed" perspective that makes deja vu practically untraceable. You'll think you've never been to a place before but it's vaguely familiar. It could be because you have, indeed, been there, only, not as a human but, say, a parrot or a parakeet. It's like not remembering walking into a room because you flew in. If it were so, it'd be something our human minds might have difficulty grasping, hence, the vagueness

(I'm really to have used your counter-argument to prove what you were trying to disprove. It was nothing personal; 'twas nothing more than a spark of an idea)