Deja vu and Dreams


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By Jim aka PajamaBoy on Thursday, June 18, 1998 - 11:57 am:
    Does the feeling of deja vu get classified/lumped in with dreams? I have had feelings of deja vu since being a small child. It's very odd when it happens.

    My first such experience was when I was probably 8 or 9 years old. I was with family friends on a vacation to the Mountains of West By God Virginia. As we were out walking one day in a place I had NEVER been before, I suddenly had the urge to have to relieve myself. And without asking managed to find my way to the nearest facility. As I was walking to it I vividly saw the path to the restroom in my head.


By Antigone on Thursday, June 18, 1998 - 02:20 pm:
    I had an experience like this, not too long ago.

    I had a dream about a school building. I was trying to get in, but I couldn't. So, I climbed up to the roof and got in that way. The dream was pretty vivid, and I remembered the details of how I got in, what the building looked like, etc.

    Three weeks later I took a trip to California, the bay area. I visited Berkeley because I was (still am) interested in applying for a PhD in CS and I'd never seen the campus before. The engineering building looked remarkably like the building from my dream. Uncanny. I walked around in a serious deja vu trip.

By Cobalt on Monday, July 27, 1998 - 10:43 pm:
    I think vivid dreamers have this more often than others, because we dream the details and then recognize the details...

    I've had a few. Places I drive by in other states (Vermont) on vacation, schools (New York, Mass) that I've never been to until I go to get paid to judge debates, little-used tunnels in my own school that I'd find the next day.

    It's freaky. To be walking down stairs in some foreign school and suddenly know exactly where you are because the ceiling is sloping a specific way and is colored in the terrible 1960s orange and blue scheme you thought only unrefrigerated soy milk could cause in dreams...


By NZAngel on Tuesday, February 23, 1999 - 06:58 pm:

    I have had many dreams that have later come true. I now trust that any dream I have, particularly if it is vivid and detailed, could be a scene from my future life. Before I made the connection, I used to get deja vu very strongly in places I had never physically been to, but I am trying to train myself to write down vivid dreams so I have some reference to them later.

    The point at which I made the connection between deja vu and my dreams as about 10 years ago, when we were visiting the USA. My brother and I were sitting in a room with a large window, through which a mountain could be seen. We were talking to a native american man with long braids about what kind of pizza we wanted for tea. I kid you not, this exact scene was repeated from a dream I had about three years previously, and I remembered waking up and thinking "wow, what a weird dream".

    My latest dream was on Friday night. I was in a house we had just bought, having moved from our current house because it was too small. I was really happy about the house, and pictured the rooms so clearly that when I woke up I was able to draw a floor plan out of the rooms I had seen. I think if it is going to come true, it will not be for at least a couple of years, as the context suggests we had started a family and that was why we needed the space.


By Vue on Wednesday, May 3, 2000 - 05:25 am:

    A few years ago I had these recurring dreams where I was in this blue building which looked like a convention center of some kind. In those dreams it was a boating club of some kind and it was built on this weird place that came out of the water. I remembered the building very vividly, down to the luncheon tables and geranium plants in the corner. Then about a year afterwards I was taking the bus by the river, and noticed they were developing the area around it. A few months after, there was a new marina built on this kind of, small peninsula out onto the water and it was the exact same building in my dreams. I didn't go inside until about a year after that, when a family friend was hosting some function there and invited us to go. And though it was a little bigger than what I'd seen in my dreams, it was basically almost all the same inside.

    Maybe I'd heard something about ppl negotiating to develop the area and my mind just filled in the blanks? Only reason I can think of to explain it.


By Spider on Wednesday, October 9, 2002 - 12:38 pm:

    What about the phenomenon in which you "remember" something in your dream that you've really never seen or done before? A false deja vu within the dream.

    You might have a dream in which you are in an unknown city, and you "remember" that around a particular corner is a certain landmark, even though you've never dreamt about the landmark before.

    Or you might "remember" that the last time you were in that city you did something in particular, but really, you have never dreamt about that city before.

    Is this a common dream experience? Maybe the area in the brain responsible for memory is activated in dream-states, so you have the sensation of remembering without the memory?

    I had a dream last night in which I was sailing in a boat on a lake, and in the dream I "knew" that this lake had a reputation for the terrible storms that would develop over it. But I had never dreamt about the lake before, and no one in the dream mentioned the reputation.


    That also makes me think of the phenomenon of recurring themes. Since I was a child I have had nightmares about losing my teeth. The dreams are all different, but the theme is the same. Another theme is having to hide from someone who's chasing me.

    My roommate used to have recurring dreams about tidal waves. Now *I'm* having dreams about big waves and storms at sea, which I've never dreamt about before. It's interesting.


By patrick on Wednesday, October 9, 2002 - 01:09 pm:

    i have a little dream interpretation book we keep by the pot. its by a guy named klaus.

    as i recall, dreams of tidal waves are indicative of unrequited lust, overflowing sexual energy. Actually, im not positive on that but I seem to have a 'memory' of reading such. hrmmmmm i'll check tonight.




    seriously though...


    is the fact that you *remember* in a dream any more significant than the the notion that you are somewhere you arent? Im not sure. If my brain has the ability to fool itself, disturb me physically (peeing on yourself, sleepwalking-talking etc) it seems creating a 'memory' is par for the course no?

    I don't think your experience is unusual at all. I have dreams where Im predispositioned with certain 'facts' about who Im with or where i am. Notions that seem utterly baseless in reality but certain in that world.

    Now if only we could find a way to record our dreams bedside for review.....mine are almost always forgotten by *looks at clock* now.


By dave. on Wednesday, October 9, 2002 - 01:11 pm:

    i must be dead or something. when i go to sleep, it's over until morning.


By Spider on Wednesday, October 9, 2002 - 01:22 pm:

    I don't think my brain needs to resort to symbolism if it wants to express "unrequited lust" -- I have explicit dreams often enough. I think it's interesting that you don't remember your dreams better. Though I recently read that being able to remember most of your dreams is a sign you sleep poorly, and I know how restlessly I sleep. You must just sleep better.

    I'm interested in memory in dreams because it seems to be a neglected topic. You could make the argument that *everything* in a dream is a memory -- you can dream about eating a steak, and actually taste the steak in the dream, because you are remembering the taste...etc. But to actually dream *about* remembering...that's something more.


By patrick on Wednesday, October 9, 2002 - 01:29 pm:

    you and nico.

    she doesnt sleep for shit these days because she worries way too much and carries undue burden on her shoulders. Im actually at a loss as to how to help her. But too often when i kiss her goodbye in the morning she complains about being up all night.

    About the lake spider....what is more significant about remembering a fact about said lake anymore than the lake itself? The lake was a figment, so was the memory?

    Im trying to understand your fascination here. Hopefully Im not being dense.


By Spider on Wednesday, October 9, 2002 - 01:30 pm:

    Dave, do you never wake up during the night? I wake at least twice a night, that I can remember.

    When I was on a particular medication in college, I would sleep like a log -- nine hours straight, no waking, no dreams. I didn't like it.


By Spider on Wednesday, October 9, 2002 - 01:33 pm:

    My fascination is with the sensation. Why do I feel like I'm remembering something if I'm seeing it for the first time?

    Whenever I dream about losing my teeth, I never remember that I've dreamt about teeth before, or that it's just a dream, or whatever. In the dream, it's like I'm experiencing it for the first time. In the same dream, though, I might come across a door, and I "remember" that the last time I opened the door I saw XYZ, though I've never actually seen the door before.


By Spider on Wednesday, October 9, 2002 - 01:35 pm:

    PS. Isn't this what deja vu is, after all? The sensation that you've done something before, when you haven't?


By patrick on Wednesday, October 9, 2002 - 01:40 pm:

    But is deja vu relavent outside dreamworld? Deja vu applies rule to conventional waking-world recollections. All the rules are off in dreamworld.

    Let me ask you this....do you remember all of your dreams? Is it possible the 'memory' could be from dreams not remembered but you had regardless? Impossible to answer i know.


By Spider on Wednesday, October 9, 2002 - 01:50 pm:

    I don't necessarily remember everything I dreamt last month, but when I write dreams down and then re-read what I wrote months later, I remember what everything looked like. Certain dreams I do remember for years later. I remember certain nightmares I had when I was 5, for example.

    I don't think all rules are off in the dreamworld....it's your same brain regardless of what state you're in. On the contrary, if we could prove that the deja vu sensation comes from the memory region in the brain getting indirectly activated, maybe we could theorize that that is what's going on when you feel deja vu while awake. You can't predict when you'll feel it while awake, but you can make someone like me sleep in a sleep lab for a month and wait for a dream.


By dave. on Wednesday, October 9, 2002 - 04:00 pm:

    i drink a couple gallons of water a day, especially in the evening, so i get up a couple times a night. but i don't really need too much sleep. 6 hours is good. i wake up often but fall right back asleep. i don't lay awake in bed trying to sleep.


By Nate on Wednesday, October 9, 2002 - 05:05 pm:

    i went to the deja vu in san francisco. naked ladies galore.


By semillama on Wednesday, October 9, 2002 - 09:26 pm:

    My friend got kicked out of the Deja Vu in
    Ypsilanti. He grabbed the waitress' bottom,
    got escorted out theback, and wne t around
    front, paid teh cover, and came to ask if we
    were coming, except he got hustled out again
    so fast we couldn't answer, so we stayed for
    the next dance.


By Daniel11 on Wednesday, April 14, 2004 - 04:18 am:

    Ever sence I was like 10 ive had alot of dejavus. Soimetimes like 3 a day and never a whole week with out 1 so what does that mean, do u think?


By Mary on Wednesday, July 7, 2004 - 06:57 pm:

    I have these dejavu dreams all the time, I'd like to think it's a gift, but I wanna find answers as to what this is. One time I had a dream about my boyfriend and I getting out of a cab, and a group of thungs came to us asking for money but my boyfriend tried to refuse kindly. The thug didn't take it well, so he punched my boyfriend in the face and caught my boyfriend off guard. Then the thug came to me and punched me in the stomach. The next day, in the real world, my boyfriend called me asking me to go to this gym with him where he wanted to take boxing lessons. He decided to pick me up in a cab. Later in the afternoon I remembered the dream and told him. He thought it was weird.

    I get dreams all the time that connects with what happens the next day. It could be a dream about my kitchen light turning off and my landlord doing some work in my apartment then the next day my kitchen light was off because my landlord did something with the fuse box. Another recent dream was about this cheap ring that supposedly my boyfriend gave me, and the next day in real world I go shopping with my friend and she finds a ring by my feet. It was fake and she decided to keep it.

    Gosh, what could all this mean? My sister tells me all the time, maybe some day you'll dream about something big and important. I get offended because I don't think this happens to everyone. Can someone tell me how common these connections are?


By Antigone on Thursday, July 8, 2004 - 02:37 pm:

    The arrow of time is an illusion brought on by our conscious mind's use of entropy in processing / encoding of sense data.

    Check out blindsight.


By CLB426 on Friday, August 6, 2004 - 01:22 am:

    I have had deja vu dreams since elementary school. One of my first dreams I remembered was about volleyball in gym class. I remembered a classmate's yellow sweatsuit outfit, the volleyball, and the lighting. Since then, the dreams have come and gone. They all seem to involve color and people. Many times I will dream of people I haven't met yet, and my relationship with them. It won't make sense at the time of the dream. Later on, I will remember the dream when I actually meet them, and the colors and feelings will be the same. I never seem to dream about life revealing situations. They seem to be random, which is disappointing. Maybe they aren't, but for right now they seem to be.


By Antigone on Friday, August 6, 2004 - 05:42 am:

    Had another one, or at least the deja vu part, just recently. I went to a dinner party with my girlfriend. (her old friends, most of which I hadn't met) About two years ago (or thereabouts) I dreamed of the beginning of the evening, when we were all sitting around a coffee table eating appetizers.

    I'd completely forgotten the dream, but I remembered it then. It's like the way I remember previous dreams while dreaming of the same "place" again, except this time it happened in real life. It wasn't quite as striking as the incident I posted about above, and the feeling was only fleeting, but it was definately of the same flavor.


By semillama on Friday, August 6, 2004 - 10:10 am:

    I had a dream like that in high school. it was similar to Antigone, in that I dreamed about sitting around with a group of people. one or two years later, i was doing just that and realized I had dreamed about that exact group of folks.


    Sort of makes you wonder about the other dreams, though. Perhaps I WILL become friends with Joan Jett.


By Gee on Friday, August 6, 2004 - 01:28 pm:

    deja vu always makes me think that we're just living our lives over and over, and some part of us remembers it. maybe we have to keep doing it until we're satisfied that we've lived our lives to the fullest, and there are no regrets, and all the deja vu moments are like potential turning points in our lives.


By dave. on Friday, August 6, 2004 - 02:27 pm:

    that's crazytalk.


By Nate on Saturday, August 7, 2004 - 12:48 pm:

    deja vu always makes me think that there is no way to tell the difference between having an event occur a year ago and remembering it and having an event occur and having the feeling of remembering it also occurring a year ago.

    except for deja vu: centerfolds, which makes me think how funny it is that I can walk three blocks from work and have some 18 yr old rub her dirtbox in my grill.


By Barbara on Monday, August 9, 2004 - 08:48 pm:

    I would dream about someone or something and it would happen two or three years later. Why does this happens? Is it a spiritual gift? I've read some of the stories and they are similar to what I have been experiencing. Now I know I'm not alone. Everyone doesn't experience this and you can't talk to anyone about this because they would think you are crazy. I know things happen for a reason and it cannot be scientifically explained.


By Nate on Monday, August 9, 2004 - 10:27 pm:

    lis ten up barbara m. poosay.

    don't be afraid to call the shit poo.


By wisper on Tuesday, August 10, 2004 - 04:18 pm:

    how can these things possibly have a reason?
    Sometimes i see things as a memory, but years before they happen. The first time i remember it was me sitting at a strange desk reading a very specific website. The second time it was me tearing down some old cupboards.
    Years later... they both happened!!!
    OMG this information could change the world!!!
    nope. It's useless.


By Gee on Wednesday, August 11, 2004 - 10:21 am:

    maybe it could change Your world.


By Bob the builder on Tuesday, November 9, 2004 - 11:16 pm:

    I was playing texas hold 'em at school with some of my friends (if you don't know you are dealt two cards from a regular 52 card deck), and before the dealer even touched the deck, I suddenly 'realized' I was going to get the 10 of diamonds and 3 of hearts, then after all the cards were dealt, I looked at the ones I got and sure enought they were the ones I predicted!

    Ever since I can remember I've had deja vu's in which I knew the future for 5 - 10 seconds, but this is quite new, just knowing the future! I was wondering if anyone could help me out on what might be going on?


By Antigone on Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - 12:15 am:

    Relax and let go or you'll go insane.


By Antigone on Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - 12:19 am:

    Stare at this until you stop thinking.


By Nate on Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - 12:42 am:

    tiggy, do you know the sports by brooks folks or something?


By Antigone on Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - 01:20 am:

    No, but I dig the women. Dunno why it is. It's not like there's a dearth of pictures of hot chicks on the internets.

    Anyway, I go to fark.com a lot and there's an ad link right off the front page.


By moonit on Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - 01:30 am:

    fake boobies just don't do it for me.


By dave. on Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - 01:36 am:

    me either. tiggy likes the playmate look.


By Antigone on Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - 02:06 am:

    The funny thing is, in real life I'm not attracted to women who look like that. They're just pretty pictures.

    Feh. Playmate look? These are two of my favorite pics. Issat playmate? Huh?


By kazu on Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - 02:28 am:

    that first one is pretty good looking.
    are you serious about the second picture?
    blue eyeliner and hot pink lipstick?
    and three inch roots?

    ew


By Antigone on Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - 03:11 am:

    The second pic is more about the bone structure of her face. I more or less ignore makeup on women. But I don't find her look in that pic particularly garish. Maybe it's because, here in Texas, I regularly see much worse. :)


By Czarina on Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - 10:56 am:

    This deja vu-----------------------it smacks of the devils handwork, I tell you!

    Why, I can feel his horney tail poking me in the eye, and his little cloven hooves, dancing a jig on my tooter.


By eri on Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - 11:52 am:

    Czarina, I had forgotten your wonderful gift of painting the most hillarious mental images. You keep me in stitches.

    And look on the bright side, it's better to have a devil dancing on your tooter, then your hooters (cuz that can just be painful).

    BTW, isn't deja vu when you have something happen in life that has happened before? You feel something that you felt before? So would it be deja vu if you had a weird assed dream and then assumed it would come true? I mean, it was within a dream, not reality, so does it even qualify as deja vu or is it just someone in need of some mood altering substances?


By Antigone on Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - 12:43 pm:

    No, that's jamis vu.


By Gee on Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - 05:14 pm:

    deja vu is just a glitch in the system.


By Antigone on Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - 05:33 pm:

    No, that....................CARRIER LOST....................


By Antigone on Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - 05:46 pm:

    And, speaking of deja vu, I'm getting the feeling I always do at the beginning of relationships: I'm attracted to every woman on the planet. Kind of maddening, since it's a feeling I'd never act on. (Dating more than one woman is just not in my nature.) I'm enjoying it anyway, though. :)

    m'kay, on the subject of pics of women on the internet I find most hot: linky

    There's not a pic on the internet of the woman I'm seeing now, otherwise I'd post it. :)


By dave. on Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - 07:52 pm:


By Spider on Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - 08:05 pm:

    Antigone, I feel that way when I'm in a certain phase of the hormonal cycle (attracted to every man, though). It's kind of fun and kind of distressing at the same time, though in my defense, a lot of these high school boys look a lot older than their age.


By Antigone on Wednesday, November 10, 2004 - 09:34 pm:

    Dunno, what's the age of consent on an indian reservation? :P


By Gee on Thursday, November 11, 2004 - 10:55 am:

    that lion girl looks like my friend, Shannon.


    I am not attracted to anyone. haven't been for quite some time. I think this one fellow at work is really cute, but that's kind of like thinking a puppy is cute. I haven't felt any phsyical pull to anyone in a long white.


By TBone on Thursday, November 11, 2004 - 12:21 pm:

    This one looks a lot like a friend through college who was incredibly short, fun, smart, and interesting, and who dated this giant cowboy hat wearing, shit kicking, annoying, boring, stupid guy... She eventually cut communication with all of us because we couldn't stand him, moved to Las Vegas, and got married.


By kazu on Thursday, November 11, 2004 - 12:29 pm:

    Yesterday I went to see a presentation and then to dinner at my advisor's house to meet and chat with the speaker. I wore nice slacks and a sweater and since I had time I blew my hair dry and straight which I haven't really done all semester; I usually pull it back. People (strangers) looked at me totally differently. It was strange.


By semillama on Thursday, November 11, 2004 - 02:07 pm:

    Have you seen the inevitable "notsorry" reaction website? Bunch of right wing assholes posing with their guns. Pathetic.


By Spider on Thursday, November 11, 2004 - 03:35 pm:

    Just for the record, I voted for the legalisation of marijuana and against the state constitutional amendment codifying marriage as only between man and woman, in my attempt to inject some healthy liberalism into my new state.

    There's a man at my school, the middle school counselor....I sigh over him. He's got a great last name. I have his son in my fourth grade class, and his son is cool. And he's got a daughter named Malia (accent on 2nd syllable), which is also cool, and she wears big poofy fairy-princess dresses to church, which is great. His wife is in my beading class, and she's funny, so yeah, this guy just rocks all around. Such good taste. And he's so handsome. Sigh.


By Nate on Thursday, November 11, 2004 - 04:51 pm:

    "You all need to understand that politics of hatred, class warfare, doom and gloom, and h0peless pessimism - will not carry the day"
    (notsorryeverybody.com)

    there is the right wing monopoly on hope and optimism again. what the fuck.

    what the FUCK.

    and that fucking map. 2% difference between kerry and bush. what a mandate.


By Antigone on Thursday, November 11, 2004 - 05:04 pm:

    Apparently they haven't seen the purple map.

    See, it's times like these when people's true character comes out. It's not very Christlike to gloat and rub salt in people's wounds, now is it?


By semillama on Thursday, November 11, 2004 - 05:06 pm:

    lots of really fugly folks there too.

    I think I will stick with the cute liberals, thanks.


By Nate on Thursday, November 11, 2004 - 05:48 pm:

    i don't see anyone in the gallery.


By Gee on Thursday, November 11, 2004 - 05:55 pm:

    be fair. if you're allowed to be sore losers, they're allowed to be sore winners. even if the stakes Are high.


By Antigone on Thursday, November 11, 2004 - 06:56 pm:

    Not according to Jesus.


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