
What Is Déjà Vu and Why Does it Happen? (2013) - unitedacademics
http://www.ua-magazine.com/dejja-vu-memory-stores-psychology/
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estrabd
I have had a situation where I had what was I thought deja vu, only to realize
that I accurately "knew" what was about to transpire for at least 1 minute
after. I've had regular deja vu before, and this was not it. I was interacting
with another individual, so I don't think I was having a weird seizure or was
mentally detached in any way. It was not a lucid dream either.

~~~
dfsegoat
Heard a similarly strange anecdote from consciousness researcher Anthony Peake
on a podcast recently:

He was was sitting in a cafeteria eating lunch with a female friend who has a
seizure disorder. During the meal, this friend went into a "freeze" (where
they essentially detach from reality, blank stare - catatonic) - and while
frozen she said "What is he doing here?" while looking at the door behind
Peake.

Peake thought this odd, because normally people don't speak while in a freeze
- she came out of the freeze a few seconds later and he was telling her that
she said something --- and not 1 minute later, the female friends' son walked
through the doors, to which she exclaimed "What is he doing here?"

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bostonpete
Calling this guy a "consciousness researcher" seems very generous if this
website is accurate...

[http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Anthony_Peake](http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Anthony_Peake)

~~~
dfsegoat
This is why I described it as an "anecdote"...

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sdegutis
My wife and I constantly have deja vu, like once or twice a month. What's
strange about ours is that it _always_ comes with a vert _intense_ feeling of
impending doom. Every single time. It's been happening to us for years. Being
religious as we are, we have our suspicions that there's something more at
play here, some nefarious invisible cause. Or maybe it's just some wires in
the brain acting up. We don't really know, and it doesn't really matter, since
the only thing to do about it whenever it happens is, well, nothing.

~~~
tsunamifury
This can be a mild anxiety attack which significantly messes with your ability
to remember and correlate events.

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gilrain
"There is Something Deeper to this phenomenon where our notoriously unreliable
memories play a spookier, more immediate trick on us than usual. How do I
know? Well, it happens to me sometimes, and _my_ memory is accurate and
unclouded."

I also have memories of deja vu experiences that would seem to eliminate false
memory as a possible cause. Most of us do, which is why the phenomenon is at
all remarkable and not just called "being mistaken".

It is impossible to know the future.

~~~
DougN7
> It is impossible to know the future.

Right up until it isn't. We're surrounded by things that were impossible, but
aren't any more.

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gilrain
Congratulations on your upcoming lottery wins!

~~~
DougN7
Not possible yet, but I'm looking forward to it some day :) In the meantime,
I'm still saving for retirement...

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garbage_stain
I feel like I've read this article before.

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Cozumel
If there are parallel universes and some of them are slightly ahead of us in
time, if something happens in one of those of sufficient emotional intensity
it could get 'broadcast' to the other universes, so it _has_ already happened
just in another universe.

That's just some random very unscientific thoughts!

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georgehaake
I have wondered if Deja Vu is dream related. A crossing of the experiential
pools if you will.

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jedberg
What an odd coincidence that I just experienced Deja Vu this morning. I was a
having a conversation with my wife, and about two sentences in I was able to
predict the next three, because this exact conversation had happened to us in
one of me dreams month ago.

I was a mundane conversation about her preparing to go out with our child. But
it isn't something that would be "normal" because she was meeting with a very
specific friend, which was part of my recall of the event.

~~~
sdegutis
But how certain are you that you were able to predict the next three? Did you
stop her from saying them and write it down, and let her continue (without
letting her see what you wrote down or watching you write it down)? If not,
then you may just have been listening along with her and misinterpreted your
own thoughts as having "knew ahead of time" what she was going to say, when
all you were actually doing is simply _comprehending_ it. It's a very real
possibility unless completely ruled out like this.

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groundhogday1
Maybe i'm grossly oversimplifying this, but wouldn't it be easy to have
participants in a study wear an EEG cap (maybe some work needed to put it in a
fashionable form) and keep a X-second sliding window of data? They could then
use a smartwatch or something similar to notify the system "hey! i just
experienced deja vu!" The EEG data could then be passed back to neurologists
so that markers might be identified.

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lawpoop
EEG doesn't really show that much about what's going on inside the brain. You
are going to want an fMRI for that.

Someone once compared an EEG to holding a stethoscope up to the outside wall
of a factory, to get an indication of level of activity. It doesn't tell you
much other than this person is awake, asleep, having a seizure, etc.

~~~
groundhogday1
I don't know much about this type of technology, but I'm assuming that in it's
current state, fMRI machines can't be compacted to the point where it is
comfortable to wear on a daily basis.

I know that in their current state, MRI machines are huge and cost exorbitant
amounts of money. Is there any other emerging tech that might allow users to
go about their daily lives while capturing brain activity at a resolution
that's useful to neuro-scientists?

~~~
lawpoop
Presently no, unfortunately :( If we did that would be a huge breakthrough,
for more than just deja-vu research ;)

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lalunia
This ought to be periodically re-posted!

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0xdeadbeefbabe
I thought it already had been.

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b3h3moth
I have to say. "déjà vu" is a great compression technology for digital
documents. I love it.

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gkya
Is there any data on in what contexts and situations does dejavu occur more
often?

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sanatgersappa
It happens when they're resetting the Matrix.

~~~
ronilan
Naaa.

Everyone knows the movie is a veil that has been pulled over your eyes to
blind you from the truth.

Déjà Vu is in fact a side effect of being flashed by MiB.

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tombert
Just to avoid possible shitposting, you might want to put a (2013) in the
title.

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teh_klev
"shitposting"...really?

Asking for (2013) on the end of the title would have been sufficient.

~~~
tombert
I was relatively certain that the term "shitposting" was more or less the
official term for posting BS comments on the internet. I apologize if I
offended your sensibilities, as that wasn't my intention.

~~~
teh_klev
It's not about offence, I like to think HN can live without that kind of low
brow smacktalk.

~~~
tombert
First off, it's not "smacktalk", because I wasn't insulting anyone. I was
warning the person who posted the article that smacktalk, or "shitposting" as
I referred to it, might happen if you don't put a "(2013)" at the end.

Second off, I apologized for offending you, and despite you denying it, it
clearly was offensive to you since you called it "low brow".

But I've learned my lesson; I'm getting enough downvotes now, I'm glad that
the community has decided that certain words aren't allowed.

~~~
teh_klev
> it clearly was offensive to you since you called it "low brow".

Everyone these days is so quick to accuse others of being offended, it's very
tiresome.

Just because someone points out that a phrase like "shitpost" isn't really
language cromulent with the general discourse on HN doesn't mean they're
offended, it's pointing out a quality standards issue.

And anyway, at half a century old I don't waste time and energy getting
"offended", pass the gin.

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tombert
Ok, I appreciate the use of the word "cromulent", being a fan of the classic
Simpsons. I am no longer mad at you; you've embiggened my heart.

~~~
teh_klev
Yay :)

