While reading it I recalled a particularly gripping conversation with my good friend *Bill some 20 or so years ago. During our conversation we entertained the idea that déjà vu may be the brain committing an event to memory before it registers the visual and auditory perception of the event. Bill was known for reporting aloud the sensation of déjà vu rather routinely and dramatically. In fact it was positively annoying at times since it usually signaled a sudden and meaningless change in the topic of conversation as Bill would need to explore and share as many facets of the experience as he could.
I had an experience of déjà vu a short time earlier during which I was certain I could recall what was about to happen, and when I told Bill about it he insisted he was sure he could do the same thing. "When I have déjà vu" Bill said, "and something happens, I knew it was going to happen." We arranged to get together over coffee to talk more about it. Having a few days to think things over I slowly realized this should be a fairly common experience. If we have a profound feeling of familiarity with an event that is just now occurring, then the same phenomenon should convince us that we knew what would happen next, just a split-second before it really happened.
The night we met up for coffee the restaurant was unusually busy, and we could tell right away that they were short on staff. We were seated quickly enough, and immediately fell into the chosen conversation. At Bill's request I recounted my déjà vu experience once more, but added my thoughts about how this could be a common experience. Bill agreed, but I could sense the skepticism in his voice.
"Bill" I said, "you have déjà vu more often than anyone I know. Do you ever notice it usually happens when your mind is overwhelmed, when you're tired or there is a lot of activity happening around you?" He confirmed this, and we spent the next hour discussing how we might explain the experience.
I don't recall if Bill or I hit upon it first, but we both got excited as we began speculating that memory and perception may be controlled by different parts of the brain and that these two things may be registering at abnormal rates in order to create the sensation of déjà vu.
We were so engrossed in conversation that I hadn't even realized we had been talking for an hour without anyone taking our order. "Hod on" Bill interrupted. "I'm having déjà vu right now, and I need to use the restroom; but first let me ask you something."
"Sure" I said.
"What if someone having déjà vu could remember what comes next long enough before it happened that they could tell someone else? Then it couldn't be just an unsynchronized brain, could it?"
I shook my head.
"Tell the waitress that I want coffee." Bill stood up and turned to walk toward the restrooms. "Refill, purse, pen."
"What?" I asked.
Bill repeated himself as he walked away. "Refill, purse, pen."
I didn't even have time to wonder what Bill meant. As the server approached our table a man called to her for a refill of his coffee. As she turned her head to acknowledge him a woman at the table next to mine twisted in her chair, knocking her purse to the ground. The server tripped over it, landing into my table.
"Are you all right?" I asked.
"Nothing broken" she responded as she righted herself to take my order. Then, holding up an ink stained hand she added "except my pen".
*not his real name
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3 comments:
Great article Jim. I find that Deja Vu happens in spurts for me. And it usually is accompanied by the 'knowing' of what will happen before it does as your example of Bill saying "refill, purse, pen." It's more common when I'm free of stress and especially if I've been involved in meditation or energy healing.
Thanks again for posting this.
D.
Yes, interesting article. I love to hear your opinion about tuvey vu phenomenon.
Response to: The Last Reflex
When I clicked into your post my A/V went crazy, alerting me that one of the scripts running on your blog was trying to load something nasty, so I was unable to stay on the page long. You may want to look into that.
As for tuvey vu, as far as I can tell the concept is simply a precognitive effect with a physio-emotional sensation similar to déjà vu. I have had such experiences, though I cannot say I necessarily believe there is anything magical about them.
I may sound contradictory to some people when the topic of precognition arises. I do not believe in a sixth sense, but I am simultaneously certain that humans, and especially human thought, operate through time in ways we do not yet fully understand. How could we understand it, as we do not yet fully understand time itself.
I believe foreknowledge of events is not only possible, but common. What I am not so sure about is that these are in any way mysterious beyond the fact that we have not yet been able to explain them in any universally acceptable way.
Certainly prognosticators in many fields such as meteorology and the stock market make predictions every day, based on models (basically) of cause and effect. Businessmen make estimates and financial forecasts. Negotiators take action based on predictions of what the involved parties are likely to do.
But what of the psychologist's hunch, the police officer's gut feeling or a mother's intuition? Are these any less reliable because we cannot immediately state the details of the model used? I think we all prognosticate at a level where the reasoning is outside of our conscious awareness. Is this somehow proof of a spiritual or esoteric existence? I think the answer to both questions is "no".
Intriguing evidence leads many open-minded people to believe there is more going on than we already know. Even governments and established institutions of higher learning are continually experimenting with the idea that our thoughts can travel across space and time or that we may sense or affect events before they happen. The US military experimented for many years with remote viewing. Princeton University hosts the Global Consciousness Project and every year the University of Minnesota Parapsychology Foundation awards the $3,000 Eileen J. Garrett Scholarship to a student wishing to pursue the academic study of the science of parapsychology. Clearly there is more to learn.
I have personally had wonderfully detailed precognitive experiences. I do not necessarily attribute these to anything other than my physical senses and the wonders of the human mind. Neither do I rule out the possibility that there is something else at work in these events. Anything may be possible.
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