Strange Feeling: A Philosophical Mystery

[Leaping antalope]

Hey, do you guys sometimes experience a strange feeling--at one moment you realized that something similar, or even identical (such as the same scene, the same dialogue...) has happened before, either in your dreams or happened many many years ago when u are young , but your memory just can't tell you where and when exactly this has happened?
For example, last week, I was walking with my friends on campus, and our dialogue just reminded me that I have talk about similar topic before, not with this friend, but with another at a different place. But this feeling was so strange that I couldn't remember when and where did it happen before.
This experience was so strange...I was wondering will this have something to do with philosophy. Do anyone knows why this phenomenon happens?

 

[tumor]

Deja vu, happenes to me more and more often.I don't know, but I also suffer from epileptic seizures from time to time maybe that has something to do with it.
Holy cow! or maybe because I eat Mad cow.

 

[pace]

I've gotten stronger Deja Vu feelings. But they were really special. I've only talked about this with my aunt and she's a phyciatrist, but she didn't know what it was.

Deja Vu is just a feeling that you've experienced it before. But this feeling isn't just a feeling, and it's specific. First of, I nearly faint when I get the feeling, I don't know if I would call it painful, if so in a strange way. Secondly, the deja vu feeling isn't just a feeling, I seriously get pictures in my head, pictures that I somehow have seen a million times before, but seconds before and after I get this sensasion, all those images disappear again. It's as if I reach physically into this special place in my brain, and then I can't reach it again. One time when I tried to remember it afterwards, I wrote it down, and it seems as if it could be linked to my dreams.
Lastly, the first times I got the sensasions I got them by accidents when I got into a strange situation and tried to remember something. But the last time I had it I specificly tried to remember harder when I had the pre-deja vu feeling, and so I half-deliberately made it by freewill.
But the situation is so uncomfortable for me I try not to get it again, at least not yet..
Edit: oh, from reading wikipedia at dejua vu, it directed me to Epilepsy, and it seems as if it could be a mild version of Epilepsy, a partial seizure: "This type of seizure may also produce particular thoughts or internal visual images or even experiences which may be distinct but not easily described."
Now I'm most definetaly are not going to dwell too much into that at least not before I know what it is
:( On the other hand, a lot of great intelectual persons had Epilepsy hehe

 

[PIT2]

I have had things like that:

-i wake up and during the day i remember i had a dream that night, but I am not sure whether it really happened or was a dream. I remember one case where i wasnt sure whether i had a conversation with this person, because it happened in a dream, but i wasnt sure. I asked the person and discovered that we didnt have the conversation. Actually i don't remember her answer, but now that i think of it, she wasnt sure if we had the conversation either. Oh well i don't really remember it.


Also i have had lots of short deja vues(the above one never stopped), i used to not pay attention to them but now i enjoy them!

 

[pace]

Things that happens between your brain and body is facinating. Eg I discovered during my teen years that I could wake myself up if I decided to before I went to sleep. And that it had an accuracy of under 1 minute. I wonder what other things we're going to find out we can alter with our brains we don't know now...

 

[Leaping antalope]

There is another strange phenomenon. Some people know they are dreaming when they are dreaming. But not me! I never tell myself in a dream that I am dreaming...sounds complicated...
To make it easier, I will share my own experiences...
I often have dreams about falling down from a high building or a mountain valley. The falls are usually long and painful, I always thought that this would be the end of my life. And after a few seconds of falling, I woke up and reallized that this was only a dream...
But I never tell myself (during the fall) that "this is only a dream, i will not die, this is not real...". When something really bad happens to me in a dream, I NEVER KNOW IT IS A DREAM. I asked my friends about this, and some of them told me that sometimes they knew they are dreaming in their dreams...
It seems like some brains can be decieved easily by dreams and some cannot...

 

[pete66]

Yup, you guys are crazy. I just dream normally and think normally... well, except for:

1) Shaking/convulsing if I fall asleep when I'm too tired, sometimes the sudden twitches even wake me up again.

2) Occasionally (10-20 times a year) I dream of knowing that I'm asleep, unable to breath and unable to wake up... leads me to conclusion that I'm just about to die if I don't wake up, so I battle my way into conciousness (it's really hard).

3) Listening to TV, radio or people talking while asleep can be weird, in my dreams I'm aware that the TV or radio is on and the words that I'm hearing seem to fluently create a dream or the dream seems to anticipate the words.

4) My deja vuey feelings seem to come from a smell or a taste as much as from anything else. I'll smell something that will remind me of something that happened (or got imagined?) that I can't quite recall.

Haha, brains are weird.

 

[Rader]

Things that happens between your brain and body is facinating. Eg I discovered during my teen years that I could wake myself up if I decided to before I went to sleep. And that it had an accuracy of under 1 minute. I wonder what other things we're going to find out we can alter with our brains we don't know now...

Gee, I thought I was the only one who could do that. Do you have any idea how this can happen? My wife always says, do not set the alarm clock, I want to sleep a little longer. I set it anyway and tell her do not worry I will wake the clock up at the time I set it.

 

[Preator Fenix]

I have very strong deja vue.

I wish to know the origin of said imperrsion. I am rational and I am sure it is organic in nature, but I would like a more complete explination.

 

[PIT2]

I have that alarmclock thing too! I used to have to wake up every day at 4.30am and the alarmclock makes such a loud noise that it would wake the whole houseblock up(like a caralarm!). So i noticed that every day i would wake up 1 of 2 minutes before it went off! (The first weeks however my fear for the noise was so big i would wake up many times every night, mostly many hours before the alarm would start.)

I think when people are aware they are dreaming, its called 'lucid-dreaming'. I've read some stuff about it and it supposedly can be amazing fun!
I think i have only ever experienced a lucid dream once last year(although it was not as amazingly shocking as i had read). What happened was i could do anything in the dream. I remember i was with a person outside and i could fly, but he couldn't and he was amazed by me being superman. And i tried to show him how to do it, but he couldnt. I remember being sort of aware it was a dream.


Oyeah and I've woken up screaming 1 or 2 times and i didnt like that because its noisy.

A thing that has happened to me several times in the last year, is waking up being scared of a spider or many spiders in my room. I jump out of my bed and turn the lights on and for like 30 seconds i still look for the spiders, where did they go, etc. Then i slowly realize there's nothing there.
I saw the same sort of thing on tv one time and the guy who had it, said it was caused by sitting behind his playstation too long at night. So i guess i stay up too late on my computer.

 

[relativelyslow]

i think, though not positive, that i read in a book that deja vu could be a kind of glitch in the formation of memories. the specifics of it i do not know, however, i do get deja vu from time to time and its incredibly odd. i would imagine it would nearly impossible to study it because it occurs so randomly. a study would be interesting, though

 

[tumor]

Edit: oh, from reading wikipedia at dejua vu, it directed me to Epilepsy, and it seems as if it could be a mild version of Epilepsy, a partial seizure: "This type of seizure may also produce particular thoughts or internal visual images or even experiences which may be distinct but not easily described."
Now I'm most definetaly are not going to dwell too much into that at least not before I know what it is
:( On the other hand, a lot of great intelectual persons had Epilepsy hehe

When I was about to have seizure I was seeing some strange shapes,surreal things for couple of minutes and then I blacked out.
Go to neurolog and let him check you,you never know.

 

[Leaping antalope]

Things that happens between your brain and body is facinating. Eg I discovered during my teen years that I could wake myself up if I decided to before I went to sleep. And that it had an accuracy of under 1 minute. I wonder what other things we're going to find out we can alter with our brains we don't know now...

Another strange thing that happens between our brains and bodies is the moment when we wake up...I have been wondering that do we open our eyes immediately when our brains are awake? or do our brains start processing (thinking) for a short while (say, one or two minutes) before we finally open our eyes? Of course, this wake up has to be a natural wake up, that is, you wake up by your own, not because of your alarm clock or your mother's screaming or the passing truck outside your house. I have tried to do experiment on my own, but I didn't get the answer. I always realize that I have forgotten to do the experiment after I have already woken up. So, anyone has any idea about this strange thing happens between our brains and bodies?

 

[jimmy p]

I get deja vu about once a day, so I must have a very familiar life! It depends a lot on the significance of things that occur for me. It will be very strong if something important happens, like meeting someone new , but when it is just something like walking somewhere, I will get the feeling but it doesn't bowl me over.

 

[indoubt]

i have experienced such things too. sometimes i feel like the things i am doing, talking and even the events i am in have happened before. this is a mysterious to me and funny...

 

[pace]

Rader, I guess it was something we often did before we got alarm clocks.. but I've heard someone are better at it than others.. The most fascinating body-mind things gotto be the ones that's actually helping your daily life..

When I was about to have seizure I was seeing some strange shapes,surreal things for couple of minutes and then I blacked out.
Go to neurolog and let him check you,you never know.

Yeah, thanks, I think I'll do that.
I haven't had the 'problems' for a long time though. And according to wikipedia(not the most surest of sources of course) the most common ages of onset for epilepsy attacks is for those under 18, or over 65 years old. So I'm not panicking. It still was a bit fascinating, because I managed to do it partly because of free will. Epilepsy isn't that, is it?

Leaping antalope, again according to wikipedia deja vu has" been subjected in recent years to serious psychological and neurophysiological research."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deja_vu
Wikipedia is a wonderful thing :)
Also, my brother and sister has managed to wake up before their body woke up, so that they couldn't move their body! First time this happened they were really afraid of course...

Knowing that you're dreaming is fun. One time I found out, and I was screaming: HEY! THIS IS JUST A DREAM! YOU'RE ALL JUST IN MY DREAM!
They all looked strange at me of course. But I forgot to make any fun of it. D'oh!
Lately I've also managed it but I end up doing boring stuff grrr. Then flying is much funnier.
If you see Waking Life(A really cool movie that's actually about philosophy), it's an advice there to help you understand that you're dreaming: You regularly turn on your house lights. Then it usually should be light, but if it isn't, you are dreaming! (Haven't tried it myself, so I don't know how well that method works)

 

[tumor]

Yeah, thanks, I think I'll do that.
I haven't had the 'problems' for a long time though. And according to wikipedia(not the most surest of sources of course) the most common ages of onset for epilepsy attacks is for those under 18, or over 65 years old. So I'm not panicking. It still was a bit fascinating, because I managed to do it partly because of free will. Epilepsy isn't that, is it?

Don't worry PACE, some of the most brilliant people in the world had epilepsy(not that I'm one )
Just remember one thing; don't ride bicycles or drive cars and you should be relatively fine (pills work great)

 

[itachigaraa]

Hi..just want to seek advice for my experience.
I have been having dreams every single night for the past two years.
and i have at least 3 dreams per night. Anyone have same experience?

 

[tumor]

What kind of dreams?pleasant ones or nightmares?

 

[Leaping antalope]

I also have dreams very frequently, but not everyday. Because we often forget our dreams very fast, I had a habbit to record my dreams right after I woke up. And after several weeks, I found some interesting trends in them...

Some of my dreams are realistic, that is, I dreamed of something related to my real life (school life, family, friends...etc). Sometimes we can analyze some simple dreams by ourselves. (If I dislike my English teacher, I would not have a pleasant dream about him...). A special kind of these dreams is that one single dream can combine several different things in my real life, each reflecting different feelings toward different issues.
Some dreams are just very crazy, I think these dreams reflect people's very deep feelings that maybe they do not even recognize.

Recording dreams is a very interesting thing to do. You people can try this if you are interested in dreams...and u will find something special by doing this...

 

[BoulderHead]

Hey, do you guys sometimes experience a strange feeling--at one moment you realized that something similar, or even identical (such as the same scene, the same dialogue...) has happened before, either in your dreams or happened many many years ago when u are young , but your memory just can't tell you where and when exactly this has happened?

Déjà vu, diminished short term memory and false memory plague me. The first item I can live with but the last two are crippling in a most frustrating way. I hope things go better for you.

 

[tribdog]

Hey, do you guys sometimes experience a strange feeling--at one moment you realized that something similar, or even identical (such as the same scene, the same dialogue...) has happened before, either in your dreams or happened many many years ago when u are young , but your memory just can't tell you where and when exactly this has happened?

 

[BoulderHead]

I can't remember at the moment.

 

[agentwilbur]

Past life

i have these feelings too sometime. they are strange weird feelings.. its like u say to your self has this happened before when it really hasn't at all. this is just a physics phenomenon its believed when u experience such feelings, they are moments that happened in your past Life.