I've never experienced deja vu before?

Question

Is it weird that I've never experienced deja vu before? What does the experience feel like? How do you get it?

Answer 1

It isn't weird, and the younger you are the less weird it is still that you haven't run into it yet....

I used to think I had experienced it when, say, I'd notice something about the smell in the air or the lighting or the weather and feel as if I was in the "same atmosphere" as I was when something had gone on. For example, I was walking down the street and the trees had Fall foliage and the weather was a certain type of warm, and it felt exactly as it had when my mother had been in the hospital once. Well, after having that type of thing over the course of my life, I assumed that was deja vue. It wasn't.
That was more a matter of "Hey. This feels exactly the way it did when so-and-so was whatever."

About a year ago I was brushing my teeth, and I actually kind of lost track of where (in time) in my life I was and was (for a very brief moment) returned (again, very briefly) to a previous time in my life. It wasn't "Hey. This feels like.....whatever." It was "Here I am in 1985 for just a few seconds." It felt like I was actually in the past for a few seconds (although I certainly didn't lose touch with the reality of the teeth-brushing). It was as if I was brushing my teeth at some time years ago (for just a second or two). After it was over I realized it was as if I had been "mentally transported" to the past (rather than just being reminded of it or having the chance to voluntarily try to recreate it for a moment because the smells and feelings around me reminded me of the past).

I guess the difference is in my example of the walking down the street and having the same weather as in the past, what I did was have a recreated "atmosphere" that reminded me of the past, and then I temporarily and voluntarily put myself back to that moment in time.

The tooth-brushing episode, which I've only done once, was way different. It was like a very short-term forgetting of where, in the present, I was and temporarily feeling as if I was in the past. Obviously, I've brushed my teeth many times in the past; so this experience of feeling as if I was where I'd been before isn't all that remarkable - but even in all its mundaneness and quickness, it was just a hint creepy feeling.

I've got grown kids, so that is how long I've gone without having something as dramatic as the teeth-brushing "transport" episode. I would suspect that many people who have experienced the "Hey. This feels just like it did when...." kind of thing think they're having deja vue when, maybe, they aren't really.

Answer 2

I get it a lot. It's when my brain thinks I am in a place or just did something that I may have done years ago. I'm no scientist but I think my brain synapses firing in a certain pattern do this. I love deja vu. Sometimes I feel I've had three or four of the same deja vus for as many as 20 years!

Answer 3

you will more than likely
usually mine happens in dreams i wake up not haveing rembered it but then though out the day i get to end up in the same place as i was in my dream i usually see vivd incomplete pictures and the feeling is very strong

Answer 4

OMG...I THOUGH EVERYONE HAD THIS AT LEAST A FEW TIMES IN THERE LIFE...ITS A FEELING YOU GET LIKE....SAY YOUR IN A NEW TOWN...YOU KNOW YOU HAVE NEVER BEEN THERE B4....BUT A STARANGE FEELING COMES OVER YOU THAT TELLS YOU THAT YOU KNOW THIS PLACE...AND YOU EVEN SEEM TO KNOW WHERE THE NEXT STREET LEADS TO...ANYTHING IN THAT WAY IS DEJA~VU

Answer 5

What about Vuja De. " The feeling you've never been here before "

Answer 6

I honestly believe you have experienced this before.
I honestly believe you have experienced this before. WOW, didn't I just say that?

Answer 7

Are you sure?