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Déjà vu so extreme that I can’t tell what’s real

mosaicscience.com

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Re: Déjà vu so extreme that I can’t tell what’s real

#2
I once had this feeling while being stoned. It was maybe my fourth or fifth time smoking marijuana. For a good two or three hours, every moment I experienced, every conversation I had, I had the feeling that I've lived through it before. A constant Deja Vu.

I knew I was stoned, but it still freaked me out. After talking to my friends about this (while still being high), I was able to enjoy and explore it. I asked my friends some questions to which I didn't knew the answer. Still, when they answered me, I knew with great certainty that "I've heard this before". My friends came up with all sorts of fun experiments to further explore my state.

I later read that this feeling (i.e. a normal Deja Vu) presumably is caused by the brain storing information immediately into long term memory, instead of keeping it in short term memory first. When the information is in long term memory while you are still experiencing it, you get the feeling that you've experienced it before.

Scratching the surface of how my own brain works (and can be rewired), was extremely profound and quite unsettling. I stopped smoking since.

Re: Déjà vu so extreme that I can’t tell what’s real

#4
post #2

I once had this feeling while being stoned. It was maybe my fourth or fifth time smoking marijuana. For a good two or three hours, every moment I experienced, every conversation I had, I had the feeling that I've lived through it before. A constant Deja Vu. I knew I was stoned, but it still freaked me out. After talking to my friends about this (while still being high), I was able to enjoy and explore it. I asked my…

Explains why my boss is always tellung me my ideas are not new, he is always stoned. I'll raise this issue on Monday.

Re: Déjà vu so extreme that I can’t tell what’s real

#6
"It was a pleasant and extremely vivid recollection. The problem was that it never actually happened. What I was experiencing was an extreme form of a very common mental illusion: déjà vu."

It's possible that he dreamed this, forgot his dream, and then remembered it, causing the feeling of having been there before. He had been there before, in his dreams.

Re: Déjà vu so extreme that I can’t tell what’s real

#7
post #2

I once had this feeling while being stoned. It was maybe my fourth or fifth time smoking marijuana. For a good two or three hours, every moment I experienced, every conversation I had, I had the feeling that I've lived through it before. A constant Deja Vu. I knew I was stoned, but it still freaked me out. After talking to my friends about this (while still being high), I was able to enjoy and explore it. I asked my…

Explains why my boss is always tellung me my ideas are not new, he is always stoned. I'll raise this issue on Monday.

This is a great setup for a dilbert comic strip actually!

Re: Déjà vu so extreme that I can’t tell what’s real

#8
I experience intense moments of deja vu probably 2-3 times a year. I'm 90% sure it's connected to dreams for me, because even on one occasion, waking up, I made the mental note "remember this intensely specific dream, and see if you get deja vu", and I actually did, in the middle of a presentation. I'm guessing it's because when dreaming my mind goes through a vast volume of possible scenarios, so statistically I'm bound to encounter something that it's internally 'rehearsed.' Maybe I sleep too much though, perils of freelancing.

Re: Déjà vu so extreme that I can’t tell what’s real

#9
post #2

I once had this feeling while being stoned. It was maybe my fourth or fifth time smoking marijuana. For a good two or three hours, every moment I experienced, every conversation I had, I had the feeling that I've lived through it before. A constant Deja Vu. I knew I was stoned, but it still freaked me out. After talking to my friends about this (while still being high), I was able to enjoy and explore it. I asked my…

I have this same experience with dreams at least a few times a month. For example I'll have a dream where I'm recounting a real-life story to a friend or family member. Later on, during my waking life, I'll tell the story again to someone and I won't be able to tell if I've told the story to them before or not, regardless if they are the person from the dream. Sometimes, I won't even remember the dream and I have the same feeling. I usually catch myself while telling them whatever I am sharing, and ask "Have I told you this before? No? Ok...". It's supremely weird, and I've just learned to either ignore it or catch myself.

Also, with the same frequency, can't distinguish if something (realistic) actually has happened to me or if it was in a dream. Something as simple, for example, as going to the beach and playing volleyball with my friends. I will catch myself going through a memory of something, only to realize it actually was from a dream. The memory is as real as any others I have - vivid detail, feelings attached to it, etc. I have to think back on what I've done that week to see if it actually happened or not.

Observing the inner workings of memory and the brain as symptoms is one of the oddest things in life, in my opinion. I've learned not to be scared of it and instead enjoy it as part of the human experience!

Re: Déjà vu so extreme that I can’t tell what’s real

#10

I experience intense moments of deja vu probably 2-3 times a year. I'm 90% sure it's connected to dreams for me, because even on one occasion, waking up, I made the mental note "remember this intensely specific dream, and see if you get deja vu", and I actually did, in the middle of a presentation. I'm guessing it's because when dreaming my mind goes through a vast volume of possible scenarios, so statistically I'm b…

Unless you write it down, it could simply be your brain fooling itself, pretending you took a mental note. I had the exact same hypothesis, and so I started writing down the details of my hyper-real dreams. So far none of it came back in the déjà vu form.

In fact, if it turned to be real, it would have far reaching consequences on the nature of reality.

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