I know what deja vu is. Deja Vu is the partial recollection of a dream you once had while you are awake. You typically dream about meaningless stuff you do day to day. When you are awake and you coincidently make a motion or say something or do a particular thing you think you did before it is just a recollection of a past dream. This is why it is a meaningless and hazy experience/feeling that you dont fully know when you did it before. I hope this is understandable? I kind of ramble.
Welcome to the Straight Dope Message Boards, sp027jm, we’re glad to have you with us.
When you start a thread, it’s helpful to others if you provide a link to the column that you’re commenting on. Helps keep us all on the same page, and saves searching time. In this case, it also saves some frustration with searching time, since searching the archives on “deja” doesn’t produce results, since it’s “déjà” with accent marks.
Anyhow, no big deal, I’ve put in the link for you, and you’ll know for next time. And, as I say, welcome! (Haven’t I said this before?)