# Have you had déjà vu? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 19, 2011, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-had-deja-vu/568200 "2011-01-19T14:54:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-had-deja-vu/568200/1 "2011-01-19T14:54:38Z")
Have you ever had déjà vu? Have you ever had déjà vu? I was thinking about the experience of having déjà vu and what you would think had happened, if you had never had it before or heard it described. Would you not tell anyone, for fear of being thought crazy? I’m also curious as to what age you experienced it first if you can remember. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-had-deja-vu/568200/2 "2011-01-19T15:52:11Z")
I have in fact experienced déjà vu, but not in maybe 20 years or so. I’m 48. Does it go away as you get older, I wonder? Or maybe as you get older you have seen it all before. Hmmmm… ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-had-deja-vu/568200/3 "2011-01-19T17:08:08Z")
Not only that but I had a dream come true. I had a completely random dream, and the next day events unfolded the way it happened in my dream; things that were completely out of my control. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-had-deja-vu/568200/4 "2011-01-19T17:23:20Z")
[Just right now in fact, coincidentally enough.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=593553) ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-had-deja-vu/568200/5 "2011-01-19T18:21:32Z")
Many times. Sometimes, so strongly that it makes me hesitant to do the thing I was just about to do, for fear of the thing I foresaw. The frustrating part is that, short of recording every random thought that passes through my head, I’ll never be able to know if this is a real premonition or just a mistaken belief that I had thought of it earlier. I suspect the truth is that we really, truly know _dick_ about why time works as it does. As Hawking said “Why can we remember the past and not the future?” Maybe Déjà vu is us remembering the future, or at least one potential future. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2011, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-had-deja-vu/568200/6 "2011-01-19T18:47:12Z")
I’m not sure where I read it. I remember reading once that deje vu is just a result of a muscle spasm in the back of your eye that causes the nuerons to fire off in the long term memory center of your brain FIRST as opposed to what it normally does and fire off in the SHORT term memory first. Thus giving you the feeling of “I’ve been here before.” ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2011, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-had-deja-vu/568200/7 "2011-01-20T02:36:55Z")
[Been there. Done that. Locked thread.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=593553)