# What was your first déjà-vu like? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 3, 2003, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-deja-vu-like/152410 "2003-02-03T02:18:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2003, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-deja-vu-like/152410/1 "2003-02-03T02:18:48Z")
Mods - if by any chance I have spelled deja vous incorrectly please correct the title. thanks My first deja vous was before I knew what deja vous was (probably quite obvious, that). I was at school, in a drama lesson. I looked over at someone. He moved his head in a certain way and I recieved a shock-realization - “I have already seen him do that!” For the rest of the day I was speculating with myself that I could see into the future (_almost_ believing it!) Until I explained what happened to someone, and they explained what deja vous was. I was quite relieved and surprised that it was something that can and does happen to most people. (In my defence - I was about 12 at the time) Describe your first experience of deja vous (if you can remember it) ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2003, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-deja-vu-like/152410/2 "2003-02-03T02:20:25Z")
And the first person to say ‘Glitch in the Matrix’ will get a clip round the ear. ---
**Author:** ![monica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@monica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monica)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2003, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-deja-vu-like/152410/3 "2003-02-03T03:05:50Z")
Hey, Lobsang, that’s what I was going to say. Well, I’ll just say it anyway. There’s a Glitch in the Matrix! Hey, didn’t I already see this thread? 😃 ~monica ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2003, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-deja-vu-like/152410/4 "2003-02-03T03:12:08Z")
T’wernt nothing compared to my deja tres. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2003, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-deja-vu-like/152410/5 "2003-02-03T03:21:42Z")
\ I am sure you _did_ already see this thread. But I am also sure that no-one [no-decent-one anyway] will mind me asking it again. ---
**Author:** ![bbeaty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c0e974/32.png) [@bbeaty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbeaty)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2003, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-deja-vu-like/152410/6 "2003-02-03T03:25:13Z")
Every so often I have a deja-vu which I’m almost certain was from a dream long ago. I mean, I dreamed some mundane situation, then much later that mundane event actually happened. (But usually dreams are highly symbolic, so why would I dream accurately of future events?) My first? Probably when I was around 6 or 7 years old (way too many of them since then, I have no idea what the first one was.) Hey, here’s one which just happened. If it’s precognitive, it’s symbolic. I was dreaming around 8 in morning, and the dream turned into a nightmare. There was a small group of people on the other side of a river of lava. They looked like american tourists. They were walking around on the surface crust as if they could cross it with no danger, as if it was ice cold, with their feet inches away from the blazing yellow/orange flow under the crust. They were “wrongly” wearing short summer clothing, not vulcanologist heat suits like they should have been, and they were walking around and talking as if they had no idea of the heat just a couple of inches below the crust. I was only watching this, unable to communicate with them. It became nightmarish when each one broke through the cold crust, each member of the group dropping through and being instantly incinerated by the blazing lava stream, but leaving a small fire which moved past in the flow, a fire which had once been a human being moments before. It was very detailed, with an overall atmosphere of disgust/revulsion. The whole group was gone, and there was just the lava flow moving across the “picture frame,” and the small greasy people-fires moving past on its surface. That’s when things became disgusting enough that I pulled loose and woke myself up. I _never_ get nightmares. It was so powerful that I almost told people at work about it. It happened about 25 hours before the shuttle disaster. That’s not deja vu, that’s being totally creeped out! ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2003, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-deja-vu-like/152410/7 "2003-02-03T03:40:00Z")
One more reason not to go near the sdmb whilst drunk - I didn’t ‘get’ "Hey, didn’t I already see this thread? " until several hours after! ---
**Author:** ![Mac\_Guffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2bfe46/32.png) [@Mac\_Guffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mac_Guffin)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2003, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-deja-vu-like/152410/8 "2003-02-03T03:59:23Z")
Oddly enough, My first feeling of deja-vu was just like this one. Hmmm… ---
**Author:** ![White\_Lightning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@White\_Lightning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/White_Lightning)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2003, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-deja-vu-like/152410/9 "2003-02-03T04:51:02Z")
‘Already you’… I kind of like that. ---
**Author:** ![Loopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loopus/32/15343_2.png) [@Loopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopus)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2003, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-deja-vu-like/152410/10 "2003-02-03T05:09:11Z")
I think it’s spelled “dejá vù,” but I’m not sure. Anyway, I’ve only experienced it twice, and both times it was quite mundane. When the movie _The Wedding Planner_ came out, I thought to myself that I was sure it had come out months ago, because I remembered reading a review of it online. But I went back to that reviewer’s site and it was nowhere to be seen. When the review came up, it appeared to be the review I rememberd reading months before. I didn’t have the same feeling when _Signs_ came out, but when I read the review, I could swear I had read it before. I’ve read hundreds of reviews on that site, and those are the only two times I’ve had that feeling. Like I said, pretty mundane. ---
**Author:** ![Electronic\_Chaos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Electronic\_Chaos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electronic_Chaos)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2003, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-deja-vu-like/152410/11 "2003-02-03T06:35:52Z")
I’ve had deja vouz many many many times. I dont’ even remember the first time I’ve had it…or the last time. But it happens with me quite frequently. ---
**Author:** ![auntnut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f6c823/32.png) [@auntnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/auntnut)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2003, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-deja-vu-like/152410/12 "2003-02-03T06:46:26Z")
Don’t know if this counts or not, but I have had **DIJON VU’** … (You know, when you are sure that somehow, somewhere, you have tasted this mustard before) 😃 Sorry…resistless it was ---
**Author:** ![White\_Lightning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@White\_Lightning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/White_Lightning)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2003, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-deja-vu-like/152410/13 "2003-02-03T06:48:50Z")
I don’t _think_ there’s an accent-grave on the “u” in “vu,” **Loopus** , but it’s been a long time since high school French for me. ---
**Author:** ![Loopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loopus/32/15343_2.png) [@Loopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopus)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2003, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-deja-vu-like/152410/14 "2003-02-03T06:59:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by White Lightning \* > \*\*I don’t _think_ there’s an accent-grave on the “u” in “vu,” **Loopus** , but it’s been a long time since high school French for me. \*\* Oops. Now that I actually look it up, I see that I had the right accents, but both of them were in the wrong place. It’s “déjà vu.” ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2003, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-deja-vu-like/152410/15 "2003-02-03T12:48:12Z")
I was about six years old. I was walking on the sidewalk to a friend’s house, and I got the feeling that this time I had done it before. I said to myself, “Okay, I have to go on this driveway a little, and then a white car will come around the curve in the street.” So I made a little arc up the driveway, and then a white car came around the curve. I thought, “That felt funny.” Then the feeling was gone and I went to my friend’s house. ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2003, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-deja-vu-like/152410/16 "2003-02-03T13:52:16Z")
I’m not impressed, John. 99% of all Californian cars are white! 😛 I read about a theory once: déjà-vu supposedly is nothing more than a misaligment in the brain, causing you to think that what you’re seeing is something you’ve seen before. In reality, you’re looking at it now for the first time, but your brain somehow stored some of the information in the “This is the Past”-drawer. Of course, that doesn’t explain dreams that foretell disasters - I had one myself prior to the Lockerbie drama. It was eerie, and i hope it was my last. It also doesn’t explain stuff like John’s example: the time gap is too big for a simple brain mishap. Unless John’s brain is unusually slow, which I’ll leave to the reader to judge. 😉 But maybe Q was right: we are perhaps too lineair, regarding time as a path from A to B. Perhaps déjà-vus are the rare exceptions where we deviate from this course? ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2003, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-deja-vu-like/152410/17 "2003-02-03T14:09:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lobsang \* > **My first deja vous was before I knew what deja vous was (probably quite obvious, that). I was at school, in a drama lesson. I looked over at someone. He moved his head in a certain way and I recieved a shock-realization - "I have already seen him do that!"** Well, deja vu would be something you’ve already seen. But _deja vous_ would be someone you’ve already _been_. So it shouldn’t have surprised you that you saw him do that, you’d probably already seen yourself do it in the mirror, _when you were him_. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2003, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-deja-vu-like/152410/18 "2003-02-03T18:29:22Z")
My first déjà vu was nearly identical to the one before it. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-deja-vu-like/152410/19 "2003-02-04T01:06:38Z")
How do you say quadruple deja vu in french? “I remember remembering remembering this happening already” I get those. ---
**Author:** ![TVGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/82dd89/32.png) [@TVGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-deja-vu-like/152410/20 "2003-02-04T02:29:36Z")
My first time was when I was about 10 years old. My family was visiting relatives in Connecticut - relatives, you have to understand, that I had never met before. Third or fourth cousins if I recall. We were sitting outside the house in an RV that the cousins had just purchased - they were shoing it off. While we were out there, coffee got made and a few of the smokers lit up. That’s when it happened - right then, the scene of my mom and my grnadmother sitting there in THOSE dresses; the aunt I had never met sitting across from them with a cigarette in her hand; the smoke from the cigarette curling up into the air just so; the smell of the coffee and tobacco; the way the sun shone in through the window and the made sun-beams in the smoke; the laughter of my cousins behind me in the “living room” of the RV; all of it fit perfectly - I had _BEEN HERE_ before. When I mentioned this to my mom, she laughed and told me that I had just had a deja vu. Being ten, I had no idea what she was talking about, but all I knew is that I was a little scared. Three more of them happened during that same visit. Weird part - a chunk of that family that we were visiting had just had a terrible tragedy the previous year when several of them were wiped out in one car accident when they were struck by a drunk driver. Oh yeah - that first one was the strongest deja vu I’ve ever had in my life. Maybe because it was the first. But I get them all the time. Some are very strong, with details in clarity like that first one. Some are just vague “I’ve been here before” feelings.