Let's talk Deja Vu (pyramid, lights, Mayan)

[Radical_Thinker]

In my lifetime, I've experienced all sorts of "woo" stuff. In this thread, I'd like to tell a couple deja vu events I've experienced. One is grounded in reality, and the other simply cannot be explained by any sort of logic whatsoever.

Example one: My friend and I went to Guatemala in 2002 and we visited Tikal, a site of Mayan ruins. We spent the day exploring this fascinating park, and since climbing of the pyramids was allowed, I decided to go up a couple of them. Towards the end of the day, we came across this tall and very steep pyramid, and I got the urge to climb it, figuring it'd provide a nice view. I scampered up to the top, although my friend stayed at the bottom. Once I got there, I was awed by the view, and I shouted at my friend to climb up as well.

While he was doing so, I looked at the green horizon and had the strongest sense of deja vu. I was absolutely convinced that I'd seen this panorama before. I asked my friend once he joined me if it looked familiar, and he said no. I kept saying "I know I've seen this before, I KNOW I've seen this before." He thought it was the heat getting to me...lol.

Anyhow, we went home and I gave little thought to it, except maybe to think it was just a glitch of the mind. It does that sometimes, no? A few months later, I got the urge to watch the first Star Wars movie, the one made in 1977, since it'd been a while since I'd seen it. And know that part at the very end, when the Death Star gets blown up and they're celebrating on that moon? Remember that scene from a high place looking out over a green jungle?

Yep. It was from that exact same spot on that pyramid in Tikal, Guatemala. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I just couldn't remember where I'd seen that view, but after seeing in the movie, it sure made perfect sense.

That's deja vu, easily explained. The second story defies explanation, and it continues to puzzle me to this day.

It was 2005, soon after we moved to the Atlanta area. I had an unusually vivid dream one night, in which I was in my stick-shift Rodeo on some small mountain road. For some reason, I couldn't get the car to start, so I was coasting downhill, attempting to gear-start the car. I distinctly remember the curves, the way the vegetation pressed up against the narrow road, and my sheer frustration in not being able to get the car to start. The dream ended when I got to a straight part and just gave up on trying to start the car. I hate dreams like that, since I don't get to find out how the problem was resolved.

Well, a few months later, I decided to go exploring. I'd read about this "spaceship" house on top of a small mountain, and I got the urge to find it. I drove to where the mountain was, and discovering that there was public access, I drove up to the top. Low and behold, I found the spaceship house, and since it was obviously vacant, I walked around the edge of the property to check it out (I'm a big fan of unusual architecture.) Next to the house, there was a fire tower, and since it wasn't gated or fenced off, I decided to climb it so I could see out over the trees and enjoy the view. While I was up there, I saw someone drive past my parked car slowly, looking up at me and then moving on. Thinking that I wasn't exactly welcome in this wealthy mountaintop enclave, I decided it was best to get my butt down the tower and off the mountain. I'd seen what I wanted to see anyhow.

Down from the tower, I jumped into the car, relieved that car was long gone. I turned the key, and nothing. Not even a click. I checked my lights, etc, nothing. I kept trying. Nada. The car was dead. Thinking it was a dead battery, I decided to gear-start it, figuring that I could simply drive home and replace the battery myself. I had to coast backwards a bit to get it turned around, and then I was able to coast downhill with enough speed to let the clutch out in first gear. The car groaned, but it wouldn't start. I kept trying.

That was when I started living out the dream I had previous. Every detail was the same - the repeated attempts to start the engine to no avail, the super-narrow road, the vegetation pressing close on both sides. For the next few minutes, I had two tracks running in my brain in parallel - the events in real time and the recollection of that ever-so vivid dream. I tried and tried to start the car, just like the dream, no luck. I gave up when the curves ended and just coasted. At this point, I went past to where the dream ended, and I remember thinking "at least I get to see how this ends."

This is where it gets even weirder. I was able to coast almost to the main highway, coming up about a 100 feet sort of a repair shop (yeah, I know, how convenient.) I walked up to the shop, where there was a lone mechanic, who was far from being busy. I explained to him that my car died and could he help me push it into the shop. He had no problem doing that, and once we got it into the garage, we popped the hood and he put the battery tester on the terminals. It read a full charge. He hopped in and cranked it. It started right up, as if never had a problem to begin with.

To say I was shocked would be a huge understatement. I asked him what could have caused it not to start? He had not a clue. I asked him if it'd be okay to drive home. He said there wasn't any problem with the battery or alternator, so yeah, I could drive it with no problem. I thanked him and went on my way, getting home with zero incident.

I've had other incidents of deja vu, but nothing quite like this. It'd been super-weird without the dream, and since I dreamed it beforehand with 100% accuracy, this was beyond weird.

I suppose some things are forever destined to be a mystery.

Anyone on here have any interesting stories of deja vu they'd like to share?

[Upstate67]

Originally Posted by Radical_Thinker

Anyone on here have any interesting stories of deja vu they'd like to share?

Yep..

There is a place here (Greenville SC) that does dinner theater. And as hard as I try I can't ever remember going to it. Yet every time I drive past it I feel.... connected to it, and it seems familiar. Sometimes the feeling isn't so strong, but every now and then it's powerful.

The building is on a street corner, and I parked and walked to it once - but still didn't go in. When I did that though, it seemed like it was more about that particular corner rather than the building itself.

[ByeByeLW]

Not sure the first is deja vu. More of a coincidence and a forgotten memory. You had already seen that view in a movie.

[softcrunch]

Sure, I've had these moments of strong feelings before, but forgot about them as time passes since there's no explanation where it came from.

[Radical_Thinker]

Originally Posted by ByeByeLW

Not sure the first is deja vu. More of a coincidence and a forgotten memory. You had already seen that view in a movie.

So a forgotten memory is regained or verified somehow makes it not be a deja vu anymore?

Here's a potential deja vu that I hope to have in the future - ever since I was a kid, I've dreamed of this majestic 40-story building in my hometown of Winston-Salem, NC. (Current tallest building is 34 stories, built in 1995.) The top 3 floors are what I would call a "sky atrium," open all around with huge windows on all four sides providing stunning views of the city. The interior part of this atrium is stepped back towards the center, with all sorts of cool features. The closest analogy to this is the Sky Garden in London, England. (You can google it if you're not familiar with it.) I had this recurring dream again late last year, and it was so incredibly vivid, and so beautiful. If this thing really does get built someday, like I've dreamed it, that's gonna be something else. I have a feeling I'll be old by then, too...lol.

[Vasily]

Originally Posted by Radical_Thinker

So a forgotten memory is regained or verified somehow makes it not be a deja vu anymore?

Our memories are associative in nature. When the brain processes memories and integrates them into narrative memory, it makes connections (associations) between the new memory and existing knowledge and beliefs. Deja vu is a problem with the recall process that makes you think an experience is part of your narrative memory (the integrated story of your life) when you never really experienced it at all. What's characteristic of these experiences is that it's not simply saying "I think I remember this", it's being utterly convinced that you had this exact experience at some time in the past - you're saying "I know I remember this" even when that doesn't really make a lot of sense.

The current theories I believe are that the error in deja vu recall is either a glitch in the memory retrieval process which mistakenly actives recognition so we think we recognize an existing pattern when we really don't, or a glitch that's neurological in nature that interferes with the retrieval and recognition process. The fact that people with seizure disorders sometimes experience deja vu as an aura preceding a seizure lends credence to the neurological theory. I've also seen suggestions that it may be the result in a time lag in processing a memory that results in you mistakenly thinking a memory still being processed represents a fully integrated memory somehow.

I experienced quite a bit of deja vu when I was a child, but it decreased in frequency and intensity post puberty. In 7th or 8th grade, I had an episode in class of tremors in one hand which I never told anyone about, and around the same time, an episode of pseudobulbar affect - I started laughing in class for no reason at all, and had to leave until it subsided. I haven't had similar symptoms since (and I'm 71 now). This makes me wonder if my deja vu experiences were related to some developmentally related neurological problem that resolved itself (or even damage from something like a mini-stroke).

The most spectacular experience was on a trip with my grandparents to visit distant relatives on Long Island NY when I was 9 or 10. I was playing on a patch of grass in their front yard when suddenly I knew I had experienced this before -- but what I remembered was experiencing the deja vu itself before, and before that, and again, over and over back into infinity -- like the reflected image you see when you stand between two mirrors. This suggests to me that there was some kind of feedback going on that caused the recall/retrieval process to loop around and repeat over and over in the "circuitry".