January 09, 2008

/// deja vu ///


She felt she had been here before...
the same exact spot...the same exact people...everything felt at home...as if she belonged here...
and yet she knew she was a stranger...

She was a friendly person...but it wasent her attitude which made her feel this way...
All the odds were against her...it seemed impossible..she'd never visited this place before and yet...the funny feeling...the kind wch sends flutters down ur throat......the kind u experience while u wait to meet up with the person u love as the clock ticks the minutes and seconds away...
she could strangely relate to everything happening and yet comprehend nothing...
she dint believe in reincarnation nor did she have any of those visions which lead people into believing in rebirth and the sorts...

It was the first time she was experiencing this...she wondered what it could be as the cold air rushed a familiar feeling thru her veins...queer yet equally pleasant...bizarre yet very comfortable...
she felt she was reliving it all over again...strangely she couldent remember living it the first time...still more strangely she dint know what the 'IT' was...

Back home, everone was laughing saying she was reading too much of 'coehlo' and watching too much of fiction...
she tried remembering...her head hurt...but it was blank as ever...nothing!!absolutely NOTHING!

yet the eerie feeling of being in the exact same spot with the exact same person...going through the exact same thing.....the very thought of those 10 seconds just refused to leave...

that day she realised the meaning of deja vu...

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Frankly speaking, i dont really believe in 'deja vu' per se!!
yes i know im making a very strong statement here...but no! i have never really experienced it...though have wished i was lucky enough to, when i hear people speaking about it...
and the above piece was sketched purely on the basis of hearsay felt by the experienced...sigh!!*wishful look*

Maybe i havent yet experienced it as such because i have never let the matter lie...i mean i have always looked into it soo deep that somehow could never dispose it off as 'deja vu' before it actually got proven not to be so...maybe ive never learnt to let go of something as just merely a coincidence (believe me this has landed me in many a messy situations where i wished i wouldent let the 'sherlock holmes' in me surface up and search thru my rotten heart and mind for evidences, in the end completely disposing off 'the theory of coincidences' and emerging victorious :-/).though very often im tempted to give the situation a benefit of doubt.maybe because im sometimes more tempted to believe in this thing called 'coincidence' cos thats often the easier and more comfortable way out....
Anyhow let me stop digressing...

Some people claim that its an unexplained theory which noone can comprehend...some insist that its linked with previous lives and stuff (yes dont frown there! people still believe in the supernatural) while yet another set of people thnk its got to do with matters of the heart (somewhat along the lines of love and feelings)...
well i dont think i have the right to ridicule any of their beliefs...
but from what ive read its got to do mainly with matters in the temporal lobe :)...yes im referring to the 'mystery box' up there...

I dont really know whats right and as usual this is another of those situations where 'belief' challenges 'science'...

so to make matters worse and further more confusing, urs truly has managed to google up a page here which cites pretty much whatever she wants to say...especially 'the feeling that one has been there before is often due to the fact that one HAS been there before...

so which side of the fence are u??

41 comments:

radiohead said...

Frankly speaking one cannot on one side of fence .. its the fence tht shud go dwn .. i mean its a mix of all this science n belief u knw .. cause there are things like tht .. bt thn there is some logic in this wrld as well ..

so there's dejavu too .. n there relativity too ..

n i guess if u felt it .. might b so .. a lot of times I feel tht I have been to some place bfr n all ..

u shud see a psychiatrist .. hehe :D

Pri said...

@ anuj
lol!! anuj...i think u were either high while reading this post or were too sleepy :p...cos u dint seem to read it at all...

i have mentioned loud and clear there that i dont really believe in dejavu...and that ive never experienced it as such...
but people have and theres nothing psychotic in that...

lol!! theek se padho balak...dhyan se padh! :D

Anonymous said...

I suffer from the feeling of deja vu more ofthen than anybody.......and most of the times i m numb when i feel the same.........

dont know how to get rid of it!!!!!!

Pri said...

hmm i think i understand what ur trying to say ashu...
often we feel we are experiencing deja vu when the truth is, we probably want to experience it...
asin u are missing a certain something or someone and sometimes u cant help but relate tht person/thing in some other person's/things actions...we unknowingly strive to see similarities...and no matter how trivial they may seem,they are huge enough for us...
and the numb feeling...its somewhat like self inflicted pain...
the more we relate the deeper we go into it...and then create our own interpretations , assumptions and relations---all in the name of 'deja vu', out of something which may not even be what we think it is in the first place...

they say ,sometimes,this so called 'deja vu' can leave u with a wonderful feeling...making u feel all warm and fuzzy...

and yet at other times like u said it can leave u feeling numb...the best way to get rid of it in sucha case is try to stop believing in it...and ignore it whenever it happens...might help...but in case it dosent, then maybe it was meant to be that way :)
dunno if im making much sense here...
neways take care!

ceedy said...

All I can say is Deja Who!!!!

Its a complicated affair - you tell someone you see smg - their eyes widen and they think you are schizo....and you dont tell someone but know about it....then you become schizo.....and then you dont beleive in it and someone tells you about it.....you feel they are schizo....

get the point....(ishaan phay hattesion on the bard - bher did eye draaaw da payant)

Blog Boy said...

It is indeed a real thing to feel dejavu...
I have felt it many times...then only I concluded the existance of it...
there has to be some science for it.
Some time I really feel this situation has happened before and I have reacted in that particular way...

NIce...

Anonymous said...

Heres something I recently read somewhere which I think is a nice way to put out the more general discussion here(cant find the reference now, so will try to paraphrase as faithfully as I can):

Ever since ancient times there have been 2 baskets, into which all phenomenon going on around us are put into..the first basket being things which we dont understand how they work..and the second basket being things which we do know how they work.(I would refrain from calling the baskets 'belief' and 'science' since I am a little bored of this belief vs science battle coz as I said in an earlier post science doesnt really care about belief..and so too I guess applies for belief. I wll just call the baskets 'dont know' and 'do know'). Now almost without exception as time has gone by things have been picked up out of the 'dont know' basket and been put into the 'do know' basket. This is the business of science.

'deja vu' is still firmly in the 'dont know' basket though from the article you have pointed out does seem there have been attempts to put it into the 'do know' basket.

Now this is where the discussion really starts. There will be some who believe it is just a matter of time before the 'dont know' basket will be empty(that would be sad too isnt it)...there are others that think some things will always stay in the 'dont know' basket and still others that think everything in the 'do know' basket is made up and has no right to be there. So let the fun and games begin:)

Sam said...

Deja vu.... it is a term coined to denote a change brought about in the matrix!!!
Isn't that what trinity aid to neo when he say a cat jump thrice in the air and remarked Deja vu??

on a serious note, deja vu is a state of mind where one is of the opinion that he/she has experienced teh current happenings, though that shouldn't have been the case.. this is primarily because, of some vivid imaignation while going through soem material (audio/visual) or some real experience which was facilitated to the senses in it's entirety... teh other school of thought though chooses to rubbish this claim though it's not entirely possible, as it has evidences in it's support (past life and all is stretching it too far), in the other shcool.. they attribute it to soemthing to do with the temporal lobe... hmmm... but then how come the temporal reacts in such a fashion??
Unless ofcourse the person experiencing it schizophrenic??? or the likes??

Pri said...

@ ceedy
heehee yes sir...point noted...i notice u still not over the TZP hangover ;p...

but then heyyy i dont really believe in deja vu..but i dont think ppl who do, are insane...
ok maybe im just confused again:-/
but this topic has always intrigued me...
so just for a moment , forget about what ppl would think...get beyond the shackles of 'impressions' and tell me...have u ever experienced deja vu? :)
(heehee am i sounding 'ram kumar nikumb' here?? ;p)

@ blogboy
hmm blogboy...i dunno what to say...
maybe u actually HAVE been thru a similar thing before and this just reminds u of it?
that wouldent be deja vu then wud it??
but in case u really have felt it from within and are pretty confirmed that it has no relation with something that has taken place in the past and yet it all seems familiar as if it has...then all i can say is ---i envy you! :)

Pri said...

@ angry agnostic
hmm makes sense...:)
guess somethings are better left in the 'dont know' basket...makes life more interesting if not simpler eh??

@ sam
lol!! sam...good one from 'the matrix'...:D
well about the 'temporal lobe' theory, its true no doubt that dejavu is a component of some mental illnesses like schizophrenia and is a feature in some kinds of epilepsies too...but that dosent mean that every person who experience dejavu are labelled 'mentally abnormal'...
as is said earlier, there are some things not completely proven and deja vu is one of them i guess...as much as i would like to believe it dosent exist and its just a feeling related to a past seated memory (one seems to have forgotten or not paid attention to) which manages to surface up the next time--as said in the given link, the truth is maybe even medical science would not be able to prove with enough conviction the theory of deja vu...
while some say its a component of memory, there are others who believe in the supernatural...and some others like me who believe what they want to believe...or rather dont believe what they dont want to...:D
btw chuck all the 'schools of thought' (we've had enough of that --in the post as well as the comment section) ,what do u personally believe in?? any experiences? :)

radiohead said...

i was havin a deja-vu u knw ;)

I had d stry in d first part in mind .. nevermind :D

IncorrigibleV said...

hmmm never felt it, don't know much ... so i wont take part in the discussion!

ceedy said...

well yes.....and there are few places is a certain place in India - no matter what i feel like going everytime I am there - gives mew a peace of mind and makes me feel comfortable - and honestly the first time I went there - i knew exactly where certain things were :) even that surprised me....

Unknown said...

Deja Vu... Been there done that.

Me thinks it's nothing to do with past lives, but rather the subconscious side of the head that perhaps knits together the familiar threads of a certain situation resulting in an illusion of deja vu.

Class dismissed.

Pri said...

@ anuj
lol!! anuj...now thats something *grin*...
convenient deja vu muu say :p

@ vands
okk..no probs...guess it never intrigued u enough...:)
chk out the link in the post if u wish to know about it...but then again, its never enough...

@ ceedy
woww...thats a bit scary too...u sure it was only deja vu and not any 'om shanti om' kinda connection...heehee
ok ok dont scowl...i know OSO was zilch compared to our fav TZP...:D

@ j
EXACTLY my point!!
glad u agree :)

Unknown said...

When I start my university of life, you shall be granted a free scholarship :D

Anonymous said...

My two-penny 'personal' take:

I experience a lot of deja vu's(maybe one a week) and have given up giving them too much thought. My version of deja vu though is much stricter than what is generally suggested or is being talked about here. It does NOT have me forseeing(that is prenomition I think) what I am going to see or knowing already where everything in the room is. It just that the image(just one image in my case not even motion)...that just a split second later I feel...'hey i have seen this before' and when I say seen this..it is like that in every detail...the dress people are wearing the furniture the weather..even the angle from which I am looking. But even if you skip a few frames(few instants) further where say the angle of viewing is changed..then no that is no longer familiar.

I hope I have been able to convey this properly. In any case, my take on this is..theres a switch up there which goes on every time it sees something familiar(maybe when you see taj mahal the second time from the exact same spot). Now sometimes this switch erroneously goes on when I am looking at something perfectly ordinary..and that is my deja vu. I dont know..thats just my theory:)

and ya another thing my deja vus are most ordinary they never happen at some crucial or memorable points in my life..it could be while I am in a lift..working at my PC or walking along the road.

Pri said...

@ j
thanku thanku...im honoured :D

@ angry agnostic
well yaa ...have heard the same thing from people who've experienced it...
but dosent that mean u supporting that "the feeling that one has been there before is often due to the fact that one HAS been there before..." (in refference to ur 'tajmahel' example)
so guess in a way,u on the same side of the fence as me...

heyy but they say deja vu is a very pleasant and memorable feeling...and considering u experience it ever so often, i dont know if it wud be of as much significance to u...
i think i would feel pretty strange and rattled up..and puzzled too maybe...

but then i dunno...sometimes wish i did :)

Anonymous said...

@pri

nooooooo....the taj mahal example is where the switch behaves as its expected to. Deja vu is when it malfunctions, it triggers on without any match happening inside the brain..thats my theory anyways:)

well yes it has been a strange feeling..but only mildly so..in the sense that its hard to be too gung-ho about a deja vu of a bored afternoon or a morning breakfast...it might be weird if it were something more momentous(like first time I saw the taj mahal).To be clear a deja vu never happened at any event of note for me. As a result of which I just dismiss it off, but guess now I know am one of lucky few..so will learn to treasure it

Anonymous said...

when i saw HER, it felt like dejavu. ;)

Anonymous said...

hehe doc.. dun tell me u never had any dejavu experience.. or u simply dont accept at and term it as a coincidence or something.. neways i do experience dejavu a lot... bole to seems like i have experienced or had an feeling that this wud hapen and all.. i wont term it as some sharukh khan and dhoni and yuvraj ki combined biwi staaring movie.. but yeah sometimes such things happen.. :)

was feeling too lazy to sign in :D

Pri said...

@ angry agnostic
okk...i do understand ur theory :)
so i guess u seem to be on the other side of the fence afterall ...
heyy but about tha kinda deja vu u experience, u reminded me of tht scene in matrix...(chk out sams comment to know what i mean)lol!!(no offence ..that was purely in good humour)
but dont u think it would be too much to say u r experiencing deja vu when its about a lazzy afternoon or morning breakfast...couldent it be just plain routine ???
i mean can actually visualise someone yawning out of boredom or laziness (wutever u may choose *grin*) and then yelling "DEJA VU!!" ....heeehee
[like i said , im not ridiculing here...do understand ur theory..just that im finding this whole thing a bit too unbelievable :)]

@ adi
oye!!tum toh rehne hi do adi...:D
after knowing ur history of gf's,im not too sure if i can take that as 'deja vu'...
it would be more like 'reliving the past'..heehee...:p

@ abhi
well like angry agnostic said "the feeling that something (wch actually happens later) is going to occur" is more of premonition than deja vu...
and maybe that is due to ur 'insight' in the matter...
are u sure u rnt confusing the two??
sometimes it may feel like a very narrow line in between :)

Keshi said...

I hv alot of moments like that..one particular one that never goes away and I cry whenever I feel it.

Keshi.

The Furobiker said...

ah.. doesnt matter.. i dont ponder so much in these things.. let them be.. :)
live n let live u knw is my policy :D

Pri said...

@ keshi
hmmm...can understand that it can be painful too at times...especially when it cant be ignored...
u make me feel its better off never experiencing deja vu :)
hugzz!!

@ abhishek khanna
lol abhi...always choosing the easy way out arnt u?? :p
'jyada sochne ka nahi...tension kay ko lene ka'-- eh??
well ur lucky dude...dosent work that way with everyone...

live and let live---lage raho abhishek bhai! ;)

maverick said...

hmm...deja vu...well i do get those moments sometimes....but then mostly they are in a good sense than bad ones...so its ok so far...btw u shud chk out the movie deja vu...awesome :)

Anonymous said...

main()
{

if ( believer=1)
then Disorder in temporal lobe of brain detected neural cells malfunction
immediate Attention for treatment required if medical assistance doesn't help you ask some healthy person to have a flick

slap behind the ears it may help out.

if ( believer=0)
then He / She / IT Having a healthy temporal lobe behind the ears

if ( believer != 0 & != 1)
then Either He / She / IT is ignorant of the existence of phenomenon or must be a Germ to trigger the inertia to resist

anything of said .
}

Thanks
A Germ

Sam said...

yup... numerous!!!
latest.. i just thoght soemthing can happen.. but it was al sketchy.. adn then in matter of hours it really happened.. it was a situation wherein a person asks a particualr question.. the question as such would seem completely out of blue... that was deja vu.. and den i realised.. i was thinking abt it earlier.. why, i dunno!!

Anonymous said...

@sam
buddy if u remember thinking about the question before it was asked that prenomition..not deja vu

@pri
I get what you mean..after all its the same teapot I see at breakfast everyday..so is it a deja vu everyday...no its not..because its the angle the ligting the exct words at the moment..more specifically the breakfast table deja vu was the instant my room mate had bent down to pick up a pencil

Pri said...

@ maverick
yaa i heard a lot about it..but never got about watching it :( ..
the concept has always fascinated me even though i dont really believe in it.

@ anonymous aka kitanu :D
well u really seem to be in love with the binary system...heehee
apart from that, i dint really get anything of that comment...
either its too stupid or too profound :p...
an explanation in simpler words would be appreciated for the sake of us less intelligent beings :-/

@ sam
well sam...that again wouldent be deja vu really...check my reply to abhi's first comment...i think thats pretty much the case here...dont u think??

@ angry agnostic
hmm well sounds bizarre yet somewhat very interesting...
guess i would have to experience it myself to be able to relate to it...:)
u do seem to know the real meaning of deja vu though...so looks like uve pretty much experienced the real thing...

Anonymous said...

@ pri
mister kitanu is trying to make stupid sound profound .hihihi

@ mister kitanu
your name coined by pri sounds much better than the english version.
aur woh kya tha !=1 or 0 ????????..lagta hain tum pri ko kuch jyada hi impress karna chah rahe ho? ;-)

Anonymous said...

@ Khushi
1)"!=" it simply means "Not Equal To" where "!"<~~ means NOT
2)Impress <~~~ i use it not... as it is an object of Force... to my sense... my religion considers force to be Satan.
3) humankind is impressed with what it is ignorant... more the ignorance greater degrees of being impressed lesser the ignorant more chances of punching impression on some x,y,z.

@lifeofpri
What simpler then binary ... Holy soul it has just two states (1,0) it isnt complicated and unsure like analog..

Thanks
A Germ

Anonymous said...

@Germ(aka Mister Kitanu)
try using believer==1 as well as believer==0

Anonymous said...

hahaha sahi pehchana pri.
but feels like dejavu everytime :P

Pri said...

@ khushi, mr kitanu and secret admirer

hmm i see some interesting debate about to be born there...:p
as of now , no comments...
but yaa am pretty much curious to know ' mr kitanu's' answer to 'secret admirer's' suggestion...:)


@ adi
yaya right! *yawn* :D

Sam said...

Mr. Germ is hell bent on committing intellectual rape... yeah that's what I'd call it!!! And I'm sure he's an overworked IT professional.. or a a computer geek!!!

Secret admirer please, i beg of you, do not feed his rantings!!!

Else the count of people being infected by germ might increase!!! :P

Doc Pri... u got cases coming ur way!!! Have your stetho on stand by!!!

The 'Mad' Orchid said...

heyaz doc..:P
hmmmmmmm..lemme come out the deja -vu to comment on this..hehe on more serious note ...dt ws some help...thxs doc n wil let ya knw which side of d fence im...bt comin to think of it..i guess im stil nt undergone sucha situation....hmmmm my subconscious mind doesnt seemily agreee with my mind...so spare some time...

Pri said...

@ sam
lol!! sam...mere itne bhi bure din nahi aaye hain abhi tak :p

@ mad orchid
hmm sure thing mads...but make sure u report here firs if u ever get to experience it :D

Anonymous said...

@ secret admirer

Thanks For the correction... yes i should have used the comparison operator instead of assignment operator, Thanks again


Thanks
A Germ

Anonymous said...

hey tat hapns to me lot many times didnt kno tats wats deja vu!!hehe,,,,eyeopener

Pri said...

@ secret admirer
yess...that made a lot more sense :)
afterall its most often all about 'probably' isnt it?

@ alohomora
glad it helped :)...muss say ur lucky to have experienced it...