Have you ever had that feeling of deja vu? Have you ever known – truly known – exactly what will happen next?
When you sleep, your brain reviews your experiences, those subconscious impressions and feelings, any issues you are having trouble working through. Your brain runs through scenarios and options that you still face. In the end, you have many more dreams than you ever remember, but your brain reviews it all. Deja vu is your brain recognizing that it has seen this before. Typically, you won’t remember until it happens, and in most cases it is not an issue. You may recognize the feeling, have a moment of deja vu (and probably quote The Matrix) and move on. When you remember more of your dreams, you will still miss some of those moments until they are on top of you.
I have been practicing and working hard on remembering my dreams. I often remember my dreams the moment I wake. I write them down in a notebook, and review they later. Of course, most people can remember the last dream before they awake, but I have been training myself to remember more than just that last dream. I also have a tendency to wake right after a dream, even if it is the middle of the night.
This practice also enables me to remember those fleeting moments, and extend them.
When I have one of those deja vu moments, I can predict what is going to happen next – for as long as I don’t let myself consciously recognize that feeling of deja vu. It used to be that I would get that feeling, know exactly what someone was going to say or do next, then lose the feeling. Through intense effort and focusing on the moment that is happening, I have been able to extend the amount of time I am in that precog state. I am up to about 5 minutes now, and I have these things happen between 1 and 5 times every month.
Of course, the main issue is: what do I know from these precognitive dreams? Every time I get that deja vu feeling, it is with something almost mundane. For example, I will get that feeling – walking to Starbucks with my friend, talking about general normal stuff, and then we will begin discussing something unexpected. Or I got the feeling while I was on the phone with a coworker – during the 3 week period where she was a coworker.
Almost mundane, but not exactly. There is nothing (at least so far) world shaking or actually terribly important. However the times when I feel deja vu are during those times when something small and unexpected comes up. Deja vu is your brain recognizing that you have done this before – but what if there is no way you could have? The job I had, when I was talking with my coworker – the US Census. I have never worked for the census before, but I have dreamed of it, recently enough that it is in my dream journal. The kicker? It’s in my journal, that conversation, 6 months before I got hired.
Precognitive dreams – tell me if you’ve ever had an experience like that. I would like to explore dreams and their place in the waking world more.
Because I didn’t post this last week (blame being out of town), I will be posting tomorrow regarding Lucid Dreaming.
Here in Oregon people love to cover themselves with tattoos. It’s sort of hobby with us. So I am always interested in seeing what others are doing and learning new things. Thanks for the post.