Thread: repeating actions and events

hello guys. again its me with a question which i would like to know if someone has any information about it. it may have happened to you several times but, I'm sure that you can hardly ever get the chance to experience this mental condition. I'm going to explain a little in order not to leave any unclear points.

its about some special moments which only last for about 10 seconds (or a little more) whenever they happen. in this short period of time, you feel that events and actions happening around you (including what people say, sounds you hear, and...) are completely familiar. i mean you feel that you have seen and heard them before. well i usually freeze when that happens. believe it or not, if you go a little bit deeper inside, you will be able to predict what is going to happen in the next 1 or 2 seconds because you know that you have seen those events in the past; i have done it once. i was working with my computer while my mother was talking to me. suddenly i found out that i had heard what my mother was saying, some time in the past. just a second after that, i received a private message which that was familiar too. then according to what i could remember, i started looking at the door because i was expecting someone to knock at it, and to my surprise someone did knock the door. what i explained happened during a 4 or 5-second period of time. i was shocked and didn't know what to do!!! you know, I'm not completely sure that i have really predicted that. it was a very very short period of time and that is why I'm in doubt about that.

anyway, is there any name for this kind of mental condition in psychology?
I'd be grateful if you let me know whatever information or experience you have about it. Thanks a lot.

Its called Deja Vu.

and last time I experienced it is at teen age... Not sure if this is relevant or not.

The current view on deja vu is that it's an error in memory processing in the brain. Usually we perceive something and it goes through the normal short-term memory process and then possibly finishes up in long term memory and available for recognition.

With deja vu, that whole process is short circuited and the immediate perception comes to you as 'recognition' of something from your long term memory rather than as something novel. So your instant perception feels exactly like a recollection of something remembered.

Our feeling that this is wrong or strange attaches to the perception itself rather than the process - because we're entirely unaware of what goes on inside our heads.

What Adelady said is correct.

I would like to point out to Phoenix, though, that none of this is precognition. We may think it is, but that is mainly because we do not remember the event accurately after it is all over.

thanks a lot to you adelady, skeptic and msafwan. the answer completely convinced me about the problem i asked about. thanks thanks thanks. Later with more questions.

So what is it called when i see something happening in a dream, and a few months later it happens in real life? Does it mean some parts of our brain are not always on the same time on the same place, that some parts are further trough time then others?

Originally Posted by Zwolver

So what is it called when i see something happening in a dream, and a few months later it happens in real life?

Coincidence.

Does anybody else feel like they've read this before?

This research claim they able to replicate Deja Vu in virtual reality: Spatial configuration can spark deja vu, psychology study reveals

Originally Posted by Zwolver

So what is it called when i see something happening in a dream, and a few months later it happens in real life? Does it mean some parts of our brain are not always on the same time on the same place, that some parts are further trough time then others?

That is called Déjà Rêvé. Déjà vu is French for “Already Seen” and Déjà Rêvé isFrench for “Already Dreamed”. Or precognitive dream. See this article (although it is just someones' theory): The Anatomy of a Precognitive Dream

And also for more information on Déjà vu and Déjà Rêvé: The frequency of déjà vu (déjà rêve) and the effects of age, dream recall frequency and personality factors | Funkhouser | International Journal of Dream ResearchAlso a bit of a debate and research: Active Lucid Precognitive Dream Research.

By posting such links I am not saying that I believe that Déjà vu and/or Déjà Rêvé are predictions of the future. But I am not saying that it is not possible either. If someone in the 1000s went around talking about molecules, atoms and stuff. Everyone might think he's a bit loony. But in the 1000s we did not have (as far as I know) anything to detect atoms. So just because we could not see them does not mean they did not exist. Same with ESP (extra-sensory perception) and any other unproven theory, just because we have not proved it, does not mean it does not exist. Get what I'm saying?

In spite of dozens of scientific experiments, and enormously long analysis of results, there is still no credible evidence of precognition. If it existed, the work would have shown it by now.

If we dream something and later think we experienced what we dreamed, it is most likely defective memory. Memory of dreams, most especially, is vague and uncertain. It is not uncommon to experience something in real life which we link to a dream, despite the dream memory being uncertain and unreliable. This kind of error in memory is so common, we can call it universal.

Originally Posted by skeptic

If we dream something and later think we experienced what we dreamed, it is most likely defective memory.

One theory I have heard is that we maybe remembering a partially remembered dream and then our brain merges the facts of the dream with reality so quickly it seems instantaneous.

Originally Posted by skeptic

Memory of dreams, most especially, is vague and uncertain. It is not uncommon to experience something in real life which we link to a dream, despite the dream memory being uncertain and unreliable.

Being an avid lucid dreamer and a person generally fascinated with the act of dreaming, I keep a very detailed dream journal and almost every night remember most (around 6 or 7) of my dreams (we all dream every night quite a few times, usually 5-7) in close to perfect detail. I know plenty of people who have excellent dream recall and don't even have to keep a dream journal anymore. Usually when I "have" Deja Reve, I can "remember" it perfectly, but have only tried looking forward once (successful), but of course I cannot prove it, and am not saying it was an actual prediction of the future. All I'm saying is I don't think it would be the vividness of the dream recall that would result in a Deja Reve.

Originally Posted by skeptic

In spite of dozens of scientific experiments, and enormously long analysis of results, there is still no credible evidence of precognition. If it existed, the work would have shown it by now.

I honestly have not looked much at the experiments done specifically on Deja Reve, and I am honestly too lazy to go and find some right now. But I do know of a few experiments done on ESP in general, and the results were above chance. Not high enough to prove it, but they were above chance (J.B Rhine and other experiments).

Wyvrn

Sorry to disillusion you, but Rhine's work has long since been discredited. Apparently he did not use anyone expert at statistics, and once his results were subject to proper statistical analysis, the "above chance" factor disappeared.

The thing is that the human mind is malleable. We see what we want to see, and we remember what we want to remember. A person who is a "true believer" in precognition will remember that which supports that belief. The same goes for remembering dreams.

Originally Posted by skeptic

Wyvrn

Sorry to disillusion you, but Rhine's work has long since been discredited. Apparently he did not use anyone expert at statistics, and once his results were subject to proper statistical analysis, the "above chance" factor disappeared.

The thing is that the human mind is malleable. We see what we want to see, and we remember what we want to remember. A person who is a "true believer" in precognition will remember that which supports that belief. The same goes for remembering dreams.

I agree, we do see and remember what we want to, sub-consciously or consciously, but in remembering dreams, what if I have them written down before I "have" Deja Reve?

To be honest, I didn't do as much research on Rhine's work as I should have, I apologize.

Anyways, I can't seem to remember the experiments that I was thinking of.. The one with the 2 secluded people, one chooses a image or animated clip (animated clip worked more) and concentrates on it, then the other person, in a completely secluded room, guesses which image or clip the other person is thinking of? Sound familiar? I think it was something terrible like 33% correct and I think 143 people, which was kinda negative to the ESP research, but I just can't seem to remember where I read it.

In my conclusion though, I think ESP probably has not ever been achieved in a modern experiment. But a small part of me still wants to believe that it's remotely possible.

I think it has to be a multitude of thoughts that makes some thing actually happening innevitable. Usually when i dream precochnitive, i see flashes, and only segments, i understand seeing enough of those segments together will form an image of a new location. Still it's interesting how the brain makes a whole from those segments.

I thought it was clear to everyone that if Deja Vu can be replicated in Virtual Reality then it is just an illusion... just like persistent illusion we always saw in clever drawing.

Originally Posted by adelady

The current view on deja vu is that it's an error in memory processing in the brain. Usually we perceive something and it goes through the normal short-term memory process and then possibly finishes up in long term memory and available for recognition.

With deja vu, that whole process is short circuited and the immediate perception comes to you as 'recognition' of something from your long term memory rather than as something novel. So your instant perception feels exactly like a recollection of something remembered.

Our feeling that this is wrong or strange attaches to the perception itself rather than the process - because we're entirely unaware of what goes on inside our heads.

By any chance would you be able to answer a question I now have?

I know one of the thoughts about how we recognize objects, like letter characters in somebody else's writing, is through the use of matching the objects in question to prototypes... So do we also create prototypes for events?

So do we also create prototypes for events?

I wouldn't think in terms of prototypes. The big thing we have to watch out for - and can't really control very much at the individual level - is our tendency to 'see' patterns. This mental facility is a great boon for ordinary life, but it can get in the way when we come across things that are a bit out of the ordinary.

What you need to bear in mind, all the time, is that your own memory of what you may recall from thoughts or fantasies or dreams isn't all that marvelous. My initial thought on this is that unless you (or whoever) have written down, with every specific detail fully described, the thought or idea or dream in question at the time it occurred - not a day or two later when our ever-fertile minds have had a chance to elaborate or extend or qualify the original - you can't really say that you foresaw an event.

Let's face it, the things that can happen in our lives are pretty well constrained. We don't expect gravity to vanish or a hippopotamus to knock at the door or melted chocolate to flow from the laundry tap. When people say, 'I knew that was going to happen' they're usually talking about things that are not exceptionally surprising in the larger scheme of things. Long-gone friends do come back to visit. People do fall in and out of love. Patient people do sometimes lose their temper. Pictures do fall off walls. Drivers do have accidents.

Thinking that you 'foresaw' such an event is pushing it a bit. What you're doing is recognising an event as more, or less, part of the patterns of your life and putting it together with thoughts and fantasies - and maybe giving your own mind more credit than it's due. If it wasn't worth writing down and recording the specifics at the time you had the thought or made the prediction, you're probably overstating your recollection of the prediction itself. It should be remarkable at the time, not days or weeks later when you say it's remarkable.