De ja vu in dreams

[sunsetzero]

Most dreamers are sure to have experienced this. For clarity, I'll explain this 'phenomena' clearly. Ever experienced in a dream that, you realize things, like you knew that this has already happened in the past? I sure have, loads of times. You may get the feeling randomly that you already went here, you already know a DC, or experienced the same situation. But when you wake up, and check your dream journal or your life, you don't find it at all. All you know is you got that feeling of "Hey, I've been here before!", but in reality, you haven't. I don't know if your mind is just tricking you, or there's a deeper meaning behind this, I don't know. There are other phenomenas, just like the 'time lapse' thing. It's when you've been to a specific place (in a dream, of course), then later on go back to that and have the sensation that months or even years has passed (in the same dream). I know that's normal, but it's very rare for me. And when that happens to me, the dreams are always vivid and mysterious, or it may contain some people and friends I'm attached to. These things have been puzzling me, so mind if someone explains it further, for those who experienced the same things?

[Arutad]

You may get the feeling randomly that you already went here, you already know a DC, or experienced the same situation. But when you wake up, and check your dream journal or your life, you don't find it at all. All you know is you got that feeling of "Hey, I've been here before!", but in reality, you haven't. Usually when I have such deja vus they can be traced to past dreams, even if they're vague, nothing more than a couple of flashes. Like, you dream of walking in some street that doesn't exist in real life but you "remember" where your house is situated, although vaguely. It actually feels like a memory of another dream. The most prominent feature of it is that you can kind of vaguely feel the time that the memory (past dream) is from. But sometimes there are fake memories, you "know" something on-the-fly, not in the manner of a constantly remembered memory, but something that you "suddenly" start to remember. That's a different thing, imho, and it feels very differently. No feeling of time there. It feels more like "knowledge" than memory. Maybe it's strange to use feelings to determine the source of thoughts. But in real life we also have nothing but our feelings to determine what kind of memories we have. For instance, you remember something and get confused, unable to determine whether it's a real-life memory or a dream memory, something that many lucid dreamers have happening to them. But if you focus you can eventually determine where the memory came from, it has the "feeling" of time and a state to where it belongs. And it turns out right.

[Falsn]

Hah. Just last night I had a deja vu. In the dream it was familiar to me but in real life I don't think I've had that dream before. But I did have a dream in the past before that was similar to that one, but not exactly. It was in the same settings I guess.