Deja Vu

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

campy hippo



Boru

[Surulaia]

OK, so i've done some minor hunting online for stories that correlate to what i've experienced throughout my life.  Sadly, every source i've gone to keeps pointing to a higher power, and i'm a hardcore atheist (objectivist).

Though reconciling my experience with Science and objective thought has always been impossible.

Throughout my life i've experienced Deja Vu. It happens frequently (compared to others or at least from what i've read about the frequency at which others experience it,  1-2 times a year, sometimes more frequent). in every single instance i remember the first time I've seen the situation, it's a dream.  The feeling of having done something before exists in my memory, but my memory is sharp enough i can recall the approximate time in my life at which i had the dream (i dreamt of my high school girlfriend when i was 10, though had no idea who she was or when i would meet her.  i lived in Texas and was moved to Wisconsin when i was 12, and met her when i was 14. So in no way had i seen her previous to us meeting when i was 14.  Though i distinctly remember the dream. Subsequently i remember the moment in which the Deja Vu occured and the dream was fulfilled.)

Most recently:  I got married when i was 31, when i was 33 I had a strange but normal dream of laying in bed, dressed, having a conversation with a woman who was standing next to the bed, also dressed.  No idea who she was at the time.  I mentioned this dream to my Wife when i woke up, described the woman to her hoping she might recognize the description (leaving out the part about laying in bed, as I didn't want some strange jealousy from my wife).  It was a brief dream, no sex or anything else happened, what i can recall of the dream was maybe 5 seconds of real time.  3 years later i'm going through a divorce and have moved again, 1600 miles.  I spent a day helping a friend move (someone i'd met a couple months before and get along with, no sexual connection here, she's from Costa Rica and recently obtained Residency in the US, still working on citizenship.  Never met this person ever in my life, have never been to Costa Rica etc.), and when all was said and done i was laying in her bed, and we were talking and Deja Vu occured, immediately bringing to mind the memory of the dream and when i mentioned it to my wife 3 years ago.

What i'm looking for: some help from the atheist community to potentially track down how this is working in my brain.  Being an atheist i'm not looking to a higher power for an answer.  Some kind of research into temporal mechanics may be necessary, simply wondering how my subconscious could have such a detailed and precise account of something that is going to happen in my near future.  This has been the one and only thing in my life that has ever made me question being an atheist.  

Drug use:  yes i had my hayday in my 20s.  Used marijuana, Ecstacy, acid, and few other things just to try them.  but was clean before 19 (even alcohol) and have been clean since 25 (including alcohol, though the occasional, once a month, glass of wine with dinner i still do)  Haven't been heavily intoxicated since my 28th Birthday. Currently 36.  Probably why my marriage failed, she's a pretty hardcore drinker, and i'm simply not interested in intoxicants anymore...  Stodgy i guess is how i would describe myself. 

Sorry to Necro the thread.

[Cato]

Sorry to Necro the thread.

Apparently not.

[Surulaia]

Thank you for your feedback.

It has been filed in the appropriate location.

[robvalue]

It's impossible for me to try and account for all these weird experiences. But here's a few thoughts.

Coincidences happen. If many coincidence happen, that is just a coincidence.

Confirmation bias: how many dreams have you have in your life? How many have not been at all prophetic?

Memory is unreliable: It may well be you are retrofitting an experience to a dream you had, and the details of the dream have become somewhat degraded and your brain fills in the gaps.

Self fulfilling: If you "know" something is going to happen, you may act in such a way as to make it happen.

I don't know what else I can say. The mind is very fallible, and we are easily tricked especially by ourselves. Yet, coincidences do still happen. Any attempt anyone makes to attribute some sort of supernatural cause is an argument from ignorance. There's still plenty of stuff we don't understand, and it's totally OK to say "I don't know why that happened." Being comfortable with that is a good way to shake off supernatural worries. Randomly making up an answer, or accepting one from someone else, gets you no closer to the truth.

[Marsellus Wallace]

Sorry to Necro the thread.

Apparently not.

well, it's better than making a whole new thread about it.

[Cyberman]

Saw the necro. Thought "Not this again..."

[Marsellus Wallace]

Saw the necro. Thought "Not this again..."

 well played, sir. well played 

[robvalue]

Deja poo like a bird poos!

[Cato]

Thank you for your feedback.

It has been filed in the appropriate location.

Hopefully up your ass. I'm not a Mod and don't necessarily give a shit about the necro post; although it would become quite annoying if everyone used the 'it's better than a new thread' excuse.

My general problem and purpose for my reply is my disdain for people insincerely and needlessly apologizing, as if it's just something one says to make any sort of responsibility for a transgression magically disappear. Again, the necro post is of little importance here; the principle is another matter.

Apologies are acceptable if you accidentally open a door on someone's toe. Apologies are not acceptable when you lay in wait watching someone approaching through a peep hole only to thrust the door open at the precise moment when you know the door will make impact. Get the difference?