Déjà rêvé (already dreamed), a phenomenon that very few know

Have you ever suffered a deja vu (Already seen)? It is very probable. That type of paramnesia in which we have the feeling that what we just experienced we had already experienced before is quite common. Much has been written about it, movies have been made, and it remains as striking a phenomenon as it is known to neuroscience.

There is nothing supernatural about it, since it responds to a very recurrent memory failure that occurs in the temporal lobe. Now, what if we asked you now if you have ever had a déjà rêvé (already dreamed)? It is a unique experience in which, suddenly, any circumstance or situation evokes something that appeared in our dream universe.

There are people who, in their daily lives, almost constantly have the perception of being reliving a dream. That is to say, while in the deja vu We tell ourselves that “I have already experienced this”, in the déjà rêvé What we would say to ourselves would be “I have already dreamed of this.”

For what is this? Who suffers from it and why? We delve into it.

The feeling that something that just happened to us we had already dreamed of can be very disturbing.

Déjà rêvé (already dreamed): what does it consist of?

The brain and, consequently, the human mind, are entities as unknown as they are intricate. There are many neurological and memory disorders that, at the moment, are not 100% understood. In this way, both the deja vu As the déjà rêvé They respond to experiential phenomena that science has been trying to unravel for decades and about which we already know some data.

We can define the déjà rêvé (already dreamed) as an experience in which a person has the perception of living suddenly, an event that has been dreamed of at some point. Even more, Sometimes, those who suffer from this type of alterations believe they are in a dream. As neurologists themselves point out, this sensation is much more complex than the deja vu.

Let’s look at some of the characteristics that define it.

How does it manifest?

The CG Jung Küsnacht Institute carried out research in 2010 on the phenomenon of déjà rêvé. They surveyed 444 students to find that 95.2% of them had experienced this at some point. It’s understandable. In fact, if you also ask each of us, most of us would claim to have had that experience at some specific moment.

Now, it should be noted that There are people who deal with this type of paramnesia with high frequency. Far from being a sporadic event, it becomes a frequent reality.

There are three typologies of déjà rêvé. The first defines that experience that turns out to be exact to a very particular dream, of which very specific details are remembered. This typology is dominated by the episodic type. The second family typology refers to the somewhat diffuse perception that what happens here and now It reminds us of a past dream that we cannot clearly discern.Finally, the third class déjà rêvé It is the most complex and striking. There are people who suddenly enter a dream state.. Reality is distorted, contact with it is lost and one has the feeling that they are immersed in a dream world. It is a brief, but overwhelming experience.

Electrical brain stimulation can make a person feel as if something they are experiencing reminds them of a past dream.

I’ve dreamed this before! For what is this?

When someone tells us that “I had already dreamed of what happened to me now” we feel some surprise and even skepticism. Does this mean that this person has extrasensory or precognitive abilities? Absolutely. We insist once again that there are multiple, very unusual neurological experiences that science cannot yet fully understand.

However, this does not mean that it does not have a scientific explanation. The déjà-rêvé They attract more and more attention and, therefore, little by little more studies appear to give us answers on the subject. For a start, Neurologists tell us that these experiences, although similar, differ quite a bit from deja vu. Let’s look at some of the causes of its appearance.

When real life reminds us of a dream

As we have already pointed out, it is quite possible that 95% of us have experienced this phenomenon. And the trigger is very understandable. Many of our nocturnal dreams are forgotten, they remain deep in the mental strata. Now, sometimes, There are certain events or situations that make us remember what we dreamed that night or a few days ago.

It’s like someone who goes to a coffee shop and sees someone drop their cup of coffee. That scene suddenly evokes something similar that we experience in our dreams. This causes us to have the (erroneous) perception that what is happening is exactly the same as those past dream narratives. recently.

The stimulated brain and epilepsy

It’s one thing to have one or two episodes of déjà-rêvé per year and it is quite another to have them almost daily. The University Hospital of Toulouse, the Brain and Cognition Research Center (CNRS) and the University of Nancy carried out an interesting research in 2018.

Something that could be seen is that electrical brain stimulation (EBS) induces the memory of past dreams. Proving this is more important than we think, because People with epilepsy have always reported having that feeling. That many of the things that happen to them, they have already experienced in dreams.

This work was the first to demonstrate the existence of déjà-rêvé as a common experiential phenomenon in patients with this disease. It is a neurological peculiarity that often occurs during seizures.

A harmless phenomenon

In the vast majority of cases having a deja vu as a déjà-rêvé They respond to events that are as normal as they are striking. They are somewhat disturbing and manage to leave that mark on us, that of strangeness when feeling that something that should be new, is not so new because we have experienced it before. Either in the past or in dreams.

This is not a problem other than a funny anecdote. Now, if we have the clear feeling that we are losing touch with reality and that what we see and feel often seems distorted, we should not hesitate to seek professional help.

The mind can play tricks on us and it is convenient to know the reason. Although, as we say, this is a very common and innocuous phenomenon.

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