We’ve all experienced déjà vu at one point or another. It’s an eerie feeling that makes you pause and wonder just what the hell is going on…and it’s usually the most mundane things that trigger it.
But have you ever heard of déjà rêvé? It’s basically the opposite of déjà vu, “already dreamed” instead of “already seen.”
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Déjà rêvé occurs when you experience something in real life that you feel like you have dreamed before. It’s kind of creepy, to be honest. And there’s really no time limit on this weird phenomenon.
Some people who have reported experiencing déjà rêvé claim that these dreams, almost like prophecies, happened years before they actually experienced it in real life. One study showed that déjà rêvé experiences were common in people who had received electric brain stimulations to treat epileptic symptoms.
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The study suggests that the feelings of déjà rêvé, or “already dreamed” feelings, could be the result of something occurring physiologically in the brain.
Scientists think this could lead to a better understanding of how dreams work.
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Déjà rêvé means not only thinking you’ve dreamt a real-life situation before, but also that you sometimes feel like you are dreaming at the moment you realize it, even though you are awake.
The participants in the study described their déjà rêvé experiences in three ways:
Episodic – where they could remember an exact day or time that they had the prophetic dream, even if it was years ago.
Familiarity-like – where people have a dreamy, hazy memory about their dreams that you might remember in the morning after you wake up.
Dreamy-state – participants who felt this way didn’t experience the recalled-dream memories of others. Instead, they say that the experience itself (while awake) was strange and like a dream. Some even described it as nightmarish.
Dreaming is still a big mystery for the most part, but maybe studying déjà rêvé will eventually give us more insight into how the human mind works.
Pretty trippy stuff, right? Has this ever happened to you? If so, please tell us about it in the comments!
