Déjà vu

"When some French were assembling an encyclopedia of paranormal experiences, they decided to leave déjà vu out, because it was so common it could not be considered paranormal."

"Good evening. Tonight on Its the Mind, we examine the phenomenon of déjà vu. That strange feeling we sometimes get that weve lived through something before. That what is happening now has already happened tonight on Its the Mind, we examine the phenomenon of déjà vu. That strange feeling we sometimes get that weve lived— (pause for realization) Anyway, tonight on Its the Mind, we examine the phenomenon of déjà vu. That strange..."

"We wallow in nostalgia but manage to get it all wrong. True nostalgia is an ephemeral composition of disjointed memories … but American-style nostalgia is about as ephemeral as copyrighted déjà vu."

"Boyd Rice: Speaking of numerology, I came here on Friday the 13th, the hotel is at 777 St. Clair, my room is 1111 and the address of your hotel is 1111. Marilyn Manson: I havent finished my theory on it, but I feel we will develop the ability to send ourselves messages from the future. Thats what I think deja vu is. Psychologists have a name for a disorder called "the delusional self" and thats when you think everythings related for a reason, but I think that its a higher form of awareness."

"We have all some experience of a feeling, that comes over us occasionally, of what we are saying and doing having been said and done before, in a remote time — of our having been surrounded, dim ages ago, by the same faces, objects, and circumstances — of our knowing perfectly what will be said next, as if we suddenly remembered it!"

"Madness is the déjà-vu of death."

"The essential of the déjà vu is rather the negation of the present than the affirmation of the past."

"In the condition of "deja vu" it is probable that what takes place is that one or several elements in the present situation are like those which had been experienced in the past, but that the dissimilarities in the situations are not observed. The individual has a memory defect in that he parallels or identifies a complex present experience with a similar complex past experience, although in the present experience the number of elements which are the same as those in the past may not be very great. In other words, the present experience is deemed to be the same as that of the past because of the fact that the past is not accurately remembered and properly localized in time."

"They [Romantics] all seem to have experienced paramnesia, the sensation of déjà vu, the total recollection which does not appear to be recollected; they all aimed at least at the total exclusion of the past from the present by a perfect absorption in the present, as if time stood still and became eternity."

"Often on the highway, weary and wary, we spurn the unknown and cheerfully drive on for the promise of a Howard Johnsons and its familiar déjà vu."

"To the category of the wonderful and uncanny we may also add that strange feeling we perceive in certain moments and situations when it seems as if we had already had exactly the same experience, or had previously found ourselves in the same situation. … I believe that it is wrong to designate the feeling of having experienced something before as an illusion. On the contrary, in such moments something is really touched that we have already experienced, only we cannot consciously recall the latter because it never was conscious. In short, the feeling of Déjà vu corresponds to the memory of an unconscious fantasy."