Recollection Of The Present - Self-development

There are questions "eternal", and there are interesting ones - reminiscent of something paradoxically elusive. For example, this is a question about déjà vu. You can write about the work of the unconscious, about the genetic messages of ancestors or games of perception, about the secrets of sleep or the riddles of memory. But the fact remains - what is the nature of the phenomenon "I have already seen it" nobody knows.

Time loop

Some experts believe that déjà vu is a specific moment in the relationship between the past, present and future, that is, a failure of the usual experience of the passage of time. The nature of this failure has been described in various ways. For example, Bergson defines déjà vu as "a memory of the present."

Imagine a person preoccupied with a mass of everyday worries and problems. He is immersed in thoughts about utility bills and what Aunt Lucy said … But, suddenly - bam! "It has already happened to me!" A person freezes and feels all the power of the moment - with all his soul, all receptors, all his body! For a modern neurotic subject, being alone with life in the fullness of its ambivalent experiences is a cruel test that neither parents nor school teach. Psychological practices show that the vast majority of people live, as Frederick Perls said, in the “Maya” layer - without a direct connection with oneself and with life, perceiving everything like through glass - dull and detached. An ordinary person's question: "what are you feeling now?" confuses and most often provokes intellectualization in response.

At the same time, experiences in a state of déja vu are described in detail, colorfully, with an appeal to all receptors and in the fullness of their feelings. Maybe these are those brief moments when we are truly alive and in direct contact with reality?

Sometimes there are curious cases, such as with a US resident who came on an excursion to Fort Laramie, located in Wyoming. As he walked through the fort, he described the location of the doors and interior spaces before he saw them. The group mistook him for a psychic. But then the tourist went to the store where the book “Queen of Bedlam”, which he once read, was on sale. The novel describes in great detail the interior and picturesque surroundings of the fort.

Meeting yourself

Bergson writes: “the perception of reality at the moment of déjà vu suddenly bifurcates and is partly as if transferred to the past”. A person finds himself in the past and in the present at the same time. A possible reason for this condition is a change in the way the brain encodes time, namely, the simultaneous perception of information as "present" and as "past" with superimposed experience of these processes. Isn't it a time loop?

The only question is - is the flow of time wrapped in a knot, placing a person in such a unique state, or is the person doing something that turns the flow into a knot? Researchers have conflicting opinions on this matter: some believe that the state of déja vu is accompanied by depersonalization, going beyond the boundaries of one's “I” and, to some extent, losing oneself and merging with the whole world.

Others, following Freud, on the contrary, understand déjà vu as “derealization”, that is, denial of reality, withdrawal into dreams and fantasies, detachment from the surrounding reality.

Both of these views are about the fact that the starting point is outside the personality. In this sense, Andrey Kurgan's opinion is alternative. He writes: "The structure of time is changing, the future invades the present, thereby exposing for a person his deep existential project." In other words, in this state, a person just meets himself and touches his original inalienable essence.

One of the neurotic manifestations is the rejection of one's past: “how to live if this happened to me? How to reconcile, how to forgive someone or yourself? " There are no less problems in relations with the future. It is difficult to imagine him: dreams are somewhere far away, and you are here. Between now and a dream is a gap of emptiness, which it is not known how to overcome. And here - such a blissful phenomenon - the past, present and future meet at one point! Of course, a deep existential project will be exposed if everything that was and everything that will be merges at one point. Psychotherapists say that this is how the state is described, thanks to which a person succeeds in everything.

Towards a mystery

On the one hand, scientists are trying to explain the phenomenon of déjà vu at the physiological level, describing how the hippocampus or amygdala works, on the other, at the personal level, in terms of self-identity and transcendence. But in neither case, a coherent theory does not work.

Maybe it’s deja vu who will sign the death warrant for our desire to sort everything out on shelves with pinned labels? The future belongs to the systemic / synergistic / holistic approach. I remind myself that the state of déja vu has nothing to do with the intellectualizations that I am currently performing. That is easy, wonderful, magical and strange. And here - boring attempts to describe the incomprehensible in elementary terms.

It is quite obvious that déjà vu has a different language, a different style and symbolism. Probably, like the work of superconsciousness, it cannot be reduced to our civilized reality. You cannot describe the unknown in terms of the known

We can only be amazed at what is larger and more complex than us. To be surprised and let the immense into your life. What if touching the unknown will enrich us with something? After all, we ourselves establish the limits of knowledge, formulating principles and rules. We are not able to understand and accept more than our soul is capable of, more than we are ready for it.

Deja vu sharpens the senses, gives a chance to "wake up", perceive the world brightly and understand what an incomprehensible mystery it is permeated with. The existence of parallel worlds or life after death cannot be verified. But the state of deja vu was experienced at least once in their lives by 97% of people. The only question is - to experience and forget, rejecting, like everything strange and incomprehensible, or to rejoice at your touch of the mysterious. This experience is a litmus test showing how alive the “child” is in your soul, how much you are able to wonder at miracles and are ready to look beyond the boundaries of the familiar.

But I think I already wrote about this? Or is it my deja vu?