<p>It's a phenomenon called <a href="https://curiosity.com/topics/deja-reve-is-even-weirder-than-deja-vu-curiosity/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">déjà rêvé</a>, the French for &quot;already dreamed&quot;:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If you've ever felt like you predicted something in a dream, you might have felt it wise to keep that feeling to yourself so that others don't think you're as out-there as an ancient oracle. Well, good news: you don't need to be so secretive about your psychic dreams. They're actually a well-documented phenomenon called déjà rêvé — but they don't actually mean you can see the future. [...]</p>
<p>According to a new study that looked back on the medical reports of epileptic patients from 1958 to 2015, déjà rêvé experiences are common after electric brain stimulation, a pretty standard treatment method for epileptic symptoms. It suggests that the &quot;already dreamed&quot; feeling is the result of something happening physiologically in the brain, and that in turn could point to a better understanding of how dreams work.  [...]</p>
<p>If you experience déjà rêvé, take comfort in knowing that it's totally normal — the feeling is just a harmless quirk of your brain.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And there's is actually a <a href="http://www.ingentaconnect.com/contentone/imp/jcs/2017/00000024/F0020007/art00008" rel="nofollow noreferrer">2017 paper</a>, on the occurrence in the general population; it looks like it happens to most peple at least some times:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Deja reve ('already dreamed') has been hypothesized as a cause for various forms of déjà experience. With deja reve one has the distinct impression that the uncanny familiarity one is sensing has come from a preceding dream, but one not usually remembered until the experience is taking place. In this exploratory investigation, 2,492 respondents filled out online questionnaires in which they were queried about the incidence of their deja reve experiences, about dream frequency, and about their attitudes to dreams. The Big Five personality factors were also measured using a separate, standardized questionnaire. <strong>Nearly 80% claimed to have had such experiences</strong> and the associated frequencies are presented. Age was negatively correlated with the incidence and there was little gender dependence. The results of the Big Five personality factors are also presented.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Studies of déjà rêvé aren't very numerous however. The <a href="https://www.brainstimjrnl.com/article/S1935-861X(18)30079-2/fulltext" rel="nofollow noreferrer">&quot;new study&quot;</a> mentioned in that first popsci article distinguishes déjà-rêvé from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A9j%C3%A0_vu" rel="nofollow noreferrer">déjà vu</a> (basically déjà-rêvé elicits some specific dream/memory content, not mere impression of having seen something before) and proposes a further sub-classification:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Déjà-rêvé appears to be different from déjà-vu—the two must not be confused. By construction, all déjà-rêvé episodes we collected had content, which is not the case for déjà-vu. Furthermore, déjà-vu and déjà-rêvé never involved the same bipolar contacts in the instances when both could be induced by EBS [electric brain stimulation] in the same patient. These results are critical since they support the idea that déjà-rêvé is a true phenomenon, different from déjà-vu.</p>
<p>Moreover, déjà-rêvé is a generic term for distinct entities: recollection of a specific and detailed dream similar to an episodic memory, reminiscence of a vague dream or elements of dream(s) which feels familiar, and finally experiences that resemble or feel like what happens during dreams. Explicit content with mental imagery referring to a previous dream exists in the first two types, but the exactness of the details and contextual elements vary. In the third type, the content of the experience is not at the foreground, but the subject has the feeling of a known sensation or a state of consciousness similar to night dreaming. Only the first two types should be called déjà-rêvé, while the last type should be referred to as “dreamy state”.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>They also discuss why  déjà-rêvé is apparently not simply a hallucination, basically because of the association of the phenomenon with electrode placement in memory- and dream-related brain regions:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It may be disputed that we cannot be sure that déjà-rêvé (episodic-like or familiarity-like) are linked to true previous dreams. EBS could simply produce a random combination of visual and auditory elements, creating phantasmagoric and unrealistic experiences similar to dreams. However, EBS-inducing déjà-rêvé were all located in the temporal lobes, although extratemporal brain areas were commonly stimulated [4]. They were also exclusively induced by medial temporal lobe EBS in our database. Thus, like other subtypes of experiential phenomena, specific locations of EBS seem to correlate with déjà-rêvé subtypes. This suggests it is improbable the déjà-rêvé we reported here are pure hallucinations, otherwise patients would have reported similar phenomena after stimulation of other brain areas. Furthermore, the brain regions implicated in déjà-rêvé include structures involved in long-term memory (especially in episodic memory and familiarity processes) [27, 28, 29], in memory formation during sleep [29], in normal dreaming [30,31] and probably in dream recall [32].</p>
</blockquote>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-08-07T16:50:41.083Z
2018-08-07T17:33:16.690Z
2020-06-17T09:55:31.633Z
got trolled too much this week
<p>When I sleep, I can see some phenomenon as a dream. After some days or months or years that phenomenon happens in my life and forthwith my mind reminds me of that earlier dream that I saw. There are simple things such as for example getting down <code>pen from my hand</code> like wise.</p>

<p>My problem is how can this happen? I have heard this happens to others also. What kind of situation is this in the mind? Is it normal or abnormal?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-08-07T13:04:58.517Z
Are you sure it is not the case that you think that you dreamt about it but is actually not true...human mind can play games..hallucinating people also think what they see is true
DuttaA
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-08-07T16:54:29.840Z
Perhaps this [Phycology Today](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/one-among-many/201010/why-i-dont-believe-in-precognition) comment on Bem's study of causality, and pre/post-cognition would be of interest.
Rob
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-08-08T05:00:30.140Z
@DuttaA its not a problem until now. Bcz there is nothing happen to wary. Btw later will be...
Pushpamal
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-08-09T18:44:00.037Z
Have you been keeping a journal of dreams, or recording them in some manner, or do you just appear to remember that you dreamed something?
David Thornley
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-08-10T01:38:06.907Z
@David just appear
Pushpamal
<dreams>
My Mind Shows Me My Future
Pushpamal
# My Mind Shows Me My Future

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-08-07)

When I sleep, I can see some phenomenon as a dream. After some days or months or years that phenomenon happens in my life and forthwith my mind reminds me of that earlier dream that I saw. There are simple things such as for example getting down `pen from my hand` like wise.

My problem is how can this happen? I have heard this happens to others also. What kind of situation is this in the mind? Is it normal or abnormal?

**Tags:** dreams

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Are you sure it is not the case that you think that you dreamt about it but is actually not true...human mind can play games..hallucinating people also think what they see is true  
> **username_2**: Perhaps this [Phycology Today](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/one-among-many/201010/why-i-dont-believe-in-precognition) comment on Bem's study of causality, and pre/post-cognition would be of interest.  
> **username_0**: @username_1 its not a problem until now. Bcz there is nothing happen to wary. Btw later will be...  
> **username_3**: Have you been keeping a journal of dreams, or recording them in some manner, or do you just appear to remember that you dreamed something?  
> **username_0**: @David just appear  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_4 on 2018-08-07. Score: 4 | Accepted answer

It's a phenomenon called [déjà rêvé](https://curiosity.com/topics/deja-reve-is-even-weirder-than-deja-vu-curiosity/), the French for "already dreamed":

> If you've ever felt like you predicted something in a dream, you might have felt it wise to keep that feeling to yourself so that others don't think you're as out-there as an ancient oracle. Well, good news: you don't need to be so secretive about your psychic dreams. They're actually a well-documented phenomenon called déjà rêvé — but they don't actually mean you can see the future. [...]
>
> According to a new study that looked back on the medical reports of epileptic patients from 1958 to 2015, déjà rêvé experiences are common after electric brain stimulation, a pretty standard treatment method for epileptic symptoms. It suggests that the "already dreamed" feeling is the result of something happening physiologically in the brain, and that in turn could point to a better understanding of how dreams work. [...]
>
> If you experience déjà rêvé, take comfort in knowing that it's totally normal — the feeling is just a harmless quirk of your brain.

And there's is actually a [2017 paper](http://www.ingentaconnect.com/contentone/imp/jcs/2017/00000024/F0020007/art00008), on the occurrence in the general population; it looks like it happens to most peple at least some times:

> Deja reve ('already dreamed') has been hypothesized as a cause for various forms of déjà experience. With deja reve one has the distinct impression that the uncanny familiarity one is sensing has come from a preceding dream, but one not usually remembered until the experience is taking place. In this exploratory investigation, 2,492 respondents filled out online questionnaires in which they were queried about the incidence of their deja reve experiences, about dream frequency, and about their attitudes to dreams. The Big Five personality factors were also measured using a separate, standardized questionnaire. **Nearly 80% claimed to have had such experiences** and the associated frequencies are presented. Age was negatively correlated with the incidence and there was little gender dependence. The results of the Big Five personality factors are also presented.

Studies of déjà rêvé aren't very numerous however. The ["new study"](https://www.brainstimjrnl.com/article/S1935-861X(18)30079-2/fulltext) mentioned in that first popsci article distinguishes déjà-rêvé from [déjà vu](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A9j%C3%A0_vu) (basically déjà-rêvé elicits some specific dream/memory content, not mere impression of having seen something before) and proposes a further sub-classification:

> Déjà-rêvé appears to be different from déjà-vu—the two must not be confused. By construction, all déjà-rêvé episodes we collected had content, which is not the case for déjà-vu. Furthermore, déjà-vu and déjà-rêvé never involved the same bipolar contacts in the instances when both could be induced by EBS [electric brain stimulation] in the same patient. These results are critical since they support the idea that déjà-rêvé is a true phenomenon, different from déjà-vu.
>
> Moreover, déjà-rêvé is a generic term for distinct entities: recollection of a specific and detailed dream similar to an episodic memory, reminiscence of a vague dream or elements of dream(s) which feels familiar, and finally experiences that resemble or feel like what happens during dreams. Explicit content with mental imagery referring to a previous dream exists in the first two types, but the exactness of the details and contextual elements vary. In the third type, the content of the experience is not at the foreground, but the subject has the feeling of a known sensation or a state of consciousness similar to night dreaming. Only the first two types should be called déjà-rêvé, while the last type should be referred to as “dreamy state”.

They also discuss why déjà-rêvé is apparently not simply a hallucination, basically because of the association of the phenomenon with electrode placement in memory- and dream-related brain regions:

> It may be disputed that we cannot be sure that déjà-rêvé (episodic-like or familiarity-like) are linked to true previous dreams. EBS could simply produce a random combination of visual and auditory elements, creating phantasmagoric and unrealistic experiences similar to dreams. However, EBS-inducing déjà-rêvé were all located in the temporal lobes, although extratemporal brain areas were commonly stimulated [4]. They were also exclusively induced by medial temporal lobe EBS in our database. Thus, like other subtypes of experiential phenomena, specific locations of EBS seem to correlate with déjà-rêvé subtypes. This suggests it is improbable the déjà-rêvé we reported here are pure hallucinations, otherwise patients would have reported similar phenomena after stimulation of other brain areas. Furthermore, the brain regions implicated in déjà-rêvé include structures involved in long-term memory (especially in episodic memory and familiarity processes) [27, 28, 29], in memory formation during sleep [29], in normal dreaming [30,31] and probably in dream recall [32].


---

