I’ve had this draft saved in my blog’s bowels for over a year now. Originally, it was called “My Physical Memory Lanes,” but it’s more than that now; this post is about the mind’s different abnormalities, or rather the ones which I’ve encountered. I’m going to touch upon three unique experiences that my mind had been privy to over the years, the most recent occurring a few nights ago. But first; the most common occurrence of the three:
1. Deja Vu
Have any of you ever experienced Deja Vu? The term literally translates to “Already Seen,” and happens to around seventy percent of the population at some point in their lives. It usually occurs for about thirty seconds, but can sometimes extend past that duration.
Deja Vu is the sensation that you have already experienced a moment in time which, whether triggered by a sentence, an image, or other stimulants, plays out in real time.
There are many many theories as to what causes it, but the one that intrigues me the most is the theory that your life is in constant flux.
Now, I was sure that I read the following theory somewhere, but cannot find it. Instead I found all of the surrounding bits of information regarding it. So if I somehow made up this theory, then at least it has its ties to the related proposed cousins.
[[Much like the Copenhagen Interpretation or the Schrödinger’s Cat thought experiment]] there are multiple outcomes of any given scenario or decision, and our interaction with those decisions results in a definitive reaction. The cat in the box can either be alive or dead, so therefore each one exists simultaneously until we observe it, thus solidifying one outcome to be true.
So when you apply this to your life, Deja Vu is an occurrence of you failing or making a decision that could have altered your life. But since this you survived, your life had essentially rebooted; now you’re looking into the Many Worlds Theory, and your brain is receiving wavelengths from another version of you in the multiverse.
Since you’ve made it this far, that means your Deja Vu is the memory of when you’ve come to this point in your life. As long as you continue to get Deja Vu, it means that you’re doing something right. If it stops, that means your life is stagnate and you need to change things. It’s a theory I’ve developed from one called Quantum Immortality (#2 in this article). Like a real life Run Lola Run.
Or it could just be precognitive dreams. Which brings me to…
2. Precognitive Visions
This past Monday night is the first time I have ever been awake, thought of a scenario, and as random and rare as it may have been, it came true hours later. Yeah, in short, I saw the future.
This past weekend I worked on a short film and met a bunch of cool people, one of which was a woman named Amanda. Now, I’ve only met a dozen or so people prior to this, and have yet to come across anyone by accident on the street (like how easy it is to do in a small town in Maine). But as I walked to the Doug Loves Movies show last night, I envisioned randomly seeing Amanda on the street.
Now this thought is crazy for three reasons:
1. Amanda doesn’t live in this part of town.
2. Why Amanda? Why wouldn’t it be any one of the dozen-plus other people I’ve met?
3. It’s LOS ANGELES! Do you know how many people live here?!
Yet hours later, I was walking home from the show (of which I stayed later to talk with Doug and his guests), and when walking back on Sunset Boulevard, I saw Amanda. Not in the same way I pictured it, but it was her. I have no idea how this happened, or if I truly saw “the future,” but I feel as though I tapped into something unique in this instance. A mere passing thought materialized before my very eyes into reality. How can I possibly explain this, let alone prove it to anyone?
3. Physical Memory Lanes
And finally, the one that started this post.
This is one of the most bizarre and random things my mind has committed, and I don’t even know if this is a common experience, but when I think of certain things or events, I picture in my mind’s eye, a street or place. For example, the first time this happened I was thinking of Pokemon Gold and saw John’s Supermarket in Fort Kent, ME. I’m next to their soda coolers to the right of the store (before it was severely renovated over a decade ago).
Now, this is one of the first examples of this mental phenomena, and I attributed it being tied to the fact that I was probably playing the game one time while standing there, (and am almost sure of it).
But then it happened more frequently. I began to picture images of places and roads that had no discernible ties to the thoughts that caused them. In fact, these places were of different angles or viewpoints that I had no access to whatsoever. Most of them were over twenty to thirty feet in the air looking down, or from angles of which I’ve never seen.
I remember one from an old teacher’s house that I’d picture when listening to the TV podcast, Channel Surfing, as they mentioned the TV show V (I still have yet to see the show), and, that location became linked to whenever I’d listened to the podcast.
Then, as the word of the Keiji Inafune game Mighty No. 9 spread via its Kickstarter campaign, when I thought of that game, I imagined the dirt road behind Frank Martin and Sons (where my Dad used to work), again in Fort Kent. Prior to this instance, I thought all of these had something to do a long lost memory of me thinking of the trigger while at this location, but Mighty No. 9 was a new thing, and I had moved out of Fort Kent six years prior to this game’s announcement.
And one of the more recent instances is when I was outlining a new script earlier in February of this year. The film is about Death, so naturally, I pictured a small parking lot next to the hospital in Fort Kent.
Come to think of it, it’s bizarre that I never envisioned any other area except for Fort Kent. I have no explanation for that.
Have any of you ever experienced such a thing? I’d love to hear about it; whether it’s the Physical Memory Lanes, the premonitions of future events (awake or asleep), or the common Deja Vu, please, comment below! Also, if anyone can find the theory I was trying to pinpoint for Deja Vu, please let me know so I can amend this!
Thanks for reading!
-Jamie (@GuyOnAWire)
GuyOnAWire 