[INFJ] INFJs experiencing Deja Vu

[CuriousFeeling]

Have any of you INFJs experienced deja vu? If so, what have your experiences been like?

 

[Z Buck McFate]

I get crazy, disorienting deja vu. And jamais vu too- where you are someplace familiar but have the feeling you've never been there before.

Are you looking for some aspect of it that might be specific to INFJ (or Ni, or whatever)?

While I think the ridiculously strong deja vu episodes I get probably aren't related (they seem to run in my family, I've even seen doctors about it), I was actually wondering this past week about something *like* deja vu and being Ni dom. I was wondering if being Ni dom causes us to have that Waiting For Godot feeling more than most people do- that strange/foreboding "I've been through something just like this before, but can't remember the details" feeling.

 

[CuriousFeeling]

I've had moments where I've seen things in my dreams and I walk through a place or watch a program on TV or something and feel like I had just did that or seen it before in my dreams. It could be connected to Ni.

I've heard similar things from other INFJs I know of, and an INFP. I wonder if us INFJ folk tend to experience this most often due to Ni, and maybe it could be Ni gone out of control, kind of a disembodiment from consciousness?

 

[pinkgraffiti]

news flash: everybody experiences deja-vu! i get that, my INFP gf gets that... and it's not surprising, it's a physiological reaction. wikipedia:
"Scientific research[edit|edit source]

The psychologist Edward B. Titchener in his book 1928 A Textbook of Psychology, explained déjà vu as caused by a person having a brief glimpse of an object or situation, before the brain has completed "constructing" a full conscious perception of the experience. Such a "partial perception" then results in a false sense of familiarity.[1] The explanation that has mostly been accepted of déjà vu is not that it is an act of "precognition" or "prophecy", but rather that it is an anomaly of memory, giving the false impression that an experience is "being recalled".[2][3] This explanation is supported by the fact that the sense of "recollection" at the time is strong in most cases, but that the circumstances of the "previous" experience (when, where, and how the earlier experience occurred) are uncertain or believed to be impossible.
As time passes, subjects may exhibit a strong recollection of having the "unsettling" experience of déjà vu itself, but little or no recollection of the specifics of the event(s) or circumstance(s) which were the subject of the déjà vu experience itself (the events that were being "remembered"). This may result from an "overlap" between the neurological systems responsible for short-term memory and those responsible for long-term memory, resulting in (memories of) recent events erroneously being perceived as being in the more distant past. One theory is the events are stored into memory before the conscious part of the brain even receives the information and processes it.[4] However, this explanation has been criticized that the brain would not be able to store information without a sensory input first. Another theory suggests the brain may process sensory input (perhaps all sensory input) as a "memory-in-progress", and that therefore during the event itself one believes it to be a past memory. In a survey, Brown had concluded that approximately two-thirds of the population have had déjà vu experiences.[5]"

 

[Z Buck McFate]

Ah, so you are talking about actual deja vu then, not simply a nonspecific 'something about this seems too familiar' feeling.

Well ftr, +1 for Ni dom who experiences it somewhat regularly.

 

[hazelsees]

Stop trying to be special, INFJs! Geez!

 

[pinkgraffiti]

Stop trying to be special, INFJs! Geez!

ahah i didnt mean to offend... i just think sometimes this forum goes way overboard trying to correlate everything to MBTI/enneagram.

 

[Chad of the OttomanEmpire]

I get deja vu all the time, and I doubt I'm an Ni-user. It's actually gotten worse since I've had thyroid trouble. People who experience epilepsy frequently report it as their "warning sign" before a seizure. I assumed it was biological rather that Ni-induced.

Perhaps we're talking about two different sorts?

 

[ndovjtjcaqidthi]

My whole life is deja vu.

 

[hazelsees]

ahah i didnt mean to offend... i just think sometimes this forum goes way overboard trying to correlate everything to MBTI/enneagram.

Oh, I was just joking. Not offended.


But...

Having a difficult time putting my thoughts into words.

Maybe INFJs are (super) sensitive to things like deja vu. Not because we are (special) magic or psychic...but just because of how we're wired. Maybe other NFs too?
I just asked my ESFP friend if he'd ever experience deja vu...he said, "no". But he knew the "definition"--I asked. Personally, I think he probably has experience it--he's just not sensitive to it or aware of it. He has other things that he's sensitive to and aware of.

There's other things that I am sensitive to--dreaming, for one.

Dreams help me immensely. An easy example is when I lose something. I will search extensively for the lost item, but often can't find it.
That night I will dream and see myself finding lost item in a dream. The lost item is always in the place that the dream showed me. Not magical, because after all, I "put" the item in that place--just didn't remember it consciously.

Or things that seem paranormal. I am a huge skeptic, but still am open-minded because of my own experiences. The week after my Dad died, the electronic things were quirky in the room that he died. Other people (types) might not even be aware. Perhaps there was a power surge that made the TV and stereo power on suddenly and often. And then stop after a week.
But then I prayed desperately that when my first child died at 20 months, I would have 0 experiences like that--I couldn't take it. My Dad was one thing, but not my first son.
...and then the things I experienced in my early childhood.
But what I'm saying is that "things" happen to everyone, but some people/types might not be interested in paying attention to--or trying to understand why. INFJs probably are going to be interested--or at least sensitive to them.
I'm rambling. And know that I am. But...whatever.

 

[cafe]

I don't really get deja vu hardly ever. I don't remember my dreams all that often either.

 

[Dancing_Queen]

I don't think it's an INFJ thing. I have really strong deja vus from time to time. I find it creepy because to me there's no doubt I've already heard a whole conversation, either on TV or in person, and when I recite the rest of it, people are either or "You've already watched it, didn't you?" .

Maybe it's an NF thing.

 

[hazelsees]

I sent a group text to several friends who have been "typed" at their jobs. "Do you experience Deja Vu? How Often?"

So far..
The INFJ does experience deja vu. Often.
The ESFJ has not responded (but will because it's the polite thing to do...and she's probably busy taking care of several people today because that's what she does...and she'll be horrified when she realizes that it's taken her so long to reply...because she will see that as rude.)
Out of the 3 ISTJs, only one responded with "I don't experience Deja vu". The others probably thought responding was a waste of time...and that it was a stupid, pointless question.
The ESFP does not experience Deja Vu. But would I want to come over to a party tonight?
BOTH ENFPs had to be funny by responding with the same message twice, a few minutes apart. (However, both do occasionally experience deja vu)
One INFP was funny too with "didn't you just say that?" He does experience it several times a year.
The other INFP has not responded yet. (it's possible she's on vacation.)