I think I've seen this before...

[fajrdrako]

And interesting article about the causes of déja vu.

Comments

[threeringedmoon.livejournal.com]

As a rationalist, deja vu has always been one of those interesting phenomenon, since I have experienced several episodes myself. Nice to see this article on the potential
neurological causes of it.

[boulette-sud.livejournal.com]

Very interesting, thanks for the link!

[sollersuk.livejournal.com]

Interesting, and almost covers it. "Almost" because it doesn't deal with the very rare cases where a situation not only seems familiar, but one predicts what will come next. This has only happened to me a couple of times, but that's enough to be scary.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes - the neurological research that's being done fascinates me. The idea of a memory that isn't quite a memory - well. Interesting to see how it might work.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes. I'm not as much of a science lover as some of my friends, but I find the research they're doing into the neurology of the brain, especially as if affects perception, really fascinating. And we've all had déja vu at one time or another, real but inexplicable.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I wonder what neural impulses come into play there. I do believe precognition exists in some instances - the question is, what circumstances make it possible for that to happen? In the case you describe, I'd guess it to be the combination of factors necessary for déja vu along with a third more rare circumstance - though what that might be I can't guess.

It allows for fascinating speculation.

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

I saw this. I consider it just one more good, solid example of how our modern (Western) society has become over-medicalized, with the result that anything "unscientific" is ridiculed and denigrated, while the linear and the simplified are idolized. I consider deja vu to be evidence for the overlap of parallel dimensions of possible human reality, and I don't have a problem with that notion fitting into my scientific background. Then again, I'm not a linear thinker, and so find the scientific method, as it is at its most basic, to be too often an impediment to the discover and understanding of new insights.

I guess this hit me at a sensitive spot. Just the last few days, I've come to realize that modern American society strives, above all else, to make everyone the same, to make everyone's experiences the same. The quintessential example of this may be the current public school system, in which conformity is rewarded, but innovation and individuality are punished and at times pathologized. What can I say, I've been thinking about it....

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I don't think the unscientific is generally denigrated. Science is fighting with everything else for its place. Depends who you talk to. If science had pride of place, then we wouldn't need to worry about all those idiot creationists! In some ways, I think science is our only hope - certainly our ally, rather than our enemy.

I don't think your perception of déja vu and the information in the article are contradictory, either: the article talks about the mechanism, you're talking about the nature of the phenomenon.

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

I was not clear about my grief with "over-scientizing." Let me try again....

You and I live next door to each other. We say hi at the mailboxes every morning. Today, I have the sniffles. You (a hypothetical "you" in this case!) immediately ask me what I'm taking, and have I seen a doctor yet... and some of the hypothetical yous would further even get intense about my being self-injurious if I replied that I know what's going on with the sniffles already and do not intend to go seek a doctor.

"Medicalizing" a situation involves instantly thinking of: a) what kind of medication or treatment it needs to have, and b) needing to go ask someone with higher education than you. I object to both of these -- no, I object to the entire phenomenon of "medicalizing," which is actually the only mechanism at work.

This comes home in many aspects of a person's life. For instance, being hesitant to engage in a conversation about differing neurological typologies (more extensive than just the surface ones of being left- or right-handed, for instance, or maybe colorblind, or having perfect pitch) because there is currently an overwhelming reaction of medicalizing any other neurological "type" that differs from the mainstream norm that nestles in the wide spot of the bell curve, eh?

For instance, I have a problem with noisy, busy places -- because I'm on the autistic part of the neurological spectrum, and this involves some pretty unavoidable sensory sensitivities which non-autistics hardly ever even think of; I cannot safely explain my distress to the people around me, because they quickly will think in medicalized terms and act as if I have an illness.

It is not an easy concept to illuminate, and I apologize for not having done better at it. A better example could perhaps be the "there's a pill for everything" ads on tv, no? I actually told someone I'm lactose-intolerant, and the person instantly said, they have a pill you can take now. Thus sweeping aside the entire involved phenomenon of what does happen to me if I injest dairy products -- only a small portion of which is digestive upset.

Meanwhile, meaning well the entire time. As most people are.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I tend to agree with you that medicines are often inappropriate for various situations - for numerous reasons, including desensitizing those who take them, and hidden side-effects. Antibiotics causing asthsma in children, for example. And I thought medicine for runny noses was generally a bad idea - ? Don't take it myself, anyway. (But I do take analgesics for the attendant heachache/pain problems that can come with congestion.)

But I don't see this article as advocating medicines. Seems to me we should study brain chemistry in every way we can - on the general Socratic principle of "know yourself". Not just brain chemistry, but all human biochemical functions. Incredibly complex and, IMHO, incredibly fascinating. This does not mean that I don't think humanity should study itsself via more ancient methods, more intuitive methods, and anything else that occurs to us. I think we need every venue of self-study we can find, and the truth will still be elusive - 'truth' is like that. But it's always good to ask the appropriate questions, and try to find answers for them.

I understand that you don't want to be studied as a 'case'. But I think it's important to learn everything we can about why we are as we are - you, me or everyone.

"Taking a pill" for what ails us strikes me as a bad idea - I'm generally of the yogic school of thought that we shouldn't take any pills at all, and should be as pure as possible in our eating and drinking. And yet I'm enough of a coward to take blood pressure pills because my doctor tells me to. I have some trouble psychologically reconciling this.

But then, if I may return to my regular hobbyhorse, if we 'take a pill' for anything that bothers us, that means some drug company will make money from the pill I buy. And so the whole mechanism of capitalism churns on its ever-snowballing way, and the world has strong incentive to continue accellerating the process ad infinitum.

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Medicalization is the concept I was trying to convey. I don't think I managed it. Medicine and medicalization are not synonymous.

A society that is knee-jerk for medicalizing every issue that arises can very easily become single-minded on the path of seeing every issue only as far as how it deviates from a "norm" and what can be done to it to make it not be "pathological" in that way. Also, a society which is on this linear-minded path of quickly assuming an issue needs a medicalized interpretation... well, the people in this society don't push themselves into independent thought very often, I have observed.

Again: seems clear that I cannot yet elucidate the concept of "medicalized society" in a satisfactory and insightful way, so I shall leave off.