Lecture on Deja Vu and Precognition

Introduction

• Story of Matthew: A professor experienced a strong feeling of deja vu and precognition while crossing a parking lot in 2008.
  • Felt he had lived through the exact situation before.
  • Predicted a woman on a bike would appear, which she did.

Key Concepts

• Deja Vu: Overwhelming sense of familiarity with a situation that is actually new.
• Precognition: Foreknowledge of an event, often considered paranormal.
• Connection: People often link deja vu with psychic abilities and precognition.

Research and Historical Context

• Surveys: Reports of deja vu often include elements of precognition.
• Wilder Penfield (1959): Neurosurgeon who induced deja vu through brain stimulation.
  • Medial Temporal Lobe stimulation led to deja vu and feelings of seeing into the future.
  • Patients with seizures in this brain area often experience chronic deja vu.

Scientific Exploration

• Skepticism and Need for Logical Explanation: Similar to historical misattributions (e.g., demon possession for epilepsy).
• Laboratory Study: Need to induce deja vu in a controlled setting.
• Virtual Reality (VR) Deja Vu Generator: Created scenes with identical spatial layouts to induce deja vu.
  • Example: Aquarium and reception area with identical spatial layouts.
  • Found higher deja vu reports in similar but non-recalled scenes.

Experiment on Deja Vu and Precognition

• Hypothesis: If in the middle of a forgotten memory, could people predict what happens next?
• Virtual Tours: Participants explored scenes with similar layouts and had to predict turns.
  • Results: Increased feelings of knowing the next turn during deja vu, but no actual predictive ability.
  • Illusory Precognition: People felt they could predict, but this was an illusion.

Follow-up Studies

• Tip of the Tongue Analogy: Deja vu might feel like being on the verge of recalling the entire situation.
• Experiment Design: Participants predicted turns and were asked if it matched their expectation.
  • Findings: People believed they knew the outcome all along after experiencing intense familiarity.
  • Conclusion: High familiarity intensity leads to illusory precognition and retrospective illusion of knowing.

Conclusion

• Summary: Deja vu results in feelings of illusory precognition rather than actual predictive ability.
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