Does deja vu have spiritual significance?

Hare Krishna. Question. What is Dejavu? Does it have any spiritual significance? What causes it? Answer.

Dejavu is basically the feeling that when we come to a particular situation or a place or a circumstance, we suddenly feel that we have been in this situation earlier. We feel as if something from the past is being re-enacted again. So, this is a widely experienced phenomenon and some researchers, like Dr. Jan Stevenson, who is a pioneer in past life memories, suggest that this can be one proof of past life existence.

Something we have experienced in a previous life, we again come into a similar situation in this life and that's why we feel as if I have experienced this. This, of course, is one possibility, but there is no certainty of it. So, it's not the strongest evidence for past life existence.

The past life memories of children which involve verifiable recognitions and behaviors are much stronger evidences, especially if there are behaviors associated with it. So, children remember past life things, recognize the people and behave as if they have behaved in the previous life and they also have birthmarks. That will be a much stronger proof.

So, as devotees, generally, some people may quote this as an indication of the reality of past life, but it's not a very strong evidence and we need not quote that. So, if it's not coming from past life, then what causes this deja vu? Actually, the way our memory functions is quite complex and there is a concept called cryptoamnesia also. What happens is, we have heard something in the past, but we have forgotten that we have heard it and the next time when we hear it, we feel as if this is the first time I am hearing it, but still there is some level of recognition.

So, something similar to, that means we see something, we say we meet a person and we feel, I have seen this person. Now, maybe we met that person also earlier, we have introduced to each other, we have talked with each other also, but we are not able to recollect when did I meet, how did I meet? So, there is a vague sense of familiarity, but there is nothing clear or specific within that. So, the explanation that psychologists and researchers give for deja vu is that our memory pieces together things from different situations.

Generally, we think of memory simply as a recollection, that something happened in the past and recollected. But researchers have found that most standard is that memory is a reconstruction, not a recollection. That means whatever we have experienced along with many other thoughts and experiences that we have had other times, along with whatever thoughts and feelings that we have presently, all of it comes together and what comes together is called as a memory.

So, memory is not always an accurate recollection, but it is often a composite reconstruction. And in some cases, when memory acts as a composite reconstruction, at sometimes, at a subconscious level, there is a recognition this seems similar, but at a conscious level, there is no memory that actually I have been in a similar situation earlier. So, it might be that when we feel the situation I am in.

So, I feel I have been in the situation earlier. So, what could have happened is that this situation has 2-3 factors. These 3 factors, I might have been in some other situation in the past, but I don't know, remember when.

And that's why I feel that I am in this situation right now. And I have been here before. So, Deja vu is one of the many phenomena which people consider as spiritual, which they consider as paranormal and indicative of spiritual reality.

But generally, the way Srila Prabhupada presented Krishna consciousness, he focused more on logic and philosophy and scriptural testimony and not on such paranormal phenomena. So, because even from the scientific point of view or from the scriptural point of view, Deja vu is not a very strong or conclusive evidence for anything. That's why as devotees, we don't have to give much credence to Deja vu kind of experiences.

If somebody has that, that is fine. Now, one possibility is also, Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita in the 6th chapter that, पूर्वाभ्यासेन तेनेव रियते अवशो उपिसह that those who have practiced spiritual life in a previous life, they, in the next life, feel spontaneously attracted to Krishna, to spirituality in general. रियते ही अवशो उपिसह Helplessly one is attracted.

So, if one feels strongly, spontaneously attracted to Krishna or to spirituality in general, that could be because of one's previous life and that could be a form of something similar to Deja vu but something which is anukul to our bhakti, which helps us become attracted to Krishna. So, if we have an attraction to Krishna, for whatever reason it is, we are fortunate and we can utilize that attraction to move forward in our devotional service. But we don't have to become too excited or too worried about Deja vu kind of experiences because more important than what happened to us in the past and how it is connected to the present, more important is what we are doing in the present because that will determine our future trajectory and our future destination.