Sunday, November 21, 2010

Have I been here before?

 Have you ever had that eerie tingling sensation of familiarity with a place that’s entirely new? You know the one. All the tiny hairs coating your flesh ripple to attention as though summoned by some unseen force. Your entire being recognizes your surroundings and nudges your consciousness even though you struggle to deny it. It’s not possible. You know you’ve never been there before. Wikipedia’s definition of déjà vu is as follows:

Déjà vu (French pronunciation: [deʒa vy] (meaning "already seen") is the experience of feeling sure that one has already witnessed or experienced a current situation, even though the exact circumstances of the previous encounter are uncertain and were perhaps imagined. The term was coined by a French psychic researcher, Émile Boirac (1851–1917) in his book L'Avenir des sciences psychiques ("The Future of Psychic Sciences"), which expanded upon an essay he wrote while an undergraduate. The experience of déjà vu is usually accompanied by a compelling sense of familiarity, and also a sense of "eeriness," "strangeness," "weirdness," or what Sigmund Freud calls "the uncanny." The "previous" experience is most frequently attributed to a dream, although in some cases there is a firm sense that the experience has genuinely happened in the past.

Some people believe in it. Some don’t. I guess that’s normal for anything unexplainable. I’ve always kept an open mind about such things. My family used to give me the collective eye roll when I’d wink and explain that the reason I couldn’t wear turtlenecks was because, in a past life, someone must’ve strangled me. Imagine their expressions, when we discovered that one of my poor ancestors suffered hanging and then burning after accusations of witchcraft. Now, I’m not saying that she was me...or I’m her…but who knows?

I experienced the eerie feeling of déjà vu quite strongly a couple of times during our tour of Scotland and Ireland. The first rush to my senses occurred while standing at the edge of Culloden field. My bones ached with the desolate chill of the place. Sorrow. Futility. Despair. The wind reeked with sadness. I couldn’t stay on the battlefield very long. I told hubby I couldn’t bear the cold and retreated to the coffee shop inside the museum and waited for everyone else to finish their tour. I knew my ancestors had taken part in the Jacobite uprising. I don’t know if I ever walked on that field before but I knew I couldn’t walk it again.

The second rush of “welcome back” came to me while standing at the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland. You see, my ancestors that weren’t slaughtered during the Jacobite uprising escaped or were herded to Ireland. I remember my brother found a scrawled statement in one of the papers that they’d left the land of their hearts and fallen in love with the beautiful women of the green isle. Hope. Yearning. Homesickness.
The air-splitting caw of a solitary crow shouted these words across the wind. This crow kept pace with us while we enjoyed the lovely cliffs. I wondered if he was trying to remind me that I’d been there before. What do you think? Have we walked these paths before?

30 comments:

  1. Thank you, Brenda. I appreciate you stopping by. :-)

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  2. I can't say I've experienced deja vu but who am I to doubt that it has happened to someone else.

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  3. I truly loved this post and yes, I can say I've had those moments, too.

    My brothers and I traveled Ireland together. My brother Tom and I would have the feeling we'd walked these paths before and usually at the same time. It was really weird. We'd look at each other and we'd know the other experienced the same overwhelming feeling of doing this before.

    My father's family is from Ireland and maybe we sensed a family member from long ago, reaching out to say 'welcome home'.

    By the way I love your Blarney Castle pic. :)

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  4. I'm glad you enjoyed the post, Karen. Maybe you and your brother were sensing a family member from the past. Who knows?

    And Blarney Castle WAS awesome. :-)

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  5. Very open-minded view on deja vu even though you've not experienced it. We can't always "explain" everything, can we? :-)

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  6. How very interesting. Deja vu happens to me all the time. The most interesting thing about your cl post is that I had a similar experience at Culloden 18 months ago and I'm Jewish! None of my ancestors are from Scotland that we know of, although my mother's genetic testing shows that our closest genetic relatives are in Scotland and Ireland.

    I could barely walk on the battlefield as I found myself wading through visions of the dead and dying, horses and men - an awful, bloody battlefield. It happened suddenly and I nearly fell to my knees. My husband had to help me. Later we entered the visitors center and it would seem that the area where I was overcome with these visions (for lack of a better word) was where there was the most death.
    Totally weird experience. We spent three weeks hiking all over the Highlands and Islands and I don't think I've ever felt so at home in my life.

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  7. How intriguing, Julia! You might be Jewish in this life, but who's to say you aren't an old soul who experienced Culloden first hand? Or maybe you're particularly sensitive to all the residual pain and suffering attached to that land. It makes for an interesting "ponder", don't you think?

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  8. Very interesting, Maeve. I had the deja vu experience at the Cliffs of Moher and since some of my ancestors were from the West of Ireland that might make sense. It's quite likely they stood there, too. There's a school of thought that believes in ancestral memory. After all, we do carry those same genes.

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  9. Ancestral memory. That hadn't occurred to me, Miriam. It's definitely worth thinking about!

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  10. Great post. I've experienced deja vu before. I think there are several explanations.

    1. You were there in a past life.

    2. You're an empath and can feel the emotions of those that were there long ago. A friend of mine had a similar experience in Peru. She literally fell to her knees at the grief she felt in the temple.

    3. Parallel universe. Fringe did an interesting explanation of deja vu at the end of season 1/beginning of season 2.

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  11. Didn't I read this post last week - Hee hee. Yes, I've experienced it many times. Very interesting about your own experiences. Gave me chills.

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  12. Wow, Riley. Parallel universe - wouldn't THAT be something!

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  13. LOL! Very funny, Patsy! :-) I love your sense of humor.

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  14. Yes, I had some of the same experiences in Scotland. The strongest sense of having 'been there before' was when we were on a boat going through the Caledonia Canal out onto Loch Ness. I actually started crying because I felt like I'd come home at last. My hubby looked at me like I was crazy, but the feeling was real. The day we went to Culloden it was also damp and there was a bit of fog, but that isn't what made me cold, it was the cold inside that griped my heart. Yes, I also know someone I share genes with died on that field.

    SO, yes, Maeve, I am a believer. I get homesick when I see photos of places in Scotland and hear the music. If someone told me I could live in Scotland even for a while, I'd be there in a heartbeat. The weird thing is, my Danish ancestry didn't have the same affect on my soul the times I've been in Denmark. Maybe the Scots have stronger souls. At any rate, I must return to Scotland again...

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  15. Well said, Paisley. I truly believe the beloved soil of Scotland holds a very special magic. You only have to listen for a moment to be captivated by its spell.

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  16. I have experiened deja vu and it's often hard to explain why. The strongest experience I've had was when I first met the my husband for the first time. I had a very strong feeling that I met him somewhere before, although we never had.

    Could it be we were together in a past life? A fun idea to contemplate.

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  17. I have experienced deja vu - at least I think that's what it was. I remember things that happened to me as child, but my mother swore they didn't really happen. Maybe it was another life...

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  18. Very neat, Susan. Perhaps, you and your husband are soul-mates following each other through all your incarnations. *sigh* Now, THAT'S the stuff romance is made of...

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  19. You could be right, Gale. Maybe your memories go back farther then you think? Very interesting concept to wrap yourself around. :-)

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  20. Great blog Maeve, brought back memories of my trip to Scotland.

    Cheers

    Margaret

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  21. Thanks Margaret! Wasn't Scotland wonderful? *sigh*

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  22. Hi Maeve, I definitely believe in deja vu after my trip to Ireland in 2009. An Irish friend of mine identified the castle on the cover of my first book, In Sunshine or in Shadow, so naturally I had to visit on my trip. It was the strangest thing. I really felt I "knew" this castle (Dunguaire Castle in Kinvara, Galway). As I walked through the rooms, climbed up to the battlements, and strolled the grounds, I felt as if I'd been there, had known the people there, maybe witnessed a battle there. It was as if I were coming home.

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  23. Your post gave me chills. I've had the experience before and it's a very overwhelming feeling. Who knows why it happens? You were meant to go. You'll have to see if it happens the next time you go. :)

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  24. I definitely believe you walked those halls, Cynthia. I'm so glad you were able to walk them again. :-)

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  25. You are so right, Victoria. I hope I get to return to both Scotland and Ireland some day.

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  26. Part of your eerie feeling might be because you are an empath and the strong emotions that happened at those places--especially Culloden--linger. I had to leave Culloden field and duck into the little museum. The emotions hurling at me were overwhelming. However, since most of my ancestors were Scot-Irish, it might also have been deja vu.

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  27. I'm not certain what it was at Culloden, Caroline - but I am certain I didn't want to feel it again. So much pain reverbrated from the ground. It chilled me to the bone.

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  28. Very interesting. This happened to my sister on her first visit to Paris. She knew the moment she was in the city that she had been there before and knew where to go. She felt at home. This has not happened to me, but there is a place that hold my fascination and I wonder why I am so interested in this place, having never been there. It does make one wonder.

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