Jamais Vu

[Zeke Newbold]

Some psychology researchers have won the Ignoble Prize for Literature for their attempt to study the phenomenon of Jamais Vu - as detailed here:

https://theconversation.com/jamais-vu-the-science-behind-eerie-opposite-of-deja-vu-213596

Jamais Vu is said to be the reverse of the better known, and more common, Deja vu. In Deja vu you get a feeling that you are re-exeperiencing something that you could not possibly have (the psychological rationale for this is mentioned in the above article). in Jamais Vu, on the other hand, something that is normally familiarto you suddenly feels odd or strange as if you are experiencing it for the first time.

I do know of a way to induce a mild form of Jamais vu. All you need to do it to talk a walk, or cycle, to a part of your town (or countryiside) that is unfamiliar to you (maybe somewhwere you have no cause to go to). Then return to your neighbourhood taking the least obvious and new-to-you route that you can. (N.B This has to be done on foot or by bicycle. Car, train or bus journeys telescope the distance between you and the new envisons and hence cancel out the effect). If you're anything like me, you will find that you will now see your old environment with new eyes, as being connected with the unfamiliar place that you have just left. The effect is a bit disorientating but quite pleasurable, although doesn't last that long.

I do wonder if some Fortean or paranormal experiences can simply be put down to the experiencer having had a bout of jamais vu and thus finding something strange or startling about some everyday sight or phenomenon.

 

[Min Bannister]

This sounds very plausible. I have had a few striking instances of jamais vu, which seems to happen under stress. One that sticks in my mind to this day is the time I was walking in a quiet street and saw two tiny humans up ahead of me. It freaked me right out! There was no possible way that a human being could be so small. Were they gnomes? Fairies? Of course they were children, as I realised when I got closer but if I hadn't got closer, what would I have thought? I would have remembered the existence of children at some point but maybe wouldn't have connected the two if the gnomes had been cemented in my brain first?

 

[catseye]

I think I mentioned somewhere elsewhere on the forum where I walked past my daughter's bedroom and saw a cat curled up asleep on her dressing table. I walked on, simply thinking 'oh, there's a cat'. After a second or so I realised that it wasn't any of our cats and went back to look again - only to find that it was a hat and scarf dumped in such a way that it looked like a sleeping cat. I often used to wonder what would have happened if I had never gone back to check - would I have carried on believing that I saw a non-existant cat?

 

[Mythopoeika]

Could someone please correct the title of this thread?
Spelling error.

 

[gordonrutter]

Could someone please correct the title of this thread?
Spelling error.

Done.

 

[Mythopoeika]

Done.

Thanks!

 

[Bad Bungle]

Brother noticed for the first time yesterday that when he switches his car ignition off, the needle on the Rev counter, speedo and fuel gauge does a full sweep to the right and then left (off). Presumably this has happened every time for as long as he has had the car (years).

 

[brownmane]

The experiment with writing the same word repetitively is similar, imo, to when I have to write a commonplace word that I haven't written in a while and when I do write it, I have to consider for a brief time if it's spelled correctly because it doesn't look right.

 

[catseye]

Brother noticed for the first time yesterday that when he switches his car ignition off, the needle on the Rev counter, speedo and fuel gauge does a full sweep to the right and then left (off). Presumably this has happened every time for as long as he has had the car (years).

I was driving home from visiting John the other day (as I have done, once a fortnight for several years), when I noticed that there's a road junction on the right just up from his farm. I have never seen it before and have no idea where it leads to (it's an actual road, not a farm track). I am charitably assuming that recent mowing of verges has made the junction more visible, but how I've failed to see it when I've been up and down that road at all times of year I don't know!

 

[hunck]

The experiment with writing the same word repetitively is similar, imo, to when I have to write a commonplace word that I haven't written in a while and when I do write it, I have to consider for a brief time if it's spelled correctly because it doesn't look right.

I get this occasionally as well & sometimes have to look it up - a kind of word blindness - I know I’ve got the wrong spelling as it doesn’t look right but can’t figure out the correct one. Probably the Alzheimer.s kicking in.