déjà vu
A good account of déjà vu in the life of Walter Scott, from a nice blog about Scottish history: In February 1828, Sir Walter Scott was breaking himself down by over-hard literary work, and had really fallen to some extent out of health. On the 17th he enters in his Diary, that, on the preceding day at dinner, although in company with two or three beloved old friends, he was strangely haunted by what he would call ‘the sense of pre-existence;’ namely, a confused idea that nothing that passed was said for the first time – that topics had been discussed, and the same persons had stated the same opinions on them. The sensation, he adds, ‘was so strong as to resemble what is called a mirage in the desert, or a calenture on board of ship, when lakes are seen in the desert, and sylvan landscapes in the sea… There was a vile sense of want of reality in all that I did and said.’ This experience of Scott is one which has often been felt, and often commented on by authors, by Scott himself amon...
