DEJA VU

Have you ever experienced Deja Vu? I do occasionally, but I have had a real interesting experience the past 24 hours. I think what may have initiated it was an old PC game that I downloaded and started to play yesterday morning (Saturday.)

The other day I was thinking about some cool old games I used to play on the PC and started looking for some online to download (abandonware, etc.) I saw the game Blade Runner and downloaded it the other day. I wasn't sure if it would even play on my Vista-based PC, but I tried it. It installed fine and I fired it up. Well, that started bringing back memories of playing this game. As I played it, I would here dialog from the game and it sounded very familiar. It got to a point that I felt like I was having Deja Vu.

Well, even after I stopped playing the game, I kept having Deja Vu-like feelings. All day long and even in the evening at work. Not constantly, but it would happen for extended periods (anywhere from 2 minutes at a time to 30 minutes at a time.) It was very weird, but really cool. It felt almost surreal. It was mainly based on things I heard or thoughts I had... not necessarily entire events or even being able to predict what would happen next. Almost every thought I had felt like a Deja Vu experience.

I decided to look up some information about Deja Vu online. It appears there is not a lot of research conducted on it, but may be related to certain brain activity. Some descriptions seem to point to déjà senti aswhat I experienced:

This phenomenon specifies something 'already felt.' Unlike the implied precognition of déjà vécu, déjà senti is primarily or even exclusively a mental happening, has no precognitive aspects, and rarely if ever remains in the afflicted person's memory afterwards.

Dr. John Hughlings Jackson recorded the words of one of his patients who suffered from temporal lobe or psychomotor epilepsy in an 1889 paper:

“

What is occupying the attention is what has occupied it before, and indeed has been familiar, but has been for a time forgotten, and now is recovered with a slight sense of satisfaction as if it had been sought for. ... At the same time, or ... more accurately in immediate sequence, I am dimly aware that the recollection is fictitious and my state abnormal. The recollection is always started by another person's voice, or by my own verbalized thought, or by what I am reading and mentally verbalize; and I think that during the abnormal state I generally verbalize some such phrase of simple recognition as 'Oh yes – I see', 'Of course – I remember', but a minute or two later I can recollect neither the words nor the verbalized thought which gave rise to the recollection. I only find strongly that they resemble what I have felt before under similar abnormal conditions.

”

As with Dr. Jackson's patient, some temporal-lobe epileptics may experience this phenomenon.

Further research point to other things it could be (but I certainly hope not) including: simple partial seizures, meningitis, brain tumors, and other frightening things. I hope it's just a minor imbalance or old long-term memories mixing with short-term memories or something.

Have any of you ever had extended Deja Vu experiences in a 24 hour period?

WARM CHOCOLATE TART

I made this recipe for a get-together in my neighborhood. It is very good and very rich. Be sure to use high quality chocolate for the best results.

Warm Chocolate “Tarts”

4 oz. bittersweet or semi sweet chocolate (not unsweetened), chopped
1 1/2-oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped
3 large eggs, room temperature
1/2 c + 2 t all purpose flour
1-1/2 T unsweetened cocoa powder
10 T (1 1/4 sticks) butter
3/4 t baking powder
1/2 c + 2 T sugar (use extra fine)
Vanilla ice cream or sweetened whipped cream, optional

Lightly butter (or pam) six 1-cup soufflè dishes. Melt both chocolates in the top of a double boiler over barely simmering water, stirring until smooth. Add butter and sugar and stir until butter melts and sugar dissolves. Transfer to a large bowl. Add eggs, then flour, cocoa and baking powder. Using an electric mixer, beat until mixture thickens to mousse consistency, about 8 minutes. Divide mixture among prepared dishes. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze at least 3 hours. (Can be prepared up to 3 days ahead.)

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 375°F. Peel plastic wrap off dishes. Bake (do not thaw first) until edges are set and centers are still moist and shiny, about 11 minutes; do not overbake. Cool 10 minutes. Invert 1 dish onto each plate. Serve warm with ice cream or whipped cream, if desired.

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Pay attention to the cooking instructions - the insides come out like pudding and the edges like cake. And I make sure to run a knife around the edge of the souffle dishes before inverting, plus giving the plate and souffle dish a firm shake to release it on to the plate. And I've typically liked the whipped cream more than the ice cream with this particular recipe.

I used Scharffen Berger chocolate in my recipe. I actually used 3 oz of semisweet and 1 oz of bittersweet. It turned out great!

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