I Used to Swear It Had Already Happened, but Science Ruined It for Me

I’ve always been convinced that I either lived the same life more than once or that some version of me is stuck in a loop. That things keep happening over and over.

Until recently.

Nowadays science has an explanation for almost everything. And while that should be comforting, it honestly took the fun out of what I believed. I mean if I had to choose between some dusty medical term and the idea that I’m slipping into moments from a past life, I’m picking the fantasy every time.

Spoiler alert

If you’ve ever felt the same way, science might just ruin it for you too.

This always happens to me. I receive new information and minutes later I’m sure I already knew it. Like it happened a while ago… or in my past life. It’s not just familiarity. I remember the feelings. The consequence. The same voice telling me the same thing. Not similar. The same. Like a rerun I didn’t sign up for.

Most of the time I want to ask people if they remember saying it before but I only do that with the people I’m really close to. My best friend is now half-convinced I’m hallucinating or worse but honestly a few times I’ve even convinced them that it probably happened and they just forgot. I liked to think my memory was sharp. Maybe even special.

But embarrassment has a way of humbling you.

One day, a colleague asked me to cover for him because his daughter was sick. I asked what happened, offered sympathy and agreed to help. Just a normal conversation.

But a few days later, I remembered that same guy asking me the same thing before. Not just generally asking for help. I remembered him using the same excuse and me responding the exact same way. I felt it again. That moment. Like it happened a while ago… or in my past life.

It annoyed me. I felt played. Used. I even started wondering if he’d been lying the whole time. I hate being lied to and I hate when people take advantage of empathy. So I asked around to see if he’d given the same excuse to others. Nope. Just me.

That was enough for me. I reported him to HR.

When he got back, everything exploded. We both started yelling. But when HR asked me to explain what exactly happened or back up my claim, I couldn’t. I couldn’t even explain why I was so sure I remembered it. No dates. No proof. Nothing. It was just a feeling. But a real one.

They dismissed my report.

Then he reported me and I got my first strike at work.

What hit the hardest was what our HR guy said afterward. He pulled me aside and said, kindly but firmly,

“You might want to question your brain.”

That one sentence stuck with me more than the actual warning. So I started looking into it.

Turns out there is a real scientific term for what I’ve been experiencing.

And no, it’s not déjà vu.

Déjà vécu

A lesser-known cousin of déjà vu. It translates to “already lived through” and involves not just familiarity but a deep belief that the experience truly happened before, often with emotional details and “memories” of consequences.

Your brain is trying to resolve a mismatch between perception and memory. It’s so confident in the false version that it convinces you it’s real.

When I read that, I froze. It described me perfectly. I don’t just remember the moment. I remember how it made me feel. I remember thinking about it before like I already handled it once. And for the first time, I realized maybe this wasn’t cosmic. Maybe it was just… me. My brain doing its weird little tricks.

But even knowing that, I still find it hard to let go of my theory. Because honestly, the idea that it happened a while ago… or in my past life? Still sounds better than faulty memory.

Have you ever experienced a moment and felt like you already lived it? Like the exact conversation already happened somewhere in time? Not just familiar. But exact.

Let me know in the comments. Because I can’t be the only one out here fighting with my brain about things it made up.