Unusual cognitive happenings

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This is very loosely related to the dream clairvoyance thread below.

I had forgotten about this weird emotional/cognitive phenomenon for a long time, but it came to mind yesterday and I thought I'd mention it to see if anyone else has experienced this as well. Everyone in the past I've described it to (in fact very few people, since it's so hard to explain) could not relate.

Anyway, I haven't had this happen for a long time, since I was in middle school. The best way to describe this feeling, which I only experienced two or three times while awake and a few times in my sleep, is being eerily startled by my own ability to recall a very mundane fact. I suspect it's related to deja vu, although I've never actually had a classic deja vu moment (i.e. where I had an overpowering sense I was re-living a past event). It sounds very much like deja senti, at least as described here, in that it was connected with a sense of recollection and was nearly always triggered by someone else saying something to acknowledge that recollection. It differed though in that I actually WAS remembering something that I had been previously unable to put a finger on, and in that the occurrence DID actually make a lasting impression on me. The character of the experience is best illustrated by an example with approximate quotes, as follows:

I was having a conversation with my dad that was in some way related to rain. He asked me "Weren't we on a trip somewhere lately when it started to rain out of the blue?". When he asked the question, I remembered that this in fact had been the case, and I knew that we both half-remembered the same moment, yet for the life of me I couldn't remember when or where this trip had taken place. We spent a few minutes trying to brainstorm where we had been for the last month or so, with no luck. Then, finally, It came to me and I said "Oh, it was when we went to the museum to look at the bug collection." In a split second, my dad answered "Oh, yes, that's when it was".

That last comment seemed to come so fast that it was almost as if he had been able to see inside my mind and know that I was going to remember before I even verbalized the answer. For whatever reason, the "clicking" of finally remembering and getting feedback that I was correct set off an incredibly powerful, startled feeling that made my spine tingle. At the same time it was kind of funny that this was happening, and I was relieved at having remembered, so I was trapped in this kind of mixed-feeling "high" for what seemed like 30 seconds but probably was more like 10. This is because the startle wasn't like a typical startle from a loud noise that subsides as soon as you recognize the source, but was more "eerie" and made everything seem to go in slow motion. I was followed by a feeling of relief, excitement, and needing to run around to get rid of the excess energy. Though I was still in fourth grade at the time, the feeling was so powerful that just thinking about it now almost makes my spine tingle. When it happened in my sleep, it would always wake me up.

On a related note, I have had dreams where I recognize that a person is familiar, though I can't put my finger on where I saw that person in the past, as often happens in real life. However, the dreams differed in that I almost always had this eerie sense that I had seen the person in a terrifying situation in the past, and that therefore something horrible was about to happen again if I didn't get away, though the nature of that "thing" was unclear, which made it even worse. It was a little like the flashbacks in The Butterfly Effect, which is maybe part of the reason I found that to be one of the scariest movies I have ever seen (at least as scary as a movie can be, given that it isn't real).

I THINK I may have had a few experiences similar to this.
These visions would happen in the daytime. I would get a freeze frame
picture flash of some mundane sight, have a weird feeling about it, but just put
it aside. Approximately a week later I would be going about my business
and all of a sudden that picture frame from that time in the past would
acutally HAPPEN, and the second it did I would get a spine tingling feeling
a, rush of energy and want to shout out with amazement about it but, I
would get so tongue tied trying to talk about it that whoever I would be
explaining it to would just try and rationalize it and chalk it up to the
deja vu thing, so I would finally just shut up about it, but would be drained
for days after about the whole thing. That has not happened to me for many
years now. I guess the word used is psychic or esp....not really sure. It was
back in the mid 80's when this was going on.

Sometimes when something happens I get an intense feeling of deja vu, like I had already experienced the scenario in a dream and then forgotten about it. The thing is, it's always something mundane. The occurences are always right, though. For instance, I could dream that I drive past a red barn while a certain line of a certain song is sung on the radio and then I look at my speedometer and see the number. I would then wake up, ponder that dream for a few seconds, then forget it because it's boring and stupid. Then, a few weeks later, I'll drive past that exact same barn with the exact same song playing. I won't notice anything until I look down at my speedometer, though. Then it all hits me and I'm like "woah." Every detail from the dream is always there. This happens to me all the time, but it's always concerning unimportant things like a sentence someone says while something happens in a certain place, however. It's given me some interesting ideas about fate.

Along the lines of what's posted here, sometimes, especially lately, I'll be thinking y about x, and suddenly I can't remember if I've always thought y about x since the moment when I first came into contact with x, or if that was an idea that popped in my mind just now.

Also, recently I think I had a dream that I was explaining a previous dream to someone. Then the next day I remembered explaining the dream and I couldn't remember if it had been in a dream or IRL. The thing is, the dream I was talking about was a dream I actually had had before, or at least I remember it being so... But what if I only dreampt that I had had that dream before and the original dream never existed until that second dream?

DaQwerk, it seems like you in fact experienced something similar. However, unlike in your case, my experiences never had a fortune-telling aspect to them. They were always remembering a past event, or even a word I had heard somewhere but thought I had forgotten. Mine also always involved another person having an "AHA!" moment triggered by my own. It was the coincidence of the two "AHA!" moments that triggered the feeling, not that some kind of premonition was coming true.

Also, recently I think I had a dream that I was explaining a previous dream to someone. Then the next day I remembered explaining the dream and I couldn't remember if it had been in a dream or IRL.

That happens relatively often to me too. I have a dream that seems like it is a "sequel" to a previous dream, and when I wake up sometimes I remember I did have the "part 1" dream and sometimes I don't remember having it. I also dream sometimes that I just woke up from a weird dream and am describing it to someone, yet I'm still in fact dreaming. The weirdest is when I have a dream (rarely this is) that I am going in for surgery and receiving general anesthesia, yet it never works because I can't dream that I'm losing consciousness.