id, something very similar happens to me. The first time this happened to me was first grade, I guess I was six. It used to happen to me a lot as a child and has since cooled off. After some analysis and experiments, I can safely say I’m not predicting the future.
What seems to happen is this: 1) I have a vivid dream–sometimes this can even be a day dream 2) in real life, I find myself in a situation that’s extremely similar to the situation in my dream 3) during such situations, the actual event would cause me to recall the dream 4) the dream "overlaps" with the real events producing something not-quite-like deja vu. As you said, it’s like watching yourself on a videotape that you also just saw last week. It’s pretty disorienting–you end up simultaneously experiencing the past, present, and future.
This used to really freak me out a bunch because I would re-experience entire conversations–like to the word. But when I began to carefully review what was happening by writing down a detailed description of the experience important differences emerged. People would be wearing different clothes or it’d be a different time of day.
Also note that this almost always happens with events that are subject to a high degree of regularity or predictability. For example, somehow I could always nail spelling quizzes (teacher gives you 25 words, only 12 of which would be on the test) and I ended up predicting many conversations with those close to me (usually my best friend or a family member).
In the end, when this happens don’t be afraid to go with the flow. Two years ago the only reason I made it out of a bar alive was because I’d dreamed about a very, very similar situation a few weeks before.
Go to Source
