Déja What?!?

I was looking at List Verse the other day and came upon a listing of the Top 10 Strange Phenomena of the Mind. Several of them I'd heard of by name before and some I've even experienced. I had no idea there were so many "deja ..." phenomena though.


For instance, what many people think of as déjà vu is actually déjà vécu - the experience of reliving an event (whereas déjà vu is when an event seems familiar, but you know you've never experienced it before). But there's also déjà visité, déjà senti and a host of other latin-named phenomena.


The most interesting of them all, at least to me, is l’esprit de l’escalier, or stairway wit. It's when you think of a witty remark after the fact. It can be just a funny remark in passing or a comeback to someone else's remark. I've many times in the past thought of just the right thing to say an hour or so after the perfect time to say it. So hilarious that this has an actual name!

Photo Credit: Tommy Oshima's Flickr and Saverio Autellitano's Flickr