Researchers at MIT report that they have found what they believe to be the neuronal basis for the sensation of déjà -vu:
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/deja-vu-0607.html
In a piece entitled “Insight” I wrote about a similar phenomena:
From early childhood on, and I have occasionally experienced a kind of “reverse déjà vu.†It is the sensation of suddenly staring at a familiar object as though I were seeing it for the very first time, even though it has been in my home for years and may have even been used by me on a daily basis. My overwhelming emotional response in these moments is that I have never really seen the thing before, even though I know I have. This feeling stays with me for a few minutes of rapt fascination, after which the object is “restored†to its former “ordinary†state in my mind.
Here is a link to the entire text: http://www.brownestreet.com/texts/Insight.htm
Ron Wallace