Presque Vu

Presque vu — almost seen — is the tip-of-the-tongue state scaled up: the powerful sense of standing one inch from a huge insight that never arrives. Epileptics report it before seizures; meditators and the sleep-deprived know it too. Mostly it is a hiccup of memory retrieval systems, maddening and harmless. It earns a glossary entry here because several filed accounts pair it with stranger company: the almost-revelation arriving at the same street corner for years, or shared by two people at the same table at the same moment.

Related on this site: /deja-vu-stories/ /tag/unexplained-events/ /random/