Have you ever had a moment of déjà vu? A moment where you think to yourself, “I’ve been here before” or “I’ve lived through this before.” I’ve experienced it several times, but one of the strangest ones occurred while we were in Salzburg, Austria last month. The experience left me shaking.
One night during our stay in Europe, I dreamed of being in danger. I was going down a long corridor when I came upon a spot where there was a hallway to my left that had something in the middle of it. Behind that barrier were the “bad guys” who were coming after me. I took off running down a long hallway that had pictures on the wall to my right. The scene was very vivid and I thought about it the next morning, but then forgot about it. It was only a dream.
While in Salzburg, I went with our fellow travelers to visit the fortress on the bluff above the old town, the Hohensalzburg Fortress. I have a short attention span, and I got tired of waiting on everyone to finish taking photos so I wandered off by myself. I went inside the fortress and looked at the old wells that provided water, a couple of small cannons that pointed out to the town below, and the amazing architecture of the place.
Walking down a hallway into the museum, it hit me like a ton of bricks. Déjà vu! I’d been here before. It was the same place I’d seen in my dream. Everything looked exactly the same as it had been in my dream. I’d been down this hallway in my dream. My head started to spin and the walls seemed to close in around me. I went down the hallway and a corridor opened to my left that had a display case in the middle of it. I stood there a moment trying to figure out what was going on, but the sense of something bad coming after me was too strong to allow me to stand there very long. I went on down the hallway, passing the pictures that I’d seen in my dream.
I rushed down the long hallway and went into a room where suits of armor were on display. This room hadn’t been part of my dream so the eeriness went away. My head quit spinning and the walls moved back. I didn’t stay there, but rushed out into the courtyard where I could get fresh air. Even though my head cleared, my heart was still beating fast. The experience really scared me.
What happened in there? I have no idea other than the overwhelming feeling of being there before was too intense for me to stay. The experience made no sense then, and it still doesn’t. How could I dream so many details about a place I’ve never been? It gives me the creeps to think about it.