Kenko: tricks the mind plays on us

No. 71

"As soon as I hear a name I feel convinced I can guess what the owner looks like, but it never happens, when I actually meet the man, that his face is as I had supposed.  I wonder if everybody shares my experience of feeling, when I hear some story about the past, that the house mentioned in the story must hare been rather like this or that house belonging to people of today, or that the persons of the story resemble people I see now.  It has happened on various occasions too that I have felt, just after someone has said something or I have see something or thought of something, that it has occurred before.  I cannot remember when it was, but I feel absolutely certain the thing has happened.  Am I the only one has such impressions?"

-- Kenko --
from Essays in Idleness
Donald Keene, trans.

I think I am more text-oriented than visually-oriented, for I really don't attach a face to a name upon hearing it.  In fact, I am more likely to do this when I hear a voice on the radio or a phone.   And, seldom do I "see" a place that I think is just like a place that I already know, except in a very general sense.  There are exceptions, of course, but they are rare.

However, I do have the the deja vu experience occasionally, which is quite common as I think that most people I know have had this happen to them one or more times.  It's quite uncanny when it does, for I can never figure out when it may have happened and in some cases, it even appears to be impossible to have occurred.  

You?