I Feel Like I Know You from Somewhere: Have We Met Before?

Have you ever met someone you’ve never met before and yet felt that you have met them before?

I think we all have.

And having met them, the conversation may go something like this:

“I feel like I know you from somewhere…”

These encounters have this kind of familiarity about them.

And then you or the other person (who is also trying to recall where they might have met you before) originates:

“I have taken some classes in Los Angeles, possibly there?”

“Possibly. I’ve spent some time in L.A. When were you there?”

“It was there in 2003. For about 6 months.” 

Your mind is doing what minds do. Like a Super Computer it arrives at the answer almost before she finishes her sentence.

“Sorry, I wasn’t there then. It was in the 80’s.”

“Ahhh...well, I guess not. Nice to meet you though.”

“Yes, nice to meet you too.”

And this is as far as the conversation may go.

Because as powerful as the recognition software of the human mind can be, and while crunching the mind boggling math of events, people, and places like an FBI profiling scan, it doesn’t register this person.

But holy cow. There was this familiarity.

Recognition: What it Really Means:

Recognize: To identify (someone or something) from having encountered them before; know again.

Latin recognoscere ‘know again, recall to mind’, from re- ‘again’ + cognoscere ‘learn’.

When you meet someone you’ve never met before there is another layer that this conversation can go. 

But you have to stop using your mind’s recognition software.

He or she is not in that database.

“Maybe it was at a Billy Joel concert in New York?”

See?

The minds purpose is to solve that familiarity mystery.

All events have a time, place, and form.

Like a concert. Or a class together. Or even a layover at an airport.

These are places the mind is using to locate the event.

But unless your recognition software has been upgraded, you will run into a limit with time.

Of all the things that make up an event, time is the single variable.

See, you have been in LA. He or she was there too.

But wrong time.

Well, when you look at the definition of recognize, you will see it means to “know again.”

So that means you knew them before.

Before when?

Before 2003?

Before 1982?

What about before 1882?

“Well...now you’re going into reincarnation or past lives and all that. That’s not real to me.”

To be honest, I’m not talking about reincarnation or past lives.

I’m talking about this concept of “know again.”

See?

The mind feels much much safer with the data that it was the Billy Joel concert in New York. Or a philosophy class in LA in 2003. Or even if it’s one of these, “That’s right! You’re that writer guy we met on the flight to Canada. I remember now!” 

See, the mind is so happy it solved the mystery of time and place.

It fits.

But what if we’re talking about a pure knowingness?

You know, without any time, place, or event?

Because the root of the word recognize means:

You know them again.

So, what if you decided to get to know this person you’ve never met, a bit more?

Again, per the derivation of the word above, cognoscere ‘learn’, to learn more about them?

And what if you began to learn about this person that you’ve never crossed paths with, and your knowingness got brighter. 

You became more certain you knew them.

No concert. No class. No airport.

Many times we just let this moment pass.

Because it’s one of Life’s mysteries that leave you with this feeling that possibly this kind of enchantment does exist.

That there is something more than placing the recognition of a person in a place or event.

There’s the recognition that you have known this being before, period.

And when you meet this person you find yourself a bit out of the time stream, you know?

Your mind is still racing in the background that this cannot be.

It needs real time data. Which airport??!! What class??!!

But see, you can decide to opt-out of the mind’s recognition software.

Because it’s limited by this single variable called time.

And then some faint, faint images of a cafe in Paris come floating in.

And your mind says WTF is this?

You smile.

Your mind is funny. It doesn’t want to miss roll call. It doesn’t want to get a wrong answer on the test. It doesn’t want to make a mistake.

You are so conditioned to coloring within the lines that when you color outside the lines, you feel like you are committing an act of rebellion. Images of guillotines float by.

And it’s a friggin' coloring book!

So you are learning again about this person and no times or places come to mind. 

But the more they talk the more you know.

I know this person.

And as you begin to give more credence to what you know instead of not-knowing it, all of sudden your knowingness gets bigger. 

That’s really not the correct word, bigger.

You are knowingness so you expand.

You feel this expansiveness.

Because why?

Because you know again this person that you knew.

And on their side they are going through the exact same mind puzzling and soul enriching experience as you.

They feel they are beginning to know you again.

You look at each other and both your minds are trying to butt in and say:

This cannot be.

There’s even an attempt by the mind to throw it out as something frivolous. Like sharing a short astrology reading that is profoundly accurate.

And although accurate, it’s just nonsense.

That’s exactly what it is.

It is non - sense, meaning it makes no sense or has no sense.

Right.

Knowingness does not have sense in it.

One does not need concerts and airports to make something make sense.

You just know.

Further Down the Rabbit Hole:

And let’s just say as you both begin to know again each other and you realized you also had loved this person?

You know you know you loved them.

No pictures. No cafe. No carriage ride in the 15th Century.

Well this would be astounding, wouldn’t it?

“I think you’re just trying to romanticize a chance meeting, really.”

Yes...yes...of course.

Let’s not get carried away.  

Let’s be real here, right?

This is the wildest thing ever about the rational mind.

It just really cannot compute what the hell you’re doing coloring outside those lines.

I mean geezus. That’s what lines are for.

To tell you where to color.

See, lines and time and places and events offer a certain stability.

“Yes! Now I recall. It was you in the “History of Religions” class sitting in the back row. You had a beard then.”

Safe. The shoe fits.

You got the test answer correct.

But if you are living completely outside your rational mind, then you are living uniquely as a free spirit if you will.

It is your soul that knows.

Its software is simply knowingness.

And in recognition it knows again.

And love?

Well, you cannot find it in the time stream either.

It is there when you held hands in the park but it is not in your hands or in the park.

It is created each second that you exist in the time stream. 

You reach into its abundance so you can you give it to another as it floats in the time stream between you.

Which means it’s timeless.

That means time - less. Meaning no time.

That would mean Eternity.

And yes, that’s where you know them from.

You know them from Eternity.

And you loved them in that moment where it was in the time stream.

And now you recognize or know them again.

And not just that you know them again.

That you loved them too.

And when this recognition occurs time stops.

Because what you experienced with them then, and what you are experiencing with them now, was and is, timeless.

Have we met before?

Yes, I believe we have.

Dave Worthen

Author. Consultant. International Speaker.