Déjà Rêvé and Love at Second Sight

Dreams of destiny across cultures and history

Explores visions and dreams that foretell love encounters, highlighting the way these experiences draw people together.

Presents hundreds of romantic and other precognitive dreams from legendary, historical, and modern sources, compiled for the first time in one place.

Documents numerous dream-related folklore practices from different cultures, including charms and spells to induce prophetic dreams of a future lover.

Déjà Rêvé and Love at Second Sight examines déjà rêvé, meaning “already dreamed,” a widespread phenomenon related to, though distinct from, the more popularly known déjà vu. More than just a familiar sense, moments of déjà rêvé are tied directly to specific dreams, often inspiring profound life changes for the dreamer.

In this book, Daniel Bourke compiles the most comprehensive record of this mysterious phenomenon to date, presenting hundreds of romantic and other precognitive dreams from legendary, historical, and modern sources, collected for the first time in one place. Highlighting, in particular, the experience of dreams that foretell love encounters, Bourke explores the way these dreams and visions draw people together.

Illustrating just how extensive and deeply human this phenomenon is, Bourke delves into folk practices from different cultures, including charms and spells to induce prophetic dreams of a future lover, such as placing cards or herbs under a pillow, looking into a candlelit mirror, or praying to the moon. Dreamers can learn the exact name of their future lover or spouse, though they may not encounter them until years after the dream.

Showing how déjà rêvé spurs people to real-world action, Bourke features stories of saints, shamans, religious figures such as the Buddha, and other visionary mystics as well as mentions of déjà rêvé in the memoirs of authors, politicians, and ballet dancers. These dreams can be astonishingly literal or deeply veiled in symbolism but are commonly specific and highly memorable—one of the hallmarks of the déjà rêvé experience.