According to Osho, that instant familiarity is a remembrance rising from deep, unconscious layers carried across countless lifetimes. The body dies and the soul is timeless, but the mind (chitta) travels, holding impressions. Meeting a meditative presence or sacred place revives the one flavor of awakening—like the ocean’s salt—so you recognize the flame, not the lamp. It is past satsang resurfacing; don’t miss it now.
It feels like you’ve met before because a deep old memory—maybe from another life—recognizes the same peaceful presence.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, when I listen to you it feels as if I’ve heard you before. When I look at you it feels as if I’ve seen you before. Yet this is my very first time here. It’s the first time I’ve heard you, the first time I’ve seen you. What is happening to me?
Eyes closed, keep advancing—such is the law of the love-mad; Do not bow your head, keep fighting—such is the law of the brave; There is motion in the breath, motion in the heart—here progress alone is the rule; Become motion, and in motion dissolve—such is the law of the motioned ones! I am a challenge—a call! I shake you. I question you. Eyes closed, keep advancing—such is the law of the love-mad; Do not bow your head, keep fighting—such is the law of the brave; There is motion in the breath, motion in the heart—here progress alone is the rule; Become motion, and in motion dissolve—such is the law of the motioned ones! You missed before—do not miss this time. Yes, fear comes. Satsang brings fear. Ah—to see and hear That which truly Is here; Love, in a single instant, effaces its own devotees! Love annihilates. Love burns. But the…
Beloved Osho, when I took sannyas and I first met you, it was like meeting again with an ancient beloved, as if I had known you for a long time. Is it so, or is every meeting with an enlightened being so much a reminder of one's own inner self that it feels as if one has met before?
Purna, the experience of remembering as if you have been with me before in the past lives has two dimensions -- one, which you mention in your question itself. Each meeting with an enlightened person is meeting with a mirror. You see yourself as in reality you are -- not the mask but the original face, not the personality but your universal being. The meeting with the enlightened person creates a resonance, a certain vibration that reaches to the very depths of your being. Because you don't know your self, it seems you have met this enlightened being before -- because you don't know your own enlightenment. It is your self nature. This is one dimension. But there is another dimension also. You have lived many lives, and it is impossible that you have not come across the awakened, the enlightened, the illuminated beings -- perhaps many times. You have…
So somewhere deep in your unconscious you are carrying all the memories of all the past lives. It is very, very possible that again and again you will come to situations which are alike and suddenly you feel as if it has happened before. And it has happened before! Maybe the actors were different, but how can they be very much different ? Human beings are human beings after all. For example, just listening to me, you can be surrounded by a sense of deja vu: you can start feeling you have listened to me before, the same way. I may not have been with you before but you may have listened to some other master. And they have all the same look in the eyes, the same scent to their being, the same song to sing. Words differ but the rhythm, the constantly running underground rhythm is the same.
Why does all that you say seem completely familiar? I have heard it all before in various contexts, but at the same time, it sounds full of wonderful revelations.
That's the quality of truth: it is neither old nor new -- or, it is both. Truth is eternal. In a way you have heard it millions of times, in many contexts. You may not have understood it but you have heard it. You carry the memory. It is not that you are here for the first time on this earth. In the time of Buddha, in the time of Jesus, in the time of Krishna, certainly you were there. You have heard it but you have not understood it. That's why you are again here. The day you understand, you disappear. Understanding is a great death, death from this world of fantasy, dream, illusion. You are right. Your feeling is right that you have heard it before. It sounds familiar and yet it reveals much. It sounds familiar because it is familiar. Still, it reveals new dimensions, because a…
Osho, can two souls not become acquainted—recognize one another?
As far as acquaintance is concerned, even two spirits, if they wish to become acquainted, can do so only by entering two persons. They cannot meet directly. It is almost like twenty people sleeping together in this room: we are here all night, yet in sleep we cannot become acquainted. Our acquaintance belongs only to wakefulness. When we wake up it can continue, but in sleep we cannot be acquainted; there is no relationship at all. Yes, it can happen that one person wakes up—then he can see everyone. This means that if one soul enters someone’s body, that soul can see all these souls—yet those souls will not see it. And if a soul enters a body, it can know something about other souls that are bodiless; but those souls will not be able to know anything about it. In truth, the knowing—the acquaintance—we speak of is possible only…