Funny, I have a similar cognitive sensation for a kind of deja vu I sometimes get, where I'll remember remembering something and my train of thought about it, but also remember remembering remembering all the previous times I remembered remembering it, and along with it, unwillingly, I'll remember all the trains of thought I had at the times I remembered remembering, sort of replaying all at once, cacaphonously.

It's sort of like looking down a well, but it's well of time, where each time I look, the well is one unit deeper and there's another new snapshot of me looking down the well added to the top.

It's honestly kind of annoying, because it's almost the cognitive equivalent of an earworm — I have to willfully dismiss it from my focus, otherwise it sticks around.

I wonder if this is the original meaning of the term "navel gazing"?