Deja what?
It's not Deja what, it's Déjà Vu which translates to "already seen" from French. And NO, I'm not talking about the shoe shop. I'm talking about a phenomenon, I guess we can call it that, right?
To put it simply, it's an uncanny sensation that you’ve already experienced something, even when you know you never have. Or that you've seen or lived this situation before that you know what's going to happen next.
Psychic? A glitch in the Matrix? Or maybe you've been there in another life? Not that you you who have lived this experience but someone else who is now you. Or as I interpret it (as I've heard this before as a fact) we as infants see our whole life in our mothers' womb but we can't recall that after birth (I have no idea if this piece of information has any basis of validity), so the Déjà Vu is our brain recalling seconds of it.
Either way, I'm not that much of a spiritual or psychic believer, I believe more in science and reasons (even if we don't have all the answers yet). I'm an absolute believer in the domino and the butterfly effects too. So whenever I feel that I've seen or lived something before I interpret it as my brain is playing tricks on me, as the feeling was always vivid. But I can tell you one time I was shocked and had goosebumps which made me rethink my believes about this phenomenon.
Well, it went like that. It was a normal day as I can recall. I decided to attend an event at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. I can't exactly remember if it was a Summer Festival or one of their Cultural exchange events. It was so random and I hesitated to abandon my decision to stay many times but somehow I got over myself and stayed anyway. One of the most weird things I've ever attended was that section in that event. It was a girl reading parts of her own book accompanied by a lute. I dunno what happened but it hit me suddenly that I saw this before. I was here before. This exact moment. This exact set up. Me sitting in the dark like I'm invisible, looking at two girls on a lit stage sitting in a position like they are talking to each others but not. The echoing feeling was there. What she was saying wasn't important as the mesmerizing feeling was everything to me. It was what I heard, what I saw, what I felt.
Well, I dunno if we can call that Déjà Vu or not. In a matter of fact I've never thought about knowing what scientists say about it until now so, what don't we discover that together?
Hmmm, OK, that's interesting. Here is what I found...
According to the Healthline site, Déjà Vu is really nothing more than your mind playing tricks on you. Nothing is for sure, as déjà vu experiences tend to end as quickly as they begin so it's kinda hard to study it in action. Yet there are some theories about it, let's explore some together.
Split perception
This theory suggests déjà vu happens when you see something two different times.
The first time you see something, you might take it in out of the corner of your eye or while distracted. Your brain can begin forming a memory of what you see even with the limited amount of information you get from a brief, incomplete glance. So, you might actually take in more than you realize.
It might be that it didn't involve your complete attention the first time so, you might believe you’re seeing it for the first time.
In other words, since you didn’t give the experience your full attention the first time it entered your perception, it feels like two different events. But it’s really just one continued perception of the same event.
(OK, that's a simple way to put it...)
Minor brain circuit malfunctions
This theory suggests déjà vu happens when your brain “glitches” and experiences a brief electrical malfunction, similar to what happens during an epileptic seizure.
In other words, it can happen as a sort of mix-up when the part of your brain that tracks present events and the part of your brain that recalls memories are both active. When your brain absorbs information, it generally follows a specific path from short-term memory storage to long-term memory storage. The theory suggests that, sometimes, short-term memories can take a shortcut to long-term memory storage.
This can make you feel as if you’re retrieving a long-ago memory rather than something that happened in the last second. That still leads your brain to read this single event as two different experiences.
(Again, your brain plays tricks on you,,, nothing Psychic. So what's about when you can predict the future, is that your mind playing tricks too? Like HOW?!)
Memory recall
This theory suggests that déjà vu can happen in response to an event that resembles something you’ve experienced but don’t remember.
Maybe it happened in childhood, or you can’t recall it for some other reason.
Even though you can’t access that memory, your brain still knows you’ve been in a similar situation. This process of implicit memory leads to the somewhat odd feeling of familiarity. If you could recall the similar memory, you’d be able to link the two and likely wouldn’t experience déjà vu at all.
This commonly happens when you see a particular scene, like the inside of a building or a natural panorama, that’s very similar to one you don’t remember.
(Still simple explanation. Oh wait, there is more to this research.)
Many people report that déjà vu experiences trigger a strong conviction of knowing what’s going to happen next. (That's what I'm talking about.)
But this research suggests that even if you feel certain you can predict what you’re about to see or experience, you generally can’t. (🤨😑)
(OK, that didn't answer my Question. Sometimes we can predict!
Fine, fine😩,,, is there more?)
Ok, the other theories -if that what we can call them- are talking about psychic experience, such as remembering something you’ve experienced in a previous life or in a dream, which is not science so I'm passing that.
Sooooooo to sum that all up, what do you think about these theories? Or do you believe it could be something out of the scientific explanation and we should keep an open mind? And tell me if you ever experience déjà vu before and what was it like in the comments below.
(Oh, I almost forgot, there was a section in that article about when to be concerned. I didn't find it so informative to answer that question, so I didn't tell you about it. As it simply says that Déjà vu commonly happens before a focal seizure.)
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