The definition by the Cambridge English Dictionary is that déjà vu is that strange feeling you have already experienced what is happening now. But what is it really?
Perhaps you visit a strange city for the first time. Strolling down a road, you are convinced you have never been on before, you feel as if you have been there before. Everything seems familiar.
Experts suggest that upwards of 60 percent of the population experience this sensation.
What the experts say
The experts don’t say too much! Research is limited, mainly because when déjà vu happens, the sensation is brief. You might feel uneasy for a moment but quickly brush it off as a trick of the mind.
It has been suggested that it relates to how we process and recall memories. Research shows that it can be triggered by a similar experience you have had but don’t remember. After all, one city is the same as another, right?
Often, after such an event, you could feel certain that you know what you’re about to encounter next. This feeling is reinforced by places and objects which you have seen before and there is a vague connection between the current situation and the previous one.
Split-brain phenomenon
One explanation comes from an unexpected place. Split-brain syndrome is when the corpus callosum connecting the two sides (hemispheres) of the brain is severed. The surgery is often used to treat refractory epilepsy – performed to reduce the risk of accidental injury by reducing the severity of seizures.
After the right and left brain are separated, each side will have its own perception, concepts, and impulses. Visual stimuli, for instance, may only be seen by the side of the brain which controls the opposite side of the body. An image presented to the left side, which is controlled by the right brain, will often only be seen (processed) by the right brain and is invisible to the left brain.
What the experts are saying is that déjà vu happens in much the same way: the first time you see something, you may see it out of the corner of your eye. Your brain begins forming a memory from the limited information you got from your peripheral vision. A little bit later, after putting your full attention on the same object, your brain recalls the previous perception, but does not quite connect the two events.
Another theory suggests that your brain can briefly malfunction – a sudden burst of electrical activity similar to an epileptic fit. This can cause your brain to confuse its memories and awareness, which in turn makes it conclude that what is happening in that moment is a memory.
Short-term memory
Another theory suggests that when your brain gathers information, it generally stores it first in short-term memory and then long-term memory. Sometimes, short-term memory takes a shortcut to long-term memory storage. This can make one feel as if you’re recalling an old memory rather than something that recently happened.
A glitch in the Matrix
Like in the movie The Matrix, this theory states that déjà vu is a momentary glitch in our reality; that we are moving to a higher level of consciousness, where we can have multiple realities at the same time.
The parallel universe
This model suggests that déjà vu happens when our current and parallel universes intersect; when we experience déjà vu, our parallel universe self is experiencing the same situation.
Past lives
Supernatural theories abound but one of them states that déjà vu means we really have experienced these things before, in a past life! Instead of our brains misfunctioning or a glitch in the matrix or a trick of the mind, why not believe that they are real memories rather than false ones.
My own opinion
I would like to believe in the parallel universe theory combined with the Matrix theory. Our minds are so complex; why shouldn’t we be living more than one reality at the same time? I would like to believe that when I’m sitting at work at my computer, my other self is sitting on the beach sipping pina coladas, and my other self is climbing Kilimanjaro.
How else am I going to cram so much into one little lifetime? Hey, with computers these days, we can have thousands of memories stored on our hard drives.
David Owen Nunes
David is many faceted, fascinating, fastidious, fair, fabulous and the other F word. He works in the Pensions Industry, plays occasional golf, and dreams of being able to write full time.
