Déjà vu

It could be spontaneous: you’d be laughing at the most random of things or having this conversation with someone or just look at something, and right and there you’ll have this sudden realization. It feels like an “oh my god moment” but you’ll have this sudden realization that this exact moment, this exact thing has already happened before. It’s like you’ve just walked into the future. It’s uncanny; it’s unexplainable, but it’s there and it’s real. It’s called “Deja vu”. The phrase translates to ‘already seen’.

I don’t remember my first encounter of déjà vu moment and I don’t keep count either. I cannot tell you how my times I’ve felt it. There have been many theories for it. Some say that déjà vu is evidence of existence of a parallel universe and because that exact moment has already incurred in the parallel universe, such is the reason we have the feeling that we’ve been here before or already done this before even though we know it’s the first time this has happened so. Confusing? It kind of is.

What causes Déjà vu? The most popular theory is that when a situation resembles another similar past situation, our brain believes we have already done it. In other words, it is a simple trick of the mind. One side of the brain may receive information slightly before the other on accident. This would mean that one half of the brain would interpret the information as the other half receives it.  This would create the effect that something has happened twice as the other half of the brain processes the same information.

It is said that people who travel more or watch more movies are more likely to experience déjà vu. Déjà vu is an interesting experience, all the more. The experience is important because it shows us that remembering happens with a series of steps, some of which can go wrong. Young people have this experience the most and perhaps this is because young people are very good at spotting things that are more familiar.