Have you ever felt that a scene or act that you are going through in your life have already experienced it? This strange sensation is called Déjà vu and there are various explanations and characteristics to describe this event.
The word Déja vu has its origin in the French language where its meaning is "already seen", and its main definition explains that it is an experience that we feel when we believe that we have witnessed or have previously experienced a certain situation that is new. That is, the person who has a déjà vu will encounter an intense feeling that a certain act that is lived in the present has already lived at some time in his past.
However, in order to explain this strange sensation, the psychologist Edward Titchener affirmed that this occurs when the person perceives a certain vision before the brain is able to complete the construction of the perception in a conscious and total way of that particular circumstance.
When we go through this feeling of Déjà vu, we also experience feelings of despair and impression because the brain is not able to locate in space and time the sensation that supposedly has already been lived. In addition, this sensation usually lasts only a few minutes because it then fades, leaving the person who just suffered with a bewilderment about whether the experience was a kind of dream or, also, a premonition.
Both in antiquity and for those who believe in superstitions, these sensations are considered paranormal and their analysis will depend on the beliefs held by each person.
It is said that more than 60% of people have experienced this sensation more than once in their lives. Because it is practically impossible to recreate this sensation in a laboratory so that scientists can analyze it, it has begun to implement hypnosis in order to recreate Déjà vu.
What does science say?
After several investigations, both psychological and neurological, it has been concluded that déjà vu is an anomaly produced by the brain. This means that it is an impression on an experience that is believed to be remembered.
This argument is based on the fact that each time a person goes through this sensation, the detailed information of that "memory" is usually quite uncertain; People are not usually able to decipher where, when and in what way this happened. After a while, the person will not be able to describe what caused déjà vu.