Do you ever have a "Deja-vu Moment?"
You know, one of those moments where you feel like you've "been there before," but it's not just a vague memory of sorts, it seems to real you're ready to predict the next person who's going to walk around the corner.
Do you find yourself wondering what it means?
Have you seen this flower before?
Deja-vu is typically defined along the lines of "Having the feeling that a new experience (to you) has actually happened before." The term is derived from French, and loosely means "already seen" or "previously seen."
I have had a lot of very strong deja-vu moments in my life.
Science doesn't offer a conclusive explanation for the phenomenon.
One popular theory holds that the brain momentarily "loses its place" and attributes something that happened a split-second earlier (short term memory) to a time in the distant past (long term memory). This gives us the false impression that we're "recalling" something that essentially happened in the current moment.
Other theories suggest a connection of a current event to a "false" recollection of a part event.
Yet others believe a deja-vu to be an example of precognition. Either way, the phenomenon has been studied for a long time, but nobody seems quite sure what the deal is.
Cabbage white butterfly in the sun
Most recently, it has been theorized that deja-vu is the result of the brain's own memory-checking system; accessing past (but forgotten) memories similar to the present, with the brain misinterpreting the present as already having happened.
The "precognition" theories are generally dismissed because the person who experienced the deja-vu typically has difficulty explaining or recalling where they first experienced the event.
Personally? I'm not so sure.
I have experienced more than a few deja-vu feelings, and found myself able to tell what was going to happen next, before those things actually happened. I even shared it out loud with others, before it happened. It was almost like having had a dream, and knowing how the rest of it would unfold.
I expect such experiences represent a minority of deja-vu situations. In any case, I find the phenomenon interesting and fun to talk about.
How About YOU? Have you ever had a deja-vu? How "real" did it feel, to you? Do you believe deja-vu's are "memory glitches?" Do you think they might be some kind of precognition? Leave a comment-- share your experiences and feedback-- be part of the conversation!
(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Published 20170917 16:19 PDT
