Déjà Vu: How to explain the feeling of encountering something you’ve already experienced

He deja vu It is a psychological phenomenon involving cognition have experienced a new condition beforeBut in reality this never happened. There are many scientific and philosophical theories that try to explain its psychological causes, but none are definitive. french philosopher emile boirac He was one of the first to study this strange phenomenon and named it in 1876.

Sometimes déjà vu is confused with some pre-cognitive phenomenon, in which a person believes that he can predict what is going to happen later and, ultimately, he is right. But an important distinction of this phenomenon is that déjà vu is felt during an event, not before, On the other hand, pre-cognitive experiences, if they are true, reveal something that will happen in the future, not something that we have already experienced. It is estimated that déjà vu occurs from time to time in 60% to 80% of people. it’s such an experience is almost always fleetingthat arise and occur without warning random, Most experts believe that this phenomenon is a memory-based experience, so the brain’s memory centers would actually be the cause.

Undoubtedly, this type of parascientific approach keeps the interest alive among researchers and psychologists trying to find meaning in these experiences. Some consider déjà vu to be simple mind illusion, a common product of memory limits, However, others inquire about the deeper why, the possibility of some deeper meaning. Spiritual.

However, there is no scientific evidence to support this idea, so possible mystical explanations of déjà vu have been left to the imagination. At a clinical level, and despite the fact that déjà vu is not a sign of something serious, such as mental illness, there are some factors that are related to the appearance of déjà vu, such as: fatigue or stress. This is because fatigue can affect both short-term and long-term memory.

19th century thinkers Gaston Bachelor, who was fascinated by studying the psychology of imagination, believed that déjà vu was a reflection of how our mind constructs sense of continuity before new experiences, so they draw on past memories to understand the present.

Then, there are also many theories related to neuroscience, An attempt is being made to explain this phenomenon. is one of the most prominent Alan Brown, Psychologist at Southern Methodist University and author of the book deja vu experienceand a paper in which he explained his theory was published pub made in 2003. This author shows an assortment of different scientific explanations regarding déjà vu:

This author describes possible explanations for this phenomenon as follows:

1- Dual processing

The main idea of ​​this possible explanation is the consequent confirmation of déjà vu. two cognitive processes synchronous parallels He momentarily out of sync, This desynchronization may be due to a lack of one process when the other is active or due to the fact that the brain is recording information and remembering it at the same time, that is, they are two way join Related that are usually different. The fact of seeing an image and remembering it at the same time gives us the feeling of having experienced that situation firsthand.

2- Neurological

Déjà vu can be caused by a brief fault/disruption in a circuit of temporal cortex, involved in the experience of remembering living situations. this fact is a reason “false memory” of the situation. This theory is supported by studies Epileptic patients The temporal cortex, which often feels déjà vu just before suffering an attack. By measuring nerve secretions in the brains of these patients, scientists have been able to identify the areas of the brain where déjà vu signals are generated and how those same areas can be stimulated to produce that feeling.

3- Mnesic

Define Déjà Vu as an evoked experience Similarities and overlaps between past and present experiences. psychological Anne M Cleary, In a paper published online for the first time in 2018, on the neural basis underlying déjà vu, a researcher at Colorado State University argued that the phenomenon is a general metacognitive mechanisms This happens when there is a past experience same as current And, as a result, it makes us think that we’ve already been there. Through various studies and research, they have shown that the brain stores pieces of information, ie. does not store complete information And so, when we see, for example, a road that looks like another or has the same or similar elements, this sensation can arise.

4- Dual perception or meditation

This theory states that phenomena occur as a result of transient encephalopathy Right after some part of the scene (non-clear recollection) was captured. When this focus is regained (a fraction of a second) and a complete capture is made, we consider that scene to be a strong sense of belonging without being aware of its origin, giving a sense of it “false memory”Because it was registered indirectly and unintentionally.

Sometimes déjà vu is associated with certain diseases, such as epilepsy, as mentioned earlier, also with schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s.

When people grow old or develop degenerative processes, such as Alzheimer’s, it becomes more difficult to form unique memories for similar places or experiences. In this way it is very possible to create the illusion of déjà vu that plagues many older adults and their caregivers. Thus, déjà vu or paramnesia is, therefore, a memory problem what happens in the brain and it continues to happen over the years Mistake This happens more often. That is why it is generally common in people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.

as well as the American theoretical physicist Michio Kaku, An expert in string field theory said that déjà vu may actually be a memory of some experience in another dimension. they hypothesize that this event may This is due to the brain’s ability to move between multiple parallel universes.

Kaku gives the example of radio, which was proposed in 1979 by Nobel Prize-winning American physicist Steve Weinberg. Since all frequencies are vibrating everywhere at the same time, it would be necessary to find that unique vibration (probably the one that was discovered) (Monk Zen) that allows us to be together with all other things, to become all things, one Enables everything to stop being and become everything.

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