What is Déjà Vu and why does it happen?

Question

What is Déjà Vu and why does it happen?

Answer 1

Deja vu is where you get the feeling that you have already done the exact same thing before, with the same people, eg. you are walking down the street talking and you feel like you have done that exact same thing before with everything EXACTLY the same (Topic of convo, background, location, same passers by around you ect.) and you know whats gonna happen next. Oh yeah and it's a french term that means already seen.

There are more than 40 different theories as to what déjà vu is and what causes it, and they range from reincarnation to glitches in our memory processes. I believe myself that it's glitches with brain processes. However sometimes I feel like I have dreamed about something before while I slept and then it happened like months or years after and I suddenly remember the dream so it is weird and I think it also has to do with psychic dreams.

Answer 2

It's when you get the feeling that you've "done this before"

I heard that it happens because your short term memory gets routed through your long term memory, so you get the feeling that what you are doing now is actually a memory from long ago. Made sense to me.

Answer 3

Déjà Vu is when you give you a flashbag orjust you feel like that moment already happened!

the sensation the smell what you see the sound and the same place... everything already happened!!

I have deja vu's all the time!!

that's bad! that means my life is always the same!!

:(

and that happens cause your brain remember almost everything happen to you and if that happen again your brain will remember and give you that felling or the flashbag!

Answer 4

When you learn how to drive to work, etc. there are many buildings or trees or fields that make an impression on you although you certainly can not observe and retain every detail.  When someone travels a new route and perhaps gets lost and circles back to where they became lost, they may recognize a few of the main features and experience Deja Vu.  If a person enters a room for the first time and it is organized and decorated similar to a room they know very well they may experience Deja Vu.  If several events occur in a well known sequence (someone enters a room with tea, pauses and says "I like that painting on the wall") that stirs a similar memory they may experience Deja Vu.  There is a strange feeling that they have 'been there and done that' before, because usually inaccessible memories are brought back to awareness.  

Answer 5

The thought known as ‘Déjà  Vu’ possibly occurs because a memory of a location or event partially triggers an old memory that is very close in nature to the event unfolding in front of you! The old memory is associated with something you were comfortable with and so the 'already  considering'  thought occurs! The science or study of such memories and responses is known as semantics.

Answer 6

is the experience of feeling sure that one has witnessed or experienced a new situation previously (an individual feels as though an event has already happened or has happened in the near past). The term was coined by a French psychic researcher, Émile Boirac (1851–1917) in his book L'Avenir des sciences psychiques (The Future of Psychic Sciences), which expanded upon an essay he wrote while an undergraduate. The experience of déjà vu is usually accompanied by a compelling sense of familiarity, and also a sense of "eeriness", "strangeness", or "weirdness". The "previous" experience is most frequently attributed to a dream, although in some cases there is a firm sense that the experience "genuinely happened" in the past.

The experience of déjà vu seems to be quite common among adults and children alike; in formal studies 70% of people report having experienced it at least once. References to the experience of déjà vu are also found in literature of the past, indicating it is not a new phenomenon. It has been extremely difficult to evoke the déjà vu experience in laboratory settings, therefore making it a subject of few empirical studies. Recently, researchers have found ways to recreate this sensation using hypnosis.

In the English speaking world the "vu" in "déjà vu" is often mispronounced as "vous" ("voo") instead of "vu" ("vu"). Persons who pronounce "déja vu" as "vous" actually say "already you" instead of "already seen" if this would be translated. This pronunciation mistake can be heard in many English language films and tv series, as in, for example, the film Groundhog Day and the 16th episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus.

Answer 7

didnt you already ask this question

Answer 8

The illusion of having previously experienced something actually being encountered for the first time.  

Answer 9

http://science.howstuffworks.com/questio...

Answer 10

Deja Vu is when you feel like you are experiencing something that's already happened. Like you could be eating dinner, and then you get a wierd feeling like you have already been there & done it before. :)  x x  

Answer 11

i think deja vu is when the brain is out sync with reality by a fraction of time causing a seemingly psychic phenomenon.

Answer 12

A glitch in the matrix.

Answer 13

The feeling of having experienced something before. - a figural meaning.

Medical meaning of this is more complicated. It is an illness, or better say a cerebral disorder that makes your perception play tricks with you. Your brain center responsible for memory receives signals from your eyes or ears or nose or skin before the center responsible for perception. That's why you seem to remember things you never experienced before.

Answer 14

its a small seizure of the brain...of a type that used to be called a 'petit mal' but is now referred to as a simple partial seizure, that only involves a small part of the brain.  It is like what occurs in a person with epilepsy, excelt its is only a very small glitch...it creates the impression that a view/sight/sounds or a combination of them has been experienced before.

Answer 15

Déjà vu (pronounced /ˈdeɪʒɑː ˈvuː/ (help·info); French /deʒa vy/ (help·info) "already seen"; also called paramnesia, from Greek παρα para, "near" + μνήμη mnēmē, "memory") is the experience of feeling sure that one has witnessed or experienced a new situation previously (an individual feels as though an event has already happened or has happened in the near past). The term was coined by a French psychic researcher, Émile Boirac (1851–1917) in his book L'Avenir des sciences psychiques (The Future of Psychic Sciences), which expanded upon an essay he wrote while an undergraduate. The experience of déjà vu is usually accompanied by a compelling sense of familiarity, and also a sense of "eeriness", "strangeness", or "weirdness". The "previous" experience is most frequently attributed to a dream, although in some cases there is a firm sense that the experience "genuinely happened" in the past.

The experience of déjà vu seems to be quite common among adults and children alike; in formal studies 70% of people report having experienced it at least once. References to the experience of déjà vu are also found in literature of the past,[1] indicating it is not a new phenomenon. It has been extremely difficult to evoke the déjà vu experience in laboratory settings, therefore making it a subject of few empirical studies. Recently, researchers have found ways to recreate this sensation using hypnosis.[2]

In the English speaking world the "vu" in "déjà vu" is often mispronounced as "vous" ("voo") instead of "vu" ("vu"). Persons who pronounce "déja vu" as "vous" actually say "already you" instead of "already seen" if this would be translated. This pronunciation mistake can be heard in many English language films and tv series, as in, for example, the film Groundhog Day and the 16th episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus.

Answer 16

The phenomenon of deja vu ("already seen") is associated with a class of memory phenomena that includes presque vu ("nearly seen") and jamais vu ("never seen"). There are several explanations, but the strongest is that it is a form of "identifying paramnesia", where there is an error in how the memory is stored and recalled.

It works a bit like this. The mind has more than one storage mechanism for memories, one being long term storage (things you don't need from second to second) and one being short term storage (things you need to recall quickly).  Suppose you walk in to a room for the first time. As there are things you'll need to recall quickly, like where the door is in case you need to get out quickly, what's on the walls, the colour of the floor, that sort of thing, these impressions are stored in short term memory. When you leave the room, your impressions of that room will eventually, if they are useful, be moved in to long term memory, from where they can be recalled if, for example, you wanted to tell a friend about the experience in a few years time.

Let's recreate the deja vu experience. Suppose you have, as mentioned above, walked in to this room for the first time, and are forming your impressions. However, through some procedural glitch of the way memory is created, your brain inadvertantly stores these impressions in the long term memory instead of the short term memory. A fraction of a second later, what you are looking at then becomes stored, correctly, in short term memory.

The short term memory is recalled, and as is normally the case, the brain then searches long term memory for similar experiences. Suddenly, you have a short term memory and simultaneously the same memory recovered from long term memory, immediately giving the (confusing) impression that you "have seen this before". You then experience the sensation of "deja vu" -- "I've seen this before, but I don't know when or how long ago".

As it's a storage-forgetting-remembering phenomenon, it's sometimes called identifying paramnesia.

Answer 17

Deja vu is the feeling that you have been or seen someone or somewhere or done something before, but your really haven't.  It probably has to do with the fact that they resemble a very familiar place or person in our past.   When I see someone that resembles an old girlfriend I get that feeling.  

Answer 18

Its where you're in a situation and you are certain you've been their before.

Answer 19

your spiritual self is being shown something important

try working it out,

might save you a lot of time