Déjà Vu, Déjà Vu
Déjà Vu, Déjà Vu
Have you ever heard a friend say something that you could have sworn you had heard them say before, or stubbed your toe on a door and thought it had happened earlier? If so, you have experienced the common sensation known as déjà vu. The French words for “seen before”, déjà vu is just that. It is a concept in which a person experiences a sensation of either having been somewhere before or being in a situation previously, even when they know they have not, and it has always been a mystery. It has been proven in various studies that at least fifty to ninety percent of all people have recalled having an experience with déjà vu. Instances can occur with people of any age group, but tend to occur more with teens and young adults. A person has a higher tendency of experiencing déjà vu when they are stressed or fatigued and instances are usually over within a few seconds. Previously there had only ever really been theories as to what déjà vu is and why it occurs, but recently research has begun to get closer to the answers to those questions and discovering the truth.
Some people believe that déjà vu is a type of hallucination, suppressed memory, or even something from a gap in how we pay attention to things. Others believe that it is something that comes from a mystical power of some sort or from reincarnation from a past life. I personally believe that déjà vu could be any of those, but that it is most likely something that happens when a part of the brain is triggered by chemicals or other factors involved in brain activity. No matter where the source of déjà vu, its occurrences make people doubt reality for that short period of time. I know that during my experiences with déjà vu that I have felt some of the same things that others have felt during their own experiences. Déjà Vu experiences are usually very typical. From feeling as if I had been sitting in the same car at another time, listening to the same song with the same friends, to feeling as though I had discussed a certain issue with my parents under the exact same circumstances at another time, I know that someone else has had a similar experience at one point or another. I believe that because the experiences are so typical, that déjà vu must come from something that any typical person has, and that is why I believe that it is caused by something having to do with brain activity, because every living human being on Earth is in possession of a brain.
The brain works in many mysterious ways, one of which is how it succeeds in producing a “coherent likeness of reality” during instances of déjà vu. How exactly is this able to happen? At the moment, the answer to that question is unclear. Scientists have discovered that the temporal lobes of the brain play an important role, and it has also been found that people with damage in that area of their brain appear to have déjà vu frequently. Neurosurgeons have also noted from their observations that the temporal lobes are partially responsible for occurrences of déjà vu. Although the temporal lobe is definitely a large part in the production of déjà vu, other parts of the brain may be involved overall as well. Because of the many different senses and emotions involved in the experience of déjà vu, it must involve a complex process using those different areas of the brain. Further research on this subject will ultimately help to explain how the brain is able to do such things.