Déjà Vu, Déjà Vécu...

One of the most interesting phenomena to me are those "Déjà vu" (Already Seen) experiences we go through every now and then. It's amazing how you feel so sure that you've witnessed or experienced a precise new situation previously, sometimes even sensing that everything is just as it was before and having a weird knowledge of what is going to be said or happen next (in this cases it's rather called "Déjà vécu" (already lived)).

I've gotten this feeling quite a number of times throughout my life, the last time being yesterday; I was talking to some colleagues at work, and I suddenly felt I already had the same conversation before, smiling as the words I knew were going to come out of my mouth did and as the rest of the events of the moment unveiled like I knew they would.

Charles Dickens sums it up very well when he says:

"We have all some experience of a feeling, that comes over us occasionally, of what we are saying and doing having been said and done before, in a remote time – of our having been surrounded, dim ages ago, by the same faces, objects, and circumstances – of our knowing perfectly what will be said next, as if we suddenly remember it!"

I never really knew the right scientific explanation for why we had experiences like this, although I heard a lot of non-scientific ones involving our spirit living those experiences, precognition, dreams, and even reincarnation.

So today I thought I'd research it a little bit and see what's behind this fascinating phenomenon from a scientific point of view.
The explanations, or rather theories, I found range from a momentary overlap of our neurological systems responsible for short-term and long-term memory; to a mis-timing of neuronal firing; to divided attention; to a theory that one eye might have recorded what is seen fractionally faster than the other, creating that "strong recollection" sensation when the other eye catches up after a few milliseconds; to it being a neurological anomaly related to improper electrical discharge in the brain.

In the end, it seems there is no definite answer to why and how it happens, just a bunch of theories, some of them not so strong and others that could be close to the truth.

So I guess this phenomenon will continue to be a great mystery for us; inspiring ideas for books, movies and songs; and making us dream of the possibility of us knowing what the future holds.

A beautiful song inspired and describing the phenomenon was written by lyricist Lorentz Hart and music composer Richard Rogers in 1937, it's called "Where or When" and goes as follows:

"It seems we stood and talked like this before.
We looked at each other In the same way then.
But I can't remember where or when...
Some things that happen for the first time
Seem to be happening again."

Personally, I enjoy it when I get that feeling of a "Déjà Vu" or "Déjà vécu", it's fun and makes you feel like you actually have a bit of insight into what the unforeseeable future holds.

[More: Wikipedia, HowStuffWorks]

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