What is déjà vu?
Larissa WalkiwWhat is Déjà Vu?
I mean, aside from the Denzel Washington flick and the song by Beyoncé.
I am beginning to realize that there is a lot of weird stuff that our brains tend to do – like hang on to that one catchy song, or create an experience of déja vu. What's weirder still is that we don't really question why it happens.
How many times have you been in a situation where you get the eery sensation that you've lived it before? If someone else is in earshot, you usually just mention something like "Man, I just had major déja vu," and continue about your day instead of going into a panic about why that certain situation seemed so familiar to you.
Déja vu is a very tricky phenomenon to follow – it's a response that can't be summoned on demand, and so it hasn't been studied to a great extent.
Despite this, it seems to be a very common experience – 70% of the population is said to have experienced it at least once, and the most frequent occurrences usually take place between the ages of 15-25 (Hey! That's us!).
The most widely accepted explanation for déja vu is that it's just a glitch in our brains. In some situations, the processes for short-term and long-term memory overlap and as a result, we feel as though we're "remembering" what we're actually processing for the first time.
Considerably more interesting theories involve prophecy and super powers.
Feeling like I've written this blog post once before,
Larissa
