Deja vu has been of interest to people for many centuries, at least attempts to describe this phenomenon and find out its causes were carried out in antiquity, in the Middle Ages, and, of course, many scientists are trying to solve this riddle today. That these are memories from a past life, the ability to predict the future or experiments of alien civilizations - so far no one can give an exact answer.
What is deja vu
The word "deja vu" can describe the mental state of a person, when he finds himself in a non-standard situation for him and in an unusual atmosphere, feels that something like this has already happened in his life. At the same time, the boundaries of the real seem to move apart, many note that they see themselves as if from the outside. An insignificant trifle can cause such a feeling - smell, image, sound. It begins to seem that everything that happens has already taken place in the past, however, there is no way to determine exactly at what point in time it was - 10 years ago or three days, there is just a clear feeling of a repetition of events. Interestingly, some people, while in a state of déjà vu, can even predict what will happen in the short term. After some time, the perception of reality is normalized, but the memories of the experience are often very vivid. This phenomenon is quite common, almost every person has experienced it at least once in his life, and people with epilepsy are more susceptible to this phenomenon.
Etymology of the word "deja vu"
The term "déjà vu" has French roots. It is formed from the word "déjà", which means "already", and the form of the verb "voir" - to see. For the first time such a phrase (in French the word "deja vu" is spelled separately - déjà vu) was used by the psychologist Emile Bouarak at the end of the 19th century in a book on new trends in psychiatry. It is interesting that there is a term "jamevue", which means the opposite state - when a person, staying in a well-known place, feels that he is here for the first time. It is also formed from the French words "jamais" and "vu" - never seen.
How science explains déjà vu
There are many versions of why déjà vu arises. Along with controversial claims that the soul recalls past life events, and other similar assumptions, there are serious scientific works on this topic. So, for example, Andrei Kurgan in his book "The Phenomenon of Deja Vu", through complex calculations about the change in the structure of time, comes to the conclusion that a person falls into such a state when the experience in a dream is reflected in the present. At the same time, American scientists have determined that the part of the brain, the hippocampus, which is involved in the transition from long-term memory to long-term memory, is directly related to the occurrence of the déjà vu effect. The proteins contained here give a signal if the image was previously familiar to a person. However, it is not yet possible to conduct full-fledged research on déjà vu for a simple reason - this condition cannot be artificially induced or calculated when it occurs.