What exactly is DeJa Vu?

Question

I'm not really sure what it is...

So i have experienced Deja Vu without even knowing what it was exactly?... that's pretty weird,.. i thought i was the only one with those odd feelings....

and no,.. i don't remember asking this sam question? have i? haha

and... I actually read those copy paste long answers.... they're interesting...

thanks,.. now i know

Answer 1

Here you go :-)

The term déjà vu is French and means, literally, "already seen." Those who have experienced the feeling describe it as an overwhelming sense of familiarity with something that shouldn't be familiar at all. Say, for example, you are traveling to England for the first time. You are touring a cathedral, and suddenly it seems as if you have been in that very spot before. Or maybe you are having dinner with a group of friends, discussing some current political topic, and you have the feeling that you've already experienced this very thing -- same friends, same dinner, same topic.
Related terms

Paramnesia - a disorder of memory: a) condition in which the proper meaning of words cannot be remembered; b) the illusion of remembering scenes and events when experienced for the first time -- called also déjà vu
Jamais vu - a disorder of memory characterized by the illusion that the familiar is being encountered for the first time

Source: Merriam Webster Medical Dictionary


The phenomenon is rather complex, and there are many different theories as to why déjà vu happens. Swiss scholar Arthur Funkhouser suggests that there are several "déjà experiences" and asserts that in order to better study the phenomenon, the nuances between the experiences need to be noted. In the examples mentioned above, Funkhouser would describe the first incidence as déjà visité ("already visited") and the second as déjà vecu ("already experienced or lived through").

As much as 70 percent of the population reports having experienced some form of déjà vu. A higher number of incidents occurs in people 15 to 25 years old than in any other age group.

Déjà vu has been firmly associated with temporal-lobe epilepsy. Reportedly, déjà vu can occur just prior to a temporal-lobe epileptic attack. People suffering an epileptic seizure of this kind can experience déjà vu during the actual seizure activity or in the moments between convulsions.

Since déjà vu occurs in individuals with and without a medical condition, there is much speculation as to how and why this phenomenon happens. Several psychoanalysts attribute déjà vu to simple fantasy or wish fulfillment, while some psychiatrists ascribe it to a mismatching in the brain that causes the brain to mistake the present for the past. Many parapsychologists believe it is related to a past-life experience. Obviously, there is more investigation to be done.

Answer 2

Hmm... DeJa Vu... Well, it's like a double take i guess. I get it all the time. I don't even know if the first time happens, all I know is that I rememebr something just as it happens, like it already has. Like the exact people sitting around me in a room in school- I think i had a dream one time when those people (who weren't in my class before this year) were around me in those exact positions doing the stuff they were. Then when the thing happened i felt a bit weird. naturally I said DeJa Vu. It happens all the time to me. If we knew what sort of situations you were in then the answer could be more specific to your answer, but if you're one of those people who likes to htink about htings at night time like I do then it would explain the DeJa Vu, since you start thinking about possible things that will happen until your mind subconsiously does it for you.

Answer 3

It's when you are in the midst of doing or saying something and you stop what you are doing for a second and do a double-take because you swear that what just took place happened before or you had a dream of that very same thing happening. It happened to me once in the fourth grade. It was no profound moment or anything. I was just passing up my homework to the front of the row and my friend Angela turned to collect the papers from me and for a split-second I stopped and felt like that moment had occurred before. Weird...

Answer 4

It is the overwhelming feeling that you have been some place or done something before. As if you are doing it twice.
Your brain logicly says that you were never in that location before but you strongly feel that you have.

That is a feeling of deja vu.

Answer 5

Déjà vu (pronounced en-uk-dejavu.ogg /ˈdeɪʒɑː ˈvuː/ (help·info); French fr-déjà vu.ogg /deʒa vy/ (help·info) "already seen"; also called paramnesia, from Greek παρα "para," "near" + μνήμη "mnēmē," "memory") or promnesia, 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), although the exact circumstances of the previous encounter are uncertain. 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.[citation needed] 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.

Answer 6

The term "déjà vu" (IPA:/deʒa vy/) (French for "already seen", also called paramnesia) describes the experience of feeling that one has witnessed or experienced a new situation previously.

stolen from Winipdia

Answer 7

I have heard it is when the soul recollects a certain point in time and the body and soul are then one. Almost as if a distant memory has awakened your aura. I really just think it is suppose to mean that ur life in the present is on track......+

Answer 8

it's like you been or seen something ,but in reality you haven't but somewhere on a dream ,or as a child you have seen or done something ,it's almost like hog day ,you keep reliving same thing .
shoot I'm confused myself ,trying to explain.LOL

Answer 9

its the feeling that you are experiencing something again even if u dont remember specifically when. it could even have been sumthing that happened in a dream.

Answer 10

Having the feeling that you have been at that place before