Déjà Vu

Have you ever had the feeling that you know a place, even though you’re visiting it for the first time? Have you ever felt that you’ve already experienced a situation, even though you know with certainty that it’s happening for the first time? That’s exactly what we call Déjà Vu. Although it’s not a groundbreaking issue whose resolution would change the world, it does affect most of us, and everyone would like to know what Déjà Vu actually is or what causes it. According to statistics, approximately 60 to 70 percent of the population experiences Déjà Vu in various forms. It can range from short fragments, like the ones mentioned above, to longer ones consisting of multiple sequences of Déjà Vu, or even entire events.

The term Déjà Vu was first used by the French scientist Emile Boirac in his book L'Avenir des Sciences Psychiques. Boirac was the first to explore this fairly bizarre phenomenon. Déjà Vu means “already seen” in literal translation. In this context, we may also encounter terms like Déjà Vecu (“already experienced”) or Déjà Senti (“already felt”). However, there are often misunderstandings. Many people consider it Déjà Vu when they are able to predict what will happen next. That is clairvoyance. Déjà Vu occurs during an event, not before it.

If we look at Déjà Vu from a scientific perspective, the most accepted theory to this day is the model by Dr. Vernon Neppe, director of the Neuropsychiatric Institute in Seattle, dating back to 1983. Dr. Neppe divided Déjà Vu into four categories. The associative type is practically the most common form of Déjà Vu and occurs regularly even in mentally healthy individuals. It is based on facts that we feel, see, hear, or experience. Based on these stimuli, our brain may mistakenly associate these events with ones we have experienced in the past. Another type is biological Déjà Vu, which can occur in epileptics right before a seizure. The last two models are the so-called imagined Déjà Vu and schizophrenic Déjà Vu. In both cases, Déjà Vu is caused by a mental disorder resulting from pathological depression, or in the second case, schizophrenia, where people misinterpret their perceptions and mistakenly label them as events that already happened — even though it isn’t true.

The reason why Déjà Vu is so difficult to study is the fact that there are no symptoms that announce its arrival. Déjà Vu happens unexpectedly and has no outward signs. The only way to know that someone experienced Déjà Vu is if they tell us. Therefore, researchers don’t have enough information and data for their studies. For example, the well-known doctor and psychiatrist Sigmund Freud believed that Déjà Vu occurs due to the memory of a very traumatic event. This phenomenon is called paramnesia. But what have we truly discovered so far? In reality, almost nothing. We only know that, as mentioned before, about 60 to 70 percent of the population has experienced Déjà Vu at least once, most of them aged between 15 and 25. We therefore have no concrete basis for drawing a definitive conclusion, and everything we can realistically work with are only theories — and there are more than 40 of them. That’s why we won’t discuss all of them today but will instead look at the most widespread theory of Déjà Vu — forgotten memories, both from this life and possibly from a past one.

In this case, Déjà Vu is closely connected to the idea of reincarnation. Supporters of this theory assume that those who are reincarnated after death are reborn into a new body. Although they are now living a new life in a new body, many believe that Déjà Vu consists of fragments of memories from a past life — memories of places we’ve been or events we’ve experienced. The problem is that our mind is filled with thousands of other memories from events that have happened to us during life. To maintain its “operational capacity,” the brain simply lets go of most events over time, although some are recorded in our subconscious without us consciously remembering them. Such memories are often called “forgotten memories.” This means that if you find yourself in a familiar environment and feel that you’ve been there before, it might actually be true. When our brain registers a fragment of an event categorized among “forgotten memories,” we might recall parts of it, even though we can’t remember the whole situation. According to this theory, Déjà Vu is merely a memory of an event we once lived through, but our brain has since forgotten. In this context, some suggest that it could even be a forgotten memory from a past life.

Some of us may believe we remember every event in our life, but that’s not always true. One example is the well-known TV host and actress Oprah Winfrey, who often hosted women who had been victims of rape on her talk show. As she herself stated, she was very interested in the topic, but she often had strange, inexplicable feelings during discussions. Later, with the help of a hypnotherapist, she was able to remember that she had been raped as a child. In extreme cases, the human brain is capable of creating a kind of “memory block,” allowing a person to continue life without being destroyed by devastating memories. Thousands of such cases have been documented, mostly involving war veterans, rape victims, and similar experiences. However, these are events from our current life. How can we explain the fact that we experience Déjà Vu in completely unfamiliar and distant places where we know we've never been in this lifetime? Such cases could be memory fragments from past lives. Of course, those who reject the idea of reincarnation will likely struggle to accept this explanation.

Yet there are countless people around the world who are convinced they remember specific events from a previous life — and are even aware of them. One such case is that of James Leininger, whom we covered in our article Memories of a Past Life. Another example is the story of Indian girl Shanti Devi from Delhi, which also falls into this category. But there are other cases worth mentioning. One of them is xenoglossy — the ability of a person (usually under hypnosis) to speak fluently in a language they’ve never learned before. And we mustn’t forget the so-called “miracle children”, who are born with extremely advanced abilities. These include children who can solve complex math problems at an age when they can barely speak — and they’ve never been taught. A famous example is composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who even claimed that he had been a musician in past lives, and that this is where his exceptional musical talent came from.

How is this possible? If stimuli from past lives are truly recorded in our brain, then perhaps Déjà Vu is the gateway to identifying who we once were.
Or... is our brain just playing tricks on us, sending out false signals?