Deja Vu

[miladinoski 1]

The thing you are talking about (seeing an event you have never experienced before and then seeing it with your own eyes and a flash in your brain about what would happen in the micro-future) is called D?j? Vecu (the article at Wikipedia) describes it very nicely, that there are 3 types of D?j? Vu and calling the event you have never experienced before as D?j? Vu is wrong. You (and everyone experiencing it) should be calling it D?j? Vecu (which translated literally translates as "already lived") and according to Wikipedia it's "a common happening to younger people at around 15 to 25 years old". Now, if you let me, I will talk about my common experiences of this foul experience (to me):

 

The worst thing that happened to me in my life was the death of my uncle (by my father's side). It was a really horrible event for my whole family, and it happened the previous winter of 2007. He had an operation which didn't succeed and so on... I won't discuss his death in here (not because that it's hard to me to talk about it - it is, but, because it's not fair towards my aunt et cetera...) but his funeral, for which his body was first brought to his house and the mourning was held, during which his body was laying in the coffin and flowers were brought to that room, I didn't take a look at him while I was entering the room and left the flowers, but when I was coming out of the room I got a quick look of his face. It (his face) was yellow (because that his "yellow" (I think it was called bile or yolk or something like that - I don't know the correct phrase for that part of the humans body, english is not my main language) burst during the operation) and one specific detail freaked me out!!?One or two teeth on his jaw were interestingly misplaced and?that specific detail, I completely remember, maked me feel veery strange, and I had a feeling that I dreamed about it when I was young, or it was an "ordinary" Deja Vecu.

 

Deja vecus have happened to me a lot before and after that event, but that specific event made my day a horror and my whole week a mess...

 

So far, I haven't had a good experience with Deja Vecu's, but I hope that experience will improve or will completely dissapear in the future and I won't remember the death of my uncle

[onscreen 0]

As I already said somewhere here in the forum... Déjŕ Vu is an anomaly of our brain :)There are several theories which try to explain the reasons for this to happen, but the answer still eludes us.

Some say that déjŕ vu experiences result from memories which are incorrectly stored in the long term memory section, giving you the feeling that they had already happened before you actually experience them. Another explanation states that memories can follow alternate pathways in the brain, making it possible for them to be stored even before the visual information of the event gets to the visual cortices. Because of that, when you get to "see" ou "experience" something, that memory has in fact already been stored in your brain, and you'll get that familiar feeling, of course.

These are, however, nothing more than theories. They are, nevertheless, the explanations I like the most

Besides these ones, there's also that explanation which defines Déjŕ Vu as a recalled experiencie... Like when you dream about something (experience it) and are then put through a similar situation in the real world. It's kinda cool

You explained it well. Though more research to be done as the Wikipedia source did not satisfied me totally. What still bother me is how does these "anomalies" started and how would one can discharge it. If it happen to often, what is the side effect or is there none? How would these memories get to stored incorrectly in our brains? Hmm.. can i call it a vision?

[pedro-kun 0]

You explained it well. Though more research to be done as the Wikipedia source did not satisfied me totally. What still bother me is how does these "anomalies" started and how would one can discharge it. If it happen to often, what is the side effect or is there none? How would these memories get to stored incorrectly in our brains? Hmm.. can i call it a vision?

These anomalies start because some neuronal pathways weren't activated when they were supposed to, or were activated when they weren't supposed to be active. Many things can make this happen, we do not know for sure how it all begins. Accessory pathways may exist in the brain... if that happens, data can proceed through such pathways and indeed reach the memory before it reaches the visual cortex, as already mentioned. The incorrect storage theory functions in somewhat the same way, I think. We don't know what makes memories be stored in the wrong "compartment", however.If these things happen too often, you can probably check with your doctor, he'll know what to do a lot better than anyone here at the forum, I guess. I think that people with cerebral fibrosis (which may be the result of a previous infarction) may possess abnormal electrical activities in the brain, which may lead to deja vu, perhaps... but I guess it more easily leads to other things such as hallucinations than to deja vu. I'm not very into this, actually.

Oh!, and it's not a vision, because things do happen/have happened. Or at least they've been dreamed about

PS.: I'm not using any bibliographic source for these answers... I'm mainly recalling a "debate" we had at school with our teacher (neurosurgeon).
So, much of this is bound to be somewhat incorrect. But not that much, I hope

[Aeon 0]

The replies here do not explain why deja vu happens.Placing religion and 'memory' aside, as well as mental disorders-- the main cause for deja vu is the recreation of the few seconds of an event.Basically, your brain 'shorts' out in a way a TV would skip due to changes in space (satellite) -- The TV skips a few scenes of whatever you're watching, then goes back to a few seconds before that event, or 'skipping' happened.The brain does the same. It recreates an event. This could be a cause of high stress, or lack of sleep, or even an irregular sleeping pattern.It could also be caused by drugs such as 'amantadine and phenylpropanolamine' when combined.Or various other over-the counter drugs.

[pedro-kun 0]

The replies here do not explain why deja vu happens.

Were you expecting they did? Science itself did not answer this question yet, so it's only natural that replies here don't answer it as well. Also, if you skim through the thread a little bit, you'll find I already mentioned some mechanisms underlying deja vu.

 

Placing religion and 'memory' aside, as well as mental disorders-- the main cause for deja vu is the recreation of the few seconds of an event.

No, excuse me, that is what deja vu is, and not what causes it. Deja vu is the recreation of a few seconds of an event. What we still don't know is precisely what causes that to happen.

[cyber_electrons 0]

Actually, I have experienced quite a lot of deja vu s previously. There are many times in my life that I thought for some time that I really did saw that before. Not too long ago, I was thinking about starting to write down the description of the event that seems like a dejavu and try to refer back to it when it happens again. Just when I don't want to do it because the chances are very low, I started to see the deja vu again. Now it would be the third similar feeling.Sometimes the deja vu happens when I am at school and during a lesson. At that time, I would seem to be daydreaming, unsure about if the event did happen before. Quite disturbing sometimes, but if I have a chance to, I want to find out at least some relations of deja vu.Excuse me for my probable mislocation of the phrase deja vu as I don't know the details about it.Some of my deja vu s happen at school as to your's at the office. I would seem like daydreaming as i am tryingto figure out what really happen and "did this really happen before?" type of thing.

[Ike_ve 0]

This happens to me everyday. But to bad that i notice that after the experience happens, i mean, i can't tell what will happen in the next ex:10 seconds, but after that 10 seconds pass, i'm 100% sure that i already experienced that yesterday or some other passed day. Another bad thing for me, 2-3 years ago when i didn't know that this happens to everyone, i felt special (super powers and stuff..), i didn't tell anyone becouse i watched to many movies, and i thought i was imagining And the moment came when i got the courage to tell my mom, and she told me that this happens to everyone

Edited March 31, 2009 by Ike_ve (see edit history)

[kleong 0]

I read before a report on this subject. It explain the sense of Deja Vu and how is come about. When the eyes saw, it will send the image to the brain for deciphering. Sometimes, there is a "delay" in progress. And when the brain finally process it, there is a split second of a delay. And because of this delay, it gave people the impression that they had being in this place, in this situation before. Even thou it is scientifically proven, I believe there are people who can really "see" in the future.