What is deja vu?

Haven't you already read this?

I had to fit this in..

Deja vu is not yet fully understood, but there are 40 odd theories trying to unravel the mystery. Generally it can be triggered by any of the 5 senses; touch, smell, sight, taste and hearing.

Deja vu is often confused with Precognitive experiences, this is when you have the feeling something will happen and it does.

Precognitive experience are when you think something will happen in the future, not the past!

Most scientists agree it's to do with your memory acting like a cache, remembering bits of information.

The Cell Phone theory


This is one of the most credited theories for Deja vu, during experimentation..

A group of students were randomly picked and shown photos at subliminal speeds (For around 10 milliseconds).

They weren't able to physically comprehend and make out the photo, however their brain registers that there was a photo. They then were shown the actual photos.

The photos the students were subliminally flashed with beforehand were reported to be a lot more familiar than the photos that weren't flashed, even though that they didn't have sufficient time to comprehend the photo.

To prove that it had nothing to do with colours, the study was repeated again by Larry Jacoby from Washington University with words, and the same effect was observed.

They deduced that our brain constantly subliminally takes in information from our surroundings, and dubbed the theory the "Cell Phone" theory, because when we're on the phone we don't pay conscious attention to our environment.

In the real world


An example would include when you visit a friend's house, when you talk to them at the door, you have a glimpse into the room, which your brain takes note of.

Then when you walk into the room you feel like you've been in there before.

This can happen similarly such as in a restaurant when you smell the food on the table next to you, you happen to order the same dish and you now think you've had the dish before!