What is the déjà vu effect and why do we experience it?

 Does it sometimes seem to you that the situation you find yourself in has already happened to you before? The place is familiar, the chain of events seems familiar to you. Probably everyone has experienced this strange phenomenon, which is called déjà vu, often also referred to as a disturbance of memories. What is it caused by? You will find the answer by reading the rest of this article.

Deja vu is a situation that everyone has to deal with. Some people experience it more often, others less often. However, few people know what a disturbance of memories really is and why it occurs in their lives. It often evokes mixed feelings, and we take a moment to embrace what has just happened. Sometimes we start to recall what we did last time so that we can somehow connect the facts. However, after a few moments of reflection, we realise that such an identical situation never had the right to happen to us. This is déjà vu. The term means "already seen". The characteristics of this phenomenon are the suddenness of the occurrence, the feelings accompanying the event are brief, lasting only a few seconds, the impossibility of associating when we have experienced the same situation, déjà vu concerns a place, specific people and the situation as a whole and not a single element.

Unfortunately, the phenomenon of distorted memories is still shrouded in considerable mystery even for scientists. The occurrence of déjà vu can be the cause of illnesses such as migraine auras or accompany epileptic seizures. Sometimes we may have the feeling that something has already happened in our life, simply because an element is familiar to us from another situation. For example, if the chairs in a restaurant are very similar to those of our aunt, we may experience déjà vu even if we are in that place for the first time in our lives.

It may be interesting to note that déjà vu can be experienced by people who are blind. The abilities of the other senses are so strong that a certain sound can trigger the feeling of déjà vu. This phenomenon is most often experienced by young, overtired and stressed people, as well as travellers. Some believe that the disturbance of memories may be strongly linked to reincarnation, but this is a matter for personal reflection.
Unfortunately, we still know very little about the causes of the déjà vu phenomenon. Scientists are still researching this condition and trying to find out why it occurs. This phenomenon was already considered in the time of Socrates and Plato, so it is not something that has appeared in our time. The fact that it is taking so long to identify the reasons for experiencing this phenomenon seems somewhat disturbing, but at the same time fascinating.