134 - Déjà Vu

 

【デジャ・ヴ、deja bu】

[The character "ヴ" is used for v sounds, however, it only exists in one of the Japanese syllabic alphabets, for that reason, when writing the pronunciation in the other one, they replaced it with the nearest alternative, 'bu'.]

Also known as "kishikan" [lit. Feeling of something already seen something] or "kishitaiken" [lit. Personal experience of having already seen something].

In French, "déjà" means "already" and "vu" means "seen," in other words, "something you have already seen". According to statistics, about 70 percent of people have experienced some sort of déjà vu.

déjà vu is also said to be a phenomenon caused by precognition, memories of previous lives, or resonance with the memories of other people or the dead. However, all of these are myths and have no proof in their favor.

Psychologists believe that déjà vu is an illusionary memory created through one's own fears, desires, or suggestions.

According to cognitive neuroscience, the cause is the mechanism of human recollection.

Human memory can be divided into three types according to its storage period.

First is sensory memory, which is what the eye sees at the moment.

The second is short-term memory, in which a specific sequence of numbers or a date and time is remembered only for a short period because of necessity.

Lastly, long-term memory, such as the names of people and the multiplication rule of nine, is acquired through repetition.

These memories are usually stored in the temporal lobe of the brain, and when necessary, people retrieve and match what they saw at that time from the stored information to determine whether they already know it or not.

However, during the matching process, the brain may malfunction. If what you are seeing now is similar to or has something in common with a past memory in the three memory areas, you may make the judgment that it is the same as something you have seen before, and so the brain itself creates this illusion.

The evidence suggests that most people who experience déjà vu do so between the ages of 15 and 20, when the brain is in the late stages of development, and during periods when the brain is not functioning as well as it should, such as when they are extremely tired.

However, the idea that déjà vu is a fragmented revival of memories from a previous life also exists.

In any case, much of the workings of the human brain remain unknown, and none of this constitutes anything more than speculation.