What is Déjà vu?

This is an exploration of a phenomenon that so far eludes logical or scientific explanation. However, déjà vu appears to be common enough that many report experiencing it in some form or another in their lifetime.

Beyond personal experience, part of my fascination with this subject is the amount of research that has gone into it without a conclusive answer. Yet, it is a subject that has received serious study by universities and governments to varying degrees, despite none of these organizations finding any publicly known reason to continue their research.

This article is in part inspired by two of the podcasts I listen to, Stuff to Blow Your Mind and Stuff They Don’t Want You to Know. Both of these shows investigate things on the fringes of our world. The other major source of inspiration for this article was a recent rewatch of Men Who Stare at Goats. While that movie doesn’t focus on deja vu in particular, it was a catalyst for one of my favorite subjects, which is the study of paranormal phenomena done by governments and universities. This is a fun topic to research because, despite a lack of conclusive evidence for supernatural phenomena, the studies still get funded by them.

To this end, I have worked to eliminate any magical or fantastical thinking in this article that surrounds déjà vu.

What is déjà vu?

According to the Wikipedia article, déjà vu is “the phenomenon of feeling as though one has lived through the present situation before. It is an illusion of memory whereby—despite a strong sense of recollection—the time, place, and context of the "previous" experience are uncertain or impossible.”

The first kind of déjà vu that I have found through my research that most people experience is what I have come to call the Scattering. This is a broad, non-specific sense of familiarity in a place or situation. This is a rather tame version of déjà vu that often gives one a tingling sensation throughout their body or the feeling of static in the air around the experiencer. It is also the least focused of the different kinds of déjà vu.

The next type is what I call the Tiara. This is when you have a sense of familiarity, but it's more focused. This type of déjà vu gives one a tingling sensation that goes roughly from one temple to the other, crossing just above your forehead in the shape of a tiara. This type also appears to be the most likely of the déjà vu types to have a connection to temporal lobe seizures, due to its proximity to that area of the brain and its connection to déjà vu.

The third type is what I call The Crown. This is similar to The Tiara, but it is a stronger sensation that wraps around your head. The sensation begins around the top of your forehead, straight up from the top of your nose, and wraps around to the base of your skull. This also sometimes creates a tingling sensation down the spine that feels like static emanating from your spine outward.

The last type is "The Wave." This is the strongest, and most powerful sensation. It's a full-body sensation that comes towards you. Imagine standing on a platform, and having it driven through a waterfall or carwash. It's a full-body sensation that you can feel coming towards you, and as it passes, you get a tingling sensation that wraps in a line around your whole body. It can come from the front or the back.

Now that we’ve explored the different types of déjà vu, what does one do with this information?

From what I have found, there is good reason to doubt what most people call déjà vu. This is due to the connection of some déjà vu experiences and temporal lobe epilepsy. Additionally, most people view their déjà vu experience as only creating good, or being associated with a good experience. Thus, it carries a heavy dose of confirmation bias by the experiencer.

The reality is that déjà vu is most likely a phenomenon that our brain is picking up on. No more good or bad than our brain’s ability to sense light or sound via our organs that allow us to detect those things.

The first thing one must remember when encountering such phenomena is a healthy amount of skepticism. This is especially important when you are the experiencer because our minds like to play tricks on us. This is because our minds are programmed to recognize patterns and to make sense of the world, even if the conclusion is only logical to us. Thus, when encountering anything strange one must ask as many questions of oneself, such as what you had to eat or drink before the experience, what was going on in the surrounding environment, whether had you been sleeping well, had you been awake for an extended period, etc.

Eliminating any medical maladies, mental illness, possible intoxication, or any other factors, we have to consider why déjà vu is such a common phenomenon that most people experience at least once in their lives. Some have posited that déjà vu is a function of what Jung called “The Collective Unconscious.”

However, with more information available to us now through advancements in science, we have more to consider in regard to why we perceive to experience the same thing again.

The first is the multiverse theory. While not proven, there is much more evidence to support the theory that our world is only one of many worlds spread across multiple universes. If this holds, then there is the possibility that déjà vu is simply an odd interaction when two of these universes pass through each other, as each one is experiencing time ever so slightly differently from the other.

The other factor we have to consider is that we have no proof that we are living our lives forward in time. Déjà vu may be just one last dopamine hit when we remember events of significance as our brains are dying. One last fleeting moment in our mind’s eye before the long goodbye.

Nonetheless, it is hard to deny that there is an uncanny connection, a bond, between déjà vu and significant moments in our lives. Even if that meaning is applied later in life when things seem to have turned out for the best.

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