Nearly two-thirds of all people experience deja vu at least once in a lifetime. Déjà vu is an apparent similarity of the current situation to something in the indefinite past. But despite its prevalence, surprisingly little data is gathered about the physiological nature of the déjà vu phenomenon. It’s complicated to gather information on deja vu because it’s hard to recall the details of a short experience that took place perhaps months and years ago. In addition, often a sense of deja vu dominates the other senses, reality seemingly doubles.
Déjà vu comes from French and literally means “already seen”. Earlier psychologists interpreted the phenomenon of deja vu as a disease, an illusion or hallucination of memory. Continue reading