What is deja vu and why is it happening? How does the deja vu effect occur?

Surely, everyone knows such moments when it seems that a certain event has already occurred, or we meet a person who was once seen. But that's how it was and under what circumstances, alas, no one can remember. In this article, we will try to understand what is deja vu and why it happens. Are these games that our minds have started up with, or some kind of mysticism? How do scientists explain this phenomenon? Why is deja vu happening? Let's consider all in more details.

What does deja vu mean?

Literally this concept is translated as "previously seen." For the first time this term was used by Emile Bouarak, a psychologist from France. In his work "Psychology of the Future" the author raised and voiced such moments, which the researchers did not dare to describe before. After all, no one really knew what déjà vu was and why it was happening. And since there is no logical explanation for this, how can such a sensitive subject be touched? It was this psychologist who first called the effect the term "deja vu". Before that, his definitions were used, such as "paramnesia", "promenezia", which meant "already tested", "previously seen".

The question of why déjà vu arises, and to this day remains mysterious and to the end unsolved, although, of course, there are several hypotheses.

Attitude towards this people

If scientists do not always decide to describe the effect and the reasons for its appearance, many people are even frightened of such phenomena. To the feeling of deja vu, some are treated with great apprehension, believing that there have been disturbances in the mental state. Naturally, a person who has experienced this effect on himself, does not always tend to share his experiences with loved ones, moreover, he tries to forget all this more quickly and forget. Now, if people knew what déjà vu is and why it happens, many of their problems would be solved. After all, all those events, phenomena, sensations that are beyond the explanable, inevitably cause fear. To such effects belongs and deja vu. How to properly write the word - the question is not so urgent and urgent. After all, people are much more interesting to find out what it is - brain games or sleep, which we once saw. Let's study some explanations for this phenomenon.

What do scientists say?

American scientists have conducted several studies to find out how the deja vu effect develops. They found that for its appearance the hippocampus is responsible - a certain area of the brain. After all, it is in it that there are specific proteins that enable us to instantly recognize images. In the course of this study, scientists even determined what structure the cells of this part of the brain have. It turns out that as soon as we get to a new place or pay attention to the face of a person, all this information immediately "floats up" in the hippocampus. Where did she come from? Scientists say that its cells in advance create the so-called "cast" of any unfamiliar place or person. It turns out something like a projection. What happens? Does the human brain program everything in advance?

How were the experiments conducted?

To better understand what is at stake, let's find out how scientists in the state of Colorado conducted research. So, they selected several subjects, provided them with photos of famous personalities from different fields of activity, famous people, various attractions, which are known to everyone.

After that, the subjects were asked to voice the names of the depicted places and the names or names of people. At the moment when they gave their answers, scientists measured their brain activity. It turned out that the hippocampus (we spoke about it above) was in a state of full activity even among those respondents who did not even even know the correct answer. At the end of the whole event, people told that when they looked at the image and realized that this person or place was unfamiliar to them, then certain associations appeared in the mind with what they had already seen. As a result of this experiment, scientists decided that if the brain is capable of additional associations known with absolutely unfamiliar situations, then this is the explanation of the deja vu effect.

Another hypothesis

As we said, there are several versions about what is deja vu and why it happens. According to this hypothesis, the effect refers to manifestations of so-called false memory. If, during the brain's work, failures occur in certain areas of the brain, he begins to take all the unknown for what is already known. As experts believe, false memory "works" not at any age, it is characterized by certain peaks of activity - from 16 to 18 years, as well as from 35 to 40.

The first splash

The first peak of activity of false memory scientists explain by the fact that the adolescent period is very emotionally expressed in all respects. People at this time are quite dramatic and sharply react to the events that are taking place. Lack of a lot of life experience also plays an important role in why déjà vu happens. This is a kind of compensation, a clue. The effect is manifested when a teenager needs help. In this case, the brain "turns" to false memory.

The second splash

The second peak is precisely the crisis of middle age. This is a turning point in a person's life, when nostalgia for the past is felt, there are certain regrets or a desire to return to former years. Here the brain again comes to the rescue, turns to experience. And this gives us an answer to the question: "Why is deja vu?".

The point of view of psychiatrists

I must say that this hypothesis differs significantly from the previous one. Doctors do not doubt for a second that the meaning of deja vu can not be ignored, because this is a mental disorder. And the more often the effect is manifested, the more serious the situation is. They argue that over time this will develop into prolonged hallucinations, dangerous both for the person himself and for his surroundings. Physicians after the studies have noticed that this phenomenon is mainly in people suffering from all kinds of memory defects. Parapsychologists do not rule out another version. So, they tend to associate deja vu with reincarnation (relocation of the human soul after death to another body). Naturally, modern science does not accept such a version.

What other opinions exist on this score?

For example, in the 19th century German psychologists explained the effect elementarily, as a consequence of simple fatigue. The thing is that those parts of the brain that are responsible for consciousness and perception are not coordinated among themselves , that is, a failure occurs. And it is expressed in the form of a deja vu effect.

The physiologist from America Burnham claimed the opposite. So, he believed that the phenomenon in which we recognize certain objects, actions, faces, is associated with complete relaxation of the organism. When a person fully rested, his brain is free from difficulties, experiences, thrills. It is at this time that the brain can perceive everything at times more quickly. It turns out that the subconscious already experiences moments that can happen to a person in the future.

Many people are sure that they know how déjà vu comes about, believing that this is the result of the dreams that we once saw. True or not, it is difficult to say, but such a thought exists among scientists. The subconscious mind is able to fix dreams that we saw even many years ago, and then reproduce them to parts (many see it as predictions of the future).

Freud and Jung

To better understand what is deja vu, let's remember the film about Shurik, when he was so absorbed in reading the abstract that he did not notice his presence in someone else's apartment, cakes with mustard, neither the fan, nor the girl Lida. But when he appeared there already consciously, he experienced what we call the deja vu effect. Simply in this case, the viewer knows that Shurik has already been here.

Sigmund Freud once described this state as a real memory, which was "wiped out" in the mind under the influence of various unfavorable factors. It could be a trauma or an experience. Some force forced a certain image to move to the subconscious area, and later the moment comes when this "hidden" image suddenly comes out.

Jung, however, associated the effect with the collective unconscious, in fact, with the memory of our ancestors. And this again leads us to biology, reincarnation and other other hypotheses.

It turns out, for good reason they say that everything in the world is interconnected. Maybe, in this case, too, it makes no sense to seek the only correct answer, if only because there is no guarantee that it exists? It is not for nothing that even the scientists did not put forward a version that could be fully proved and declared for the whole world, that the answer was found.

In any case, do not be scared if such an effect occurs to you. Take it as a hint, as something close to intuition. Remember the main thing: if there were something frightening or really dangerous in the phenomenon, you would already know about it.