What is déjà vu? What is déjà vu? - Michael Molina

What causes the sensation of déjà vu? Dive into the theories and psychology that could explain why you’re having that feeling… again.

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You might have felt it -- the feeling that you've experienced something before, but, in reality, the experience is brand new. There are over 40 theories that attempt to explain the phenomenon of déjà vu. Michael Molina explains how neuroimaging and cognitive psychology have narrowed down the theories that could explain that feeling you're having...again.

Lesson by Michael Molina, animation by Josh Harris.

[ankanabiswas]

deja vu is the spoiler scene of life..

[shahmd]

When i was young and had deja vu i thought i had some kind of power to predict the future and no one else did.

[ChristWillSlayTheNWO]

I remember hearing a theory that Deja Vu is actually when there is a glitch in your brain that makes an event that just happened accidentally go to the long-term memory instead of the short-term. Which would explain why even though you just experienced the event it feels like it's already happened before in the past.
Idk... this theory kind of makes the most sense to me 🤷‍♀️

[jordanbeggs]

What's weird is that whenever I feel deja vu, I always vividly remember it happening before, but also remember feeling deja vu when it did happen before. I guess it is possible that the specific events that occur are just common and are so similar that my brain just thinks that they were in fact the same larger event.

[saiiltothemoon]

can dejavu also happen in dreams? because sometimes I have a dream and years later I LIVE the dream

[jeffrey]

I think deja vu is when a scene reminds you of a dream you had. But because dreams are mostly forgotten, you can't remember where you've seen it before.

[GatesOfHades]

I had deja vu before.. heres the story: i was traveling when i said to my family “isn’t this the same place we’ve been 1 year ago?” And my family said “huh? This is your first time coming here.” And i was shocked that i recognized the mountains places and all when we got home i had my 2nd deja vu in the hotel i said: woah this really is deja vu im experiencing

[searchingforaname]

Here is my experience :
It's was just 2days before my exmas. I was giving revision form a new PDF. I was writting the answer and my father was sitting besides me, I felt that I had seen it before. Not only that the way of writting the answers on the copy was same too. I also felt that I knew what my father was going to say .

[haozervideos]

me: mom I just had deja vu

mom: *it's because of that damn phone!*

[jez]

I don't buy the "familiarity" theory. When I have deja vu, it feels like I have been in the *exact* same situation under the *exact* same conditions. I think the brain is interpreting current events as a memory or something.

[valkyriehutton]

These are interesting theories and I've enjoyed all your stories. I do genuinely believe in different experiences with deja vu, but I'm surprised they didn't mention epilepsy. I read about my symptoms and one of the weird things is a feeling of deja vu during a seizure. This happens to me often.

[Neha]

It's definitely something else. There were times when I'm having conversation with a group of people (or listening in most likely because i'm more of a listener), and when Deja Vu hits, I feel like I've heard or had this exact conversation before, in the same place, but it's impossible logically.

[theglasswolf]

I had ‘double’ deja vu once. I was watching a tv show when I had deja vu and then I had deja vu about having deja vu.

Edit:
It’s been ten months since I wrote this comment, and I had a similar experience a few days ago. It’s odd to say the least.

[eternity_skyler]

I don’t know if it’s just me or everybody, have you ever dreamed of a certain scene that haven’t happened in real life, and that scene happened a few days later?

[sweetcorm]

One time I went on a trip for 10 days. Throughout the whole trip I had deja vu multiples of times. But the thing is that I saw all of those moments in a dream a few days before the trip itself and the deja vu feeling was more of a remembrance of that fact. That isn’t even the only example of the same thing happening but this one is the most vibrant and distinct one

[drphosferrous]

I like the explanation in norse mythology: Time is cyclical and the universe begins and ends over and over, so all the events of our lives and times are repeating very similar but not exactly the same as the last time. Sometimes events seem familiar or predicted like a foggy memory because the part of us that doesn't die has seen it happen before.

[cunnfwr]

Does anyone else notice that when you get Deja vu everything slows down?

[KiwiTheRetroGal]

When I have a Deja Vu moment, I think that I saw that scene in a dream

[anonymousleapyear]

I used to have SUPER frequent Deja vu when I was little, and whenever I did I would get a minnie stomach ache at the same time as the Deja vu, but over the years both have lessened and now I don't seem to have any physical effects when I get Deja vu. but this reaction has led me to believe that Deja vu is connected to some sort of process in the brain and the reason I would get the stomach aches was rooted in some sort of connection to that process messing with something that resulted in me getting a stomach ache. however it is also possible that since Deja vu would freak me out so much it was more of a butterflies in the tummy kind of thing

[mommainthekitchen]

Wow! That was explained so well....thank you!