Spiritual Forum

Déjà vu comes from the French and literally translates to "already seen." It is the phenomenon of having the strong sensation that an event or experience currently being experienced had been experienced in the past.

In scientific research

The psychologist Edward B. Titchener in his book 1928 A Textbook of Psychology, explained déjà vu as caused by a person having a brief glimpse of an object or situation, before the brain has completed "constructing" a full conscious perception of the experience. Such a "partial perception" then results in a false sense of familiarity. The explanation that has mostly been accepted of déjà vu is not that it is an act of precognition or prophecy, but rather that it is an anomaly of memory, giving the false impression that an experience is being recalled.  This explanation is supported by the fact that the sense of "recollection" at the time is strong in most cases, but that the circumstances of the "previous" experience (when, where, and how the earlier experience occurred) are uncertain or believed to be impossible.

As well, as time passes, subjects may exhibit a strong recollection of having the "unsettling" experience of déjà vu itself, but little or no recollection of the specifics of the event or circumstances which were the subject of the déjà vu experience itself (the events that were being "remembered"). This may result from an "overlap" between the neurological systems responsible for short term memory and those responsible for long term memory, resulting in memories of recent events erroneously being perceived as being in the past. One theory is the events are stored into memory before the conscious part of the brain even receives the information and processes it. However, this explanation has been criticized that the brain would not be able to store information without a sensory input first. Another theory suggests the brain may process sensory input (perhaps all sensory input) as a "memory-in-progress", and that therefore during the event itself one believes it to be a past memory.

In a survey, Brown had concluded that approximately two-thirds of the population have had déjà vu experiences.

In parapsychology

Some parapsychologists have advocated other interpretations of déjà vu. Ian Stevenson and other researchers have written that some cases of déjá vu might be explained on the basis of reincarnation. Anthony Peake has written that déjà vu experiences occur as people are living their lives not for the first time but at least the second.

Consider this...

What if before we are born into this life our souls are given a road map of the life we are about to live. We may even have to design this map ourselves. The goal or destination of the map is to improve or learn something specific in order for our soul to "level up" so to speak, or to reach the next level or dimension.

But we must actually live through it and make the right decisions to end in the right place. The soul at the point of birth has all recollection of this map removed in order for the lesson to be pure. There is however a minimal part or remnant of our soul that can guide us which is the sub-conscious or instinct. It helps us make decisions hopefully the right one for the lesson we need to learn.

Since we have seen our lives laid out pre-birth, it stands to reason that some things may wear through vaguely from this sub-conscious. Giving us the feeling we have been there before or the Deja Vu feeling.

Children of déjà vu

Déjà vu is a broad term that is parent to a variety of phenomena. Other lesser known terms include:

• Déjà lu - already read. - The phenomenon of reading something entirely new, but having the distinct feeling of having read the article, book or newspaper etc. before.
• Déjà entendu - already heard. - This is the experience of feeling sure that one has already heard something, even though the exact details are uncertain and/or were perhaps imagined.
• Jemais vu - never seen. - The phenomenon of experiencing a situation that one recognizes in some fashion, but that nonetheless seems very unfamiliar.
• Presque vu - almost seen. - This is the failure to retrieve a word from memory, combined with partial recall and the feeling that retrieval is imminent. The phenomenon's name comes from the saying, "It's on the tip of my tongue."
• Réjà vu - The feeling something that has happened or is happening will happen again at some point in the future.

Psychologist Arthur Funkhouser writes,

"... just exactly what is meant by the words 'déjà vu' is pretty vague. As such, it has become a sort of catch-all label for any number of hard-to-explain, sometimes upsetting occurrences of unexpected recognition, in which the person involved has trouble identifying an antecedent for the events and/or places which seem so strangely and intensely familiar."

Funkhouser, who would like to see the term déjà vu put to rest, has further separated the experience of déjà vu into three categories of déjà experience:

• déjà vécu - already experienced or already lived through
• déjà senti - already felt
• déjà visité - already visited

Although the origination of the phenomenon continues to be a mystery and finding a concise definition continues to be puzzling, déjà vu is one paranormal experience that is unquestionable in its plausibility.

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Finishing this piece up with a poem which I recently wrote on this subject.

Déjà vu

Have you ever experienced déjà vu?

That feeling you get when things don’t seem so new.

It’s just like you’ve passed this way before.

You’ve done this once and have seen what you saw.

Scientists tell us it’s a delay of the mind.

That your eyes they see before your mind has defined.

This causes the creation of a partial perception.

It is this they claim that causes the deception.

Parapsychologists believe it’s a glimpse of a past life.

That during reincarnation some memories evaded the knife.

These escaped memories may dwell at the door.

Then at just the right time jump out and take to the floor.

So if you’re doing something that feels a little bit weird.

As though the task you are doing you have already cleared.

I suppose it could be one of those partial perceptions.

Or maybe it’s was actually a past life inception.

Love n Light

Jana