What is D\u00e9j\u00e0 Vu? 15 Dec 2018<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Have you ever visited \u00ada place or event for the first time and had it feel really familiar? Or maybe you\u2019re deep in conversation with a friend and you suddenly get the feeling that you\u2019ve had the exact conversation before, even though you know that you haven\u2019t? If you\u2019ve ever found yourself in either of these situations, or similar you\u2019ve experienced d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu. Sixty to 70 percent of us can admit to getting this feeling at least once in our lifetimes.<\/p>\n Who can experience it? Is d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu a paranormal, or a physiological occurrence? What does it really mean? These are just some of the questions I frequently hear and often am asked around this subject. Is this something new? Or has this been around as long as mankind has? What is the difference between precognition and d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu? So many questions. Is it, as in the scene from the movie \u2018The matrix\u2019 and people who have seen the movie, the first movie, will recall the black cat d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu Neo has. Is it a glitch in the matrix?<\/p>\n Firstly what is d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu?<\/strong><\/p>\n D\u00e9j\u00e0 vu is a French term that literally means already seen and has several variations, including:<\/p>\n French scientist Emile Boirac<\/a>, one of the first to study this strange phenomenon, gave the subject its name in 1876.<\/p>\n My first vivid recollection of an enormous d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu, happened to me when I was about 20 years old, and for me it was actually life altering cause it helped me to waken to this area of interest. I had just completed my nurse\u2019s training and was acting in a play in Wellington, for one of the early fringe festivals. We had a cast party. I was about to eat something, a meatball with herbs in it. I remember this clearly, when all of a sudden, I realised I had seen \/ experienced this all before. It shook me actually, and it was the first time ever in my life I had meatballs or herbs \u2013 so I know I had not experienced it before. Mum was a very plain cook. I must have had a shocked look on my face, because someone asked me what was wrong. So I told them, then someone piped up and told me what it was. I had never ever heard of the term before. Since then I have had d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu experiences on and off over the years.<\/p>\n In his book, Our Old Home-A Series of English Sketches1, Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) related his d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu experience, in visiting the kitchen of the English manor, Stanton Harcourt. Upon entering the place, Hawthorne was struck with the eerie feeling that \u201csomewhere or other I had seen just this strange spectacle before.\u201d The kitchen was huge, taking up all of a 70-foot tower and Hawthorne described it as a \u201cvast chimney\u201d that held the \u201creminiscence of the fires and feasts of generations that have passed away.\u201d Although certain he had never before seen the room or any room similar, he described the sensation as \u201cthat odd state of mind wherein we fitfully and teasingly remember some previous scene or incident, of which the one now passing appears to be but the echo and reduplication.\u201d<\/p>\n One of the then Shadowland Paranormal Investigation<\/a> team members, actually had a huge one at one of our first team meetings. We were all sitting talking, when all of a sudden she gets this stunned look on her face and she told us that she was having a d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu moment, that she had experienced this before. So cool. Which actually brings me to another question that I am often asked:<\/p>\n Yes actually, they are quite different, even though they may engender the same sort of feeling on the actual experience. The easiest way of explaining it is that with precognition<\/a> you are seeing the event for the first time, whereas with d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu you are experiencing it again.<\/p>\n There is a school of thought that explains d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu as being a function of the brain \u2013 and I have linked a very good, short video below this blog that explains the scientific perspective and d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu itself in a very clear manner. Myself, I am not so convinced that it is entirely scientifically explained. But there is much about the human brain and it\u2019s functions that remain a mystery to this day \u2013 and not everything can be explained by science, although many would debate that.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong><\/p>\nWhat is D\u00e9j\u00e0 Vu?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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What is d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu like?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Is there a difference between d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu and precognition?<\/strong><\/h3>\n