# What Is Deja Vu? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 11, 2005, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-deja-vu/294112 "2005-03-11T23:22:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![What\_Is\_Schwa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8baadc/32.png) [@What\_Is\_Schwa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Is_Schwa)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-deja-vu/294112/1 "2005-03-11T23:22:05Z")
I’m sure we can agree deja vu would be the impression of having seen or experienced something before. However, this gives me little explination as to what is going on in my head. My expierence with deja vu leaves me momentarily stunned. I feel as though I’ve predicted the future or dreamed exactly what I’m doing now. So what’s going on? ---
**Author:** ![ltfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@ltfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ltfire)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-deja-vu/294112/2 "2005-03-12T00:29:27Z")
You’ve asked this question before, haven’t you. ---
**Author:** ![ltfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@ltfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ltfire)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-deja-vu/294112/3 "2005-03-12T00:32:29Z")
Try this site. > **[What is déjà vu?](https://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/extrasensory-perceptions/question657.htm)** > > Déjà vu is used to describe the feeling that you experienced a situation before. What causes this phenomenon? It’s not a glitch in the matrix, but most of our knowledge on the subject is still theoretical. ---
**Author:** ![VernWinterbottom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/c67d28/32.png) [@VernWinterbottom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VernWinterbottom)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-deja-vu/294112/4 "2005-03-12T00:54:18Z")
I read somewhere. . .and I don’t recall where. . . that it might be a sort of instantaneous memory: one is “remembering” something which really only happened a fraction of a second earlier. ---
**Author:** ![Iceland\_Blue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/4bbf92/32.png) [@Iceland\_Blue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iceland_Blue)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-deja-vu/294112/5 "2005-03-12T00:56:29Z")
I’m sure we can agree deja vu would be the impression of having seen or experienced something before. However, this gives me little explination as to what is going on in my head. My expierence with deja vu leaves me momentarily stunned. I feel as though I’ve predicted the future or dreamed exactly what I’m doing now. So what’s going on? ---
**Author:** ![VernWinterbottom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/c67d28/32.png) [@VernWinterbottom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VernWinterbottom)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-deja-vu/294112/6 "2005-03-12T01:01:20Z")
I read somewhere. . .and I don’t recall where. . . that it might be a sort of instantaneous memory: one is “remembering” something which really only happened a fraction of a second earlier. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Is\_Schwa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8baadc/32.png) [@What\_Is\_Schwa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Is_Schwa)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-deja-vu/294112/7 "2005-03-12T01:05:30Z")
Yikes! Having the unfortunate expierence of unintentionally tripping (spiked) I will say this thread has suddenly brought up painful reminders. It’s all reapeating! ---
**Author:** ![ltfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@ltfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ltfire)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-deja-vu/294112/8 "2005-03-12T01:28:27Z")
Rent the Bill Murray movie, ‘Groundhog Day’. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-deja-vu/294112/9 "2005-03-12T02:10:07Z")
It’s an error in the Matrix caused by the computer changing something. It can never get all the details quite right. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-deja-vu/294112/10 "2005-03-12T02:14:26Z")
“It’s deja vu all over again.” - Lawrence Peter Berra. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-deja-vu/294112/11 "2005-03-12T02:18:30Z")
Don’t forget _vuja de_, that funny feeling you get when you realize that this has never happened before… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-deja-vu/294112/12 "2005-03-12T02:36:12Z")
> [@robby](#): > > Don’t forget _vuja de_, that funny feeling you get when you realize that this has never happened before… 😃 Rather like [_jamais vu_](http://skepdic.com/jamaisvu.html), when a familiar experience feels like it never happened before. ---
**Author:** ![vl\_mungo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc8723/32.png) [@vl\_mungo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vl_mungo)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-deja-vu/294112/13 "2005-03-12T02:36:48Z")
Monty Python’s take… CAPTION: ‘IT’S THE MIND - A WEEKLY MAGAZINE OF THINGS PSYCHIATRIC’ Cut to a man sitting at usual desk. He is Mr Boniface. Boniface: Good evening. Tonight on ‘It’s the Mind’, we examine the phenomenon of déjà vu. That strange feeling we sometimes get that we’ve lived through something before, that what is happening now has already happened. Tonight on ‘It’s the Mind’ we examine the phenomenon of déjà vu, that strange feeling we sometimes get that we’ve … (looks puzzled for a moment) Anyway, tonight on ‘It’s the Mind’ we examine the phenomenon of déjà vu, that strange… Cut to opening title sequence with montage of psychiatric photos and the two captions and music over. Cut back to Mr Boniface at desk, shaken. CAPTION: ‘IT’S THE MIND’ Boniface: Good evening. Tonight on ‘It’s the Mind’ we examine the phenomenon of déjà vu, that strange feeling we someti… mes get … that … we’ve lived through something… Cut to opening titles again. Back then to Boniface, now very shaken. CAPTION: ‘IT’S THE MIND’ Boniface: Good … good evening. Tonight on ‘It’s the Mind’ we examine the phenomenon of dddddddddddéjà vvvvvvvvuu, that extraordinary feeling… quite extraordinary… (he tails off, goes quiet, the phone rings, he picks it up) No, fine thanks, fine. (he rings off, a man comes in on the right and hands him glass of water and leaves) Oh, thank you. That strange feeling we sometimes get that we’ve lived through something before. (phone rings again; he picks it up) No, fine thank you. Fine. (he rings off; a man comes in from right and hands him a glass of water; he jumps) … Thank you. That strange feeling … (phone rings; he answers) No. Fine, thank you. Fine. (ring off; a man enters and gives him glass of water) thank you. (he screams with fear) …and so forth ---
**Author:** ![riverbrent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/fbc32d/32.png) [@riverbrent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/riverbrent)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-deja-vu/294112/14 "2005-03-12T02:53:53Z")
At every point in our lives in which we make a decision our life, our reality splits. We remain in the reality of the choice we’ve made while the other, alternative reality (the other choice we did not take) runs parallel to ours. This reality is only parallel to ours momentarily until it has followed the path of “destiny” determined by that initial decision. But, while it is parallel and still running so close to ours, we can feel its presence, maybe even glimpse inside it as the two overlap. We mistake this event as some sort of familiar memory because this is what it most closely resembles to us. Since we have no other explanation for it, we fall back on the only reference we have. Once that alternative reality has made its next choice (or the one you are living in has) the moment of deja vu is over. I don’t know, it’s just a thought. ---
**Author:** ![inkleberry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f17d59/32.png) [@inkleberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/inkleberry)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-deja-vu/294112/15 "2005-03-12T03:57:01Z")
The experience of deja vu is one of an eerie sense that the situation has happened before, though not a recallable memory. Psychology has no explanation for it, but we know the temporal lobe seizure activity commonly causes a sense of deja vu. It is theorized that deja vu in non-epileptics is random spasmatic firing in the temporal lobe. ---
**Author:** ![Zjestika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/8edcca/32.png) [@Zjestika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zjestika)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2005, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-deja-vu/294112/16 "2005-03-13T02:04:45Z")
> [@What Is Schwa](#): > > Having the unfortunate expierence of unintentionally tripping (spiked) I will say this thread has suddenly brought up painful reminders. I know EXACTLY what you mean. BTW, welcome to the boards. ZJ ---
**Author:** ![Agent\_Cooper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@Agent\_Cooper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Cooper)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2005, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-deja-vu/294112/17 "2005-03-13T16:06:52Z")
I have also read the theory that it is caused by signals going more than one path through your brain, arriving slightly off-timed, and giving you the feeling of “remembering” something virtually as it happens. I also like inkleberry’s idea that it’s just a kind of disorientation from random firing in the brain. Makes sense to me. ---
**Author:** ![MikeS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2005, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-deja-vu/294112/18 "2005-03-13T18:11:03Z")
What, 16 posts in and nobody’s mentioned [the Master’s column](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_113.html) on the subject? ---
**Author:** ![Stevens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cdc98d/32.png) [@Stevens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stevens)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2005, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-deja-vu/294112/19 "2005-03-13T18:40:11Z")
I’d most likely believe the instantaneous memory thing- cause when I feel deja vu, I feel it ping once and think ‘deja vu’, then whatever I see or hear or sense or think right the next instant is next, until about 4 or 5 thoughts later. So, I have deja vu that starts and ends with a chain of like 4 or 5 specific things (didn’t I have this thought before? during this commercial? it made me think of this other thing? while eating this?) There’s no way I ever did those four or whatever exact things before, so I really think like the instantaneous memory theory.