Theories To Explain Deja Vu
I think people would like to believe deja vu is related to reincarnation as a way to prove reincarnation is real. Very young children (my little sister included) seem to be another person, speaking differently, for a few minutes. Maybe something left from a person they were before. So, I won't rule out reincarnation. But, its not what I believe completely as far as deja vu.
The dual processing theory is along the lines of what I think deja vu is. But, some of these theories have new twists on the experience of deja vu and I wonder especially about the theories of senses and memory and familiarity based recognition.
The brain is complicated and has large areas we don't understand or don't use even. So, there could be another theory which no one has come up with yet.
... the unsettling feeling we get when we feel we have been in the exact same situation before. For a few seconds, we are convinced that we have lived the moment previously.
- A ‘Mix-Up’ Of Senses And Memory
A famous psychological experiment, the Grant et al study, shows that our memory is context dependent, meaning that we can recall information better when placed in the same environment in which we studied it. This helps to explain déjà vu by showing how stimuli in the environment can easily provoke a memory. A certain sight or smell might trigger our subconscious mind to recall a time when we saw or heard the same thing.
- Dual Processing
This theory suggests that when we perceive something, our brain is simultaneously trying to encode the new memory into our long-term memory, thereby creating the uncomfortable illusion that we have experienced it before.
- Parallel Universe Theory
Believers in this theory claim that the human experience of déjà vu can be explained by considering the unsettling feeling of having lived a moment before as a “crossover” with a parallel universe.
- Familiarity-Based Recognition
Familiarity-based recognition is what happens when we believe we are seeing something we recognize, but we have no memory of it actually happening previously (such as seeing someone familiar in a local store but not being able to recall why we recognize them).
- The Hologram Theory
The hologram theory is the idea that our memories are formed like three-dimensional images, which means they have a structured frame network to them. This theory, proposed by Hermon Sno, suggests that the entire formation of a memory can be reconstructed by one element. Therefore, if one stimulus in your environment (a sound, smell, etc.) reminds you of a previous moment you have experienced, the entire memory can be recreated by your mind like a hologram.
- Precognitive Dreams
A precognitive dream is where a dream we have predicts something that happens in the future—someone finds themselves in a situation they had previously dreamed about. This could explain déjà vu by suggesting that the moment we have the experience of living something before is when we have previously dreamed about the present happenings.
- Divided Attention
Divided attention theory suggests that déjà vu occurs due to a subliminal recognition of the object in our experience of déjà vu. This means that our subconscious mind (the thoughts that we are unaware of) recalls the stimulus, but our conscious mind doesn’t.
- Amygdala
The amygdala is a small region of our brain. With one located in each cerebral hemisphere, the amygdala is involved in our experience of emotion (most commonly anger or fear). When we’re put in a dangerous situation, our amygdala may act to temporarily disorient our brain. If you were standing underneath a falling tree, your amygdala may have a panic response that causes your brain to malfunction.
- Reincarnation
Believers in reincarnation say that we come into our new life with a set of signals that reflect states of consciousness. This means that memories created on one level of consciousness cannot be retrieved in another.
- A ‘Glitch’ In Reality
Glitch theory describes déjà vu as a momentary breakdown in our reality. Einstein famously suggested that there is no such thing as time—that time is a human creation made to establish order and structure.
ListVerse - 10 Fascinating Theories To Explain Déjà Vu