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Are there more than one type of deja vu? Four situations that have happened to everyone are named
We all had a strange feeling that we had already experienced what is happening now. It's like a memory from the past, but it's impossible to remember where or when it happened because it's just deja vu.
This strange phenomenon has been confusing people for many years, and scientists still cannot give a definitive answer as to its causes. However, researchers have found that deja vu comes in different forms and have identified four types that happen to most people. Forbes took a closer look at this.
Jamais vu
Jamais vu ("never seen before") is the opposite of the classic deja vu feeling. Imagine that you are returning home along a familiar route. You've walked this road hundreds of times before, but suddenly everything seems strange, foreign, and unfamiliar, as if you've never been here before.
The feeling of having a familiar situation or experience perceived as if you were encountering it for the first time can be disorienting and confusing.
According to researchers, it occurs because of malfunctions in the brain's recognition processes. Usually, incoming sensory information is compared with stored memories, but sometimes a malfunction occurs for unknown reasons.
Presque vu
Presque vu means being on the verge of an epiphany.
Imagine that during a lively conversation, you suddenly forget an obvious word, someone's name, or title. Despite all your efforts and the feeling that you are about to remember it, it remains elusive.
Such moments often occur suddenly, without warning. Some research suggests that it occurs when alternatives emerge between unresolved problems and past experiences. However, because of the lack of identification of a specific memory, there is an unpleasant feeling of being on the verge of an epiphany.
Deja reve
Déjà rêvé ("already dreamed") is the feeling of reliving a memory from a dream.
Imagine waking up feeling a bit dazed and disoriented. Later, as you go about your daily routine, you feel a familiar atmosphere and a strange sense that this has happened before not in the past, but in a dream. This can cause a sense of confusion, as if the boundaries between the dream world and waking reality were blurred.
Researchers believe that déjà rêvé occurs when neural patterns or activations that are similar to those in a past dream are triggered during the day.
Deja vecu
Déjà vécu ("already experienced") is the feeling of reliving a past experience or memory in vivid detail.
You've probably experienced that when you're in a new place, you can be overwhelmed by a flood of memories as if you've already had the experience. You may be 100% sure that you couldn't have been there before, but it's not easy to overcome the overwhelming sense of familiarity.
This common but strange phenomenon occurs when the brain's memory retrieval processes are activated in response to current stimuli, leading to the re-experiencing of past events as if they were happening now.
Déjà vécu continues to be a reminder of the infinite mysteries contained in the human mind. Unfortunately, it is difficult to describe these phenomena and their causes in more detail and clearly because their mystery still surprises and amazes not only ordinary people but also leading scientists.
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