It happened again last night. One of the oddest things I’ve ever experienced throughout my life is the feeling of ‘Déjà vu’, the feeling that you have experienced something already that is currently occurring. Very much like reliving a memory.

Throughout my youth, this odd “sixth sense” was one that happened often enough to make me ponder it from a scientific perspective but infrequently enough that I knew I wasn’t losing my marbles. I’ve never been one to disregard my personal encounters but I often found myself asking people if they’ve ever experienced this elusive feeling. Growing up this sometimes cast me as a weirdo when trying to explain and other times closer to friends who said they’ve had similar sensations or showed sincere interest in my scientific-edged ramblings.

Déjà vu is French for “already seen” and I would say more literally could be derived as “already experienced”. Nearly all of my experiences with déjà vu have lasted anywhere from 10-30 seconds and it seems as if I already know what is happening as it happens. It is an unusual feeling, which you almost cannot describe without having felt it before. Sounds like a paradox, right? Sigmund Freud is right to have called this strange experience “the uncanny”, a term which may be the most precise description.

Various studies of the phenomenon have shown as much as 70% of the population have experienced a déjà vu like experience with a majority of them being young people in the age range of 15-25 years old, although other polls have shown more dynamic age ranges.

I obviously do not believe déjà vu is some sort of foresight or precognition and have discussed it in detail with some of my close friends from time to time. My brother and I have always enjoyed discussing scientific theory on various subjects regardless of how involved with the real science of the world we are in our daily lives.

From previous discussions on the subject as well as looking into research, we have narrowed down the theories to a few likely ones.

• A glitch in the Matrix (I kid… hopefully.)
• Our theory: The subconscious mind perceiving a previous thought or dream as a memory due to overlapping details in events or emotions. This is an interesting theory, as I assume we have all had a recurring dream at some point in our life, and from my experience little things change and evolve in them as they happen again and again.

  Not to discount simple everyday thoughts as well, your brain processes and organizes massive amounts of data per second, per hour, per day! I would not be surprised if some information streams were crossed unintentionally. (We all know what happens when you cross the streams…)

  This seems especially relevant when you also think about how humans love their daily routines. Everyday, the same thing, over and over—only changing ever so slightly… Sound familiar?

• More likely: Déjà vu is known to be linked to temporal lobe epilepsy, and the experience seems to happen during a seizure of the lobe in test patients. Researchers know that many people experience small epileptic seizures from time to time as a normal process of the body: called hypnagogic jerks—or the small “jolts” experienced sometimes before falling asleep. They believe déjà vu could be similar but slightly altered form of these jerks, that their theory formulates is simply a neurological anomaly resulting in sensations of memory formation or recall.

  Other scientists have theorized that it is simply dream fulfillment in a conscious state, or perhaps as my brother and I have theorized, simple mis-matching of information coming in—confusing past with present, creating a sensation unlike any other.

• Unlikely: Of course there is another group of people who say they have the answers. This group of “spiritual” people seem to either claim that déjà vu is the result of past life experiences or say it could be the result of “ghosts” of ancestors long past coming back to pay a visit. The sensation is described as if it is the actual inheritance of a ghost’s consciousness due to the frequencies of your mind matching up to their frequency.

  I never suspected that this could be the answer to the déjà vu crisis!

No matter the cause of this strange phenomenon, it happens often for me and I remain ever curious to find the answers to life’s little secrets. It is truly something you must experience for yourself to understand the sensation of just knowing.

Feel free to share your experiences and theories as well, I’d love to hear them.