French words often sound pleasant, one might say, literally caress the ear. And after repeated use in glamorous sources, they become even more attractive. But beautiful words often hide a bad meaning. Consider the example of the French expression "déjà vu", what does it mean?
Life examples
The term déjà vu literally means “already seen”. Those familiar with the feeling describe it as the shocking sensation of recognizing something that shouldn't even be familiar.
For example, you are in England for the first time. You look around the cathedral, and suddenly it seems to you that you have already visited this place. Or maybe you are discussing politics with friends and suddenly realize that this is not the first time this has happened - the same friends, the same dinner, the same topic. Moreover, the feeling is very intrusive.
Why?
Deja vu - what is it? The phenomenon is quite complicated, and there are quite a few theories of the origin of this phenomenon. For example, the Swiss Arthur Funkhauser considers the phenomenon itselfvery heterogeneous. That is, depending on the characteristics of the manifestation of deja vu, several varieties of the phenomenon can be distinguished. Only then can the phenomenon be interpreted. The first example described should be called déjà visite, already visited. And the second is déjà vecu (previously experienced).
Epilepsy is not glamorous
Almost 70 percent of the world's population claims to have experienced some form of deja vu at least once in their lives.
What does this mean? Young people from 15 to 25 years old have the most experience in this area. It seems that their deja vu is not real, most likely just the influence of the suggestion of mass culture. Is it possible to draw conclusions about previous lives? Not everything about the phenomenon is so connected with mysticism. Frequent deja vu is a clinically proven symptom of temporal lobe epilepsy. So before talking about your experience in a circle of strangers, make sure that there are no psychiatrists among them. But seriously, it is considered a symptom only with frequent occurrence. In patients with epilepsy, it appears during an attack between individual convulsions. So there is no special romance in deja vu. What it is in your case, only a specialist can figure it out, but if you don’t notice any oddities other than that, then you shouldn’t contact psychiatrists.
More about theories
Because deja vu occurs in both he althy and sick people, the reasons are very heatedly discussed. Some psychoanalysts believe that this is just a fantasy, a way for a person to draw attention to himself.
Others believe it is the brain's indistinguishability between past and present, resulting from a temporary or permanent glitch. There are also supporters of the theory of many lives, who explain deja vu as memories of past lives. Supporters of Jung will talk about interaction with the collective unconscious, science fiction writers - about parallel universes. Current scientific evidence is insufficient to provide a clear explanation.
Summarize. What does the word "déjà vu" mean? A special form of human experience, when what is not seen is taken for what has been seen. There are many hypotheses, there is a connection with mental illness, the nature is not completely clear.