Deja Vu – College Essay Example
Deja Vu – College Essay Example

Deja Vu – College Essay Example

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Deja vu is a phenomenon that describes the experience of feeling that one had witnessed and/or experienced a new situation previously (BBC News, 2006). A French psychic researcher, Emile Boirac within his book - L’Avenir des sciences psychiques, formed this term. This unusual experience is mostly accompanied by a undeniable sense of familiarity (BBC News, 2006). According to the BBC, the experience of Deja vu is common, and in formal studies, seventy percent or more of the study population have reported this experience at least once (BBC News, 2006).

Furthermore, within past literature, the phenomenon of Deja vu is not new. It is exceptionally difficult to concept Deja vu in a laboratory setting, and due to this, making this a phenomenon with a minority of empirical data (Brown, 2004). Recently, researchers have found a way to

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recreate the sensation through hypnosis (BBC News, 2006). There are several types of Deja vu, including Deja vecu. The usual age of experience is between fifteen and twenty-five years of age, primarily because the mind is subjectable to noticing environment change (Funkhouser, 1996).

Deja vecu is related to mundane events, however is so striking it can be remembered for years (Funkhouser, 1996). Deja vecu involves more than just a sight, but involves detail, sensing that everything is just as it was before (Funkhouser, 1996). Secondly, the phenomenon of Deja senti denotes that something is already felt. Unlike the precognition of Deja vecu, Deja senti is merely a mental occurrence with no precognitive facets – rarely if ever remembered afterwards (Funkhouser, 1996). Thirdly, according to Arthur Funkhouser, the less common of the three is Deja visite.

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style="text-align: justify">This can be translated as “already visited. ” Dreams, reincarnation, and out-of-body experiences can be linked to this. For instance, an individual may know the way around a new area, but never being there prior (Funkhouser, 1996). When distinguishing Deja vecu and Deja visite note that Deja vecu references temporal occurrences, while the latter deals more with geography and spatial relations (Funkhouser, 1996). Deja vecu has been the subject to serious psychological and neurophysiologic research (BBC News, 2006).

A likely candidate for an explanation is that Deja vu is not precognition, but rather a memory anomaly. The impression that an experience is being recalled is false, and this is validated to the extent that in many cases the sense of recollection at that particular time is strong, but any circumstances of previous experiences are uncertain (BBC News, 2006). When Deja vu is experienced may result in an overlap between the neurological systems responsible for short and long-term memory.

Nonetheless, there is subjective evidence that this phenomenon is sometimes associated with genuine precognition, which the memory anomaly theory cannot account for (BBC News, 2006). Theorists also believe that the memory anomaly is caused by the conscious mind has a slight delay in receiving perceptive thought. For example, the unconscious mind perceives current surroundings before the conscious mind. This causes the conscious self to perceive something that is already in an individual’s memory (BBC News, 2006).

Clinical correlations have been found between the experiences of Deja vu and various disorders, such as schizophrenia and anxiety (Pacific Neuropsychiatry). However, the strongest pathological association of this experience is temporal lobe epilepsy. This has led researchers

to speculate that the experience of Deja vu is possibly a neurological anomaly, which is related to improper electrical discharge in the brain (Pacific Neuropsychiatry). In summary, the phenomenon of Deja vu is described as a feeling that an individual had witnessed and experienced a new situation.

There is three types of Deja vu; Deja vecu is related to humdrum events, however, these events are so striking they are remembered. Deja senti refers to something already felt but with to prior precognition. The last type is Deja visite, which occurs when an individual has an unexplained knowledge of their surrounding with no prior experience within that surrounding. There is little empirical data to support these claims, but there is ongoing research. Many theorists believe Deja vu is simply a memory anomaly.

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