Déjàvu: The Past in the Present :: Psychology Psychic Essays

Dà ©jà   vu: The Past in the Present "...parapsychologists think dà ©jà   vu is a glimpse into a past-life. The event did happen similarly before, you just happened to die between the occurrences." (2) The mysterious nature of dà ©jà   vu does not only lie in the experience itself, but in its definition. The sole unity of truth is the direct French translation - 'already seen.' In general, the phenomena can be summed up as experiencing the past in the present. It is "an uncanny feeling or illusion of having already seen or experienced something that is being experienced for the first time." (3) The dà ©jà   vu experience is puzzling because it often leaves people disoriented and searching for explanations. In fact, it is a fairly common occurrence with 70% (a higher rate is reported between the ages of 15 and 25) of the population reporting that they have felt dà ©jà   vu at some point in their lives. (2) The frequency of the experience has left specialists scrounging for information. There is an evident absence of truth, as expressed through varying opinions from psychologists, scientists, neurobiologists and spiritual healers. The nature? The cause? No one seems to be point ing to a definite answer. Some widely discussed causes appear to point to the brain's temporal lobes, past memory, wish fulfillment or temporarily mismatched connections in the brain. Emile Borac who was greatly interested in psychic phenomena first utilized the term dà ©jà   vu. (3) The connotation used refers to the past, while the nature of the experience is clearly positioned in the present reality. It is ambiguities such as these that spark debate over the nature of the actual dà ©jà   vu experience. Hence several definitions of dà ©jà   vu have arose, all emphasizing different aspects of the experience. Arthur Funkhouser, Ph.D. and Vernon Neppe, M.D., Ph. D. have performed extensive research on the various types of dà ©jà   vu. Funkhouser seeks to clarify dà ©jà   vu and remove it from inaccurate associations. He claims that there are three forms of dà ©jà   vu: dà ©jà   vecu, dà ©jà   senti, and dà ©jà   visite. Dà ©jà   vecu is most similar to the widely acknowledged definition of dà ©jà   vu. It is the feeling that the present scenario has been experienced in the past - the details are identical and it is possible to predict what will happen next. While in the midst of dà ©jà   vecu, the detail of the experience is astounding, and the person is conscious that the present scenario conforms to their memory of it.