• What is a déjà vu?
• Types of déjà vu

We explain what déjà vu is, what the meaning of this term is, and the types of déjà vu that a person can experience.

The Déjà vu experience is usually brief and fades after a few moments.

What is a déjà vu?

It is called Déjà vu (a term taken from French and meaning "already seen, or previously seen") to a slight disturbance of memory (paramnesia of recognition) that produces the feeling that a situation has been experienced previously.

The termLet vu It began to be used in this specific sense as a result of the studies of Émile Boirac (1851-1917), a French psychic who used it for the first time in his bookThe future of psychic sciences.

Later it would be referred to by psychologists such as Edward B. Tichener, who explained it as a quick impression that someone has regarding a lived situation, which is experienced before the brain can consciously "process" the information, which generates a false sensation. of familiarity.

In general, the experience of theLet vu It is usually brief and dissipates after a few moments, accompanied by a feeling of strangeness or awe, and the “previous” experience of what is lived is usually attributed to a dream, which would lead to think of some kind of premonition .

Scientific approaches, however, run counter to the traditional idea that aLet vu It is part of a prophecy or spiritual message that suddenly becomes conscious, preferring to understand it as an anomaly in the functioning of the psychic machinery of memory.

The experience ofLet vu is wildly common: two-thirds of the population worldwide claim to have experienced it, according to formal studies.

Types of déjà vu

According to Arthur Funkhouser, there are three types ofLet vu:

• Let vécor. When people talk aboutLet vu, usually refers to this first type, whose name translates "already lived." It normally occurs between the ages of 15 and 25 and is usually linked to minimal, banal events, around which a series of sensations is woven, producing the conviction that this has already been experienced before.
• Let I felt. It differs from the first case in that it is something merely sensory: its name translates “already felt”. It occurs exclusively around mental events and is internal, ephemeral in nature, since it is not usually communicable or persists in consciousness. It is very common in epileptic patients.
• Let visite. Its name translates "already visited" and obviously implies a reaction to a place that is known for the first time, but you have the feeling of having been there before. Many people therefore link it to the belief reincarnation and previous lives, if not astral travel during sleep. The psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung describes a case ofLet visitein its text "On synchronicity", explaining that it can be a defensive resource of the psyche, which induces a feeling of familiarity to calm the anguish.