Déjà vu is the French word for “already seen” and it is the feeling that you have experienced something before. Scientists still don’t know if we have actually experienced these events or not. Déjà vu is an unexplained phenomenon with many conspiracies surrounding it and its origins. 

Déjà vu is experienced by more than 70 percent of the world’s population. It can happen to almost anyone but happens most often to teens and young adults around ages 15-25. This causes some experts to think déjà vu is connected to neurotransmitters like dopamine, which are found in higher levels around that age range. 

“One time, I was eating at a restaurant with my parents and there was a man sitting next to us. I had déjà vu of being in the same restaurant with a similar-looking man sitting next to us,” Hanna Sullins, Senior, said.

Typically lasting only a few seconds without warning, déjà vu is hard to study. Surveys are the most common way to collect data but some researchers have come up with other ways to study déjà vu. 

Anne Cleary, professor of cognitive psychology and memory researcher at Colorado State University, used virtual reality to trigger déjà vu. She would put subjects through a series of carefully designed scenes in the Sims video game. The spatial layout would be similar to that of another scene, causing the subjects to experience déjà vu. 

Many conspiracy theories also involve déjà vu, one of them being a glimpse into a past life. The theory of cellular memory, where the brain is not the only place that stores memories. Some people believe that cellular memory stores very important information from our past lives. Information like mistakes that we should not make again or familiar bonds with people and places.

“I think déjà vu is like a form of divination or something, which is seeking knowledge of the unknown by using supernatural methods. It’s like getting a glimpse of the future,” Braxton Thompson, Senior, said. 

This still leaves a lot of room for a discussion. Is déjà vu really just a scientific phenomenon or a glimpse into our past lives? Will we ever know? Will we have the power to induce déjà vu ourselves one day? What conspiracies do you have about déjà vu?