When Heraclitus—whose sobriquet was, The Weeping Philosopher—said that, “You cannot step in the same river twice,” he reckoned without the déjà vu phenomenon.

Déjà vu is one of a number of commonly-occurring phenomena that are often given a superficial thought, but which I find to be as diverting as they are fascinating. Whereas most people I know either brush these phenomena aside as mere curiosities or ascribe preternatural reasons to them, I am genuinely enthralled by their seeming scientific inexplicability.

One of these is the Talk-about-the-Devil phenomenon. Sometimes, a group of persons (or a person) might, without any premeditation, discuss (or think about) an acquaintance they have not seen, heard of, or heard from in donkey’s years. As they discuss this acquaintance, poof!—well, not ‘poof” exactly—that person shows up. Was it the mention of the person’s name that summoned him/her as necromancers are reputed to summon wraiths from the netherworld, as some suggest? Was it the proximity of that person that, perhaps, induced the mention of his/her name? Scientifically analytical minds will arrive at less speculative reasons, such as—err, sheer coincidence. The uncertainty about its cause notwithstanding, the Talk-about-the-Devil phenomenon occurs frequently enough to discomfit chatterboxes. Take a cue and glance over your shoulders before you gossip about that ex-schoolmate you haven’t seen in half a decade.

The second of these phenomena is one that I had a classic memory-etching experience of in my second week as a resident of Unity hall, KNUST. I had a dream in which my repeated response to the queries of my Junior High School’s Music and Dance teacher was “Pax Romana”—a phrase I had never heard before I had the dream. My eyes fluttered open, and as I lay on my bed in the first seconds of wakefulness, I heard a resonating voice outside in the corridor, repeating in stentorian tones, “Pax Romana! Pax Romana! All Pax Romana students . . .” It was then that I realized that reality had seeped into my dream. I’m sure you’ve had a similar experience when you woke up to realize that your dream had echoed or mirrored reality to alert you to an urgent stimulus in real life; such as your bladder begging to be emptied or someone trying to wake you up by calling your name. If there is a name or phrase for this phenomenon I stand to be enlightened. Now though, let’s say that it is the subconscious interpretation of reality relayed in dreams.

There is another phenomenon which some people purportedly call the Noonday Devil (see, another “devil”). The Noonday Devil is an inexplicable feeling of sadness, envy or resentment at an event where or a time when happiness would have been the more natural emotion. Others supposedly associate it to the Hour of the Wolf—that period between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. when there is deathly silence. My acquaintances prefer to relate it to the perambulation of a specter through the midst of a crowd, and this is why. There are periods in any day—these periods come unannounced—when a gathering of people become rather garrulous. They’d be talking at the same time at the top of their voices, and then when their voices have reached a crescendo, as if on cue, they all hush up suddenly for no reason. Usually, a lone voice trails the rest. A deafening silence descends on all of them, as well as a feeling of foreboding. For a few seconds thereafter no one dares—and I mean dares—to speak. Then, again, as if on cue, everyone resumes talking. Often, it takes a “brave” soul to break the ice before the others venture to talk. When I was in Junior Secondary School (Junior High School for those born relatively recently), my habitually talkative class attributed the daunting silence that sometimes befell us when we were at our loudest to the promenade of a ghost through our midst. Whether at such times a ghost does pass by or whether it is the Devil himself is anyone’s guess.

Nevertheless, the most fascinating of these phenomena, which is almost eerie, is a quirky feeling that leaves one wondering whether one is featuring in an episode of The Twilight Zone. There are rare times when one is able to predict one’s next actions or the actions of others to the minutest detail and with a sense of familiarity, as though one was watching a replay of a previous moment. One has a strong feeling that one has literally lived through that particular action. Everything, from the people present, through their attire and the words spoken, to the smallest twitch are familiar to you. After a few seconds, your seeming prescience ceases, likewise that feeling of reliving the past. This phenomenon is what is called the Déjà vu, French for “already seen.”

So, what is déjà vu? Don’t confuse the word with rendezvous.
Déjà vu was coined by a French psychic researcher, Emile Boirac in his book L’Avenir des Sciences Psychique (i.e. The Future of Psychic Science) for paramnesia. Most authorities on the subject identify three distinct forms of déjà vu.

First, there is déjà vécu (already lived) which is the form of déjà vu described two paragraphs above. It is the most commonly experienced.

Second, there is déjà senti (already felt), which is a feeling that passes quickly, but which you think you have felt before. You can’t place a finger on when you had felt like that or what had caused that feeling; but you just know that you have felt exactly like that before.

Third, there is déjà visité (already visited) which is an uncanny knowledge of a place you’d never visited. For instance, you visit the White House for the very first time in your life. Then, to your utter surprise, you are able to recognize the furniture, tell which passage leads where, know the number of windows there are . . . everything. It has been suggested that it is triggered when a person visits a place he/she has read minutely about or heard much detail about.

Now, what causes déjà vu?

Some claim that it is a result of, and proof of reincarnation. They claim that at such times one is merely doing an activity that one had done in a previous life. Thus the déjà vu is a reminiscing. However, even granting reincarnation as a reality—and I’m not granting that it is, we must concede that according to the principles of reincarnation no one reincarnates into the same person, with the same family and associates, living in the same place. By my arbitrary mathematical conjecture the probability of one doing the very same action in the same setting in two lifetimes is one in a quadrillion zillion.

Some also claim that there are parallel universes. To wit, There is another Milky Way out there somewhere with a solar system and earth like ours with think-alike, look-alike, do-alike alter egos of us on it, experiencing what we are experiencing. These parallel universes overlap sometimes due to a disruption in the space-time fabric.

Puh—lease! I may not be a nerd or an ingenious scientist but I would eat my non-existent hat if there were another me in a parallel universe doing what I’m doing here on this planet and probably writing this very article!

More plausible reasons have been suggested by scientists. There is a school of thought that sometimes there is a possible overlap of short-term and long-term memory i.e. at such times your brain interprets what you are experiencing as though it had already happened; making you literally recall what is actually happening presently. Short-term memory lasts for a maximum of 60 seconds or so and holds 5 to 7 items at a time. Long-term memory persists for minutes or years.

Others have attributed déjà vu to a mismatch of the brain causing confusion of past and present events. However, if you cannot remember whether you have brushed your teeth or whether you are yet to brush them, that is definitely not déjà vu.

Yet, others say it could be due to a disharmony in neural firing (it has got no link to either guns or dismissals). It has been suggested that sometimes in storing an event a neuron or a single area in the brain lags behind other parts for an instant causing a miscommunication of the cerebral hemisphere. The sense of familiarity is created when that “lazy” neuron or spot catches up with the rest, processing what other parts have already recorded. The déjà vu feeling then dissipates.

Theories on what causes déjà vu are various, some being ridiculous. This article is by no means an exhaustion of the proposed reasons for the cause of, an authority on or an in-depth expatiation of the déjà vu phenomenon. Its purpose is to pique your curiosity. You can research further into this befuddling phenomenon—or alternatively, concoct reasons for its cause. Until the global scientific community agrees on what causes déjà vu, I’ll authoritatively say that it is caused by . . .

Hey! Haven’t I written this before?

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Another moment of De Javu is; A feeling that the event you are experiencing has happened before, in almost the exact same way.

Hey, havent I read this before and this this exact same words

These are just mere coincidences!!!

Cloud atlas


Just like in the matrix a deja vu occurs when something changes