Déjà Vu

Misha Samardzija 3/29/11
Creative Writing Debella
                            The phenomenon of the unseen scene is never a dull topic. They say déjà vu is your brain tricking itself. That we have one eye that processes things faster than the other, then relaying the message micro-seconds after we’ve seen it. This is only one of over 40 theories on the topic mind you. Psychic’s scientist Emile Boirac originally coined the saying. It comes from a French term and translates into “already seen”. There are quite a few possible scientific propositions that are more grounded and subtle. One of them being that people with mental disorders commonly have lapses of memory storage cells and cannot organize their thoughts correctly. Another popular study is derived from the process of cryptamnesia. This is when the brain stores information we never consciously recognized or remembered. Let’s say you’re a small child, and still taking in information like a sponge. You’re driving around with your grandfather in his old 1987 Plymouth that has a distinct smell of worn leather. Now you may be driving in a Plymouth 30 years later with similar features and subconsciously trigger past forgotten memories. These memories can range from sight, to touch, to smell, to sound, or even dreams. The parahippocampal cortex is where your long-term memories are stored; towards the back of your head. Your short terms are held in the amygdala in the more frontal region. The chemical reactants used within these local brain regions are very distinct and operate similar to a ‘super enzyme’ to trigger electrical impulses in your brain. Yet another theory of Déjà vu is the contractual hologram perception. This is a recreation of a thought, or a three dimensional bending of the mind and senses to portray what is, was, or may seem to be ‘vu’, or has been. Activation-synthesis hypothesis is the idea of subconscious problem solving. When you are dreaming, the thoughts you generate may be... [continues]

Read full essay