You have already read this… Or have you?
It happens suddenly. Unexpectedly. One minute your walking with your friend having a normal conversation and, BAM, you freeze suddenly, staring into the distance like a character on a soap opera, confused.
“I swear this has happened before?” you whisper.
Your friend looks alarmed…. “What, like yesterday?”
“No. Not like yesterday, but I don’t know when. It was exactly like this though. This walk, this conversation, the pigeon on the windowsill, your sweater, it’s all the same.”
Welcome to the unsettling, mildly mystical, and wildly weird world of déjà vu, that eerie sensation that you’ve lived this moment before, even though logic, memory, and Google Calendar say otherwise…
Scientists have been trying to decode déjà vu for decades, and while there’s no single answer, the leading theory is grounded in memory processing. Essentially, your brain briefly misfires, treating a new experience as if it belongs to the past.
In simpler terms: your neural circuits take a shortcut, and suddenly a present-tense moment gets stamped with the seal of memory. It’s a momentary data entry error, but one that feels cosmic. Weird right?
Still, this doesn’t fully explain why déjà vu can feel so emotionally charged. Why does something as small as a passing remark or the angle of sunlight feel like a secret being revealed? I don’t know about you, but it hits me like a truck for a few seconds and transports me into a world of confusion and scepticism.
Of course, science isn’t the only lens. For centuries, déjà vu has inspired more mystical interpretations. Some view it as evidence of parallel realities, overlapping timelines, or a faint trace left by dreams we’ve forgotten. Others consider it a subtle hint from the universe, an intuitive nudge that we’re on the right (or wrong) path. I would prefer the universe to send a more obvious signal though if I’m really needing help…
According to Alexander Pleace, a psychologist, déjà vu is actually a sign that your brain’s memory system is doing its job, just a bit too enthusiastically. Nothing wrong with that, I get told I’m enthusiastic every day, so it must be good.
Alex said: “It’s a sort of quality control error”. Your brain tags a new experience as familiar because it strongly resembles fragments of old ones. It’s like your memory got overexcited and hit ‘save as’ on the wrong file.” When asked if this means we’re all slowly unravelling, Alex laughed. “No, not at all, it’s just misfiring occasionally. Like a microwave that sometimes starts beeping before the food’s even in.” Well that’s comforting…
Then there’s the more poetic idea: that déjà vu is the soul recognizing something before the mind catches up.
Is it a glitch? Or a signal?
It’s hard not to wonder, especially when the sensation leaves you momentarily untethered, like you’re slipping between the layers of time.
Its odd but Déjà vu often surfaces in the most mundane settings, standing in a supermarket aisle, scrolling through emails, watching a show you’re convinced you’ve never seen. But in those moments, the ordinary becomes uncanny.
“It feels like ive watched this before”, even though I only set up the Netflix account that day to watch it.
You question everything:
- Is memory more fragile than I thought?
- Am I dreaming this?
- Is there a version of me watching this scene from somewhere else?
- Am I reliving the same day again?
It doesn’t last long. A few seconds, maybe. But it leaves a residue, like a thought you can’t quite catch.
What’s striking about déjà vu is how little control we have over it. We can’t summon it or stop it. We don’t know why it happens when it does. Yet when it strikes, it commands our full attention.
And maybe that’s the point. In a world that moves fast and rewards distraction, déjà vu demands stillness. It urges us to pause and look closer, even if we never find the answer. There might not even be an answer.
Callum Sal, a self-certified ‘déjà vu’ expert said: Déjà vu isn’t just a glitch in your memory, it’s the brain momentarily processing the present like its this past…The scariest part? It’s possible that one day, you’ll experience a déjà vu so vivid, you won’t be able to tell if you have already lived it or if it’s the future”. Hmm that doesn’t sound ideal.
Anyway, the next time it happens, when the world feels familiar in a way it shouldn’t, lean into it. Be curious. Let it remind you that there are still mysteries in the everyday, still questions our hyper-rational minds can’t quite box up.
After all, life is weird. Might as well enjoy the reruns.
Besides, you already know this because this is actually the second time you have read this … only joking, I won’t get too carried away.
