Thursday, January 29, 2009

I’ve sensed this event before..!

Ever felt what you see or experience was felt already? Hope you remember the scene in The Matrix in which Keanu Reeves sees a cat moving twice, repeatedly, and then they sense that there has been something wrong. We sometimes experience a state of mind in which we feel familiar with what we see or experience. It gives us a weird feeling. This is called déjà vu.

It is a feeling quite common among adults and a study shows that 70 percent people have experienced it at least once. This may result due to an overlap between the neurological systems responsible for short-term memory and those responsible for long-term memory. The events might be stored in memory even before the conscious mind receives and processes it. Some say that It is related wih extra-sensory perceptions; they argue that it is evidence for psychic abillities in normal people.

It is also claimed to be the memory of dreams. Dreams enter the long-term memory directly and these vision might be due to a match between such dreams and the current experience. Last but not least, some believe it is pieces of past-life memories that re-surfaces due to familiar surroundings! So, when did you feel one last?