Paramnesia

Paramnesia

If you have read the title carefully, it probably does not sound like anything, but if I told you the Francophone name with which it is usually known, you would surely have a strange sense of familiarity: we are talking about deja vu.

This phenomenon occurs when we feel that we have already experienced something, it is a general term that encompasses similar experiences such as the one already lived, the one already felt and the one already seen. Several surveys have been conducted and approximately 60% of the subjects confessed to having felt it at some time.

There are many scientific studies and several theories that try to explain it, but I am going to tell you the two that have caught my attention the most and that are among the most accepted. The first is the hologram hypothesis, according to which the brain could create mental reconstructions based on our own knowledge acquired from books, movies or experiences.

Any element of memory could trigger the manufacture of one of these holograms, however insignificant it might seem: a color, a smell or a shape. We would accept the idea that everything participates in everything, at least in our brain. With these holograms, we could have mental ideas about things we would never have seen.

Other theories, however, point to brain dysfunctions due (for example, there are many more) to the variation in the speed of sending neuronal messages through the synapse, which would generate sudden memory disorders causing the déjà you Finally I will tell you another theory that has caught my attention. We will try here to interpret déjà vu as the memory of dreams.

Dreams intervene in long-term memory, while current events act with a short memory. Dreams, except for specific circumstances or that we train for it (which can be done with care and dedication) are not remembered.

Perhaps in the morning, we glimpse briefly the last dream, especially if we woke up suddenly, but usually, dreams are forgotten. However, these experiences gained while dreaming do not fall into oblivion for everyone: not for our subconscious.

Our dreams remain there, and déjà vu would occur when, due to sudden brain activity, he would get some information out and give it to us, obtaining that characteristic feeling of deja vu.