By Arin Greenwood
You're in a new town drinking a beer in a strange bar…and are suddenly struck with the intense feeling you've had this beer in this bar before, even though you haven't. What's going on?
"A déjà vu experience is when you have a subjective feeling that the present experience is familiar, yet know objectively that it is new," says Alan Brown, who teaches psychology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. "Typically, you sense that you have had this exact same experience before but know that it is impossible."
There are different theories about what happens during déjà vu experiences. Some studies suggest a purely neurological reason, linking déjà vu and epilepsy. Often, epileptics do get a feeling of deja vu just before having a seizure. Others find that déjà vu is connected to a new experience triggering a memory of a forgotten - but real - experience. If you like alternative sorts of explanations, Intuitive Therapist Carmen Harra says that déjà vu might be the memory of a past life experience.
In other words, no one's quite sure why déjà vu happens, though certain kinds of people in certain kinds of situations are more déjà vu-able than are others.
Professor Brown says that "déjà vu is more likely to occur during the later part of the day, while relaxing, and in the company of friends. The experience is somewhat more likely to occur in those with more education and liberal beliefs, and the incidence decreases with age." Fatigue and stress trigger déjà vu, and having strong religious beliefs makes déjà vu less likely.
As a truck driver, you may have that funny 'I've done this before' feeling more than most stay-at-home folks. "In general, people who travel report more déjà vu experiences than those who don't travel," says Professor Brown. "This is probably because people who travel encounter more locations that are new, which gives more opportunity for the memory illusion of false familiarity to occur."
