By Gillian M Eadie (guest author)
Now here is a bizarre story for you
- About 4 weeks ago I met up with an old work colleague I hadn't seen for ages,
it was lovely, we were enjoying a rather decadent late afternoon glass of
Chardonnay in a very swanky cafe overlooking the harbour and having a good old
catch-up when suddenly, just as I was
taking a sip, Camille began telling me about a car accident her husband had
been involved in last summer - and I had the most peculiar feeling, as I knew
exactly what she was going to say! It
was really eerie as my mind was jumping ahead of her sentences and I had to nibble
at some olives to stop myself from completing them for her. Now, I had only taken a few sips of my drink,
I hadn't actually seen Camille for at least two years, and as she was recently
married, I'd never even met her husband.
There is no way I could have known about the accident. It really was just like an episode of 'The
Twilight Zone'.
Was this déjà vu?
Well, if it was, then I had just
become one of the nearly 70 percent who admit to getting this feeling at least
once in their lives, where the sight, sound, taste or even smell of something
leads us to think that we've experienced this 'moment' before, although we know
that we couldn't have. The term déjà vu literally means "already seen" and the French
scientist Emile Boirac, one of the first to study this strange phenomenon, gave
the subject its name in 1876.
There are many theories as to what
déjà vu actually is and what causes it, ranging from reincarnation to simple lapses
in our memory processes. I'm still trying to work out how and why I knew what Camille
was going to say. I even knew what the cafe was going to look like, although I
can't ever remember going in there before.
The most common misuse of the term
déjà vu seems to be with precognitive experiences, where someone gets a feeling
that they know exactly what's going to happen next, and it does. It is
important to remember, though, that déjà vu is experienced during an event, not before. Hallucinations that are brought on by
illness or drugs sometimes bring a heightened awareness and these are often confused
with déjà vu. False memories that are brought on by schizophrenia can also be
confused with déjà vu. Unlike true déjà vu, which typically lasts from 10 to 30 seconds, these false memories or hallucinations can
last much longer.
I don't think I was having a
hallucination! I'd only had a couple of sips of wine!
Actually, scientists don't all agree
about why these experiences happen. Several psychoanalysts attribute déjà vu to
simple fantasy or wish fulfillment, while some psychiatrists ascribe it to a
mismatching in the brain that causes the brain to mistake the present
experience for something similar that has happened in the past. Hence the feeling
of familiarity. Then again, many parapsychologists believe it is related to a
past-life experience that may have been repressed or forgotten.
I know that I had an eerie
experience in that cafe but it looks as if there's a lot more investigation to
be done before I can tell you, for certain, why.
Gillian M Eadie
CEO
The Brain and Memory Foundation
The author, Gillian
Eadie founded the Brain and Memory Foundation. Gillian is an award-winning
educator with more than 20 years as a principal at several prestigious private
schools and is a Churchill Fellow. For more free help and personal advice on
diet, exercise, brain food and improving your memory please visit the Brain and
Memory Foundation. You'll also find lots more information and tips like these
in the great new book by Allison Lamont PhD and Gillian Eadie, Seven Second Memory
Doctors have concluded that if you find the man in the coffee beans in 3 seconds, the right half of your brain is better developed than most people. If you find the man between 3 seconds and 1 minute, the right half of the brain is developed normally. If you find the man between 1 minute and 3 minutes, then the right half of your brain is functioning slowly and you need to eat more protein If you have not found the man after 3 minutes, the advice is to look for more of this type of
Exercises (Seven Second Memory Training) to make that part of the brain stronger!!!
Doctors have concluded that if you find the man in the coffee beans in 3 seconds, the right half of your brain is better developed than most people. If you find the man between 3 seconds and 1 minute, the right half of the brain is developed normally. If you find the man between 1 minute and 3 minutes, then the right half of your brain is functioning slowly and you need to eat more protein If you have not found the man after 3 minutes, the advice is to look for more of this type of
Exercises (Seven Second Memory Training) to make that part of the brain stronger!!!
