The French term déjà vu, which means “already seen” in English, was coined by the French philosopher and parapsychologist Émile Boirac in 1876. But even before there was a term for this phenomenon, it was pretty much experienced by people since the time of Plato. But what really is deja vu? Unfortunately, very little is known about it, and it wasn’t until 2003 when psychologist Alan Brown presented a paper about déjà vu that scientists took the phenomenon seriously. It was thanks to Brown that the study of déjà vu is now in mainstream science.
Over the years, studies about this human experience have led to many theories. There’s a theory that déjà vu is a memory problem. There’s also another that states that it could be mini seizures. But there is still no conclusive evidence as to what causes this experience. More studies about this event still need to be conducted.
More about this over at Discover Magazine.
Image via imgflip