A déjà vu experience is one where a person relates what is happening presently to an unreal obscure memory from the past. The memory may be correct or incorrect but the person who experiences it feels that the event unfolding before his eyes is familiar. A feeling of déjà vu makes a person feel that he has experienced the same thing he is experiencing at that particular moment.
This makes a person to relate that experience with an event in the past which he or she does not have enough memory about. In most cases, a person with this feeling has never experienced the familiar situation before. Therefore, déjà vu is influenced by a person’s sub conscious mind which takes up different situations and tries to relate them with past experiences.
Three years ago when I was visiting another country for a conference, I had a similar experience. The conference’s main theme dealt with how young entrepreneurs can use their skills constructively to ensure they come up with revolutionary business concepts. The key note speaker was talking about how he had made it, despite the difficulties he faced while he was growing up. His story stirred something in me.
I had a strange feeling that I had been in the country where the conference was being conducted before. My mind made me recollect that I had attended an exactly similar event, held in the same venue with the same participants. It was a very strange occurrence which amazed me later on. I was not in a position to understand how this situation could be exactly similar to something that I had experienced in the past.
It was really strange that I felt I knew some participants who attended the conference yet it was the first time I had met most of them. The only people I knew were the four people I traveled with from my country who were also participants. I had a strange recollection that I had attended with them the same conference in the past. I had never experienced this feeling before which was very strange.
The situation felt like I had attended this event before which was really amazing. The colors in the room were very bright and they resembled the experience in the recollection I had. The message the speaker was communicating to the audience struck me as familiar; I had a feeling that I had heard it from the same venue before.
This feeling of déjà vu made me reflect more on my past and the things that I enjoyed doing. It made me appreciate my ability to meditate because it opened up my mind to other situations which I had reflected on. I took time to consider my actions and the level of impacts they had in my life. In essence, the speaker’s message seemed more similar to what I had learnt in school a month earlier.
He used a lot of descriptive metaphors which reinforced the message he was conveying to all people in the audience. The speaker used real life examples to explain complex business concepts and this made him strike good rapport with everyone. I have always had a strong passion for entrepreneurship and new business ideas which I feel made me associate the situation in the conference to my personal life.
The information I heard from the conference triggered a previous obscure memory in my mind and this provoked a sense of déjà vu in me. The interactions I had with people from other countries who had come to participate in the conference made me feel positive and contented. It is possible that I associated what I heard from other participants with my own situation which made me get a false sense of familiarity.
I now understand that the information I got while interacting with other participants made me reflect more on events in the past. This made me to compare the conference environment to the school environment which led to the déjà vu experience. The feeling that I got must have been a reconstruction of my school environment and this gave my mind that strong sense of familiarity.
The idea of beauty is based on how people perceive different attributes in different objects depending on the way they are conditioned. Plato likens the idea of beauty to a cave in which humans are trapped where their thoughts and feelings are defined by their previous experiences. The idea of beauty differs from beauty itself because beauty is a representation of what is good and appealing in the world.
A person who is encountering a physical embodiment of beauty either in a living or non-living form may associate it differently with what he has experienced before. Such a person may think that what he or she is experiencing is exactly similar to a previous object which he thinks he has seen before.
People are conditioned by environments in which they live and work which affect their personal perceptions on different forms of beauty. Their own understanding may become an illusion depending on their own understanding of beauty.
The concept of déjà vu by Socrates in ‘The Apology’ is used to demystify the influence of previous experiences which help to construct reality in people’s minds. The text shows how present ideas can be linked to past memories even though these situations are different. In essence, this shows that a person who is experiencing a feeling of familiarity may have basic knowledge in the experience, object or situation he has just witnessed.
He may have a feeling that he has witnessed the situation before because of what he perceives to be real. Therefore, people are made to understand certain situations represent beauty and all that it stands for, without taking time to see if this perception is true or not. Myths, legends and tales are used in different societies to give people a sense of familiarity between the past and present.
The concept of déjà vu comes into play when people relate present supernatural experiences with situations they think they have experienced before. Therefore, the idea of beauty in different people is associated with the power of a mystic force whose workings cannot be easily understood by human beings because they are mortal.
The association of the idea of beauty and déjà vu makes the person experiencing it use his spiritual background to create a linkage between the two situations which are not related. Therefore, people acquire this understanding based on their own interpretation of different objects and what they represent in reality. Their idea of beauty is driven by what they understand to be real within a specific environment that they are familiar with.
The déjà vu experience is complex and provides a link between reality and illusion. The experience gives a better means through which human beings are able to dig deep into their souls to understand themselves better. This experience helps humans to relate ideas which are different and unrelated to understand their true relevance.
The idea of beauty varies from person to person depending on the situation and environment which that person is accustomed to. Such a person relates what he learns to what he feels he can remember and this gives him an effective way through which he can understand his true destiny.
Socrates has argued that the human memory is complex and has the ability to remember information which a person has never been taught before. Therefore, a person is likely to interpret an object’s beauty based on the attributes he feels qualify to make it beautiful.
The déjà vu experience is connected to the human soul and inner spirit. This is what human beings derive their inspiration and courage from. They are able to associate feelings of danger, appreciation, deprivation and satisfaction with what they perceive to be important.
Different situations can create a sense of déjà vu in humans by motivating them to think deeper to find if there is any form of similarity with what they have experienced in the past. Humans are born with innate knowledge which exists even before a person is born. This helps them understand why particular events occur the way they do. Innate knowledge plays a crucial part in improving a human being’s psychological awareness.