Déjà Vu - Your Explanation.

[Aketuan]

Originally Posted by applejuice

I think deja vu is a manifestation of the quantum mechanics' nature of the Universe, if the probability of an event is not zero, then it's plausible to happen. After all, we are susceptible to energetic processes.

Is there any event where the probability of it happening is 0...

What do you mean by "energetic processes"? I suppose it is possible that using quantum mechanics you could explain/predict everything that could/has happened... however I don't think that we will ever possess the knowledge to understand that.

However for deja vu, I still think that it is a random event that has no relation to "precognitive abilities" or alternate realities...

[applejuice]

Originally Posted by Aketuan

Is there any event where the probability of it happening is 0...

Yes, probably... . Really, I'm not trying to pull a prank on you. That's the nature of quantum mechanics and Co.: Probability Theory. A simple example is, if you have a box with a red and a blue ball and you take out the red ball, the probability of finding the red ball inside the box becomes zero.

What do you mean by "energetic processes"? I suppose it is possible that using quantum mechanics you could explain/predict everything that could/has happened... however I don't think that we will ever possess the knowledge to understand that.

Anything that has to do with Energy and any of its forms, heat, electricity, etc.

However for deja vu, I still think that it is a random event that has no relation to "precognitive abilities" or alternate realities...

That's why Quantum Statistical Models have been developed: to try and quantify the probability of events, as weird as they seem to be.

[The Man in Black]

Originally Posted by applejuice

I think deja vu is a manifestation of the quantum mechanics' nature of the Universe, if the probability of an event is not zero, then it's plausible to happen. After all, we are susceptible to energetic processes.

Just like how the probability of something being created out of nothing is not equal to 0 (which is why we're all here). I like this explanation.

[applejuice]

Originally Posted by The Man in Black

Just like how the probability of something being created out of nothing is not equal to 0 (which is why we're all here). I like this explanation.

This reminded me about that famous phrase of Albert Einstein about Probability in Quantum Mechanics: " [...] He does not throw dice". Unfortunately for Einstein, God really likes to throw dice, and in a way, it makes perfect sense to live in a Universe which is neutral in probability.

[Human No More]

That's out of context - the 'god' is not a being as most people today use the term, but something that most people would refer more closely to as the laws of physics, or 'nature'.

[Woodsprite]

Einstein wasn't an atheist, though. So no one can really say what he meant.

[Советский меч]

Warning! Warning! Flame war imminent! Please evacuate.

[Sonoran Na'vi]

Originally Posted by Woodsprite

Einstein wasn't an atheist, though. So no one can really say what he meant.

That is true and Einstein would get a little annoyed when atheists would use his words to support atheism. When Einstein talked about "god," he would use the term metaphorically to denote nature. Einstein wasn't a theist, either. Some people say that his views are closely related to pantheism in that he seemed to view god as the laws and wonders of nature.

[applejuice]

Well, if the Universe behaves in a probabilist manner, in which events don't necessarily need to be correlated to occur (as the classic model proposes: for every action, there's a reaction equal and opposed in magnitude, and the favorite part of thermodynamics: you can't get something from nothing), then we can easily infer that, if the probability of no-god is not zero, then, well, you can make your own conclusions. The universe seems to have several levels, with things behaving differently in two different planes belonging the same reality. That said, there's a slight possibility that "paranormal" phenomena could be the most natural thing in the Universe. The only way of knowing is to study it. Skeptics, please open your minds, quantum theory was regarded as madness and now it's changing all the Physics Books in the World.

[Icu]

I think that one day, when we know more about the brain, we'll be able to pinpoint exactly how and where Deja vu occurs.

And upon that day this quantum mechanics stuff will be as relevant to this question as it is to, say, "which parts of the brain are associated with memory"

[applejuice]

There's a funny thing about the brain and the assumptions we make of how it works, read this: Hydrocephalus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Note, a source is The Lancet.
And regarding the relevance of quantum theory, well, it's the new paradigm in Science. Quantum Mechanics has successfully explained Huygens' Principle (considering that Huygens - Fresnel Principle was thought to be a "lucky guess").

[Kiangel]

I heard it explained one time (of course just a theory) however it seemed legit. You have two spots in the brain, one for interpreting the present and one for assessing the past. Sometimes, like when you have a dejavu, these two areas get confused with one another and so you think you are assessing something from the past when you are truly witnessing the present. This is the dumbed down version, as I understand it, because I have no education in the field. However to me... It sounds completely reasonable. I am not diminishing the idea of extrasensory dejavu, but I do not think that it aplies to all people.

[apache_blanca]

Originally Posted by Tsawke`Iheyu

Déjà Vu... hmm. Good subject, Rasomaso, very good subject

I have déjà vu's very often, most of them are with cats ...

like in The Matrix, eh?

"What is real? Things you can see, smell or touch? These are neuronal impulses interpreted by your brain. If you don't know where these impulses are coming from... how can you tell what's real and what's not?"
(I am not sure I remember the exact quote)

I have dejá vú's regularly, & I learnt to pay attention to them rather than to brush them off as a "neuronal disorder".

One of the best: I was about 12, & one auntie said, that according to some prejudice (or sign?) I would find a husband in a far away place. And I saw - I swear, I SAW it! - a scene in an Eastern set-up: evening, white flat-roofed houses, palm-trees, I heard the call to prayer from the mosques... I even felt the smell: warm, a bit spicy, a bit salty & definitely exotic. I wondered what it was: since the country I lived in was the Soviet Union (which doesn't even exist anymore) and any travel abroad was a next to "0" probability, rationally speaking - I thought it was maybe Uzbekistan or smth there. Then with time I forgot about the vision.

10 years later when the iron curtain went down & the mighty Soviet Union was rapidly collapsing, I got a job as an secretary-interpreter with some New Ruskies that wanted to set up a business in Dubai. I went with them. We land daytime, it was very hot, but the smell - desert, sea, spices & some tropical plants - seemed familiar, altho I couldn't figure why. When the evening came, the sun was setting & the mosques started singing--- then it hit me! The vision was suddenly back in my head. I think I stopped breathing & then thought: "I am HERE!"
I stayed there for 10 years & wasn't sorry well, only sometimes. But the saldo was in the favour of : "It was worth the fight".

Anyway... What are déjá vús? Erm... thought internet? Some kind of a huge network of knowledge, of all that happened, is happening and might happen. When you accidentally hit a "probability link", one out of many, and then it turns out that this very probability materialized, you say: "I knew it!"

[josie20]

The explanation for Deja Vu is actually quite simple. The reality we know to be happening now, already happened. We just perceive it to be happening now. We are always a few steps behind perceiving what is actually happening at the moment. All of our actions are simply instinctive reactions to what already happened, since our mind is not actually set in what is presently happening(slightly in the past, thus making all of our actions purely instinctive, though we view them as freely made choices). As we get older, the amount of time that passes between what is actually happening at the moment and when we perceive it increases. This is explains why time seems to go faster as we get older. When deja vu occurs, it is simply our mind making a short jump into the 'future'(what is actually happening in the present, though we do not yet perceive it). Then our mind returns to its original state, which allows us to re-experience the event.

[Icu]

You say that like it's an accepted fact, when in reality that is just one of the theories.

Here's what wikipedia says on the matter, for what it's worth-

"The most likely explanation of déjà vu is not that it is an act of "precognition" or "prophecy," but rather that it is an anomaly of memory, giving the impression that an experience is "being recalled." "