What Is Deja Vu and Why Do We Experience It?

The Experience Actually Happened

Sometimes when you have déjà vu it might not actually be déjà vu at all. The feeling of familiarity could be happening because you've actually had the same experience in the past but simply don't remember it. A study published in Current Directions In Psychological Science in 2008 found that déjà vu can often be related to things you've seen and done, even if you don't remember it. Interestingly, research published in Consciousness & Cognition in 2018 discovered that space matters when it comes to déjà vu; if a place is laid out in the same way as another location, you might experience déjà vu, even if the two places look nothing alike.