Jamais vu

Jamais vu

In psychology, jamais vu (/ˈʒɑːmeɪ ˈvuː/; from French, meaning "never seen") is the phenomenon of experiencing a situation that one recognizes in some fashion, but that nonetheless seems very unfamiliar.

Often described as the opposite of déjà vu, jamais vu involves a sense of eeriness and the observer's impression of seeing the situation for the first time, despite rationally knowing that he or she has been in the situation before.

Jamais vu is most commonly experienced when a person momentarily does not recognise a word, person, or place that he or she already knows, and it is more rarely experienced with people and places.

The phenomenon is often grouped with déjà vu and tip of the tongue.

“There's an opposite to déjà vu. They call it jamais vu. It's when you meet the same people or visit places, again and again, but each time is the first. Everybody is always a stranger. Nothing is ever familiar.”

― Chuck Palahniuk, Choke

The opposite of deja vu is called Jamais vu. It’s a French word meaning “never seen”. It’s the feeling or experience that a person knows or recongnizes a situation, but that it still seems very unfamiliar or unknown. A common example of Jamais vu is when a person momentarily does not recognize a word, person, or place that they already know.

Jamais vu can also be associated with certain types of amnesia and epilepsy. With seizures, jamais vu can surface as a visual aura due to a partial seizure disorder which originates from the temporal lobe. It also can occur as a migraine aura. There is also ongoing related research in schizophrenia patients. Some researchers believe that the symptom of a schizophrenic believing a familiar person has been replaced by an impostor to be the result of chronic jamais vu.

Bonus Fact: The feeling that something is on the tip of your tongue is called “Presque vu“. The term is also French and means “almost seen”. It is the sensation of being on the brink of an epiphany.

Have you ever experienced that phenomenon?

What exactly was your experience about?

Was it hard / difficult to recall it all?

Yes, of course, they are many of those occurrences that come in and out of our lives.

Some we can explain to ourselves, some we definitely need a help and a hand with.

I myself feel am a very intuitive person. I trust the intuition, the gut feeling, the instinct. I rely on my feelings, emotions, etc.

Something that I have seen before, somewhere I have been before, the person I have spoken to before, someone I have held tight before, the food I have eaten before, the drink I have drank before, the smell I have smelled before, the taste I have tasted before, the emotion, the touch I have touched and felt before and I cannot still yet recall where, when, with whom, how, why?!

I cannot simply put my finger on it!

Or how about something I have sure yet to know, to experience, to learn about.

Fundamentally, we could go deeper into a whole subject and topic and do a more of an exploring. Our minds are incredible things if I may use that kind of expression.

The machine or the computer we have between our ears is the most perfect thing there is.

We do not even use the entire and whole capacity of what has been given to us. We could do so much more and even more.

We could and we can engage in activities that we may not have even dreamt up about in our wildest dreams.

We could and we can use all the senses that have been given to us.

We could and we can come up with the solutions to any challenge given to us.

We could and we can resolve the solutions that we have been longing to find and to discover.

We could and we can solve the world’s puzzles.

We could and we can find the answers.

We could and we can discover the results.

What has been keeping us back?

What has been holding us back?

How can we possibly put to the best of the use that what has been given to us?

No more questions.

Speaking of myself, I have been reflecting back in time quite a lot recently, actually.

Living in the country that is not the one I was born in, surrounded by people of a different culture, a different past, different habits, different way of thinking, yet, still, something has been keeping me here for one or some reason nevertheless.

Remembering and recalling all the emotions, all the encounters, all the feelings, all the meetings, all the places, all the positions, all the sad times, all the lonely times, all the happy times, all the challenging times, all the worrisome times, all the crazy times, all the good and all the not so good times, sometimes gives me shivers down my very spine.

Sometimes it feels weird, sometimes it feels familiar, sometimes it feels unfamiliar.

Perhaps some things will always remain a mystery to us. And maybe even that is also for our very good. We do not necessarily need to understand how the electricity works in order to turn on the switch to help out the bulb.

I believe as long as we know that all that is here is for our very good reason, what more could we possibly ask for?

I am wondering what would your take on be on this topic/subject?

What are your personal experiences?

What can you possibly learn from them?

What could you possibly teach others?

My returning to questing has, I suppose, a reason of its own.

Questions are the spices of life.

Questions are powerful.

Questions help us discover and learn about ourselves.

Where would we be without the power of questions and without questioning ourselves?

Where would we possibly be without the miracles?

Where would we possibly be without the mystery?

Thank you for reading!! J

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