Maybe this has happened to you: You’re visiting someplace for
the first time. And although you know you’ve never been there
before, you could swear that the place looks familiar. The
strange feeling of disorientation—fleeting, lasting less than 30
seconds—makes you uneasy. Is your mind playing tricks on you?
Actually, you’ve just experienced déjà vu. Don’t worry—you’re in
good company. Most American adults (about two out of three, in
fact) report having had moments of déjà vu, which Southern
Methodist University psychology professor Alan S. Brown, Ph.D.,
defines as “an experience where you have a very strong sense of
familiarity in the face of an objectively new experience.” Déjà
vu can take many forms. “The term déjà vu actually means
‘already seen,’ says Anne M. Cleary, Ph.D., associate professor
in the Cognitive Psychology Program at Colorado State
University, “though people today use the term more broadly to
mean ‘already experienced.’ There are many other ‘déjàs’
however. For example, déjà sentí is the f