• iconNews
  • videos
  • entertainment
  • Home
  • News
    • UK News
    • US News
    • Australia
    • Ireland
    • World News
    • Weird News
    • Viral News
    • Sport
    • Technology
    • Science
    • True Crime
    • Travel
  • Entertainment
    • Celebrity
    • TV & Film
    • Netflix
    • Music
    • Gaming
    • TikTok
  • LAD Originals
    • Say Maaate to a Mate
    • Daily Ladness
    • Lad Files
    • UOKM8?
    • FreeToBe
    • Extinct
    • Citizen Reef
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • UNILAD
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
Snapchat
TikTok
YouTube

LAD Entertainment

YouTube

LAD Stories

Submit Your Content
There's an opposite of 'déjà vu' and it's even more unsettling

Home> Community> Weird

Updated 17:31 18 Aug 2024 GMT+1Published 17:32 18 Aug 2024 GMT+1

There's an opposite of 'déjà vu' and it's even more unsettling

Déjà vu is the phenomenon of feeling like you've already lived through the events you're experiencing now

Joe Harker

Joe Harker

Pretty much all of us will have had déjà vu at some point in our lives, it's that feeling that we've already experienced what we're living through right now.

The term comes from the French language and means 'already seen', and is an apt name for the idea of seeing something and thinking we've looked upon it before.

According to research from Professor Christopher Moulin and Dr Akira O'Connor, déjà vu is 'a window into the workings of our memory system'.

Writing in The Conversation, they explain that we get it when the part of our brain which recognises familiarity gets disconnected from reality.

Advert

Even if you haven't actually done something before, your brain will recognise it as familiar, so it's a feeling of familiarity instead of false memories.

"I don't know how to sit on a chair. Obviously I do, but I suddenly feel like I don't." (Getty Stock Photo)
"I don't know how to sit on a chair. Obviously I do, but I suddenly feel like I don't." (Getty Stock Photo)

However, there's an opposite to déjà vu and the name for it also comes from the French language.

Just as déjà vu means 'already seen', the term 'jamais vu' means 'never seen' and it's the feeling you get when something you are certain is familiar feels new to you.

O'Connor and Moulin described certain examples of jamais vu including looking at the face of someone familiar and suddenly not knowing them, or a musician unexpectedly losing their way in a piece of familiar music.

Advert

In many cases lots of people would love to look upon the familiar with fresh eyes and experience it for the first time once more, but jamais vu comes coupled with the disorientation that your mind knows you know this even if you're struck by a sense of the unfamiliar.

Dr O'Connor described getting jamais vu while driving on the motorway when he suddenly felt like he was unfamiliar with the pedals and steering wheel of his car, resulting in him pulling over to reacquaint himself with a thing he knew very well how to do.

Jamais vu is the unsettling feeling of unfamiliarity when encountering the familiar. (Getty Stock Photo)
Jamais vu is the unsettling feeling of unfamiliarity when encountering the familiar. (Getty Stock Photo)

In an experiment, O'Connor and Moulin got 94 students to repeatedly write the same word, telling them they could stop if their hand was hurting, they were bored or they were starting to feel strange.

They found that around 70 percent of people stopped writing because of a feeling close to jamais vu, with the feeling kicking in after they'd been writing the same word over and over for a full minute.

Advert

Among the responses for why they stopped people said the words would 'lose their meaning the more you look at them', and they 'seemed to lose control of hand'.

However, the experts said their favourite response was: "It doesn’t seem right, almost looks like it’s not really a word but someone’s tricked me into thinking it is."

They think jamais vu might be your brain's way of snapping you out of becoming too automatic, and the unsettling feeling of unfamiliarity you get is a dose of reality.

It's something to think about.

Featured Image Credit: Getty Stock Images

Topics: Science, Weird, Mental Health

Joe Harker
Joe Harker

Joe graduated from the University of Salford with a degree in Journalism and worked for Reach before joining the LADbible Group. When not writing he enjoys the nerdier things in life like painting wargaming miniatures and chatting with other nerds on the internet. He's also spent a few years coaching fencing. Contact him via [email protected]

X

@MrJoeHarker

Advert

Advert

Advert

Choose your content:

2 hours ago
3 hours ago
6 hours ago
9 hours ago
  • 2 hours ago

    What happened during ‘most gruesome death of all time’ that saw five divers instantly killed on oil rig

    The horrifying accident happened in 1983 in the Norwegian oil fields

    Community
  • 3 hours ago

    People left ‘unsettled’ after spotting terrifying face hidden in group photo

    One user said it's made them believe in ghosts

    Community
  • 6 hours ago

    People can't get over scarily 'accurate' simulation of an acid trip

    Social media users said the clip was 'spot on'

    Community
  • 9 hours ago

    Woman, 24, who plans to retire by 40 reveals strict rules she lives by that allow her to save an eye-watering £100,000

    Mia shares advice for other young people to start making bag

    Community
  • Unsettling reason aeroplane toilets flush in the way they do with disgusting 'blue ice' on some aircraft
  • Woman who can remember everything that happens in her life shares awful downside of the ability
  • ‘Jawdropping’ realisation of what happens during skin removal surgery shown in ‘weirdly unsettling’ simulation
  • Scientists reveal '21 second rule' everyone should follow while peeing to stay healthy