Chapter 143: Breaking the Sense of Déjà Vu

The broadcast started a few dozen seconds late this time, but it did not cause any serious production issues.

The first call connected successfully.

Listening to the excited young person in his headset, Jiang Zhe smiled and asked, "My friend, is there anything you would like to ask?"

"Sorry, I forgot; I'm 21 years old and a university student majoring in psychology."

"Regarding the [Déjà Vu] you mentioned at the end of the show, I'd like to ask—"

"The scientific explanation is that it's a memory error. I've seen some experts answer that it's because we've been to a certain place before—a place we might have seen or heard."

"It's like when I'm watching videos on my computer and accidentally come across a certain landscape."

"Later, while half-asleep, I might suddenly retrieve this memory."

"That is the scientific explanation for Déjà Vu."

"What I want to ask is: aside from these scientific interpretations, is there an explanation from another perspective?"

As the voice faded, Jiang Zhe's eyes lit up, and he couldn't help but smile.

He instinctively wanted to say something, but stopped himself.

"Please wait a moment!"

He quickly constructed a different memory in his mind.

At this moment, the live stream chat was flooded with comments.

"Holy crap, someone finally asked this question."

"Déjà Vu is indeed sometimes a memory error, mostly happening among the younger demographic; it becomes rare as people get older."

"Also, the brain sometimes reads related memories. For example, a rural house; when seeing a house, the brain sometimes misreads the information. For instance, a person from a rural area in Northern Jiangsu who is used to living in their own old two-story house might suddenly go to a rural area in another city one day, see a house and address with a similar layout to their own, and they will also feel a sense of familiarity."

"To the person above, that doesn't count as a scientific explanation; it's just similarity, not [Déjà Vu]."

"Is that so? I didn't know that."

"..."

While the audience was debating, Jiang Zhe spoke up and directly refuted them all.

"My friend, there are other explanations."

"Your explanation is very superficial; it's the answer given by biologists and psychologists just to provide a concrete explanation."

"The initial research on [Déjà Vu] began in 1876 by the French scholar [Émile Boirac]."

"Déjà Vu, as the name implies: already seen—I go to a place I've never been to, yet I feel an unusual sense of familiarity."

"Later scholars found a lot of evidence through research, such as memory errors, subconscious recognition, and genetic-level information, but none of these received support from the majority."

At this point, Jiang Zhe pursed his lips and continued:

"To illustrate this, let me give a few examples from ancient times."

"For example, Su Shi from the Northern Song Dynasty, who lived about 1,000 years ago."

"When he was in Hangzhou, he once visited a temple by West Lake with the poet-monk Daoqian."

"Su Shi said with a puzzled look, 'I have never been here before, yet the things before my eyes are clearly familiar.'"

"Later, he observed the temple carefully and found that the temple steps were indeed ninety-two in number, so he sighed and composed a poem: 'In a past life I had already been to Hangzhou, everywhere feels like a place I've visited before. I wish to become a recluse at Dongxiao, and stay for a while in a quiet hermitage.'"

"The general meaning of this poem is: [Su Shi came to this Hangzhou for the first time, yet felt unusually familiar, as if he had been to this place in a past life]. I won't explain the second half because it doesn't have much significance."

"The main point is the first two lines, which describe exactly [Déjà Vu]."

Jiang Zhe smiled and asked in return, "So, young student, can this poem refute the scientific explanations you believe in?"

Upon hearing this, the person on the other end was silent for a moment, then asked with sudden realization, "This isn't a memory error?"

Jiang Zhe nodded gently, "Yes, Déjà Vu is absolutely not a memory error. Su Shi experienced this situation back in the Northern Song Dynasty, let alone the fact that the Philosopher Émile only started researching [Déjà Vu] in 1876. It's also not what is called [Subconscious]."

"Besides this, there is actually another example that can prove [Déjà Vu] is not a memory error."

"Also, during the same period, Huang Tingjian of the Northern Song Dynasty had a similar experience while in Xiushui, Jiangxi."

"When he first arrived, he felt the place was unusually familiar, as if he had been there before; and his [Déjà Vu] of this place was extremely strong, far surpassing anyone else's!"

"While in Xiushui, he met an old woman in a village who was commemorating her deceased daughter."

"Huang Tingjian was twenty-six at the time, so he chatted with the old woman about daily life, and later learned that the old woman once had a daughter, and it had been exactly twenty-six years since her daughter passed away."

"Later, after he became familiar with the old woman's family, the old woman took out some books from a dusty bookcase in her home. Huang Tingjian browsed through them one by one, and the more he read, the more shocked he became, because these writings were identical to the writings Huang Tingjian usually wrote."

"The [identical] here refers to the [style]."

Finishing the story, Jiang Zhe blinked gently and asked, "In this case, my friend, can you figure out where the Déjà Vu came from?"

As soon as the question was asked, all the viewers in the live stream were dumbfounded.

A moment later, a stuttering voice came from the other end of the line: "A past life!"

"Exactly!" Jiang Zhe nodded, "In the case of the great Huang Tingjian, there is indeed a hint of [Reincarnation], which can indicate that his [Déjà Vu] originated from a past life."

As soon as these words were spoken, the live stream chat immediately erupted.

"Holy crap, Déjà Vu is actually related to a past life?"

"Yeah, sometimes my Déjà Vu is about very ancient places, and sometimes it's about very modern places."

"I raise both hands in agreement; Déjà Vu can really be approached and explained at the level of [Reincarnation]."

"Whoever says Déjà Vu comes from the subconscious, I'm going to fight them."

"Actually, the subconscious theory isn't wrong either; maybe the subconscious just sealed away memories from a past life?"

"..."

Inside the studio.

The young person's questions on the other end of the line came one after another.

"Teacher, doesn't Déjà Vu have a concrete explanation?"

"Can it all be solved by just [a past life]?"

Jiang Zhe pondered for a moment, shook his head, and continued his explanation.

"Regarding [Déjà Vu], it actually has no definitive conclusion."

"In the century before last, that is, in 1899, in the psychologist Freud's 'The Interpretation of Dreams'—"

"He proposed that Déjà Vu might stem from early memories in the unconscious that are activated in the present, creating an illusion."

"Freud also believed that these memory fragments piece together a familiar-looking scene at certain key points, causing people to confuse the boundaries between reality and memory."

"He believed that [Déjà Vu] is 'pieced together'."

"Using Su Shi as an example: the road in front of the Buddhist temple he saw was a scene from another Buddhist temple Su Shi had visited before, which was then spliced together with the scene of the temple where Su Shi experienced Déjà Vu."

"Hmm, this can explain it, but it's not accurate enough."

"Therefore, the great psychologist Carl Jung, who had been exposed to and loved our country's ancient philosophical thoughts in his early years, had an explanation that leaned more towards our country's [Metaphysics]."

"He once explained Déjà Vu from a metaphysical perspective, believing that [Déjà Vu] is the reappearance of memories from past and present lives."

"He gave an example: while traveling in Africa, he saw a familiar scene, and this feeling made him feel as if he had returned to a hometown he had never met before, thousands of years ago."

"Therefore, Carl Jung regarded this phenomenon as proof of human collective memory, indicating that some ancient memory fragments in genetic information are passed down through generations."

"This case is just like his [Collective Unconscious] that I mentioned on the show before."

"It is equivalent to a scene seen by a person in a very, very distant place, with that scene information shared into the [Human Collective Unconscious] network; and it just so happens to be seen by those of you who witnessed [Déjà Vu]."

"This can also be attributed to [Genetics]: it is the genetic fragments within our bodies that carry the scenes and images our ancestors have seen, and that information is passed down to us, the contemporary people."