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Déjà Vu

We've all experienced it. Some people experience déjà vu so frequently, though, that they aren’t interested in watching TV or reading the newspaper because they think they’ve seen it before; and still others treat strangers like people they know. Although psychologists don’t completely understand déjà vu, they have found that you are more likely to experience it if you (1) are younger (people who are in their 20’s might experience it three times per year, for example, while middle-aged people might experience it only once every ten years), (2) are wealthy, (3) are educated, (4) are liberal, and (5) have traveled a lot.

What do these things have in common? Maybe déjà vu happens to people who stimulate their minds more. The younger you are, the more you need to learn; the more money you have, the more opportunity to do things others couldn't; the more you've read and studied, the more active your mind; and the more you've traveled, the more you've been exposed to a variety of people and places. This is only opinion, of course, but it seems like an active mind would be more likely to cause this otherwise mysterious thing we call déjà vu.

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