Many of us have had the feeling of deja vu— that eerie feeling that we have experienced a place or a situation before, while also feeling like that could not possibly be the case because we’ve never actually been here, or done this before. Deja Vu is a French phrase that translates to “already seen.” Research indicates that about two thirds of us experience at least one deja vu in our lifetime.
The phrase deja vu was coined in 1876 by the French philosopher Emile Boirac, and the experience seems to occur more often in young people. People first experience deja vu at the age of about 6 or 7, and it happens most often between the ages of 15 and 25.
Interestingly, there are several other forms of this experience, each with its own label.
Deja senti is the feeling of having smelled something before, like when we go back inside a school building and we are hit with the smell of school — a mixture of sweat and cafeteria food and books.
deja entendu is a feeling of having heard something before, when we try to identify a musical phrase, or a conversation we once heard
presque vu is a feeling of being on the verge of an epiphany or having a word or phrase on the tip of our tongue but we can’t quite find it, such as what’s that guy’s name? I think it begins with a W…..
and jamais vu is a feeling of newness for something that ought to be familiar. This happens when all of a sudden we feel like we just landed on earth and encountered an object that we should know how to use, but it is foreign to us.
All of these phrases are efforts to try to describe certain things that happen in our brains in our memories, and despite many years of research and study, we don’t have any real clear reasons for why we have those sensations. I suspect part of the elusive nature of these phenomena is due to the difficulty of isolating the experience in a research lab.
Most research suggests that these experiences are caused by a misfiring in the brain. In the past ten years, researchers have begun using virtual reality to try to trigger the feeling of deja vu, and deja entendu. They are getting some results, but nothing ground-breaking just yet.
But standing here today, in this familiar location — I do not have just a feeling of deja vu, I have a flood of memories that have washed over me. I recall the first time Marcie and I walked into this building and sat down to attend our first Entry Point service. I fell in love with the feeling of acceptance and lack of judgment offered by this faith community, and, of course, I fell in love with the band. Marcie and I knew we had found our new church home.
It was here that we met and sat with several people who are no longer with us, either because they have moved on to another faith community, or they have passed on. This place is filled with memories for me, and for you. And if you are new to this place, you have a new chance to make memories here.
If I’m honest, there is a sense of closure today for me. Back in March, 2020, when the world shut down, and we were told to stay home, we didn’t know that March 8, 2020 would be our last service in this space. Eventually we moved out, and everyone went on with pandemic life. And today, we are back here. Yes, things look different — but there is a beautiful sense of completion that people don’t always get, when we are surprised to learn — in hindsight — that we experienced something for the last time, and we didn’t even know it.
It’s kind of like raising kids — and recognizing that there is a last time for things with your child, without knowing it at the time. The last time we drop them off at school, the last time they crawl out of bed and come into our room, the last time we go to the high school sporting event.
If there is nothing else that we learned 3 years ago, we learned that last times can happen without warning. So, in order to live well, we must make beautiful memories. As many of us are in our senior years, our memories matter a great deal.
Meik Wiking, author of The Art of Making Memories, states “Happy memories are essential to our mental health.” — Meik Wiking
Wiking goes on to write — When we are young, everything is new. We are doing so many things for the first time that we form very strong memories. But as we get older, we have to work harder to turn events into memories and to benefit from their happiness-inducing qualities.
Even in the Bible we are reminded that as time passes, nothing is new anymore. In Ecclesiastes we find this passage:
“What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.— Ecclesiastes 1: 9
So we need to take a few moments today and investigate how to create happy memories that will last a lifetime:
The first thing we need to do it to create moments of elevation. Moments of elevation are experiences that rise above the routine. They make us feel engaged, joyful, amazed, and motivated.
Competing in a sporting event instead of watching one is a moment of elevation. Taking a spontaneous road trip is a moment of elevation. Engaging our senses by attending a concert or performance, or eating a great meal is far more exciting moment of elevation than sitting on the couch.
We should strive for novelty. Novelty leads to memories. We should seek positive randomness, by mixing things up. New food, new people, a new route home. We should throw a tailgate party for no reason except that we can. As we get older, we experience less and less novelty.
Secondly, we should celebrate moments of pride. Remember the service two weeks ago, when I suggested that we celebrate everything? That’s what I am talking about. When we celebrate moments of pride, we commemorate achievements. Beyond celebrating the obvious successes in our family — graduations, birthdays, weddings — we can celebrate a a silly milestone with family members or friends, and that will stick with us for a long time.
And finally, in order to build really happy memories that will last our lifetime, we need to build moments of connection. We have to do things with people. Great memories involve other people. Relationships matter. New people, old places. Or old people, new routines. We need to do stuff with different groups of people. Or go on a different hike every week, but with the same friend.
We need to have times that bond us with others where we feel all kinds of warm fuzzies. These are the moments when some of the most powerful memories are formed. Research has shown that people draw closer when they struggle together. If that’s the case, our faith community is as close as blood brothers and sisters.
So we should watch less movies, and play more board games as teams. We should help our friends paint their kitchen. We should help each other in any way we can.
“We remember emotional stuff,” writes Wiking. It’s not just happiness that makes things memorable, but all the emotions. So, sometimes we might want to step out of our comfort zone and do something. That is much more likely to be memorable than doing the same things over and over.
Wiking also reminds us that we need to dust off our memories from time to time by reliving the experience — either by ourselves, or with our friends who were part of the memory. The more we think of something, or talk about it, the more likely we are to store it in our long term memory. When we have an active memory bank, we can comfort ourselves with our recollections.
My friends, let’s use this moment of returning to this place to help us to decide to create memories about the good moments in our lives. If we focus on doing that, we will have a lifetime of beautiful memories to reflect on tomorrow. Amen.
Hellen Keller once wrote: “What we once enjoyed and deeply loved we can never lose, for all that we love deeply becomes a part of us.” — Helen Keller
And, oh, how grateful I am, that we have memories. May we work to make beautiful memories so that we can continue to hold onto what we have once enjoyed and loved.
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