Is déjà vu a strictly human phenomenon?

How could we ever know?

There is no way to know. I suspect that it may be, because animals recall locations by scent.

Who knows?!

Unless we ever find out a way to effectively communicate with animals, I don’t see how we could ever find out. I wouldn’t be surprised if animals experience it too, though.

It wouldn’t surprise me a bit. The only difference is they do not play out memories the way humans do on a daily basis. Depending on the species and their particular memory stores, I am sure many animals would recognize old haunts and homes again if returned there, or… something triggered a memory blip.

Laugh if you will, but geese are highly sensitive, intelligent, and have excellent memories. I can mention the name of my 13 year old chinese ganders dead first mate of 10 years and, 3 years later, he still cocks his head and verbalizes his understanding. He looks around and I know he knows, and remembers.

Didn’t you ask this question before?? ; )

We can’t know if Deja Vu is happening for animals.

Such depends heavily on one’s own sense of personal memory. A cat’s expressive face can at times indicate the animal is having a moment. My personal opinion as to the mechanism of the event is that it belongs to the singular consciousness of the entire universe, which, serially, passes from beginning to end – where it begins anew, magnified by its previous sojourn.

Deja Vu occurs when something from long term memory is accidentally bumped into short term memory. Or Vice Versa. That moment where they exist in both places causes the effect.

I believe animals have the propensity to experience nearly all human maladies of the mind.

Wait, I’ll go ask my cat….

Deja Vu does happen all around us, all the time but it is a human knowledge (what we named it) and occurs whether we’re aware of it or not. In reality, it’s a part of nature but as we as a species can detect intricate details and have the imagination to put a label on what we detect, we then begin to view it (and other things) as something other than nature.

Empirically speaking, I don’t know of any evidence indicating that it’s not restricted to terrestrial humans. However, that doesn’t exclude the possibility that such evidence exists.

I’m sure that if there are extraterrestrial beings who are capable of abstract conceptualization and expression, then perhaps someday we can discuss things of this nature with them, and get some first-person info on this.

I think deja vu is basically encountering something that seems familiar, but you can’t remember where, how, or if you’ve encountered it before.

I think most mammals (I’m not sure about the other taxonomic classes) can form memories based on smell, hearing, sight, or perhaps even touch, so that they can become at least familiar with things associated with past events, organisms, or places.

I think I’ve read about gorillas apparently enjoying a sunset, so that could be evidence that some other primates besides us have awareness of things beyond those that are directly relevant to our basic needs.

I think if the above is accurate, then perhaps there’s a decent chance that some other animals might have a fleeting sense of something close to DV.

I occasionally foster one of my wife’s rescued cats, and I’ve never seen him display any deja vu when he revisits my house, but then I’ve never specifically looked for it either.

Maybe I will the next time he visits, but I doubt that I’m gonna see it. ;-p

I don’t think that the thought,“this is similar to something that happened before,” is in the mental lexicon of other animals. This is a fairly high level of abstraction.

Mammals and birds do have sophisticated associative memory capabilities. One would have to device clever experiments to find out.

“hey! I think I’ve seen that same thi…..oh look a ball of yarn!”