Digital Recorders vs. Analog Tape Recorders

To Buy Or Not To Buy a Digital Recorder – 7 Features to Consider

Analog tape recording devices have been around for decades and still play an important role in dictation and transcription.

In recent years, however, you’ve probably seen more digital recorders in the pockets and on the desks of everyone from students and office assistants to doctors, lawyers, and board chairmen.

Is it worth upgrading from analog microcassettes to digital smart cards? Will you be able to figure out how to use it? And will you be able to afford it?

7 features to consider when considering Digital vs. Analog Recorders

1. PORTABILITY.  Technology has advanced to the point where digital recorders are as small and light, if not smaller and lighter, than microcassette recorders, so you’ll be able to take them anywhere you need them. By the way, these digital recorders are great gifts for people on the go.

2. RECORDING MEDIA .  Digital recorders use either internal flash memory or smart cards, which can be inserted and ejected like cassettes, to record. Both options give you anywhere from dozens to hundreds of hours of recording time, even on the smallest digital devices. When you’ve run out of recording room, you can simply transfer the files to your computer and erase them from the recorder. If you’re using a recording device with smart cards, you can simply buy a new one, pop it in the recorder and go.

3. DURABILITY. Analog recorders are rugged and long-lasting. Contrary to what you might think, so are digital recorders. In fact, because they have no moving parts, they’re built to last for years with virtually no wear and tear. Same goes for the smart cards which many digital recorders employ. All the information is stored on chips in the smart card, so there’s nothing to rewind or fast-forward when you’re looking for a specific part of the recording. As a result, it’s virtually impossible (pun intended) for a smart card to wear out.

4. STORING AND SHARING RECORDINGS.  Digital recorders connect directly to your computer – many of them don’t even require a USB cord – so you can transfer files to your hard drive quickly and easily. This makes it a snap to flexibily organize your files, and it also makes it much easier to send files to multiple users via email. Have a long meeting you want transcribed by more than one person at the same time? Simply transfer the recording from your digital recorder to your computer and send it off to all the transcribers simultaneously. If you want a hard copy, just burn the file/files to a CD.

5. EASE OF USE. Recording digitally makes it easier to find a specific part of your sound file. No more rewinding and fast-forwarding! If you want to hear something that was said half an hour or two hours or five hours into your meeting, you can access it in seconds. You can even extract the important parts of a long recording and make separate files for them. And it’s practically unheard of to mistakenly erase a sound file. Unlike an analog cassette, you can’t simply rewind a digital file and accidentally record over it – erasing it takes deliberate effort.

6. ENGINEERING. It’s nearly impossible to mess up a digital recording. Depending on your budget, you can purchase a recorder which will automatically set recording levels. Many digital recorders can also record only when sound is detected. That way, if you’re recording a seminar or meeting with a lot of long pauses, you won’t have a lot of “dead air” on your recording.

7. PRICE.  Analog tape recorders still have a price advantage at the lower end of the market, but as you add bells and whistles, there’s a wide range of digital recorders available at competitive prices. The time has arrived when state-of-the-art digital recording technology is within the reach of everyone from students to executives.  

Take a look at our selection of digital voice recorders and see which one is right for your needs and your budget! Or if you are a particular fan of Olympus, see our review of current Olympus recorders.

Ghost Hunting Tips & Rules

Ghost Hunting Tips & Rules

• Never go ghost hunting alone.
• Always let someone know where you will be.
• Always carry id.
• If you feel uncomfortable, leave!
• Get permission before going onto private property or to be in a cemetery after hours.
• Reschedule your ghost hunt if it is going to snow, rain, or if it is foggy. Also check the pollen count. Moisture and pollen can cause anomalies in photos.
• If you have a large group break up into pairs or smaller groups.
• Carry walkie talkies or cell phones. You never know when you might need them.  
• Don't use drugs or alcohol before or during an investigation or hunt.
• Don't smoke near where you will be investigating. Make a designated spot for smoking. You don't want to photograph smoke and think it is an ecto mist or spirit. 
• When trying to record evps never whisper.  Talk in a normal voice. You won't scare the ghosts if you talk. And you don't want to mistake a human whisper for a spirit.
• Always use new tapes in the recorder.
• Have extra batteries and make sure all equipment is fully charged.
• Wear a watch so you can note times of events.
• Wear clothing suited for the weather and always wear comfortable shoes.
• Don't wear jackets with strings. The strings could get in the way when taking photos and be mistaken for something paranormal, especially if you are shooting downward.
• Don't wear perfume or cologne while ghost hunting. If using an insect repellent make sure it is unscented. Some have noticed scents or smells when there is reported ghost activity. Perfumes may mask these scents.
• Tie back long hair. When a piece of hair gets in front of the camera lens it will look like a vortex.
• Remove camera straps or be aware where they are when taking a photo. Many times straps get in the picture and can be mistaken for a vortex, ecto, moving orb and ghosts.
• Look for things in the way like spiderwebs, wire, ropes, tree limbs. They can appear on photos as something paranormal when they are in close range of the camera lens.
• Always clean camera lenses. Lint, dust specks, smudges and fingerprints can look like ecto mist, orbs, and other ghostly anomalies.
• Be aware of the temperature when photographing outdoors or in an unheated building. Hold your breath while taking a photo and for several seconds afterward. Remember, if you can see it so can the camera.
• Always know where your fingers are when taking photos. A thumb or finger can appear to be a ghost when caught in front of the lens. It is a big let down to find out it's not paranormal after all.
• Research the location. If you are going ghost hunting after dark, you should check it out during daylight hours. Make note of any dangers such as holes, broken glass, loose boards etc.
• Be objective of your findings. Rule out any natural causes that may have caused anomalies such as insects, lights in the distance, spider webs, reflections.  

 

                      Mothman

Mothman is a legendary creature first reportedly seen in the Point Pleasant area of West Virginia from 15 November 1966 to 15 December 1967. The first newspaper report was published in the Point Pleasant Register dated 16 November 1966, entitled "Couples See Man-Sized Bird...Creature...Something".^[1]

Mothman was introduced to a wider audience by Gray Barker in 1970,^[2][3] later popularized by John Keel in his 1975 book The Mothman Prophecies, claiming that Mothman was related to a wide array of supernatural events in the area and the collapse of the Silver Bridge. The 2002 film The Mothman Prophecies, starring Richard Gere, was based on Keel's book.^[4]

History

On Nov. 12, 1966, five men who were digging a grave at a cemetery near Clendenin, WV claimed to see a man-like figure fly low from the trees over their heads ^[5]. This is often attributed as the first known sighting of what would become known as the Mothman.

Shortly thereafter, on Nov. 15, 1966, two young couples from Point Pleasant, Roger and Linda Scarberry, and Steve and Mary Mallette told police they saw a large white creature whose eyes "glowed red" when the car headlights picked it up. They described it as a "flying man with ten foot wings' following their car while they were driving in an area of town known as 'the TNT area', the site of a former World War II munitions plant.^[6][7]

During the next few days, other people reported similar sightings. Two volunteer firemen who sighted it said it was a "large bird with red eyes". Mason County Sheriff George Johnson commented that he believed the sightings were due to an unusually large heron he termed a "shitepoke". Contractor Newell Partridge told Johnson that when he aimed a flashlight at a creature in a nearby field its eyes glowed "like bicycle reflectors", and blamed buzzing noises from his television set and the disappearance of his German Shepherd dog on the creature.^[8] Wildlife biologist Dr. Robert L. Smith at West Virginia University told reporters that descriptions and sightings all fit the Sandhill Crane, a large American crane almost as high as a man with a seven foot wingspan featuring circles of reddish coloring around the eyes, and that the bird may have wandered out of its migration route.

There were no Mothman reports in the immediate aftermath of the December 15, 1967 collapse of the Silver Bridge and the death of 46 people ^[9], giving rise to legends that the Mothman sightings and the bridge collapse were connected.^[8][10][11]

[edit]Claims of later sightings

UFOlogist Jerome Clark writes that many years after the initial events, members of the Ohio UFO Investigators League re-interviewed several people who claimed to have seen Mothman, all of whom insisted their stories were accurate. Linda Scarberry claimed that she and her husband had seen Mothman "hundreds of times, " sometimes at close range, commenting, "It seems like it doesn’t want to hurt you. It just wants to communicate with you. "^[12]

Cryptozoologist Loren Coleman claims that sightings of Mothman continue, and told USA Today he re-interviewed witnesses described in Keel's book who said Mothman was "a huge creature about 7 feet tall with huge wings and red eyes" and that "they could see the creature flapping right behind them" as they fled from it.^[13]

[edit]Explanations

[edit]Paranormal

Some UFologists, paranormal authors, and cryptozoologists believe that Mothman was an alien, a supernatural manifestation, or an unknown cryptid. In his 1975 book The Mothman Prophecies, author John Keel claimed that the Point Pleasant residents experienced precognitions including premonitions of the collapse of the Silver Bridge, unidentified flying object sightings, visits from mysterious or threatening men in black, and other bizarre phenomena. However, Keel has been criticized for distorting established data, and for gullibility.^[12]

[edit]Skeptical

Skeptic Joe Nickell says that a number of hoaxes followed the publicity generated by the original reports, such as a group of construction workers who tied red flashlights to helium balloons. Nickell attributes the Mothman reports to pranks, misidentified planes, and sightings of a barred owl, an albino owl, suggesting that the Mothman's "glowing eyes" were actually red-eye effectcaused from the reflection of light from flashlights or other bright light sources. The area lies outside the snowy owl's usual range and locals, unfamiliar with such a large owl, could have misidentified the bird. ^[6]

Folklorist Jan Harold Brunvand notes that Mothman has been widely covered in the popular press, some claiming sightings connected with UFOs, and others claiming that a military storage site was Mothman's "home". Brunvand notes that recountings of the 1966-67 Mothman reports usually state that at least 100 people saw Mothman with many more "afraid to report their sightings", but observed that written sources for such stories consisted of children's books or sensationalized or undocumented accounts that fail to quote identifiable persons. Brunvand found elements in common among many Mothman reports and much older folk tales, suggesting that something real may have triggered the scares and became woven with existing folklore. He also records anecdotal tales of Mothman supposedly attacking the roofs of parked cars inhabited by teenagers.^[14]

[edit]Festivals and statue

Point Pleasant held its first Annual Mothman Festival in 2002 and a 12-foot-tall metallic statue of the creature, created by artist and sculptor Bob Roach, was unveiled in 2003. The Mothman Museum and Research Center opened in 2005 and is run by Jeff Wamsley.^[15][16][17] The Festival is a weekend-long event held on the 3rd weekend of every September. There are a variety of events that go on during the festival such as guest speakers, vendor exhibits, and hayride tours focusing on the notable areas of Point Pleasant.^[10]

[edit]Popular culture

• In Season 5, Episode 4 of The X-Files, Detour, Agent Mulder hypothesizes that the supernatural events occurring may be related to the creature. However, Mulder refers to a group of creatures called the Mothmen as opposed to a singular Mothman.
• In Episode 2 of the short-lived TV series X-Testers, the researchers attempted to duplicate alleged photographs of Mothman.^[18]
• The Luminoth, a tribe of mothlike humanoid creatures appearing in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes for the Nintendo Gamecube may also considered to be some kind of mothmen.
• In the video game Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Mothman is one of three Cryptozoology-based monsters along with the Yeti and the Flying Humanoid. It also appears again as an enemy inCastlevania: Portrait of Ruin.
• In the Shin Megami Tensei series of video games, Mothman often appears as a demon that the main characters can use as an ally.
• Mothman appears in an episode of Lost Tapes.
• Mothman is the alias of Byron Lewis in Alan Moore's graphic novel Watchmen.
• On the television show Invader Zim the character Dib is a member of a clandestine organization called The Swollen Eye where his code name is "Mothman".
• In the game GTA: San Andreas, the Mothman is said to be located in the desert.

                   Jersey Devil

"New Jersey Devil" redirects here. For the NHL Hockey Team, see New Jersey Devils. For other uses, see Jersey Devil (disambiguation).

Jersey Devil

(Leeds Devil)
The Jersey Devil, Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, January 1909.
Data
First reported	Native American folklore
Country	United States
Region	Pine Barrens (New Jersey)

The Jersey Devil is a legendary creature or cryptid said to inhabit the Pine Barrens of Southern New Jersey, United States. The creature is often described as a flying biped with hooves, but there are many different variations. The most common description is that of a kangaroo-like creature with the head of a goat, leathery bat-like wings, horns, small arms with clawed hands, cloven hooves and a forked tail. It has been reported to move quickly and often is described as emitting a "blood-curdling scream."^[1][2]

The Jersey Devil has worked its way into the pop culture of the area, even lending its name to New Jersey's team in the National Hockey League, and appeared on an early episode of The X-Files.

Contents   [hide]  1 Origin of the legend 2 Reported encounters 2.1 Sightings of 1909 3 Explanations 4 Popular culture 4.1 Film and television 4.2 Literature 4.3 Music 4.4 Video games 5 See also 6 References 7 Further reading 8 External links

[edit]Origin of the legend

There are many possible origins of the Jersey Devil legend. The earliest legends date back to Native American folklore. The Lenni Lenape tribes called the area around Pine Barrens "Popuessing", meaning "place of the dragon".^[3] Swedish explorers later named it "Drake Kill", "drake" being a Swedish word for dragon, and "kil" meaning channel or arm of the sea (river, stream, etc.)^[4]

The most accepted origin of the story, as far as New Jerseyans are concerned, started with Mother Leeds and is as follows:

"It was said that Mother Leeds had 12 children and, after finding she was pregnant for the 13th time, stated that this one would be the Devil. In 1735, Mother Leeds was in labor on a stormy night. Gathered around her were her friends. Mother Leeds was supposedly a witch and the child's father was the Devil himself. The child was born normal, but then changed form. It changed from a normal baby to a creature with hooves, a goat's head, bat wings and a forked tail. It growled and screamed, then killed the midwife before flying up the chimney. It circled the villages and headed toward the pines. In 1740 a clergy exorcised the demon for 100 years and it wasn't seen again until 1890."

"Mother Leeds" has been identified by some as Deborah Leeds.^[5] This identification may have gained credence from the fact that Deborah Leeds' husband, Japhet Leeds, named twelve children in the will he wrote in 1736,^[6] which is compatible with the legend of the Jersey Devil being the thirteenth child born by Mother Leeds. Deborah and Japhet Leeds also lived in the Leeds Point section of what is now Atlantic County, New Jersey,^[7] which is the area commonly said to be the location of the Jersey Devil story.

[edit]Reported encounters

There have been many sightings and occurrences allegedly involving the Jersey Devil.

According to legend, while visiting the Hanover Mill Works to inspect his cannonballs being forged, Commodore Stephen Decatur sighted a flying creature flapping its wings and fired a cannonball directly upon it to no effect.^[8]

Joseph Bonaparte, eldest brother of Emperor Napoleon, is also said to have witnessed the Jersey Devil while hunting on his Bordentown estate around 1820.^[8] In 1840, the devil was blamed for several livestock killings. Similar attacks were reported in 1841, accompanied by tracks and screams.

Claims of a corpse matching the Leeds Devil's description arose in Greenwich in December 1925. A local farmer shot an unidentified animal as it attempted to steal his chickens. Afterward, he claimed that none of 100 people he showed it to could identify it.^[9] On July 27, 1937 an unknown animal "with red eyes" seen by residents of Downingtown, Pennsylvania was compared to the Jersey Devil by a reporter for the Pennsylvania Bulletin.^[10] In 1951, a group of Gibbstown, New Jersey boys claimed to have seen a 'monster' matching the Devil's description.^[11] and claims of a corpse matching the Jersey Devil's description arose in 1957.^[12] In 1960, tracks and noises heard near Mays Landing were claimed to be from the Jersey Devil.^[13] During the same year the merchants around Camden offered a $10,000 reward for the capture of the Jersey Devil, even offering to build a private zoo to house the creature if captured.^[14]

[edit]Sightings of 1909

During the week of January 16 through 23, 1909, newspapers of the time published hundreds of claimed encounters with the Jersey Devil from all over the state. Among alleged encounters publicized that week were claims the creature "attacked" a trolley car in Haddon Heights and a social club in Camden.^[15] Police in Camden and Bristol, Pennsylvania supposedly fired on the creature to no effect.^[16] Other reports initially concerned unidentified footprints in the snow, but soon sightings of creatures resembling the Jersey Devil were being reported throughout South Jersey and as far away as Delaware.^[17] The widespread newspaper coverage led to a panic throughout the Delaware Valley prompting a number of schools to close and workers to stay home. During this period, it is rumored that the Philadelphia Zoo posted a $10,000 reward for the creature's capture. The offer prompted a variety of hoaxes, including a kangaroo with artificial wings.^[18]

[edit]Explanations

Skeptics believe the Jersey Devil to be nothing more than a creative manifestation of the English settlers, Bogeyman stories created and told by bored Pine Barren residents as a form of children's entertainment, and rumors arising from negative perceptions of the local population ("pineys"). According to Brian Dunning of Skeptoid, folk tales of the Jersey Devil prior to 1909 calling it the "Leeds Devil" may have been created to discredit local politician Daniel Leeds who served as deputy to the colonial governor of New York and New Jersey in the 1700s.^[19] Folklorist Jan Harold Brunvand wrote that the spread of contemporary pop culture has overtaken traditional Jersey Devil legends.^[20] Jeff Brunner of the Humane Society of New Jersey thinks the Sandhill Crane is the basis of the Jersey Devil stories, adding, "There are no photographs, no bones, no hard evidence whatsoever, and worst of all, no explanation of its origins that doesn't require belief in the supernatural."^[21] Outdoorsman and author Tom Brown, Jr. spent several seasons living in the wilderness of the Pine Barrens. He recounts occasions when terrified hikers mistook him for the Jersey Devil, after he covered his whole body with mud to repel mosquitoes.

One New Jersey group called the "Devil Hunters" refer to themselves as “official researchers of the Jersey Devil", and devote time to collecting reports, visiting historic sites, and going on nocturnal hunts in the Pine Barrens in order to "find proof that the Jersey Devil does in fact exist."^[22]

[edit]Popular culture

The Jersey Devil has become a cultural icon in the state, inspiring several organizations to use the nickname. In professional hockey, the Eastern Hockey League Jersey Devils played from 1964 through 1973. When the National Hockey League Colorado Rockies relocated to New Jersey in 1982, a fan poll voted to rename that team the New Jersey Devils.^[23][24]

The New Jersey Air National Guard's 177th Fighter Wing, stationed at the FAA William J. Hughes Technical Center within the Pine Barrens, is also nicknamed the Jersey Devils.^[25]

American professional wrestler, Jason Danvers, portrays a character called "The Jersey Devil", a psychopathic member of a stable called "The Asylum". His outfit consists of a black and white wrestling singlet, long tights, and boots. He also wears full facepaint of a white face covering with black make-up over it that gives him horns and a "Joker"-esque, evil smile. He wrestles for WAW wrestling in Manchester, NH.^[26]

                       Déjà vu

Déjà vu, from French, literally "already seen", is the phenomenon of having the strong sensation that an event or experience currently being experienced had been experienced in the past.

Scientific research

The psychologist Edward B. Titchener in his book 1928 A Textbook of Psychology, explained déjà vu as caused by a person having a brief glimpse of an object or situation, before the brain has completed "constructing" a full conscious perception of the experience. Such a "partial perception" then results in a false sense of familiarity.^[1] The explanation that has mostly been accepted of déjà vu is not that it is an act of "precognition" or "prophecy", but rather that it is an anomaly of memory, giving the false impression that an experience is "being recalled".^[2][3] This explanation is supported by the fact that the sense of "recollection" at the time is strong in most cases, but that the circumstances of the "previous" experience (when, where, and how the earlier experience occurred) are uncertain or believed to be impossible.

As well, as time passes, subjects may exhibit a strong recollection of having the "unsettling" experience of déjà vu itself, but little or no recollection of the specifics of the event(s) or circumstance(s) which were the subject of the déjà vu experience itself (the events that were being "remembered"). This may result from an "overlap" between the neurological systems responsible for short-term memory and those responsible for long-term memory, resulting in (memories of) recent events erroneously being perceived as being in the more distant past. One theory is the events are stored into memory before the conscious part of the brain even receives the information and processes it.^[4] However, this explanation has been criticized that the brain would not be able to store information without a sensory input first. Another theory suggests the brain may process sensory input (perhaps all sensory input) as a "memory-in-progress", and that therefore during the event itself one believes it to be a past memory. In a survey, Brown had concluded that approximately two-thirds of the population have had déjà vu experiences.^[5]

[edit]Links with disorders

Early researchers tried to establish a link between déjà vu and serious psychopathology such as schizophrenia, anxiety, and dissociative identity disorder, but failed to find the experience of some diagnostic value. There does not seem to be a special association between déjà vu and schizophrenia or other psychiatric conditions.^[6] The strongest pathological association of déjà vu is withtemporal lobe epilepsy.^[7][8] This correlation has led some researchers to speculate that the experience of déjà vu is possibly a neurological anomaly related to improper electrical discharge in the brain. As most people suffer a mild (i.e. non-pathological) epileptic episode regularly (e.g. a hypnagogic jerk, the sudden "jolt" that frequently, but not always, occurs just prior to falling asleep), it is conjectured that a similar (mild) neurological aberration occurs in the experience of déjà vu, resulting in an erroneous sensation of memory. Scientists have even looked into genetics when considering déjà vu. Although there is not currently a gene associated with déjà vu, the LGII gene on chromosome 10 is being studied for a possible link. Certain forms of the gene are associated with a mild form of epilepsy and, though by no means a certainty, déjà vu occurs often enough during seizures that researchers have reason to suspect a link.^[9]

[edit]Pharmacology

Certain drugs increase the chances of déjà vu occurring in the user. Some pharmaceutical drugs, when taken together, have also been implicated in the cause of déjà vu. Taiminen and Jääskeläinen (2001)^[10] reported the case of an otherwise healthy male who started experiencing intense and recurrent sensations of déjà vu upon taking the drugs amantadine andphenylpropanolamine together to relieve flu symptoms. He found the experience so interesting that he completed the full course of his treatment and reported it to the psychologists to write up as a case study. Due to the dopaminergic action of the drugs and previous findings from electrode stimulation of the brain (e.g. Bancaud, Brunet-Bourgin, Chauvel, & Halgren, 1994),^[11] Taiminen and Jääskeläinen speculate that déjà vu occurs as a result of hyperdopaminergic action in the mesial temporal areas of the brain.

[edit]Memory-based explanations

The similarity between a déjà-vu-eliciting stimulus and an existing, but different, memory trace may lead to the sensation.^[6][12] Thus, encountering something which evokes the implicit associations of an experience or sensation that cannot be remembered may lead to déjà vu. In an effort to experimentally reproduce the sensation, Banister and Zangwill (1941)^[13][14] usedhypnosis to give participants posthypnotic amnesia for material they had already seen. When this was later re-encountered, the restricted activation caused thereafter by the posthypnotic amnesia resulted in three of the 10 participants reporting what the authors termed "paramnesias". Memory-based explanations may lead to the development of a number of non-invasive experimental methods by which a long sought-after analogue of déjà vu can be reliably produced that would allow it to be tested under well-controlled experimental conditions. Cleary^[12] suggests that déjà vu may be a form of familiarity-based recognition (recognition that is based on a feeling of familiarity with a situation) and that laboratory methods of probing familiarity-based recognition hold promise for probing déjà vu in laboratory settings. A recent study that used virtual reality technology to study reported déjà vu experiences supported this idea. This virtual reality investigation suggested that similarity between a new scene's spatial layout and the layout of a previously experienced scene in memory (but which fails to be recalled) may contribute to the déjà vu experience.^[15][15] When the previously experienced scene fails to come to mind in response to viewing the new scene, that previously experienced scene in memory can still exert an effect—that effect may be a feeling of familiarity with the new scene that is subjectively experienced as a feeling of déjà vu, or of having been there before despite knowing otherwise. Another possible explanation for the phenomenon of déjà vu is the occurrence of "cryptomnesia", which is where information learned is forgotten but nevertheless stored in the brain, and similar occurrences invoke the contained knowledge, leading to a feeling of familiarity because of the situation, event or emotional/vocal content, known as "déjà vu". Some experts suggest that memory is a process of reconstruction, rather than a recall of fixed, established events. This reconstruction comes from stored components, involving elaborations, distortions and omissions. Each successive recall of an event is merely a recall of the last reconstruction. The proposed sense of recognition (déjà vu) involves achieving a good ‘match’ between the present experience and our stored data. This reconstruction however, may now differ so much from the original event that we ‘know’ we have never experienced it before, even though it seems similar.^[16]

[edit]Parapsychology

Some parapsychologists have advocated other interpretations of déjà vu. Ian Stevenson and other researchers have written that some cases of déjá vu might be explained on the basis ofreincarnation.^[17][18] Anthony Peake has written that déjà vu experiences occur as people are living their lives not for the first time but at least the second.^[19]

[edit]Related phenomena

[edit]Jamais vu

Main article: Jamais vu

Jamais vu (from French, meaning "never seen") is a term in psychology which is used to describe any familiar situation which is not recognized by the observer.

Often described as the opposite of déjà vu, jamais vu involves a sense of eeriness and the observer's impression of seeing the situation for the first time, despite rationally knowing that he or she has been in the situation before. Jamais vu is more commonly explained as when a person momentarily does not recognize a word, person, or place that they already know. Jamais vu is sometimes associated with certain types of aphasia, amnesia, and epilepsy.

Theoretically, as seen below, a jamais vu feeling in a sufferer of a delirious disorder or intoxication could result in a delirious explanation of it, such as in the Capgras delusion, in which the patient takes a person known by him or her for a false double or impostor. If the impostor is himself, the clinical setting would be the same as the one described as depersonalisation, hence jamais vus of oneself or of the very "reality of reality", are termed depersonalisation (or surreality) feelings.