Week One: Research Paper Proposal

    

There is surprising evidence of the existence of parallel
universes. Can this be tied to feelings of deja vu?
Is another version of yourself living in another universe?

    My topic for my final research paper is going to be the phenomenon of Deja Vu and its possible connection to a Parallel Universe. For years, I’ve had excessive jumps in my own memory and felt as if I had either seen my current surroundings or actions in a dream, or I had been through a very similar experience before. There have been multiple instances in which I have felt as if I had been in the same exact place in time in the past, and these instances have always been a part of my daily life. Over time, my curiosity as to why I’ve felt this way has grown, and in high school I had a very well-rounded teacher who I felt confident enough to ask for an explanation. That teacher explained, in a very scientific manner, that the sensation I was experiencing was a result of my own biology, providing a concrete explanation to give me a bit of relief from my consistent questioning of my feelings of familiarity. He said that when I feel as if I had seen or been somewhere before, I was actually noticing the delay in processing between the hemispheres of my own brain--he said that a millisecond-long delay had occurred in my mental registration of the world around me, and since this half of my brain did technically experience my situation in “the past,” a strong wave of remembrance washed over my mind. This debunking of my theory stating that I was reliving moments from my own past barely sufficed to satisfy my curiosity, though. I followed my teacher’s sound explanation with dubious research and uncovered an entirely different perspective for explaining this occurrence: the possible existence of a parallel universe. This theory conjures that the true cause of my flashbacks was the presence of another version of myself living another life, in another universe--and as I relived one of my other self’s moments, a memory was triggered. The possibility of a parallel universe, or even multiple parallel universes, has been addressed in official government documents only recently published by the CIA. The findings, originating from study material in Antarctica, theorize that a second universe does exist, and it is entirely upside down. Now, I realize that this seems to be a completely unbelievable statement, but if the CIA has addressed the possibility of another universe, then there must be some merit behind the theory. 

    The structure of my paper will begin with an explanation as to what deja vu is, in scientific terms. This way, I can immediately address the counterclaim against my main topic of research: the presence of a parallel universe, and its effects on how we perceive daily life. Since this topic is a very unexplained theory, it will give way to a very interesting report on how its possible existence may be influencing our own decisions, as we have some sort of inkling (our instincts!) of the outcomes of situations, which in turn helps us to make wiser decisions to avoid negative outcomes. In this paper, I will answer many questions, such as: Are our instincts based upon memory from another version of ourselves? Is deja vu some sort of communication across universes? Does a parallel universe exist? Have governments looked into this possibility, or become curious as to how it may affect the decision-making and lifestyles of humans?

    I am very excited to delve into my own research, and I feel that my paper may open the eyes of many who experience similar feelings of “I have been here before,” without any obvious reasoning. Hopefully, this paper will pose new explanations to the widely-unexplained phenomenon of deja vu.