Do you ever get that sensation that what you’re experiencing now seems to have already happened before, even though it’s actually an entirely new event? The term for that eerie phenomenon is déjà vu, which in French literally means “already seen.”
Perhaps you’ve just arrived in a tourist spot you’ve never been before in your whole life, and yet you have that unnerving feeling that you actually know the place and that many of its physical features seems so familiar.
There are scientific theories that revolve around neuroimaging and cognitive psychology, trying to explain what déjà vu is. Prepared by TEDEducation’s Michael Molina, the video embedded above concisely explains the three most common theories: dual processing, hologram theory, and divided attention. Perhaps that should shed some light as to why you’re seeing the same black cat walking past you again and again. And again.