please help me with this sentence

[normian]

hi,
why did we use present perfect simple instead of simple past in this sentence?
it is as if he has lived through it before, a long time ago.
best wishes

[SlickVic9000]

(Not a Teacher)

Both the present perfect and the past simple sound acceptable to me, but for reasons unknown even to myself, I prefer the present perfect.

[5jj]

i It is as if he has lived through it before, a long time ago.

In your version, 'a long time' ago' appears to be added as an afterthought. It is fine.

If I were to use the past simple, I would probably omit 'before'.