Doppelgangers | Ep. 112
Welcome to another episode of Believing the Bizarre. This week, we are discussing doppelgängers. German for “double-walker,” these paranormal entities are exact unknown replicas of people that are said to be bad omens and harbingers of bad news, misfortune, and death.
Essentially, bad juju. But, what exactly could they be? Simply evil twins with mischievous intent? Or perhaps could these duplicates be us from a different or alternate dimension?
Listen now to hear our thoughts!
What is a Doppelganger? Are They Evil Or Harbingers Of Doom?
Essentially, a Doppelgänger is a mysterious figure that is the exact double of you.
It’s not like a twin – where you look identical, are biologically related, but have different personalities.
A doppelgänger is like an unknown exact replica of yourself – same appearance, blemishes, hair, nose, demeanor, mannerisms, etc.
It would be like walking outside and seeing your reflection – but it being another organic being.
Friends or family that encounter this doppelgänger will believe without a shadow of a doubt it is you and you’re often left confused why they think you behaved differently or were somewhere that you weren’t actually.
The word doppelgänger is German and means “double-walker”
And yes, we have discussed doppelganger’s loosely in the listener submission we got from Ben (whose interview is up on our Patreon – by the way)
So, we are creatures of meaning. We can’t just look at stuff and accept it – we try to extrapolate meaning in things we experience and if there isn’t an inherent meaning – we like to slap one on. Especially when it comes to doubles.
We’ll get into 6 theories associated with doppelgängers in a little bit, but in terms of overview – it’s normally pretty grim and is considered to be a bad omen.
First of all, well – let me set the scene.
It’s late at night. You wake up, and your throat is super dry so you decide to walk to your kitchen and get something to drink.
Your eyes are heavy and you’re not trying to open them too much because you want to be able to fall back asleep, so you ever so slightly crack open the fridge to grab some water and shut the fridge before the light gets into your eyes making your chances of sleep slimmer.
But then – it catches your attention and your eyes widen.
Outside your kitchen window, standing underneath the single street light by your house is your exact replica.
A doppelganger.
It’s wearing your clothes and your face. Your favorite shirt and even wears your hair the same way you like to.
You can’t tell for certain because it’s far enough away, but the grave feeling in your stomach is telling you that this doppelgänger is staring directly at you.
Then – it smiles.
Not that that is always how this phenomena happens, but it’s normally an unsettling experience. It’s not like Lindsey Lohan in the parent trap.
It’s normally not warm and fuzzy and you don’t get to meet Dennis Quad aka Harrison Ford – light.
Often, they are portrayed as a harbinger of bad news and ill fortune, and sightings of doppelgängers have been reported for centuries.
We have some historic ones and of course, we got some encounters from the most believable corner of the internet – Reddit.
I think the intent is interesting here because as you see when we get into ideas and theories surrounding Doppelgangers, it’s pretty diverse.
From evil to mischievous, which is certainly a strong intent. Then there is the warning sign of them being more like a forbidding omen. This is obviously intentional but the Doppelgänger itself isn’t the one doing the evil act – rather a messenger.
Then, there is completely stripping intent where it could just be a ripple in our universe or a parallel dimension where this duplicate really is you and somehow slipped into our reality.
Also, could obviously be mistaken identity if it’s not you you’re seeing but a friend or family member’s doppelganger.
But let’s get into a few historical experiences, then the main theories, then my favorite – personal encounters.
4 Historical Examples of a doppelgänger
John Donne
It was claimed that an English metaphysical poet, John Donne, saw his wife’s doppelgänger in Paris in the year 1612.
As with many famous doppelgänger sightings, misfortune strikes and this happened to be the same night as the stillbirth of their daughter.
Here is the snippet of the sighting which appeared in “Life of Dr. Rizvan Rizing” which was published in 1675.
Two days after their arrival there, Mr. Donne was left alone, in that room in which Sir Robert, and he, and some other friends had dinner together. To this place Sir Robert returned within half an hour; and, as he left, so he found Mr. Donne alone; but, in such ecstasy, and so altered as to his looks, as amazed Sir Robert to behold him in so much that he earnestly desired Mr. Donne to declare befallen him in the short time of his absence?
To which, Mr. Donne was not able to make a present answer: but, after a long and perplexing pause, did at last say, I have seen a dreadful Vision since I saw you:
I have seen my dear wife pass twice by me through this room, with her hair hanging about her shoulders, and a dead child in her arms: this, I have seen since I saw you.
To which, Sir Robert replied; Sure Sir, you have slept since I saw you; and, this is the result of some melancholy dream, which I desire you to forget, for you are now awake.
To which Mr. Donne’s reply was: I cannot be surer that I now live, then that I have not slept since I saw you: and am, assure, that at her second appearing, she stopped, looked me in the face, and vanished.[11]
To which I say – let’s move on:
Emilie Sagee’s Doppelganger
In 1845, a young 32-year-old teacher in Latvia named called Emilie Sagée started working at a French-language private girls’ school, Pensionat von Neuwelcke.
Overall, she was a friendly, talented, and well-liked teacher.
However, things started to get very strange regarding Ms. Sagée. A double of her started appearing in class.
One day, as Ms. Sagée was writing on her blackboard with her back to her class, and the teacher’s doppelgänger appeared in front of everyone and started awkwardly mimicking Ms. Sagée’s movements.
In another experience a few days late, Ms. Sagée was eating in the dining hall and the doppelgänger appeared again.
She didn’t say anything or interact with anyone, just simply mimicked Ms. Sagée’s movements yet again.
From that day on, the sightings became more frequent—and more frightening.
One summer’s day in 1846, the entire student body of 42 girls was sat in the hall having a sewing lesson.
As they worked, Ms. Sagée picked flowers in the school’s garden.
When the sewing teacher left the room to speak to a colleague, Sagée’s double suddenly appeared at the front of the room, staring straight at the terrified children.
Apparently, Ms. Sagée never saw the Doppelgänger herself. It always appeared with her back turned.
But, other than the response of her class, she claimed that she could feel its presence and she would begin feeling sick and color would drain from her face.
She’d also experience extreme fatigue, almost like the entity was pulling it from her.
Her misfortune? She was eventually fired because her doppelgänger creeped her students out too much.
Abraham Lincoln’s Vision
Apparently, on the night of Lincoln’s election, he was sitting on his couch and he happened to glance in the mirror.
He saw his reflection, but then he also saw another face. It looked just like his but was more pale and ghostly.
It disappeared when Lincoln stood up in confusion.
Supposedly, his wife believed that it was a sign that Lincoln would not survive his presidency.
The Vision Of George Tryon Double
Our final historical example takes place in London in 1893 (kept these chronological).
At a party his wife threw on June 22nd, 1983, Vice-Admiral Sir George Tyron was said to have walked through the drawing room.
He didn’t acknowledge any of the party guests, didn’t say anything, he simply just walked forward through the room, expressionless with a 100-yard stare on his face.
Why was this strange? Apparently, he was supposed to be on a ship in the Mediterranean.
The misfortunate was that the ship collided with another ship, sank, and George Tryon went down with the ship.
6 Superstitions
These are from bustle.com.
1 Seeing Your Doppelgänger is an Omen of Death
As we’ve touched on so far in this episode, a lot of people believe that Doppelgängers are an omen of death.
This was the case with George Tryon and Abraham Lincoln.
Sometimes they almost feel ghostly, right? But the idea is if you see your doppelgänger or someone else’s, you better be careful because some final destination shit is about to go down.
2 Doppelgängers give malicious advice
So, beyond doppelgängers being a warning sign of death, apparently, they can also interfere with your day-to-day life and decision-making by offering bad advice.
This comes down to some people’s belief that a doppelgängerer is like an “evil twin” that is dead-set on making sure your life is miserable.
They supposedly attempt to purposely give you bad advice in a malicious way.
They might also try to plant sinister ideas in their victim’s minds.
3. If someone else sees your doppelgänger, it means you might be very sick
Another idea or superstition attached to doppelgängers is if someone sees your doppelganger, or if you see someone else’s, it’s a sure-fire sign that you or that person is ill or will become ill very shortly.
4. Doppelgängers are a ghostly double that lived before you
This idea relates to Norse mythology that I’m not educated enough to speak on called a “vardoger”.
Apparently, seeing a vardoger is an incident similar to experiencing deja vu, but in reverse.
So, witnesses of the doppelgänger will claim to see a person’s appearance, voice, or scent before the actual person arrives. In this case, the real-life person is what triggers the deja vu from the doppelganger.
It kind of feels a little like reincarnation to me, too. But probably just because that’s what I’m more familiar with
5 It is your spiritual double
According to ancient Egyptian myths, the doppelgänger is basically the same as a “ka.” A “ka” is thought of as a spiritual double born in everyone.
When someone dies, their spiritual double lives on as long as they have somewhere to live, usually that person’s body.
Apparently, this is part of the reason why Egyptians mummified their dead — if they kept the body from decomposing, that meant the spiritual double had somewhere to live.
But if the body decayed, the spiritual double would die, and the deceased would lose their chance at eternal life.
6 – It’s a sign of an alternate universe
One theory is that a doppelgänger could represent a parallel universe in which everything in this world is replicated in another dimension.
Seeing the doppelgänger could be a moment when we’re able to witness the other dimension.
I actually enjoy this theory.
What if – sort of like the butterfly effect, when you have all of the decisions you make in life in these big, life-altering moments, it is when every version of you is the closest somehow – which means you’re more likely to slip into a different universe.
You’d argue that when really really good things happen, too, you should be seeing doppelgängers then, like winning the lottery or something.
Or maybe tragedy and misfortune carry a different type of long-lasting energy that draws doppelgängers or something to with lines crossing during these specific moments.
Doppelgangers Experiences From Reddit:
1 The Doppelgänger in the woods
“This happened many years ago.
I was a teenager hanging out with my brother and friend, we lived in a rural area.
We got bored as often teenagers do, and we decided to ride our bikes through a wooded area to check out a nearby stream.
Heavy rain had passed through earlier in the day so we were curious to see if the stream was fast flowing. We got to the stream and chilled for a few hours.
In the afternoon we decided to head back. My brother and friend jumped on their bikes and started riding ahead of me.
I got onto my bike and had a really strange feeling like I was being watched. I couldn’t shake it.
I scanned the trees surrounding me when suddenly someone leaned out from the side of a large tree no more than 25 ft away from me.
They had a big, unnatural grin on their face.
But then I realized – this person was ME. I was staring at another ME grinning at me from behind a tree. I was frozen.
I wanted to yell but I was so confused and terrified that no words could come out.
I remember the terrible feeling of dread that washed over me. While I was riding I kept blinking and rubbing my eyes, and the apparition had vanished.
I rode the hell back home and don’t think I slept for a week.
I went back to the stream a few more times in my youth with my friends and nothing like this ever happened again.
The logical part of my brain wants to say that my eyes were playing tricks on me that day, but the part that remembers what happened, how clear it was and the feeling of absolute terror and confusion will never let me just push this memory aside.
2 The clone of my best friend
Guys, I’m freaking out, I’ve been thinking about this for HOURS and I can’t stop.
This happened maybe 10 hours ago. I don’t know if this story is exactly a glitch, but I felt weird during all of it.
I made plans to go shopping somewhere in another city with my boyfriend.
I was in my hometown, waiting at the bus stop.
After about 25-30 minutes of waiting, this girl who looked EXACTLY like my best friend comes here waiting at the same bus stop.
I thought it was strange that she came to my hometown for seemingly no reason, she lives about an hour away and is supposed to be in a college class.
I was convinced it was her the same way you would feel if you saw a best friend, so I went up to her to catch up, obviously.
I shouted her name eagerly and went in for a hug. This girl looked absolutely horrified. She was NOT her, apparently?
Even though she had the same hair color, skin complexion, height, clothing style, body type, and even THE SAME freaking VOICE.
I can’t explain it. I was scared and freaked, so I just told her I must’ve mistaken her for someone else, and quickly scurried away so that I could wait somewhere else.
I texted my friend asking if she has any relatives that look A LOT like her, or perhaps an identical twin sister whom she was separated from at birth who might’ve been waiting at the bus stop in my small hometown.
She only has a brother that kind of resembles her, no identical twin that she knows of.
I’m not sure what happened today, my boyfriend can’t find an explanation either.
The thing is, I felt extremely uneasy seeing her before talking to her, for some reason.
3 Garden Doppelgänger
I was 18 and living in a big house in a small village with my Mom.
We had a large garden with a designated area for our 8 rabbits.
Every evening we would take turns going out to feed the animals before it got dark.
However, this particular evening we had arrived home late so it was already darker than usual. We agreed to feed the rabbits together because it can be quite creepy out in the garden alone at night.
I went to the bathroom and told my Mom that I would meet her out there in just a minute.
When I was finished in the restroom, I went straight into the garden where I heard my Mom call “Jess?” as she heard the door close behind me.
I answered “yes” and saw her upper body pop up from behind the trampoline to make sure it was me.
There were no outside lights, but the combination of the moon, stars, and distant lowlight of the motorway were enough to illuminate the area to be able to see quite clearly.
I was only around 10 meters from her so I could see her face and her very distinct big curly blonde hair, she said “okay” and bent down back behind the trampoline to continue feeding the rabbits.
I looked down at the grass as I made my way to the bottom of the garden so as to not step in any holes dug out by the rabbits during their run-around time.
As I made my way down I spoke to her about how naughty one of the rabbits was acting that day, it took me no longer than 7 seconds to get to the rabbit area.
As I approached behind the trampoline where the rabbit’s hutches were, I looked up and expected to see my mom standing there as I had just seen and spoken to her a few moments before.
She wasn’t there.
I looked around for a few seconds thinking she might be hiding in order to give me a playful scare when to my horror I heard the back door of the house close, I looked up quickly and saw my Mom walking out into the garden.
I immediately speed-walked up that garden towards her so fast with total terror in my eyes, she asked me what was the matter and I explained to her “Jesus Christ I’m never going down there again, I just saw you and spoke to you and by the time I got down there you were gone!”
She looked at me wide-eyed and assured me that she had been in the kitchen getting her shoes on.
She is not skeptical at all about these kinds of things and from the look on my face, she could tell I had experienced quite a scare so she believed me straight away so we were both quite nervous about going back down there.
However, the rabbits needed feeding so we had a nervous laugh and cautiously went down to feed the rabbits together, we had a look around and there was nothing there.
I don’t know who or what I spoke to in my garden, maybe it was a glitch in the matrix and my mom from another timeline appeared to feed my rabbits.
Or perhaps there were some darker forces at work that night, I read a little about doppelgangers, and how some people recognize them as a warning of death.
Not long after this incident half of my rabbits dropped dead within a few days of each other.
4 My Ex saw my doppelganger creepily following her one night…
For the sake of context; I’ll start by saying that when I was in my late teens, I used to live in a small town just outside Hamburg not far from my girlfriend at the time.
We used to spend a lot of time together and go out for lots of walks, as neither of us had a car.
Every few days I would walk her to a driving school just up the road: Her classes always started pretty late into the evening, and it was winter in Germany so the days were very short and it got dark early.
I used to hate it when she would walk there alone.
After dropping her off at her classes, I always tried to be there to walk her home also. I would simply depart after dropping her off and return after the duration of her class.
This is where shit gets weird…
One particular evening I dropped her off as normal; only about a 20-minute walk, traversing a quiet wooded park and a few short side Streets to get there.
I left to go back home for about an hour or so, then departed early so that I could catch her before she left.
For some reason, I arrived especially early this time and I had to wait outside for about 20 minutes.
It was very dark, and I was simply sitting at the bus stop across the street from the school… I waited and waited and waited… and she just wasn’t exiting the doors to the school.
I sat outside for probably 35 minutes just waiting there (it should also be noted that I didn’t have my phone on me at the time. I had thought it would be a quick and easy excursion so I didn’t bring it; clearly a mistake).
At this point I of course started to ponder:
“Has she already left?” “I must have missed her!” “She should be finished by now.” Etc…
After about 40 minutes, I started contemplating heading back the way I came to see if she was walking alone, but I didn’t want to risk it just in case she hadn’t actually left. So I remained there, waiting nervously.
This is the really weird part.
So I’m sitting there, tapping my foot; and I see two people with flashlights walking up the street from the opposite direction… apparently looking for someone… I was like wtf?
I got up and approached to see what was going on. The two people searching were my girlfriend (who I was waiting for) and her mother!!
As soon as they saw me approaching they said,
“There you are!!! We’ve been looking all over for you! Where the hell have you been and what the hell were you doing back there?!?!”.
I said, “What do you mean?? I’ve been here for 40 mins waiting for you to leave school! Where did you two just come from? What’s going on??”
She said, “I finished early today and started walking back alone. I wasn’t able to contact you (because I had no phone) but I saw you following me! Why are you back here now? This isn’t funny.”
I was dumbfounded.
“What are you talking about? I have been right here for 45 minutes straight…”
Now; this is what my girlfriend saw from her perspective:
After leaving slightly early from her class that day, she began walking astutely back home after noticing I hadn’t arrived to pick her up yet.
Assuming she would bump into me on the way, she wasn’t worried about walking alone and she confidently began heading home.
She spotted me from about 500 meters away and witnessed me crossing the street; which I had actually done while walking towards the school.
She expected me to approach her and greet her but it seems I didn’t notice her across the street, and we walked right by one another. This was the last time she actually saw me before meeting me again at the bus stop.
Regrettably, I used to be quite the prankster.
I was always teasing and messing with her; so she assumed that’s what I was doing then… she thought I was intentionally ignoring her so that I would sneak around and scare her or something… I don’t know
Either way, she didn’t call my name because she thought I was being a jerk.
The creepy part:
After she saw me initially, she kept walking towards home, expecting me to jump scare her or whatever; and her expectations, to her, seemed to be fulfilled.
She began hearing footsteps behind her about 10 meters away.
She “KNEW” it was me just messing with her.
She then looked back and what she saw was “ME” following her in my exact outfit, walking exactly how I walk, just following her and staring at the ground.
According to her, it was my exact face, hair color, and physical demeanor.
To her, it was beyond the shadow of a doubt that it was me following her. So damn strange.
The doppelganger said nothing, never looked up, and kept a consistent 10 meters behind her.
He followed her for a few minutes down the road.
She of course turned forward again and laughed at my supposed pathetic attempt to scare her… but after an amount of time, she started getting weirded out and wondering what the hell “I” was doing.
Shortly thereafter the footsteps stopped and she lost “me” around a bend in the road…
She looked back confused and even called my name to no avail. She shrugged and continued forward through the wooded park near her home.
It was a very quiet, dark, and creepy park; but she powered through it (quick reminder that this entire time I was actually sitting at the bus stop).
About halfway through the small park she hears footsteps again… but they were much faster… and heavier.
She turns around to once again see “ME” SPRINTING TOWARDS HER FULL TILT.
She saw my eyes glaring into hers like I was staring into her soul
At this point, she was majorly freaked out. She didn’t know what the hell was happening and I was apparently booking it straight towards her.
As the doppelganger got to about 10 meters away, he turned and ran down another pathway in the Park. Running towards a non-lit, pitch dark section of the Park.
Sprinting as fast as he could.
She watched as “I” sprinted into the darkness and faded from view. The immense confusion sparked some worry in her.
She was almost home and thought maybe I was running around to meet her on the other side of the park.
Also, she just wanted to get the hell out of that creepy park.
So she arrives home, asks her mother if I’d arrived, and sure enough; I never showed up.
She tells her Mom the whole story and they begin to worry that something was wrong.
They waited a few minutes, then decided to look around for me. When their attempts failed they thought to look around near the driving school again and that’s where they found the real me at the bus stop…
That’s basically the whole story.
It was extremely peculiar and since that day (about 6 years ago) I’ve been wondering what the hell it could mean.
I’ve heard that doppelgangers are omens of death, but lately, I’ve been thinking maybe it was some elaborate glitch or some kind of intersection of universes.
Thought:
Could it be an attack on the self? Everyone wants to be unique right? And yes, some are twins. My wife is a twin – but it’s different. This isn’t the idea someone out there looks like you – it’s the idea that someone out there IS you, and could replace you?
It almost feels like, talking about animals and fighting for the species to go on. Like, are humans so bothered by doppelgängers because it means your value or existence could be in jeopardy?
A glitch in the matrix?
Or legit other entity?
Mistaken identity is possible, but the same clothes, hair, and voice are a little bit more than a coincidence.
Neurological?
In other cases, seeing your ghostly double could be a sign of a neurological disorder. The BBC reported that a man saw himself standing at the foot of his bed while he himself was still lying in bed. The man, who had been experiencing seizures before the vision, was so shook that he jumped out a window. He survived the fall and underwent surgery to remove a brain tumor; after that, the seizures and hallucinations stopped. This is called the doppelgänger effect where “a person may hallucinate that they are actually seeing and interacting with another ‘me’ — a visual double.”
Are You The Original? Or are You The Doppelgänger?
What do you think Bizarros?
Are doppelgängers a neurological disorder signaling something is wrong with you?
Could a doppelgänger be an omen, trying to inform you of some misfortune coming your way?
Or are doppelgängers evil? Wanting to do you harm and possibly take over your life?