The word doppelgänger is a loanword from German Doppelgänger, consisting of the two substantives Doppel (double) and Gänger (walker). Although this is supposedly a fictional type character or a myth, this is actually are real phenomena. Typically, it represents a paranormal double of a living person, representing evil or misfortune. This seems to readily express itself as in the example of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Some describe is as a sensation of having a glimpse of oneself in the peripheral vision, in a position where there is no chance that it could have been a reflection. But, this ‘fictional’ story seems to represent no simulation but instead, altered states of consciousness and even disfigurement. But this mind you, gives me time to question not only the origin of this plot but also the scenario of Jack the Ripper! Freud would have had a field day with this, huh?
Considered to be a sinister form of bilocation, they are regarded as harbingers of something bad on the horizon. Legends tell of people who have seen their friend/relative/loved one while the real person is at home dying and this was a sort of omen. Also others tell that seeing one’s own doppelganger is an omen of their own death. I’m sure there are the ‘shrinks’ who will give their version of a doppelganger as nothing but a case of split personality or simple stylized schizophrenia. Alter ego/personalities were given many diagnoses in earlier times for insanity purposes.
In Norse mythology, a vardøger is a ghostly double who precedes a living person and is seen performing their actions in advance. In Finnish mythology, this is called having an etiäinen, i.e., “a firstcomer”. In Ancient Egyptian mythology, a ka was a tangible “spirit double” having the same memories and feeling as the original person. In one Egyptian myth titled “The Greek Princess,” an Egyptian view of the Trojan War, a ka of Helen was used to mislead Paris of Troy, helping to stop the war. In some myths, the doppelgänger is a version of the Ankou, a personification of death. Folklore tells us that they cast no shadow, and have no reflection in a mirror and water.
I remember as a child being told that we all have a twin walking the earth! Was this a superstitious connotation which pertained to the same entities? Considering how superstitious my family was, I believe this to be true.
Percy Bysshe Shelley On July 8, 1822, the English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley drowned in the Bay of Spezia near Lerici. On August 15, while staying at Pisa, Percy’s wife Mary Shelley wrote a letter to Maria Gisborne in which she relayed Percy’s claims to her that he had met his own doppelgänger. A week after Mary’s nearly fatal miscarriage, in the early hours of June 23, Percy had had a nightmare about the house collapsing in a flood, and … talking it over the next morning he told me that he had had many visions lately — he had seen the figure of himself which met him as he walked on the terrace and said to him — “How long do you mean to be content” — No very terrific words & certainly not prophetic of what has occurred. But Shelley had often seen these figures when ill; but the strangest thing is that Mrs. Williams saw him. Now Jane, though a woman of sensibility, has not much imagination & is not in the slightest degree nervous — neither in dreams or otherwise. She was standing one day, the day before I was taken ill, [June 15] at a window that looked on the Terrace with Trelawny — it was day — she saw as she thought Shelley pass by the window, as he often was then, without a coat or jacket — he passed again — now as he passed both times the same way — and as from the side towards which he went each time there was no way to get back except past the window again (except over a wall twenty feet from the ground) she was struck at seeing him pass twice thus & looked out & seeing him no more she cried — “Good God can Shelley have leapt from the wall?…. Where can he be gone?” Shelley, said Trelawny — “No Shelley has past — What do you mean?” Trelawny says that she trembled exceedingly when she heard this & it proved indeed that Shelley had never been on the terrace & was far off at the time she saw him. Percy Shelley’s drama Prometheus Unbound (1820) contains the following passage in Act I: “Ere Babylon was dust, / The Magus Zoroaster, my dead child, / Met his own image walking in the garden. / That apparition, sole of men, he saw. / For know there are two worlds of life and death: / One that which thou beholdest; but the other / Is underneath the grave, where do inhabit / The shadows of all forms that think and live / Till death unite them and they part no more….” This entry from Wikipedia give an intriguing dialogue of an experience such as described above, but the more interesting piece of it being the drama called Prometheus…from the Atlantean deities. It also mentions Babylon, Magus Zoroaster, and this I find to be extremely vital to the Norse mythology connections. Greek, Egyptian, and Norse myths all seem to parallel these same deities called by different names but are actually one in the same. Following this is the notation of quotes and references in William’s Shakespeare’s play ‘The Tempest’. Then it touches the Biblical references to mythology and legend including Lilith, Samael, and succibi.
The first written record of a ‘ghost’ story might be found in cave pictographs, and it doesn’t take a massive leap of imagination to consider a cave painting in Lascaux in the Dordogne region of France as the first pictograph story. Depicted in dark brown dissolving into while, the ghostly horse appears to be vanishing or materializing in the midst of an animal stampede (Plate III in the pamphlet La Grotte de Lascaux by Jean Taralon [Caisse Nationale des Monuments Historiques, 1953]). But, perhaps the artist tired but what remains is a hauntingly mysterious drawing. Scrutiny of Mayan, Greek, Roman, Indian, Chinese, and other cultures’ ancient artifacts would yield a brush of the ‘ghostly’. Study of Egyptian pyramid décor might also yield a story of the ‘mythical’ Osiris, King of the Underworld, who was killed by his evil brother Set and temporarily brought back to life by Isis (Guardian of the Living and the Dead) who, although she was also his sister, became his wife and the mother of their child, Horus. The spirit world’s interaction with the “real” world can be interpreted in countless languages and ways. Many scholars agree that in 2700 B.C. Shin-equi-unninni, a cuneiform scribe, who wrote the first story about communicating with a ghost/spirit. On the twelfth tablet of the Epic of Gilgamesh, there is an addendum to the actual story, almost a dirge about a grieving Gilgamesh who converses lyrically with the wraith of his great friend Enkidu about the afterlife after he begs a god to allow him to speak with him. But this all ties together with amazing integrated details. All one need do is research these subjects for a time and you will begin to see the parallels of spiritual phenomena and demons. History has a way of repeating itself and then we have those who repeatedly insert falsities to spread confusion.
Other definitions call this a ‘ghostly’ counterpart of a living person. I find this, in part, to be closer to the truth. It is a supernatural entity.
EMILIE SAGÉE One of the most fascinating reports of a doppelganger comes from American writer Robert Dale Owen who was told the story by Julie von Güldenstubbe, the second daughter of the Baron von Güldenstubbe. In 1845, when von Güldenstubbe was 13, she attended Pensionat von Neuwelcke, an exclusive girl’s school near Wolmar in what is now Latvia. One of her teachers was a 32-year-old French woman named Emilie Sagée. And although the school’s administration was quite pleased with Sagée’s performance, she soon became the object of rumor and odd speculation. Sagée, it seemed, had a double that would appear and disappear in full view of the students. In the middle of class one day, while Sagée was writing on the blackboard, her exact double appeared beside her. The doppelganger precisely copied the teacher’s every move as she wrote, except that it did not hold any chalk. The event was witnessed by 13 students in the classroom. A similar incident was reported at dinner one evening when Sagée’s doppelganger was seen standing behind her, mimicking the movements of her eating, although it held no utensils. The doppelganger did not always echo her movements, however. On several occasions, Sagée would be seen in one part of the school when it was known that she was in another at that time. The most astonishing instance of this took place in full view of the entire student body of 42 students on a summer day in 1846. The girls were all assembled in the school hall for their sewing and embroidery lessons. As they sat at the long tables working, they could clearly see Sagée in the school’s garden gathering flowers. Another teacher was supervising the children. When this teacher left the room to talk to the headmistress, Sagée’s doppelganger appeared in her chair – while the real Sagée could still be seen in the garden. The students noted that Sagée’s movements in the garden looked tired while the doppelganger sat motionless. Two brave girls approached the phantom and tried to touch it, but felt an odd resistance in the air surrounding it. One girl actually stepped between the teacher’s chair and the table, passing right through the apparition, which remained motionless. It then slowly vanished. Sagée claimed never to have seen the doppelganger herself, but said that whenever it was said to appear, she felt drained and fatigued. Her physical color even seemed to pale at those times.
Queen Elizabeth I of England was shocked to see her doppelganger laid out on her bed. The queen died shortly thereafter.
SISTER MARY OF JESUS Bilocation seems to be the flip side of the doppelganger coin. One of the most astonishing cases took place in the 1620s. In 1622, Father Alonzo de Benavides was assigned to the Isolita Mission in what is now New Mexico. He was puzzled to encounter Jamano Indians who, although they seemed never before to have met French or Spanish peoples, carried crosses, knew Roman Catholic rituals, had altars and knew Catholic liturgy – all in their native tongue. Father Benavides wrote to both Pope Urban VII and King Philip of Spain to find out who had been there before him, obviously working to convert the Indians. The response was that no one had been sent previously. The Indians told him that they had been instructed in Christianity by a beautiful young “lady in blue” who came among them for many years and taught them this new religion in their own language. She also told them that white-skinned people would soon arrive in their land. “She came down from the heights to us,” the Indians said, “she taught us the new religion, she stayed among us for a time, she told us you would come and to make you welcome, and then she went away. That’s all we know.” Who was this mysterious lady in blue? Father Benavides knew that the nuns of the Poor Clare order wore blue habits and thought there might be a clue there. He found a painting of a Poor Clare nun and showed it to the Jamanos. “Is this the woman?” he asked. The dress was right, the Indians told him, but this was not the woman. The woman in the painting was rather portly, but the lady in blue was young and beautiful. When he returned to Spain, Father Benavides was determined to solve the mystery. How could the Indians have encountered a Poor Clare nun when they were a cloistered order: from the day they took their vows until their deaths, the nuns never left their convents, much less traveled to distant lands on missions. His investigation led him to Sister Mary of Jesus in Agreda, Spain, who claimed to have converted North American Indians – without leaving her convent. Now 29 and Mother Superior of the convent, Sister Mary said she had visited the Indians “not in body, but in spirit.” Sister Mary said she regularly fell into a cataleptic trance, after which she recalled “dreams” in which she was carried to a strange and wild land, where she taught the gospel. As proof of her claim, she was able to provide highly detailed descriptions of the Jamano Indians, including their appearance, clothing and customs, none of which she could have learned through research since they were fairly recently discovered by the Europeans. How did she learn their language? “I didn’t,” she replied. “I simply spoke to them – and God let us understand one another.” Sister Mary is also said to have appeared to Mexican Indians, who said they had been visited by “a very beautiful woman, who used to come down from the heights, dressed in blue garments.” THIS ONE is very interesting considering the FACT that the Roman Catholic religion is a false religion set up by the Ascended Masters who are BLUE in appearance when the appear to people. Likened to the Fatima apparitions, this is very supernatural in nature but NOT the positive kind!
Man Finds His Doppelganger in 16th Century http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/11/man-finds-his-doppelganger-in-16th-century-italian-painting/
This brings to mind the whole story of Nicolas Cage; http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/nicolas-cage-vampire-letterman-ghost-rider-289323
Reportedly, a Seattle-based man who found the photo was asking $1 million in his eBay listing. “Personally, I believe it’s him and that he is some sort of walking undead/vampire, et cetera, who quickens/reinvents himself once every 75 years or so” reads the listing. “150 years from now, he might be a politician, the leader of a cult, or a talk show host.” In the reply to the media outburst, Cage told David Letterman, “Now look, I don’t drink blood and the last time I looked in the mirror I had a reflection, “ he said. Wow! This is strikingly like a doppelganger…hmmm. Interesting….no reflection on vampires or doppelgangers? Cage also told Letterman, “It’s a somewhat slowed down version of me.” That’s an interesting choice of words in this statement….is it not? Then, we have to consider that Cage has starred in “Vampire’s Kiss”, and played a demonic role in “Ghost Rider”.
From yourghoststories.com: Reading stories about copycat ghosts and doppelgangers reminded me of an incident that occurred when I lived in San Diego. I was about 7-10 years old, not sure. I slept in my grandpa’s room we slept in different beds. My bed was on the far side of the room farthest away from the door so if the door was open I could see what was on the other side of it. Well I woke up in the middle of the night probably between 12 A.M. To 3 A.M. The door was opened a little bit. Well I woke up and I was still lying on my bed and peered through the opening. I thought I saw a figure that was my little brother. The figure was short like him since he was young back then he was small and I saw him entering my grandma’s room. I was like what is he doing going into my grandma’s room this late. I just sat there wondering and decided to see what was going on. I went and peeked through the crack. What I thought I saw was my grandma sitting up against the wall watching T.V. And my little brother on the chair watching T.V. As well because there was a bluish light in the room. I was like T.V. This late what the heck. So I opened the door a bit more and then thought wow I’m stupid. The light that I thought was from the T.V. Was my grandma’s nightlight. Then I walked over to the chair since my brother is small you could not see him from the back of the chair if he was sitting there. Nobody was sitting there and I looked up to where my grandma was and she was lying on the bed, eyes closed, sleeping. She had one of those rubber things that you put on your stomach and fill up with hot water when you are pregnant hanged above her head. I thought that was her head, which created the illusion of her sitting up against the wall. Well after that I just thought to my self uhh? I swear I saw somebody walk in there. Then I thought about the image of when I peeked through the door and it was a pretty creepy image when I think about it now. The room was like green-bluish colour because of the nightlight and the thing hanging over my grandma’s head made it look like she was sitting up and well it looked like my grandma was hypnotized just sitting there watching T.V. When I think about it now but I guess I was just paranoid. OK well the weird thing is what did I see go into my Grandma’s Bedroom? Was I just seeing things or and then became paranoid or what? Or maybe it was a doppelganger? END
Final Thoughts My take on this is that these demons take on the image of a loved one. They duplicate the appearance and use this to confuse us. It is likened to a ghost, which of course I DO NOT believe in. They are just demons. So, it’s the same ole story….demons in disguise. Supernatural entities using their wonders and signs to amaze people in order to seek their communication. We are not to communicate with these spirits. We are never to worship them. We are told in the Bible that these are demons. And this is the Truth.
Sources
http://paranormal.about.com/od/Doppelgangers/a/doppelgangers.htm
