Have you ever seen your 'doppelganger'? I might have...

Ever since I was young, I used to read books about the paranormal, and the subject of 'doppelgangers' was a very common one. If you don't know what it means, here's the wikipedia basic rundown:

In the vernacular, "Doppelgänger" has come to refer (as in German) to any double or look-alike of a person. The word is also used to describe the sensation of having glimpsed oneself in peripheral vision, in a position where there is no chance that it could have been a reflection. They are generally regarded as harbingers of bad luck. In some traditions, a doppelgänger seen by a person's friends or relatives portends illness or danger, while seeing one's own doppelgänger is an omen of death. In Norse mythology, a vardøger is a ghostly double who precedes a living person and is seen performing their actions in advance.

en.wikipedia.org...

Stories like that used to fascinate me, and although I am very much a skeptic these days, I had an experience a few days ago that did spook me a little, and made me remember the stories.

I was going to my local store to get groceries, and when I got in line, I noticed the guy in front of me was wearing the same sweater. I looked down, and he had on the same trousers and sneakers too. I don't tend to buy major label clothes, so that was quite some coincidence, I've never seen anyone in my town before with that sweater. On realising this, I tried to get a better look at him, and I noticed that like me, he also had brown hair in a pony tail. He was also the same height.

I didn't want to look like an oddball, so I didn't stick my neck out too far to get a really close look at the face, but as he turned away to walk out the shop, I caught a glimpse of his face, and the features were similar to mine, I have quite a prominent nose, which he also shared, and the general look of his face was very similar from what I could see. As I was in a long line, I didn't want to jump out to get a closer look, but it certainly spooked me a little.

I had forgotten that "seeing one's own doppelgänger is an omen of death", so I was even more spooked when I got home and read that. Even though I am the kind of person who puts things like this down to coincidence, for that day at least I was a bit shaken.

What do you think, and have you ever had an experience like that?

Oh my word!!! I too have seen someone like myself... He was in Fight Club & Oceans 11.... DAMN YOU BRAD PITT!!!

Seriously though, my cousin and I were sitting in her living room and some guy walked past her window. INstantly we both looked at one another and she said "Did you see him??" I replied with an epic "WHo me?! I sure did see him...." needless to say we both darted to the door to look out but he was gone. This was a long street too.... where the heck did he/I go!??!?

Always intruiged me ever since. OP's story is freakier though

Twice in the same week strangers have stopped me to ask if I'm Jamie Lee Curtis. They didn't believe me and said that I was trying not to be recognized. That was bizarre.

Originally posted by RenDMC
Seriously though, my cousin and I were sitting in her living room and some guy walked past her window. INstantly we both looked at one another and she said "Did you see him??" I replied with an epic "WHo me?! I sure did see him...." needless to say we both darted to the door to look out but he was gone. This was a long street too.... where the heck did he/I go!??!?

Wow, pretty strange, if the guy I saw had just disappeared like that, I think I would have been even more freaked out.

[edit on 12-6-2009 by jimminycricket]

No, but I have a friend who is so much like me it's scary.

I am an identical twin; 1 minute separation, caesarian section...does that count?

I left him in Portmeirion as i escaped my prisoner overlords; it has its advantages

Never thought about it before!
When I was really small I always told everyone I had a twin. We had a few rolls of film that came back with every picture of me having another "me" standing near me. That is when I stopped talking about my twin.
I've had strangers approach me throughout my life insisting I was someone else, and truly believing I was messing with them when I insisted I wasn't that person and provided proof that I really wasn't that person.
I've had several relationships where my partner has seen me when I've been elsewhere. They both came to the conclusion that I am a "witch", though I am not.
I've never seen "me" - photos aside.
I'm going to have to look into this a little more.

I'm a skeptical guy by nature, but your OP caught my attention. Years ago, I lived in Liverpool. Walking through town one day, I saw a guy standing outside a cheap bookstore in the Clayton Arcade. I did a double-take because he looked like me. Maybe it was his reaction to me looking at him, but he stared at me. I walked on, looking over my shoulder in bemusement.

Another night in Liverpool, I was with mates in the Pilgrim pub. It's a friendly place. A guy started talking and asked how my brother was. Turned out he knew a guy with my full name who had a brother with my brother's name. He mistook me for one of them. To make things stranger, they lived a couple of miles away from where I grew up. Two guys that look just like me and one that had the same name and surname and lived locally.

I don't believe in dopellgangers and whatnot, but I can understand why some people might. Heavy coincidences

I went to grade school with my dopellganger. I was sitting in class in fourth grade when the teacher brought in a new student that looked exactly like me. Totally freaked out the whole class. We moved a couple of months after she got there but I've often wondered what she looks like today.

Originally posted by Kandinsky
Two guys that look just like me and one that had the same name and surname and lived locally.

Wow! You got me beat there then, you've got two dopplegangers? I wonder if that means you have the omen of dying twice?

reply to post by jimminycricket


I don't exactly know for sure if I have a doppelganger...but I've been told that I look like John Cusack, Trent Reznor and some other guys.
I don't know...I just think I look like me.
Is that so wrong?
I'm not all together unattractive hahahaha.

reply to post by Matthew Dark


Hey, you just reminded me of a great website:

celebrity.myheritage.com...

You can upload a picture, and by facial recognition, it will show you what celebrities you most look like. One of mine was rather unfortunate, it was the spanish dictator Francisco Franco!

I used to go rock climbing and spelunking in West Texas.

I recall early one morning in the spring when I pulled into Fredricksburg, Texas, to pick up a few supplies before heading out to Enchanted Rock for the day's climb. As I was checking out of the grocery store, this hot blonde babe came up behind me and pinched my ass hard, and she laughed and hugged me when I spun around. I was dumbfounded.

She took both my hands and said, "When did you get back?" and she called me Art.

Well, for one thing, my name isn't Art. For another thing, I'd never seen this girl before in my life. She was still grinning and looking into my eyes, and I was speechless. I finally managed to stammer, "Pardon me?

About this time, her expression changed to a kind of amused disbelief. "Art? You okay?"

I was totally bewildered. This chick was acting so familiar with me, I knew she had been intimate with "Art," whoever the devil he was. And I was torn, because, after all, I was in my 20s and I had a perpetual erection, and I didn't want to destroy a perfectly good opportunity to score with her. However, because I'm basically a good and honest person, I told her flat-out that she had misidentified me.

She didn't believe it! She thought I was teasing her. I had to produce my driver's license and social security card to convince her, whereupon she looked genuinely horrified. Like, OMG! OMFG! I am so sorry! OMG!

She continued peering hard at me as she explained I was a dead ringer for her boyfriend, a guy named Arthur Smith from some nearby town. She kept saying over and over that I could be Art's twin — and this is coming from somebody who, presumably, knew Arthur Smith in a very intimate way.

But hold on, it gets better... About this time, the babe waved at a couple of women who had just entered the grocery store and beckoned to them. As they approach, it was an instant replay of mistaken identity, both of the women thought I was Arthur Smith, the babe was giggling uncontrollably, and I was starting to feel like I was in the Twilight Zone.

After extracting myself from that situation, I enjoyed a few days of camping, backpacking and climbing with some buddies — who predictably chastised me for not taking advantage of the babe back in Fredricksburg. They said I should have pretended to be Art Smith in order to hook up with her, and that became a running joke for the remainder of the expedition — "Hey baby, I'll be Art Smith for you!"

When we were finished climbing, we usually retreated to a nearby town for libations before the long trip home, right, and on this occasion we retreated to Kerrville, Texas, which is about 20 miles away from Fredricksburg. So we were knocking back a few Coronas and Conmemorativo shooters, basically cutting loose, knowing we'd have to crash in Kerrville for the night...and about that time a waiter passing our table high-fived me and yelled "Ar-THUR!"

My buddies all laughed, because it felt like part of the big Arthur joke, right? But I was kind of horrified, and as my buds realized it was another case of mistaken identity, they started kind of freaking out, too. We left that establishment.

Very odd, but I did not want to meet my doppelganger. I was treading all over his turf, I knew his name, I had held his girl, I went drinking at one of his watering holes, and I'm telling you it was just eerie. At any moment, we could have come face to face, and it just didn't feel right to me.

— Doc Velocity







[edit on 6/13/2009 by Doc Velocity]

This reminds me of a story I always heard about while growing up. Supposedly there was this possessed tomato farmer in Warren MA named Frenchy Theriault. He had a doppelganger it sounds like and ya might wanna Google it or something. Ya kinda might wanna check it out. Ive had first hand convos with cops from the town who had to deal with this cat and its quite the story and absolutely true. Leaves no doubt that otherworldly evil really does exist.

This happened to me several years ago. My daughter was maybe 5 or 6(she's thirteen now). I had dropped her off at the daycare center along with her siblings, and their father and I were going out, I had off during the week as always, but always paid for a full week so even on my days off, I'd drop them off most of the time. You can imagine my utter amazement, when while going down the street and stopped at a red light(I was in the passenger seat)as I looked out of my passenger window to see my daughter riding in the back seat of an unknown car, on the side by the window closest to me, with other people that I have never seen before, even two other children. I got panicked, because I had heard all the legends about dopplegangers, yet that wasn't my worse fear. I made my hubby hand me his cell phone to call the daycare center to inquire on my daughter, who in fact was still there. I asked(Because I just couldn't beleive what I was seeing) What she wore that day, mostly because I wanted to make sure I had in fact put that outfit on her. She was. And so was her "doppleganger".
Well by now I felt totally uneasy and just wanted to pick up my children and go home. For the longest time I feared that something was going to happen to her. It was just probably a girl who looked identical to her, I have the kind of face that no matter where I go, someone tells me that they 'know someone else that looks just like you', So I thought this has to be the case, that, or they are cloning people, after all.

So, is this a realtion to that saying...
Theres somebody in the world doing the exact same thing you are?

Originally posted by Uni77
So, is this a realtion to that saying...
Theres somebody in the world doing the exact same thing you are?

sounds like it don't it. I had a similiar experience to ldyserenity but this time it was on Australian Idol. Last year's winner of the show is an exact copy of me - only difference is that her name is slightly (and only just slightly) different to mine.

My husband called me at work and asked me if i had been auditioning for the show - much to my surprise. But so far no bad luck yet i think just a whole lot mistaken identity.


however on a more serious note, keep us posted jimminycricket with the events of coming days.

I had a strange one back in my early 20's. I had gotten a job and worked with a woman named Theresa. She kept saying I looked familiar. She introduced me to her daughter whom freaked out saying I looked just like her ex-boyfriend. Sure enough she pulls out a photo from a few years back. He looked exactly like me at the time of the photo with dreads and all. He also had the same clothes as I had at the time and in his hand he had the exact same guitar that I had bought. If it would have been in modern times I would've accused her of photo shopping me.

Another one was at a home improvement place I swear my niece walked by wearing a set of clothes I bought her. As I got closer calling her name the girl's mother walked around the corner and gave me the dirty eye like I was some perv and called the girl over by another name. I smiled at the woman and told her the deal and even let her see a photograph of my niece. She was as shocked as I. They were nearly exact twins.

I've never seen my doppelganger. Though one of my friends did say that I look and sound exactly like another friend of hers. Once when I called out her name and greeted her, she had a confused look on her face and it took her a moment to realize that it was me and not her other friend. One of these days I hope to meet this other friend of hers and see for myself how similar she is to me.