What is a Doppelganger?

Doppelganger : "I saw my own ghost!"

I believe that I am a bit psychic. I can literally 'smell' death around a person who I believe is going to die. Although I find the exact scent impossible to describe my intuition inevitably proves correct.

Very recently I had a very peculiar experience. I was stood in front of the mirror. Suddenly I felt as if someone else was in the room. I turned around and there, wearing totally different clothes, I saw myself with a big smile across my face! I was soon to go into hospital and at first thought the worse but there was no 'smell' of death. My operation was completely successful.

Mrs Jane D

You saw your double - known as a Doppelganger. These puzzling apparitions of the living are often seen at times of crisis. The famous German writer Goethe had a similar experience. He saw his own ghost walking along the road. Years later at the same place he saw his own ghost again but the roles were reversed. Goethe realised that the first apparition was of him in the future and the second was of him in the past. You saw yourself in the future, happy after your successful operation. The absence of the 'smell' of death was an additional reassurance you that you'd be all right.

GRANDSON FRIGHTENED BY HIS DOUBLE

Last week my grandson (15) heard a noise from the shed and went to investigate. There he saw an image of himself. At first he saw half of his face and then, bit by bit, the whole face appeared.

He was very frightened by what he saw and ran into the house telling his mother that he thought he was going to die. Since this day he hasn't been well and we fear for the worst.

E McK- Dungarran, N Ireland.

Studies of this phenomena have shown that there is no correlation between seeing your double and a death. For example, as a young man, the famous German poet and writer Johann Goethe saw a ghost of himself pass him as he walked along the road. Years later, as an old man, he saw himself again at the same place but this time as a young man and coming from the opposite direction.

FILE No : WN 51,52 (Copyright)

Doppelganger: I WAS IN TWO PLACES AT ONCE

A couple of week's ago I had a most strange experience: I got out of bed and when I turned round saw myself still asleep flat out in bed. There were two of me. I can't stop thinking about this very vivid experience.

Ethel P

Phantom appearances are not always of the dead. You may have seen your own spirit body while astral traveling. The human double is sometimes called the doppelganger. People have often reported seen their double usually performing mundane tasks and oblivious to the observer. Sometimes these spontaneous phantoms have been witnessed by groups of people. Elizabeth 1 is supposed to have had this experience in 1602 and one chronicler writes that she saw it was lying on the bed "pallid, shriveled and wan"

SDR18 (Copyright)

More info about the Doppelganger

The literal meaning of the word is "double walker" A doppelganger is said to accompany every human. Dogs and cats have been known to see doppelganger's. A doppelganger is usually seen standing behind a person and they cast no reflection. It is said to be bad luck to see your doppelganger and is believed by some to predict a death. Doppelganger's are claimed by some people to be mischievous and malicious. Percy Bysshe Shelley, still considered one of the greatest poets of the English language, encountered his doppelganger in Italy. The phantom silently pointed toward the Mediterranean Sea. Not long after, and shortly before his 30th birthday in 1822, Shelley died in a sailing accident - drowned in the Mediterranean Sea.

DEFINE: DOPPELGANGER

Doppelganger is the German word for a ghostly double of a living person. The word comes from doppel meaning "double" and gänger translated as "goer". The term has, in the vernacular, come to refer to any double of a person, most commonly in reference to a so-called evil twin, or to bi location. Alternately, the word is used to describe a phenomenon where you catch your own image out of the corner of your eye. In some mythologies, seeing one's own doppelgänger is an omen of death. Queen Elizabeth I of England was shocked to see her doppelganger laid out on her bed. The queen died shortly thereafter.