Mystery Of Doppelgangers And Spirit Doubles – From Ancient To Modern Times

Ahura Mazda (right, with high crown) presents Ardashir I (left) with the ring of kingship. (Naqsh-e Rustam, 3rd century CE).

Ancient Egyptians believed in the existence of a “ka”. The “ka” was considered a spiritual double born with every man. It lived on after a person died as long as it had a place to live. The ka lived within the body of the individual and therefore needed that body after death.

This is why the Egyptians mummified their dead. If the body decomposed, their spiritual double would die and the deceased would lose their chance for eternal life.

Native American myths believe that there is an Upper World and an Under World. While good people reside in the upper world, their evil doubles live in the underworld.

There are also several curious modern stories of Doppelgangers. It happens that a doppelganger cannot be seen by the person at all, but instead manifests to other people in a completely different location. How the existence of Doppelgangers can be explained remains a question that no-one has been able to solve yet. Traditional scientists explain the manifestation of a spirit double or Doppelganger as nothing but electrical glitches of the brain, or mental illnesses such as schizophrenia. However, there are also those who believe in the presence of a “double you”.

There are many intriguing examples of how certain historical figures have claimed to be haunted a Doppelganger. One such person was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) was a famous German writer, poet, and politician. Goethe encountered his doppelganger while riding his horse on the road to Drusenheim. His double approached him, riding in the opposite direction. This being was dressed in a gray suit trimmed in gold.

Eight years later, Goethe found himself riding on the same road, in the opposite direction. He remembered the strange encounter and was even more shocked to realize that he was wearing the very gray suit trimmed in gold that he had seen.

Emilie Sagee’s Doppelganger could be seen by everyone except herself.

One of the most intriguing Doppelganger stories concerns Emilie Sagee, who never saw her doppelganger. Everyone else did, though. Sagee worked in an exclusive girls’ school. She was a very good teacher, but for some reason, she kept moving from one job to another. In 16 years, she had changed positions an impressive 19 times. In 1845, the school found out why. Sagee was allegedly the center of some very strange doppelganger activity. Her spectral twin was first seen during a class, as 13 students witnessed the doppelganger standing by Sagee’s side and mirroring her movements.

Next, it stood behind her as she ate, pantomiming her movements. Sagee herself was completely oblivious to the apparition, despite the fact that everyone else could see it clearly. However, she did become strangely groggy and powerless during the times the doppelganger manifested, and the wraith was often seen doing things Sagee later said she had been thinking about at the moment, suggesting that she may have had some subliminal control over it.

Soon, the doppelganger ventured beyond Sagee’s immediate vicinity. At first, it appeared to a classroom full of students, sitting calmly in the teacher’s chair while Sagee herself was outside, working in the garden. The few people who dared to approach the doppelganger found they could pass through it, yet it had a texture that reminded them of thick fabric.

Time went by and the apparition became a permanent fixture of the school’s life, freaking people out on a regular basis. The girls’ concerned parents started removing their children from the school. Although Sagee was a model employee on all non-paranormal accounts, the headmistress had no option but to fire her and her ghostly double.

French writer Guy de Maupassant said he was haunted by his own doppelganger near the end of his life. One incident involved his double entering his room and sitting opposite to him, then dictating what Maupassant was writing.

Do Doppelgangers originate from an alternate reality?

Carl Sandburg’s biography of Abraham Lincoln includes a strange account, reportedly told by Lincoln and confirmed by Mary Todd Lincoln, of the appearance of a double image of himself in a mirror on the night he was first elected to the presidency.

Lincoln said he was extremely tired and had returned home to rest.

When he looked into a bureau mirror across the room he saw a double image of himself.

The second Lincoln was pale in comparison to his first image. This phenomenon occurred twice before the second image disappeared. Lincoln mentioned it to his wife who said she thought it was a sign that he would be elected to a second term, and that the death pallor meant that he would not live through his final term.

There are of course many other intriguing stories of Doppelgangers, but what is most fascinating is perhaps the possibility that a copy of you could exist in a parallel universe. In MessageToEagle’s article Are Some Of Our Dreams Glimpses From A Parallel Universe?, we discussed a world that is much different than this one and yet almost identical, an alternate reality. In this world, there could be a copy of yourself making different decisions and seeing places that somehow later manifest themselves in your dreams. Is it not possible that Doppelgangers are ion fact beings that exist in an alternate reality and occasionally enter our realms? It is a theory worth exploring further.

Written by - Ellen Lloyd – AncientPages.com 

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