The Doppelgänger Effect

[Ralf Maximus]

I stumbled across this interesting read at the Fortean Times, your usual stop for UFO news, bigfoot sightings, and other paranormal treats.

http://www.forteanti...pelgnger_effect.html



(I stole the LOL cats from I Can Has Cheezburger)

The article chronicles the weird coincidences surrounding paranormal investigators where somebody who looks and/or sounds exactly like them shows up on the scene and starts meddling in the investigation.  One of the most heavily documented events was during John Keel's investigation of the Mothman during the late 1960's.

Anyway, this article ought to have you jumping at your own mirror reflection, or (god help you) if you're really a twin, looking at your sibling with eyes all slitty like. 

It's fun stuff, and the whole Fortean web site is nifty too -- in small doses.  If, one day soon, your view of Sasquatch is blocked by fleets of UFOs abducting cattle near Area 51, you should probably take a break.

And now, a Doppelgänger personal account!  Yes, this really happened to me.  Twice.

Back in the late 1980's I lived in Houston, Texas.  There was a club there (Fitzgerald's) my friends and I would visit occasionally for live music and beer.  We'd go maybe three or four times a year.

One day I'm meeting my best friend for lunch, and when he arrives he starts quizzing me about where I was last night.  In fact, he's a little irritated at me.  Turns out he was at Fitzgerald's and saw me there!  Went over to talk with me (find out why I didn't invite him along) and half way through the conversation he realizes: this "me" doesn't know who the hell he is.  He's getting that "why is this stranger talking to me?" look on his face, like the next moment he's going to run away.  My friend gets very confused, assumes I'm being weird, and backs off.

Remember, this is my best friend.  We'd known each other for years.  He swore it was me, right down to the hair, eyeglasses, and what I was wearing.  After the Twilite Zone moment passes, we shrug it off and move on.

Here's where it gets weirder.

Another pal of mine calls me a week or so later and says she saw me at the mall.  Uh, what?  I've been here all day... haven't been to the mall in weeks.  She insists it was me, because "I" was wearing my favorite leather jacket.  After the prickles die down, I quiz her closely: the guy had my hair, glasses, and (according to her) moved like me.  She tried talking to "me" but I just walked off.

So... in the late 1980's my doppelgänger was alive(?) and functioning in Houston, Texas.  He had similar tastes in live music and shopping venues, and was probably sleeping with my girlfriend. 

Anyone here ever meet their evil twin?

[nudone]

hmm, and you don't suffer from blackouts? 

i have no doppelgänger tale to tell but it seems to me that there are types of people. i don't believe we are as anywhere near as unique or individual as we like to believe. i never met an exact replica of someone that i know but i've met many people that are similar to each other in many ways, i.e. if you saw them standing next to each other you'd think they were deliberately trying to appear the same.

okay, fair enough, everyone falls into some fashion group. but often these 'clone' like people will have the same tone of voice and interests.

nothing paranormal, it's bound to happen.you can only be so 'unique' afterall. i'm sure that i fit into a 'clone' group of some description.

[cranioscopical]

Anyone here ever meet their evil twin?

-Ralf Maximus (November 30, 2007, 12:14 AM)

Is that the one called Ralf?

Most mornings I encounter some wrinkled old fellow, in my magic mirror, who seems to think he's closely related to me 

[mouser]

This sheds more light on this picture: https://www.donation...ndex.php?topic=11099

[nontroppo]

Ah, the Fortean Times, how I loved that magazine. I subscribed to it in my Teens and it made growing up in a droll large city that much more manageable. I love its open skeptical curiosity.

Once while on the underground, I arrived at Baker Street and a man got on and stood next to another man, and they were identical twins. Their clothes were of similar style, their hairstyles also similar. But their face, and build was almost exact. I just assumed they were twins and that one had been stuck in another carriage (though the train was not full by any means), and they were traveling together. They stood closely next to each other and both were reading, but neither acknowledged the others existence. I covertly stared at them marveling at the magic of genetic identicality. At the next stop the first man got off, never once acknowledging his döppleganger. And then it struck me that they had no connection to each other. Shocked I pondered this and by the time I'd resolved to ask the döppleganger if he had a twin brother, we stopped at Euston Square and he too got off as a rush of Students from University College London poured on.

The moral is that you may travel with your döppleganger every day and simply not know it...