Doppelgangers

[number_the_dead]

Well I wanted to do this as a poll but I can't figure out how so here goes.

Does any one beleive in Doppelgangers (a persons double) and if so why?
Do you beleive it is a sign of your impending doom or something else?
Has any one ever had any experiences w/this or know someone who has?

[Valnorran]

Apparently, mine is Agent Smith. I'm not sure what that means...

[Fang of Loki]

I have never put much thought into Doppelgangers.

[misschief]

Well I wanted to do this as a poll but I can't figure out how so here goes.

Does any one beleive in Doppelgangers (a persons double) and if so why?
Do you beleive it is a sign of your impending doom or something else?
Has any one ever had any experiences w/this or know someone who has?don't know. there are stories passed through generations in my family claiming that we all have one, but *shrug* i guess we just can't say either way.

[Ahautenites]

When I was in sixth grade, I was part of a collaborative city-wide sixth grade D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program. I had such a wonderful knack for memorizing speeches at that age that I was chosen to be the one who introduced the program and the speakers to the audience. During the one city-wide rehearsal we had, there was a girl who got up on the stage when her school's class was called. It was the most startling experience I had that year. Just after she got up on the stage, the heads of each of my own classmates turned to look at me. The girl looked *exactly* like me.

Then, for my entire 10th grade Spanish class, the teacher could NOT get out of the habit of calling me Dorothy, because there had been a girl five or six years ahead of mine that looked exactly like me. That teacher used to get so mad at me when she'd call on me and I didn't hear her because she wasn't actually calling MY name.

[semi]

I've had some strange experiences related to this.

Once, early in the morning, the police woke me up to arrest me for the armed robbery of a bank. I told them that they had the wrong guy. Then they showed me the security camera photos and it was clearly "me." I mean even I thought it was me and that maybe someone had taken my picture and it was all a joke. But the police were serious and offered to let me get dressed before they handcuffed me and took me away. It turned out that my alibi held up and they couldn't arrest me, even though they told me that they "know" I did it and they'll be watching me and that if I try to leave town, they'd be on me. It was so freaky. They never did catch the guy and it occured to me years later that I could've gone on a bank robbery spree and blamed it all on the other guy. Damn.

Other times people have come up to me and started conversations with me thinking that I was someone else. They don't believe me when I tell them that I'm not who they think I am. They look at me like I'm insane and a couple have even been offended. And just now it occured to me that I can get information from these people and possibly catch the bank robber. Hmm.

[Annyka]

I had a girl who not only looked so much like me, that people would come and talk to me- thinking I was her, and my friends would wave or say hi to her, but she also drove the exact same model, make and colour car as I did. So many people have told me I was rude, because they saw me driving my car and I *apparently* looked at them and didn't wave. It wasn't until my bf at the time actually saw the number plate and realised that it wasn't actually me!

[BrisaDelMar]

I have a thought about this.. there are only so many genes in the world. And only so many DNA combinations that can occur....

One time I had a car key that I was opening a door with, only to realize it wasn't my car. So... if this was/is possible, then I figure dopplegangers can be as well.

Maybe those people who look like us are similarl genetically ???

(And yes, I've had this happen to me too. It is strange to look into someone's eyes that could almost be yours..)

[Verthandi]

I haven't had any experiences with doppelgangers or anything, but I just wanted to say that it's interesting: I was researching them earlier today because I might put one in a book I'm working on. How odd that here's a thread on MW on the same topic!

[StephanieAine]

When I was in sixth grade, I was part of a collaborative city-wide sixth grade D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program. I had such a wonderful knack for memorizing speeches at that age that I was chosen to be the one who introduced the program and the speakers to the audience. During the one city-wide rehearsal we had, there was a girl who got up on the stage when her school's class was called. It was the most startling experience I had that year. Just after she got up on the stage, the heads of each of my own classmates turned to look at me. The girl looked *exactly* like me.

Then, for my entire 10th grade Spanish class, the teacher could NOT get out of the habit of calling me Dorothy, because there had been a girl five or six years ahead of mine that looked exactly like me. That teacher used to get so mad at me when she'd call on me and I didn't hear her because she wasn't actually calling MY name.Ah HA! Another person who has had this experience!
I'm in my late thirties now, but one of the strangest experiences I ever had happened to me when I was about 15 years old. Our high school was quite large, made up of about 10 major buildings and several smaller ones, all scattered on the campus property with sidewalks connecting them (so, no hallways... everything was outdoors). One day I was walking from the foreign language building toward the lunch courtyard with a friend, listening to my friend talk, basically looking down at the ground as I walked. Suddenly I felt like I should look up - almost like a 'watched' feeling, but different. I looked up and there was a large group of kids walking toward us from the opposite direction. All were walking quickly toward whatever next class they had (they were upper classmen)... so very quickly a group of them walked off in another direction. But one girl continued walking right towards me, heading for the foreign language building I had just left.

She was *identical* to me - except she looked like the version of me that I would become a few of years later (which is logical, since she was probably almost 18 years old). In fact, she could have been mistaken for me or I for her. Plus, we were wearing the same - identical - outfit, and it wasn't something that every other kid was wearing: beige/light khaki blazer; light blue oxford blouse; navy pleated slacks without a belt; brown leather loafers; carrying our books in one arm with a navy purse slung over the opposite shoulder. Our hairstyles were even identical - shoulder length, with sort of a Jaclyn Smith-ish style of loose curls and light layering. So, not only did we look like identical twins (more like *the same person,* actually)... we even had the same style of dress, and even the impulse to wear the same thing on the very same day.)

The strange thing is that I literally gasped when I saw her, but the girl seemed to **not even see me** - even though I was directly in her path (she was rushing to her French class, so that could have been why, but I had the distinct impression that there was another reason she didn't see me. In fact, I don't think I was supposed to see *her*, although, of course, I did).

I was stunned speechless, just pointing in the direction the girl was walking, while the friend I was walking with was busy trying to make sure I was okay... and trying to figure out what exactly I was trying to get her to look at (I still don't know why my pointing toward the girl didn't get my friend to look at the right person; there were quite a few people around, but not that many in the direction I was pointing).

It took quite a while - months - before I was again in the presence of the girl, and I was, for whatever reason, afraid to approach her to ask her what her name was. Eventually I found someone who knew her name, and I wrote it down. I never saw the girl again in person (big school) - but I did have the chance to ask some people if they knew her, and for whatever reason, they didn't find it shocking at all, primarily because the girl was older and I didn't look as old as she did - so, to them, we weren't truly identical. I kept saying, "Yes, but that's what I'll look like in the future; it's like she's the future 'me' in a way." But they didn't get it, or maybe they thought I was bonkers <g>...

Funny thing happened: a little while after all of this, our school held their annual writing contest, and there were three prizes given. The two top prizes were given to me - and to my "twin." I had hoped to run into her so I could finally be brave enough to introduce myself and see how she'd react to finally seeing my face (remember, she never did see me; I only saw her)... and I thought I could congratulate her on her part of the contest prize... but I never did get the chance.

Pretty strange. I'll never forget that experience.