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Doppelgänger
Alternatively Doppleganger. From the
German meaning 'double walker', a ghostly double, an
apparition,
or counterpart of a living person. They may act strangely, or move mechanically
(see
Bilocation).
The belief that each person has an identical 'twin' somewhere,
though they are unrelated, is a very ancient one. Sometimes the Doppelgänger
is the direct opposite personality of the real person; a very nice person
will have an evil Doppelgänger and vice-versa. Legend says that if the two should meet, they
will both die.
Other accounts describe
the Doppelgänger as the soul embodied, sometimes a astral
projection or aura, the
double
most often presenting itself as a warning. Many believe that it is possible to
see one's own double, as did the English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, shortly
before his death by drowning.
According to an old belief, anyone
who wants to know who will pass away in the coming year has only to stand vigil
near a church door on April 24, the eve of the feast of St. Mark. At midnight,
the airy doubles of all who will die file in a solemn processional into the
church. If the watcher is unlucky enough to see his/her own image there, he/she
knows his/her own time is not far off.
Many cases of doubles, or bilocation, have been reported
throughout contemporary times. It was said that the German poet Goethe
(1749-1832) once met "himself" coming towards him up a garden path;
according to European folklore this should have been a sign of his imminent
death, but Goethe lived for some years after his experience. In 1845 a
French teacher named Emilie Sagée apparently was witnessed in two places at
the same time by several of her students; in the same year Lucy Eden, a
teenage girl from Warwickshire, England, was also witnessed in two places at
the same time by several of her peers. Lucy's double appeared again in 1847,
going throughout the house e meting everyone ― relatives, maids and friends
alike ― as she laid in bed with the mumps.
A pioneer psychical researcher,
Frederic W. H. Myers, one of the founders of the
Society for Psychical Research in England, along with others collected and
studied reports of
bilocation, or doubles, but the phenomenon has received little
interest in modern times.
Although uncommon, bilocation — sometimes
multilocation — is an ancient
phenomenon. It is claimed to have been experienced, and even practiced by will, by many mystics, monks and other holy figures through the ages, including famous
Christian saints such as
St. Martin de Porres,
St. Severus of Ravenna,
St. Gerard Majella,
St. Anthony of Padua,
St. Ambrose of Milan,
Padre Pio of Italy,
as well as
Pope Cyril VI of
Alexandria,
Egypt.
In one instance, in 1774,
St. Alphonsus Liguori
is said to have gone into a trance while preparing for Mass. When he came out of
the trance he reported that he had visited the bedside of the dying
Pope Clement XIV.
His presence is then said to have been confirmed by those attending the Pope
despite his being four days travel away, and not appearing to have left his
original location.
See
Out-of-body
Experiences,
Double,
The Chakra Store,
Casting Black Magic Spells,
Commanding Spirits,
The Tarot Store and
Divination & Scrying Tools and
Supplies.
Sources: (1)
Shepard, Leslie (editor),
Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology,
Thomson Gale; (2)
Dictionary of the
Occult, Caxton
Publishing; (3) Steiger, Brad and Sherry Hansen,
The Gale Encyclopedia of
the Unusual and Unexplained,
Thomson Gale.
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