A ghost doesn't come around idle. The most famous cases of meeting with doubles (11 photos) Why you can’t see your double

Incredible facts

Have you ever noticed someone in a crowd who looked a lot like you?

Many of us have so-called doubles in the person of spouses and family members. However, scientists have calculated that the likelihood of finding your real double is very low.

Teghan Lucas, a PhD student at the University of Adelaide's School of Medicine, conducted the study using a database of facial and body measurements of more than 4,000 people, combined with mathematical calculations.

She found that the probability of finding two faces with the same parameters in the general population is less than 1 in a trillion.

Although this suggests that the chances of finding your doppelgänger are slim to none, some people have done the impossible.

Stories of doppelgängers (photos)

A man met his doppelganger on a plane

The bearded man met his doppelganger when he accidentally sat in his seat. Neil Douglas was surprised to find his almost identical twin, Robert Stirling, on a flight from London to Galway. Instead of asking him to move, the 32-year-old photographer took a selfie and shared the photo on social media.

The stranger turned out to be incredibly similar: the same thick red beard and mustache, smile and hairstyle. Both men, who were wearing black shirts, later learned that they had checked into the same Irish hotel and decided to celebrate their acquaintance with a beer at a nearby bar.

Doubles of people

The girl who met her doppelganger in college in Germany

Irish student Ciara Murphy moved to Bremen, Germany to study, but the last thing she expected was to meet her doppelganger there. The girl began to suspect something was wrong when they started asking her if she and her sister had arrived.

The same question was asked to the unsuspecting Cordelia Roberts from the UK, who also moved to Germany to study. Eventually, the girls ran into each other and realized that others had mistaken them for twins. Ciara and Cordelia are now friends and are still called "the twins" in college.

How to find a double from a photo

The woman who decided to find a double via the Internet

Irish presenter Niamh Geaney, 26, launched a 28-day challenge called Gemini Strangers to find the person who is most like her. Neve was amazed to find a woman exactly like her living just an hour's drive away.

Neve found Karen Branigan in April 2015 when her social media campaign gained traction. The couple met and took photos.

Moreover, after some time, she found another girl from Italy via the Internet, who was even more similar to her. Neve flew to Genoa, Italy to meet her doppelganger, blue-eyed brunette Louise.

The girl accidentally found her double through Instagram

Amanda Fisher and Meredith Pond are not twins, although the similarities between the two girls are striking.

Fisher's friend pointed her to a photo of another girl on Instagram who looked exactly like her. Amanda was unable to contact the girl, and published a photo of herself and the girl on Imgur, asking users to find the girl.

Many didn't believe the photos were of two different people until one person recognized the lookalike as 22-year-old Meredith Pond from Indiana, directing her to Amanda's Facebook page. After this, the girls got in touch and exchanged photos.

Search for doubles

Photographer has been photographing double strangers for 12 years

Canadian Francois Brunelle became so interested in the phenomenon of doppelgängers that for 12 years he searched for people with almost identical features.

He created the project “I’m Not a Look-Alike,” a photo exhibition of unrelated “twins” he met around the world.

Brunel himself has been compared to the famous comedian Rowan Atkinson, who played Mr. Bean.

Lookalikes site

Doppelgangers who met five minutes after registering on a doppelgangers website

These girls, with an age difference of 10 years, live thousands of kilometers from each other. Jennifer, 33, from Texas, and Ambra, 23, from North Carolina, met five minutes after they signed up for Twin Strangers, a website that helps people find their doppelganger from around the world.

Do you know that meeting your double is a bad omen? In German folklore they are called "dopelgangers". It is believed that meeting a double, appearing in the guise of a ghost, promises death. Accordingly, if you see your double, be prepared for the fact that this meeting will not bring you anything good.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The famous German poet and statesman once had a chance to meet his double. While walking down the street, after breaking up with a girl named Frederica, Goethe literally came face to face with a stranger, but who looked like the poet like two peas in a pod. They differed only in clothes. Soon Goethe forgot about this mysterious meeting. But 8 years later, when he was moving along the same sidewalk towards the same girl, but in the opposite direction, he realized with horror that he was wearing exactly the same clothes that his double had been wearing 8 years earlier. Does this mean that Goethe met... himself in the future?

Catherine the Great
Catherine the Great is one of the most iconic figures in Russian history, who also happened to meet her own phantom. The Empress was so frightened when she literally saw herself on the throne that she ordered the soldiers to shoot the ghost. But he disappeared as suddenly as he appeared. A few hours later, Catherine died. It is precisely by meeting with her double that some historians explain her death, although before her death everyone saw the empress in good health.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
One of the greatest poets of the 19th century died tragically after meeting his exact copy. A man was boating when he saw a figure on the shore that closely resembled himself. Approaching closer, Percy became convinced that the stranger was his double, who was also looking at him point-blank. Shelley felt uneasy, and he hurried to sail away. Soon he drowned in a shipwreck, having previously told his friends about a strange incident, which almost everyone considered a bad sign.

Sir Frederick Carne Rush
In 1906, British Member of Parliament Sir Gilbert Parker was attending a debate when he saw Sir Frederick Carne Rush sitting next to him. This surprised him very much, since at that time Frederick was suffering from the flu. At the same time, Carne Rush did not react in any way to Parker’s words, but sat with a stony expression on his face. Then he disappeared. When the real Carne Rush learned about the incident, he was very surprised. However, this scared his family very much, because a doppelganger is a bad sign. Eventually, Frederick wrote a sarcastic letter to the local newspaper, declaring that he was not going to die yet, and that his doppelganger would behave well next time.

Elizabeth I
Queen Elizabeth I, as a charismatic, balanced and intelligent ruler, could hardly be expected to believe in the paranormal. This makes it even more terrifying that she got to see her doppelganger. According to the queen, her ghostly copy lay on the bed like the body of a deceased person, prepared for burial. Although this incident could be considered a clouding of the elderly ruler’s mind, Elizabeth died soon after.

Maria de Jesus de Agreda
In the 17th century, explorers and missionaries of the New World were surprised that many tribes in New Mexico practiced Catholicism. When asked about this, they said that they were converted to the faith by a certain woman in a blue robe. It was later discovered that the woman was Maria de Jesus de Agreda, a young nun in blue robes. She herself stated that she taught the Indians using dowsing across the ocean - she never left her monastery. This explanation seemed very suspicious to the Inquisition, but they decided not to accuse her of witchcraft, but called it a divine gift. Maria soon became an international celebrity. However, sometimes she stated that she was forced to say that she could control her double, sometimes she stated that it was like that.

Abraham Lincoln
On the night of his first election, Lincoln took a moment's nap on his couch. When he looked in the mirror, he saw himself, but with two faces. The twin Linkon was very pale. Taken aback, Abraham rose from the sofa, but the doppelganger had disappeared. Lincoln's wife suggested that he would be re-elected to a second term (2 Lincolns symbolized 2 terms), but he would not survive it (the second Lincoln looked bad). This was probably a sign, since Abraham did not actually live to see the end of his second term.

George Tryon
In 1893, Vice Admiral George Tryon commanded two columns of ships off the coast of Syria and ordered them to turn towards him. The order turned out to be a disastrous mistake, as the first ships crashed into each other, and one of them, containing Tryon himself, sank. Another 357 people died along with him. At the same time, Tryon's wife was hosting a very lavish party for their friends at her home in London. Unexpectedly, to the surprise of the guests, Tryon himself appeared at the celebration. He walked silently down the stairs, across the living room, opened the door and walked out, and then disappeared. He was in marching uniform.

Guy de Maupassant
The French writer kept records of his meetings with his double. Until the end of his life, he stated that he saw him constantly. The ghost not only talked to him, but also dictated stories to him. Maupassant stated that one of his last stories was dictated to him by a doppelgänger. The work was called "Orlya" - it was a story about a man whose mind was controlled by an evil spirit. Immediately after writing the story, the writer’s mental health began to deteriorate. Maupassant died in a hospital for the mentally ill.

Emily Saget
The French teacher had never seen a doppelganger. However, everyone else saw him. For some reason, she had 19 different jobs in 16 years. As it turned out, Sazhe was the center of very strange paranormal phenomena. Her spectral double was first seen in class: 13 students saw her double being next to her and repeating all her actions. Then he was seen nearby when the woman was having lunch. Sazhe herself did not notice the double, although everyone else clearly saw him. Moreover, at the moment the doppelganger appeared, she became very weak and powerless. Soon the double began to appear not only next to Emily, but also when she was in another place. As a result, concerned parents began to take the girls out of school. Although Saje was an exemplary teacher, the principal had to fire her.

In fantastic works, the technique of “time bending” is sometimes used: it stops flowing as usual, or a person “falls out” into the past or future. Can this happen in reality?

It turns out that there are a lot of similar examples in the history of anomalous phenomena! Researchers believe this is due to unknown physical effects. So, in July 1990, the famous paranormal researcher I. Mirzalis (Igor Vinokurov) investigated the case of a poltergeist. When, during the conversation, one of the people who became victims of this phenomenon left the table, the researcher, looking at his wristwatch, automatically noted the time in his notebook: “20.10.”

About a quarter of an hour later, the person who had left returned, and Igor Vladimirovich, looking at the dial again, put down the time: “20.10.” He noticed the discrepancy much later, studying his notes... He checked his watch - it was running fine. This means that the phenomenon was observed only in the house where the poltergeist occurred! In the spring of the same year, Muscovite D. Davydov experienced a strange adventure. He was going to meet his friend who lived one bus stop away from him.

We agreed that Davydov would come to the entrance of a friend’s house. When he hung up the phone, it was exactly two o'clock in the afternoon. He decided to immediately leave the house to get some fresh air. And suddenly he saw that his friend was coming towards him! There was no way this could have happened, since at most a few minutes had passed since the conversation. Then Davydov was blinded by a flash of some light, and when the ability to perceive his surroundings returned to him, he discovered that there was no friend nearby.

In bewilderment, Davydov reached the stop, boarded the bus and drove to a friend’s house. He opened the apartment door and was terribly surprised: “Well, you’re just like a jet plane!” I just called and I’m already here! How did you do it?” Davydov looked at his watch - it showed 14.00! His friend's watch showed the same thing. But from the moment they called, at least forty minutes must have passed until they met in the apartment!

The phenomenon of the appearance of doubles may also be associated with falling into such a “time loop”. It must be said that people have long treated the appearance of ghostly doubles - dopplegangers - with superstitious fear. It was believed that this was not good, but most likely - a serious illness or death... So, I.V. saw their doubles shortly before his death. Goethe, Russian empresses Catherine I and Anna Ioannovna...

Before the death of Empresses Elizaveta Petrovna and Catherine the Great, their phantoms were also observed in the Winter Palace... And in October 1923, a double of Lenin was seen in the Kremlin, who at that time was lying seriously ill in Gorki... However, the appearance of doubles of famous researchers of anomalous phenomena Anatoly Martynov and already the mentioned Igor Mirzalis (Vinokurov) did not lead to any tragic consequences. Although in these cases the doubles appeared not to himself, but to other people.

Here's another such episode. In 1975, two students of the University of Perm, Alexander and Igor, agreed late one evening to get together and drink three bottles of cheap wine, which was their custom then... Approaching the house where Igor rented a room on the first floor, the friends saw in the window light. Only Igor had the key, and he remembered very well that in the morning when he left the house, the lights were turned off...

Looking out the window, the guys were taken aback: sitting in the room at the table... were themselves! The doubles had glasses of wine in their hands. Looking out the window, they both laughed and, raising their glasses in greeting, drank... The young people rushed away from the house. They walked the streets for a long time and discussed the sight they had seen. In the end, they came to the conclusion that they were visited by a mass hallucination...

Returning to Igor’s house, they discovered that the light in the window was no longer on. The room was locked, and there were no traces of the “feast” in it. Having placed bottles and glasses on the table, the friends poured wine, drank and again started talking about their mysterious adventure. “Or maybe these doubles of ours are now clinging to the windowsill and looking at us?” - Igor joked. Looking towards the window, they laughed and raised their glasses, as if in greeting... And only after that they realized that they had exactly repeated the gestures of the “clones” they had seen earlier...

They just saw their own future in some unimaginable way! According to scientists, theoretically, the effect of “distorted time” can arise as a result of a powerful gravitational, electromagnetic or nuclear impulse caused by an artificial or natural cause. A living being or object subjected to such an effect breaks down into molecules, which then reconnect with each other. Sometimes we may not even notice a short-term “absence”... But sometimes, as a result of such processes, “miracles” occur, such as meeting our own double...

As the legends say, these are supernatural duplicates of a real person. They appear in several ways: you can notice them out of the corner of your eye, or meet them on a deserted road, or see them standing behind your shoulder, reflected in the mirror. Sometimes people do not see their double at all, but other people can see it. A double can also help a person in something or act as a fictitious body. There are a large number of explanations for the appearance of a double.

For centuries, mystics believed that they were supernatural beings, either divine versions of humans, or demonic. But scientists say that doubles are nothing more than a hallucination or a consequence of a mental illness such as schizophrenia. Adherents of mysticism claim that the appearance of a double is often a harbinger of trouble, and many prominent historical figures said that doubles haunted them.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Famous German writer, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) is a poet and politician who made a huge contribution to the development of literature. They listened to his words and treated his opinion with respect. One day, Goethe, in a depressed state after a quarrel with a girl named Frederika, was driving along a path. Suddenly he encountered a mysterious man who was riding on horseback to meet him. From Goethe’s words, he saw this man not with his eyes, but with his “mind’s eye,” as if he were himself, although Johann Wolfgang and the man were dressed in different clothes. The figure soon disappeared, and Goethe, who found the sight of the mysterious traveler strangely calming, forgot about what had happened.

After 8 years, he again rode along the same path in the opposite direction to see Frederica again. It was then that he realized that he was wearing exactly the same clothes that his double was wearing 8 years ago. This was not the only double that Goethe saw: on another occasion he saw his friend Friedrich walking down the street wearing Goethe's own robe. Puzzled, the writer went home and found Friedrich there, dressed in the same robe that Goethe had seen on the ghost - his friend had been caught in the rain and put on the robe while his clothes were drying.

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln spoke openly about his interest in the paranormal, at least in private. From what he said, he had some experience with this kind of thing. The night after his first election, he found time to sleep on the sofa. Lying there, he accidentally looked into the mirror and saw his face. There would be nothing unusual in this if he had not noticed that there were two faces in the mirror. The second Lincoln, pale and ghostly, looked at him from the mirror next to his own face. Startled, Lincoln stood up from the couch... and the doppelganger disappeared. He sat down again to see his double again.

Lincoln was amazed, and his wife Mary was horrified. She was sure that the double was a sure sign that Lincoln would be re-elected to a second term (perhaps because two Lincolns are two terms), but would not survive it (because the second Lincoln looked like a dead man). Lincoln continued to repeat the experiment on the couch at the same time every night. He managed to see the double again, but then he stopped showing up. Maybe he had already gotten his message across and Lincoln didn't actually live to see the end of his second term.

Catherine the Great

The Empress, Catherine the Great, who ruled Russia in the 18th century, was a strong and dangerous person. But strange incidents also happened to her - for example, she saw her ghostly double sitting on her throne. One night, as Catherine lay in bed, her worried servants told her that they had just seen her enter the throne room. Catherine decided to figure out what was going on and found her double in the throne room, calmly sitting on the throne. Catherine immediately ordered the sentries to shoot the impostor. History is silent whether the bullets did any harm to the empress’s ghostly double, but soon after this the real Catherine died.

Percy Bysshe Shelley

The brilliant poet Percy Bysshe Shelley is remembered mainly as the husband of Mary Shelley, who created Frankenstein. Although one might assume that Mary, as a writer in the horror genre, has much more opportunities to see her double, it was Percy who saw him. Shortly before his death in 1812 (the ship on which Percy was traveling sank), he admitted to Mary that he had met his double more than once. One of these meetings was particularly frightening: Percy walked out onto the terrace and saw his double, who asked: “How long will you be happy?” Oddly enough, their close friend Jane Williams witnessed the appearance of Percy's double - she often saw Percy passing under her window, the street ended in a dead end, but he never returned. The real Percy was always in a different place at this time.

Sir Frederick Carne Rush

British MP Sir Gilbert Parker was participating in a debate in 1906 and suddenly noticed that another member of parliament, Sir Frederick Carne Rush, was sitting next to him. This surprised Sir Gilbert very much, because Sir Frederick was seriously ill with influenza at that time. However, he greeted Sir Frederick politely, saying, "I hope you are feeling better." Karn Rush did not react to this in any way, he simply continued to sit with a stony, gloomy expression on his face. When Sir Gilbert soon looked at him again, the seat was empty. Confused, Sir Gilbert began looking for Carn Rush in the building, but no one saw him leave. When he discussed the event with fellow parliamentarians, it turned out that others had also seen Carn Rush.

When the real Karn Rush, who was actually at home in bed at the time, learned about what had happened, he was quite surprised. He was eager to take part in the discussion, believing that his spirit had dropped into parliament. His household, however, were horrified and feared that the doppelganger was a bad omen. It soon turned out that they were right: for a long time, Karn Rush's colleagues irritated him when they met, poking fingers at him to make sure that he was flesh and blood. In the end, he had to write several sarcastic letters to the local newspaper, apologizing for not having the good sense to die to make way for the doppelgänger, and promising to behave more decently next time.

Queen Elizabeth I

Queen Elizabeth I of England (reigned 1558-1603) was the last ruler of the Tudor dynasty. She was considered a charismatic, balanced and sensible monarch. She was the kind of person you wouldn't expect to encounter paranormal phenomena. She claimed to have seen her double. According to the queen, the ghostly Elizabeth lay motionless on her bed, almost like a corpse at a funeral. This was especially memorable for her, because such appearances, according to legend, are a sign of imminent death. However, it would be easy to make people forget about this incident if Elizabeth did not actually die soon.

Maria Agredskaya

And although doubles are usually considered something sinister, there is evidence that sometimes people can not only control them, but also use them as a kind of second body, capable of moving to any place in an instant. In the 17th century, explorers and missionaries in the New World were surprised to discover that many tribes in New Mexico were already practicing Catholicism. In response to a question, the Indians said that they were turned to God by a mysterious lady in blue, who taught them everything and even gave them crucifixes and other objects of worship. After careful investigation, several priests managed to “see” the apparition of Maria of Agreda, a young Spanish nun.

She wore a blue robe and stated that Christianity “taught” her how to travel to the Indians overseas. Maria never left her monastery and only knew that the places she visited were “wild lands.” However, her words were enough to convince the priests. At first, the Inquisition was quite suspicious of Mary, she was even accused of witchcraft, but then she was acquitted - perhaps because her story was too good to just give up.

Her abilities began to be attributed to divine origin. She became an international celebrity, the leader of her monastery, and the author of rambling books about how she acquired her powers. Throughout her life, she changed her mind several times: sometimes she claimed that she was forced to say that she could easily move her spiritual copy to another continent, sometimes she said that it was all true.

George Tryon

For Vice Admiral George Tryon, June 22, 1893, was not a very good day. He commanded two columns of ships off the coast of Syria and gave the command for the columns to turn their noses towards each other. Such an attempt to perform a majestic naval maneuver turned out to be a stupid mistake, since the first ships almost immediately rammed each other, and one of them, on which Tryon was, sank. Tryon died knowing that he had just condemned 357 sailors to death. His last words were dignified and sad:

"It's entirely my fault." At the same time, Tryon's wife hosted a party for her friends at their home in London. Unexpectedly, to the surprise of the guests, Tryon appeared at the party. Silently he walked down the stairs, walked solemnly through the living room, and opened the door to go out, and then suddenly disappeared. He was dressed in full dress uniform, as if he were commanding a demonstration of ships. True, there are some inconsistencies in this story: for example, someone says that Lady Tryon was busy with guests at that time and did not see her double, while others claim that she was one of the witnesses. However, the story is similar to the horror stories of sailors whose doppelgängers informed their families of their deaths.

Guy de Maupassant

Perhaps the French writer Guy de Maupassant described his closest experience of meeting a double. Towards the end of his life, he was rumored to have constantly interacted with him. This creepy double not only spoke to the writer, but one day sat down and began dictating a story to him. De Maupassant claimed that one of his last stories was literally written by a ghost. A story dictated to de Maupassant by a spirit, "Orlya" tells the story of a man whose mind slowly succumbs to an evil spirit using his body.

As if to echo the story, Maupassant's mental health began to deteriorate shortly after the story was completed. According to another version, the double did not dictate the story, because he disappeared immediately after the frightened de Maupassant called the servant. However, a few months later the double returned. He entered the writer's room, looking at him sadly, then sat down and covered his face with his hands, as if in despair. Maupassant decided that the double brought terrible news, and from that day the writer’s life went downhill, and a year later he died in a mental hospital.

Emily Saji

Emily Saji herself has never met her double, but other people have seen him. Saji worked in elite schools for girls. She was an excellent teacher, but for some reason she preferred to constantly change her place of work: in sixteen years she changed it nineteen times, and in 1845 the reasons became known. Saeji was allegedly the victim of her double's strange behavior. Her ghostly twin first appeared during class, and the 13 schoolgirls saw the twin standing side by side with Saeji and copying her every move with mirror-like precision.

The next time the double appeared behind her while she was eating, and again began to repeat her movements. Seji paid absolutely no attention to the ghost, although everyone else saw him quite clearly. However, Saeji became addicted to drinking and was sometimes almost unconscious when the double appeared and did strange things. Saeji later said that she was thinking about them at that moment, and suggested that she may have some subconscious control over the double.

Soon the double no longer appeared in the immediate vicinity of the “original”. First, he would walk into a classroom full of students and calmly sit down in a chair while Saeji herself was outside working in the garden. The few who dared to approach the double found that they could walk through it, but it felt like thick fabric to the touch. Time passed, and the ghost became a regular visitor to the school, and the girls' concerned parents began to take their children out of school. Although Saeji was an ideal employee, the headmistress had no choice but to fire her along with her ghostly counterpart.

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