What is a doppelganger?*

Folklore is replete with tales about shape shifters -beings who are able to transform themselves into different forms and to assume the abilities associated with each new incarnation. The most common of these creatures is the lycanthrope, or werewolf. Legends about humans morphing into wolves date back to ancient times. In the case of the werewolf, however, the change is usually involuntary, with the hapless victim unaware that a full moon has caused him or her to go on a murderous rampage. Hindu mythology has the rakshasa, a malevolent spirit with an appetite for human flesh. The Rakshasa purportedly can not only assimilate the physical characteristics of its subjects, but it can also read their minds and transform itself into people that its intended victims know.
The doppelganger ("double-goer" in German) comes in two varieties. Those pursuant with the immensely popular fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons will recall the doppelganger as a shape shifter that is neither inherently good or evil; like most "monsters" its moral bent depends on the individual and the circumstances. A formidable opponent, but not necessarily villainous.
More frequently a doppelganger refers to the spectral double of a living person, and a spirit with whom an encounter bodes imminent death. An apt analogy is seeing one's own ghost when one is still alive. Reputed encounters with doppelgangers are almost as common as conventional hauntings. Famous individuals who claimed to have seen their own or others' doppelgangers include Queen Elizabeth I, Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Donne, Guy de Maupassant and Abraham Lincoln. Donne supposedly saw his wife's doppelganger when he was away from home; shortly afterwards the couple had a stillborn child. Maupassant claimed that he spoke with his doppelganger numerous times. For the others, the apparition was indeed an omen of death, though in the case of President Lincoln, this was not to occur for several years afterwards. Reports of hauntings by doppelgangers are not limited to past centuries: a young Florida woman supposedly encountered her doppelganger in 2004. The elusive spirit reportedly moved very rapidly, never revealing its face. In general appearance, though, the entity resembled the woman. Two other family members said that they also saw the doppelganger.

Explanations have been postulated that the doppelganger is the manifestation of astral projection: the ability to travel in spiritual form while one's physical body remains in a separate location. Some individuals have even claimed to be able to do this, including a nun who related that this phenomenon occurred while she was sleeping. Other theories involve time travel and accidental space-time continuum shift. Whatever or whether doppelgangers are, those who are familiar with the stories surrounding these anomalies generally have no desire to meet one!

© February 5, 2013 by Allan M. Heller