And the verdict is....

indecisive.

Yeah, I said it. I STILL do not know what to believe, and I can come up with an actual decision right now. With the little evidence that I could find, I'm still pretty clueless on my picking sides on this supernatural phenomenon. My encounter with my brother's so-called "doppelganger" plays a huge part in my decision of being indecisive. I want to believe it's not real, but I don't want to seem crazy. I saw what I saw! And I'm not the only one. The many other stories of people just like me who have encountered a doppleganger also play the other role of me wanting believe that it's actually true.

So I'm going to leave it at this...

It doesn't matter what I believe, because you already have your set belief on whether a doppelganger is real or not. Or, you probably never knew what a doppelganger was until this blog. We are human, we are stubborn, we don't want people to choose our beliefs for us; so we believe what we want to believe. Whether a doppelganger is real of not, because I don't really know; you can make that own choice for yourself.

Evidence

http://socyberty.com/paranormal/what-are-doppelgangers/

After hours of searching for evidence on doppelgangers, I found very little that neither supported that doppelgangers were real nor that doppelgangers were fake. Most, almost all evidence were stories of everyday normal people who have encountered a doppelganger and stories throughout history of doppelganger encounter(like the stories on my last post). I stumbled upon one story, well more like an investigation, where a team of paranormal ghost hunters were investigating a home that was supposedly haunted in Ellicott City, Maryland. In their investigation report of EVP's, that reported that they had hear voices similar to the voice of the women who lived there and that she may be haunted by her own ghostly doppelganger(Scott).
While researching another website, they reported the "Scientists at the University Hospital in Geneva, Switzerland discovered that electrical stimulation of the brain, used to treat epilepsy, can produce the sensation of a doppelganger's presence in the patient"(Harrison). Well I'm not epileptic nor were the historical figures in my previous post, but it's some of the little evidence I found.


Harrison, Erica. "Scientists discover 'shadow person'". Cosmos. 25 September 2006. Web. 1 November 2011. http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/686/scientists-discover-shadow-person?page=2

Scott, David. "Private Residence - Ellicott City, MD". North American Demonic Paranormal. 3 July 2009. Web. 1 November 2011. http://www.nademonicparanormal.com/Cases/EllicottCity/EllicottCity.html

I Told You I Wasn't The Only One!

There have been many encounters with doppelgangers throughout history. All of these stories are about famous people of our past and present, which I think is really cool because they have encountered a supernatural phenomenon. Here are some of the stories.

President Abraham Lincoln reported that on several occasion he would see himself(but much paler, almost ghostly looking) standing in the mirror from across the room while he was laying in bed. His wife also would witness the same encounter with her husband's double. She believed it meant that Lincoln would be elected a second term in office, but would not live to the end of his term (crystalinks.com). Woah, now that's creepy, and his wife was right.

"Richard Rossi, the maverick minister and Hollywood filmmaker, allegedly told police a man who resembled him attacked his wife. According to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, he allegedly speculated the mysterious incident was a Satanic counterattack because of his work as an exorcist. Rossi stood trial for the assault, resulting in a hung jury, partially because both Rossi's wife and an eyewitness named John Fair confirmed the story," (crystalinks.com).

Queen Elizabeth I of England told several of her colleagues that she had encountered her double when she was up in her room and she saw a ghostly white figure of herself laid out on her bed. She has died several weeks later (Wagner). 


"John Donne, the 16th century English poet whose work often touched on the metaphysical, was visited by a doppelganger while he was in Paris - not his, but his wife's. She appeared to him holding a newborn baby. Donne's wife was pregnant at the time, but the apparition was a portent of great sadness. At the same moment that the doppelganger appeared, his wife had given birth to a stillborn child," (Wagner).


Past President George W. Bush is said to be the doppelganger of his own father earlier president George Bush. George W. Bush was often question about his fascination with capital punishment, and that was the "bad omen" that fell on his late father ( oocities.org). Well I kind of think this story is a bunch of bologna, but I thought it would be entertaining to share with you.

I wanted to share this video, because I just thought it was really creepy.

"Doppelganger". Citylinks.com. Web. 29 October 2011. <http://crystalinks.com/doppelganger.html>

"Doppelganger". Oocities.org. Web. 29 October 2011. <http://www.oocities.org/theunx/doppelgangers.html>

Wagner, Stephen. "True Stories of Doppelgangers". About.com. Web. 29 October 2011. <http://paranormal.about.com/od/Doppelgangers/a/doppelgangers.htm>

What Are they Exactly?

Above is an interpretaion that an artist, who made a photgraphic double of herself. She writes: " They say that you can never truly see yourself; not in mirrors, or photos, or windows, or water. All you see is a flat reflection. You go through life with only an idea of how other people see you in the three dimensions, always one step removed from every true angle. Unless you’re (un)-lucky enough to have a twin - “the creepy kind,” as one of my friends with a non-creepy, fraternal twin brother would put it. From mythical manifestations as partners-in-crime who finish each others’ sentences to polar opposites who seek to annihilate each other, the concept of twins has always enthralled and horrified the human race." http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=doppelganger&view=detail&id=1CD2270329B705973A8C8C673B4C59903CBE0D95&first=0&qpvt=doppelganger&FORM=IDFRIR

A doppelganger is basically a replica of one self. It derives from the German word meaning "double-goer". Doppelgangers may appear as a living-person or even a ghost. Some may even say that a doppelganger is an "evil twin" who can cause confusion and trouble in one's life. According to an article online, if you happen to see a doppelganger of yourself it is a bad omen and can even mean that death may be shortly in your future(Foster). Or if a family or friend sees a doppelganger of you, it could mean health problems and sickness are in your near future.
In my research, I found that a doppelganger has no reflection and no shadow(Brainz.org). Sounds a lot like some other urban legend I know? A vampire, cough cough. I also discovered that most doppelgangers are here only to haunt their other half. If you run into one, they will often try to cause confusion, and manipulate you to do deeds that they can't accomplish.
So basically, if you happen to run into someone who looks basically like an exact replica of your brother or friend; run the other way, because I doubt there will be any good that comes out of that encounter.




Foster, Nikki."What is a Doppelganger?" WiseGEEK. 10 Oct 2011. Web. 19 Oct 2011. http://t.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-doppelganger.htm

"What is a Doppelganger?" Brainz.org. Web. 19 Oct 2011. http://brainz.org/what-doppelganger/

Am I crazy?

Have you ever wondered if there is an exact replica of you somewhere in the world? Or if you have an "evil twin" in some alternate universe? Well I do, kind of, I don't really know.
While vacationing with my family in Florida a few years back, we decided to go souvenir shopping at a few boutiques near the pier. I ended up wandering off on my own into a few stores and found myself in some thrift store located a block away from the pier. While rummaging through a box of nick-knacks, I felt a strange vibe like someone had been watching me. So I began to search around the store to see if someone else was there, but it was just the cashier (who was watching a baseball game on a small television he had behind the counter) and I. Feeling a little creeped out because the vibe still lingered inside of me, I scurried out of the store; only to realize where the strange vibe originated from. Across the street stood my older brother Jacob, or at least I thought was my brother, staring straight at me. I thought maybe he was looking for me and it was time to leave; and the vibe, well I couldn't explain that. I waited until traffic cleared and ran across the street to meet up with my brother. When I reached the spot my brother stood, no one was there. I searched the busy sidewalk for him but he was nowhere to be seen. So I wandered back to the pier where my family had been shopping and found them sitting at an ice cream parlor. Joining them, I punched my brother in the arm and asked him why he didn't wait for me over at the thrift store. Now imagine yourself in math class and the teacher suddenly asks you for the answer to the problem on the board, and you blurt out Benjamin Franklin; now you see all those confused expressions of your surrounding classmates and teacher? Well I got those looks from my family, especially the "what the heck are you talking about" look from my brother. After explaining to them what had just happened to me minutes before, the overly confused looks turned into concerns. Lets just say I was completely freaked out for the remainder of our vacation and my family thought I was crazy.
Now I promise you, that super long short-story(get the irony?) has a point to it. When we returned from vacation, I did some research to prove I'm not completely crazy; because there are people out there that has faced the same situation as me. This supposedly "double" of my brother is called a "Doppelganger", which is German for "double-walker". A doppleganger is said to be a physical double of someone or even a evil twin. Two Jacob's? One of him is bad enough, and now the world wants to throw two at me. Maybe I am crazy, who knows.
This is where my blog comes into play. I'll be researching more in depth on what a doppleganger really is. If "they" are real or just an urban legend, because I myself am still a little iffy about it. Also I report some of the stories I read about online. Maybe this will decide whether I saw a doppelganger of my brother or I just mistaken the look of some stranger from a far distance.