(A) Doppelgangers: A Horrifying History | Archive Ep42

[00:00:11] In 1796, German writer Johann Paul Richter, who wrote under the pseudonym Jean-Paul, coined the word doppelganger, doppel meaning double and ganger meaning goer, to refer to such specters. According to German folklore, all living creatures have a spirit double, who is invisible but identical to the living individual.

[00:00:36] These entities are perceived as being different from ghosts and sometimes they are described as the spiritual opposite or negative of their human counterparts. From queens and presidents to average civilians, doppelgangers or double goers have been witnessed by thousands of people around the globe.

[00:00:54] Ranging from mundane second-hand reports to downright horrifying first-hand experiences, this phenomenon begs us to ask the question, if doppelgangers are real, what are they and what do they want? The first time it happened, I was sleeping and woke up because I felt a hand on my leg

[00:01:16] and I realized that I couldn't move. And he'd come across this object on the ground which was in the shape of a flying saucer. So he jumped out of his pickup and went down there and there was four beings laying on the ground.

[00:01:29] When I raised my head back up, I was turning my head and out of my peripheral vision I seen something hop to a tree. And it was tall, about seven or eight foot tall and it was black, real hairy, like a gorilla.

[00:01:42] Welcome to the show, I'm your host Nick Ryan. In today's society, it's common for people to use the word doppelganger when describing someone that looks almost identical to themselves or someone else, but that is not related to them in any way.

[00:02:11] This anomaly is more appropriately referred to as a dead ringer and its phenomenon has grown in popularity within social media over the last decade. Although it may be interesting and somewhat unusual to find two people that look fairly

[00:02:24] similar, it pales in comparison to the many strange encounters that people have had with the paranormal version of this phenomenon, some of which have been shared by our listeners in previous episodes of our podcast.

[00:02:38] But it wasn't until I began researching the paranormal many years ago that I began to learn more about this bizarre anomaly. What many people assume is just a trick of the mind or a case of mistaken identity is actually much more complex and in some cases, extremely creepy.

[00:02:55] Most doctors will tell you that seeing the spirit double or exact duplicate of yourself or someone that you know could be a symptom related to schizophrenia. As with most medical explanations to unexplainable phenomena, I find it very unlikely that the

[00:03:09] majority of people experiencing these encounters are suffering from some kind of mental illness. While I'm sure that a small percentage might be, I just don't think it's a reasonable or fair conclusion to come to in a majority of the cases, especially when some of the

[00:03:23] encounters include groups of people that witness the exact same thing. However, we all interpret things differently so based on the stories that we're going to cover tonight, I'd like you to be the judge. Some of the encounters that we're going to discuss tonight are fairly well known within

[00:03:39] paranormal circles while others are a bit more unfamiliar. Each one of them offering insight into one of the strangest phenomena that I've ever researched and this brings us to our first story of the night. One of the most well-known cases of a doppelganger occurred in Europe in 1845.

[00:03:58] Resting on the Baltic Sea and nestled between Estonia and Lithuania sits the country of Latvia. It was here at an exclusive girls school that the bizarre events took place and it was all

[00:04:11] centered around one of the newest teachers at the school, a teacher by the name of Emily Sagi. Although Emily was an excellent teacher, she was also a bit of a mystery. In the 16 years prior to teaching at the girls school, 32-year-old Sagi had changed jobs at least 19 times.

[00:04:32] While this was out of the ordinary, the staff at the school overlooked it as Emily's teaching skills and demeanor with the children proved to be exceptional. But in the weeks that followed, Emily's students and even the staff began to realize

[00:04:45] that there was something very peculiar about their new teacher. One day while Emily was teaching in front of the class, 13 of her students began to notice something appearing next to their teacher. As Emily stood at the front of the classroom, a figure began to materialize next to her.

[00:05:03] The entity appeared to be identical to Emily in every way and it even mimicked her exact movements as she taught in front of the class. As the children watched in astonishment, it became clear to them that everyone in the

[00:05:16] room was able to see the entity except for their teacher. The next sighting of Sagi's phantom twin occurred while she was eating lunch. Onlookers could clearly see the same strange entity standing behind her as she ate and she was completely unaware of the specter that stood behind her.

[00:05:35] As before, it imitated her every move without Emily ever knowing that it was there. As the sightings of Sagi's doppelganger persisted, witnesses noticed that Emily would act lethargic and not like herself while the entity was visible.

[00:05:51] This spurred some witnesses to theorize that what people were seeing was actually a part of Emily's spirit that was somehow leaving her body. Emily would later admit that during these bizarre sightings, she felt as though she was daydreaming about other things that she would like to be doing.

[00:06:08] Some people believed that this could be the reason that her spirit was seen next to her or in some cases in completely different rooms. Was it possible that every time that Emily's mind wandered, so did her spirit?

[00:06:22] One possible example of this occurred during a sewing class that involved 50 students. As the class worked on their projects, they could clearly see their teacher Emily working in the garden that was just outside the classroom, separated only by large windows.

[00:06:37] A teacher from another classroom sat in front of the room, supervising the children while Emily finished her gardening. At some point, the supervising teacher briefly left the room and only moments later, the students saw Emily enter the classroom and sit down at her desk.

[00:06:54] It wasn't long before several of the children realized that their teacher was still working diligently outside in the garden. But if Emily was still outside, who or what was now sitting at her desk?

[00:07:08] As the students stared at what could be Emily's twin, they couldn't believe what they were seeing. This was the farthest that the entity had strayed from their teacher and it now seemed as though it might have a mind of its own.

[00:07:21] When witnesses told Sagi about what they saw in the classroom while she was out in the garden, she admitted that while she was out there, she was wishing that she could be inside overseeing the sewing class.

[00:07:33] Some people even stated that they had come in contact with the entity over the weeks and months that Sagi taught at the school. These individuals reported that on occasion, they were able to pass directly through the

[00:07:45] entity, but that it had a strange texture to it that most described as feeling like thick fabric. As time went on, Sagi's phantom would be seen throughout the school more and more, and eventually parents began removing their children from the school, fearful that the

[00:08:01] entity may cause harm to their kids. Although Emily's work as a teacher was excellent, the headmistress had to make the tough decision to fire her in order to relieve the school of its creepy visitor. History is filled with strange reports of doppelgangers, and in many cases, these experiences

[00:08:20] are reported by people that are famous or even royalty. We'll discuss more of these reports throughout the episode, but before we do, I'd like to share some more recent stories that I came across while doing research for today's show.

[00:08:34] The witness of this next encounter stated that she and her husband had been living in a small one-bedroom apartment. The bedroom had a large walk-in closet, and this is where her story begins. One night I woke up all of a sudden. I was facing the walk-in closet.

[00:08:49] I saw my husband in the middle of it, his back facing me, just looking around the closet. He was wearing the same clothes that he had wore to bed. I thought it was really strange for him to walk into the closet, since none of his belongings

[00:09:02] were in there, and plus it was in the middle of the night. I propped myself up and asked him what he was doing in my closet, and to come back to bed. His face turned slightly, but just enough for me to see half of his cheek.

[00:09:16] I was really sleepy, so I turned back to bed and fell asleep. I'm not sure how much time had passed, but I woke up again to my husband getting into bed.

[00:09:25] I asked him why he was in the closet, and he told me that he didn't know what I was talking about and that he had just gone to the washroom. We both fell back asleep, and I tried to continue the conversation in the morning.

[00:09:37] He swore he just went to the bathroom, and it was no more than one minute. He thought I was definitely dreaming, but I know what I saw. That person in the closet was my husband, or at least looked 100% like him. I can't think of any logical explanation.

[00:09:52] Even if my husband had some reason to lie, I still can't see how he could get into the middle of the closet without knocking anything over in the mess. Months later, the couple moved out of the apartment and into a new place.

[00:10:05] Their new home had a room which they used as a den. Across from the den was the laundry room, and it is here that her next encounter took place. This is what she had to say.

[00:10:16] While I was moving the clothes, I saw my husband walk into the den. It was clear as day. I thought he was going to play some video games or use his computer. After I loaded all the clothes into the dryer, I walked back into the living room.

[00:10:29] I saw my husband sitting in the middle of the living room now. I immediately asked him when he went back into the living room. He was really confused and said that he hadn't left his seat in the last 30 minutes.

[00:10:41] I told him that I saw him walk into the den just a minute ago. How did he walk out of the den without me seeing him or hearing him? I know I saw him both times. Both times he appeared, clearly, right in front of me.

[00:10:56] This next story took place in 2015 when a mother and father were at the beach with their daughters. The family had a nearby cottage on the beach and had been spending the day looking for seashells. As lunchtime approached, the older daughters along with their father returned to the cottage

[00:11:13] to eat, leaving their mother and 4-year-old sister to continue hunting for shells. After a while, the 4-year-old daughter decided to join her sisters and father, so her mother proceeded to take her back to the cottage.

[00:11:26] Wanting to still find more shells, the mother returned to the beach by herself and continued to search the shoreline. After 20 minutes or so, the weather began to turn and storm clouds soon filled the sky.

[00:11:40] As she stared at the sea, the waves became more and more violent, and she decided that she should join her family in the safety of their cottage. As she turned to head back, she was immediately met with a feeling of dread.

[00:11:53] She felt as though she was being drawn to look toward the ocean, and as she did, she was met with a horrifying sight. This is what she saw. I have never seen such a rough sea, and so I turned back with a feeling of unexplained dread.

[00:12:08] I couldn't shake it. I looked out into the ocean, and I could have sworn I saw my 4-year-old drowning in the waves. I knew with absolute certainty that she was safe back in the cottage with her father and

[00:12:20] siblings, but yet there she was drowning in the rough sea. I started wading into the water to try to help her. I was in a total state of panic. I was crying and absolutely hysterical.

[00:12:33] I knew that if I went in the water that I would drown, but there I was, going even though I knew that it wasn't really my baby out there. I felt like something wanted me to go into the water, so I would die.

[00:12:45] I had to fight the instinct to help her. Keep in mind that the thing in the water was the spitting image of her. I took off running to the cottage, crying the entire time. My young daughter greeted me at the door.

[00:12:58] I was never in my life so happy to see her. To this day, I am convinced that the thing in the water was her doppelganger, trying to lure me to my death. I know that they say that you only see your own double, but I wonder.

[00:13:12] I hope I never have this happen again. I hope this never happens to anyone who is reading this. The desire to go into the water was stronger than any force I have ever known. Our next bizarre tale involves famous German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

[00:13:31] Born on August 28, 1749, von Goethe was also an accomplished poet and politician. By the time he was 25, he was considered to be somewhat of a literary celebrity, as his first novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther, was published.

[00:13:47] Three years prior to the publishing of his novel, though, Johann had just completed his studies in Strasbourg, during which time he also fell in love with a local preacher's daughter, named Frederica. Unfortunately it was time for Johann to return home, since his schooling had been completed,

[00:14:05] and he was heartbroken that he had to leave Frederica behind. After much deliberation and concluding that he was not ready to be a husband, Johann rode to Frederica's house to tell her of his decision to return home.

[00:14:18] Many years later, he would write an autobiography in which he shared one of his last moments with Frederica. He said, When I reached for her hand from my horse, the tears stood in her eyes, and I felt sad at heart.

[00:14:32] After saying farewell to his love, Johann proceeded down a nearby path on his horse, and it was here that he experienced something very odd. This is how he described it in his own words.

[00:14:44] I saw, not with my eyes of the body, but with those of the mind, my own figure coming towards me on horseback and on the same road, attired in a suit which I had never worn.

[00:14:57] As soon as I shook myself out of this dream, the figure had entirely disappeared. This vision of sorts baffled Johann, but some years later his experience would come full circle. After eight long years, he set out to visit Frederica and eventually found himself on

[00:15:14] the same road where he had this encounter. As he came to the location of his previous vision, he realized that he was wearing the exact suit that his twin was wearing eight years earlier. Johann then believed that he had somehow seen a glimpse into his future.

[00:15:32] Although strange, this was not the only time that Van Gogh came in contact with a doppelganger. On one occasion, Johann was walking down a city street when he saw a friend of his casually strolling through town but wearing Johann's dressing gown.

[00:15:49] Eventually Johann lost sight of his friend and decided to return home. Waiting for him at his house was the same friend that he had seen in town. As far as Johann was concerned, this was impossible as there was no way that his friend could

[00:16:03] have beaten him home to his house. The other strange coincidence was that the friend was wearing the same dressing gown that Johann saw in town. Apparently the friend had arrived at Johann's house well before Johann got home and needed

[00:16:17] a change of clothes after getting caught out in the rain. The friend claimed that he had not been to town earlier that day. This next bizarre encounter comes from a woman that believes that her husband saw her doppelganger.

[00:16:32] The couple lived in an old rural farmhouse where some paranormal phenomena had already been witnessed, but on the night in question, the activity in their home became even stranger. This is what the woman had to say. Last night I was in the bathtub.

[00:16:47] My husband came into the bathroom to wash his hands and then went back out to do laundry. He was in the laundry room and looked through the kitchen and saw what he thought was me in the hallway buck naked.

[00:16:59] He called my name and he said that the entity turned her face toward him and gave a look like she didn't know who he was. Then she walked a step behind a column and our son came out from the same column from the opposite way.

[00:17:15] Our son asked who my husband was talking to and said that he didn't see me. My husband came into the bathroom where I was still in the tub. He made me swear that I hadn't left the tub.

[00:17:26] He was very freaked out and he made us follow him around from room to room for the rest of the night and announce ourselves if we came into a room where he was.

[00:17:37] This next story seems to have a lot of different phenomena going on and it takes place after the eyewitness moves into a house with her friend Dakota and Dakota's pit bull named Bubbles. Before starting her story she describes the house as being modest with a small shed that

[00:17:53] was located in the back of the house. Apparently this shed is where a majority of the odd activity seemed to originate from. She says, I've learned that every house has its bad spot and this house has a shed.

[00:18:07] I don't know what it is about that thing but it gives me the creeps. I tend to avoid it as much as possible. Three weeks into living here I began to notice strange knocking on the walls.

[00:18:18] I thought okay old house maybe the dog is whacking stuff with her tail. Anyways I tried to ignore it for the most part. So a few more weeks go by and Dakota and I are playing games in my room.

[00:18:31] He gets up and says he's going to use the restroom so I pause the game and he leaves to do so. The bathroom is just to the right of my room which is in the basement. To the left is the stairs going up.

[00:18:43] So Dakota is in the restroom and I'm waiting for him when I see him step into the doorway from the left. This confused me because as I said earlier the bathroom is to the right.

[00:18:54] Instead of coming back into the room Dakota glares at me and begins walking back toward the stairs after saying I need your help with something. I get up and begin to follow him.

[00:19:05] Just as I see him walk up the stairs and out of view the bathroom door opens behind me and Dakota asks me who just walked up the stairs. I panic and jump back down into the basement.

[00:19:16] I fill Dakota in on what happened and we search the house and find nothing. Dakota then calls me into the kitchen and shows me that the back door was open. Weird. Days go by and at this point I feel unsafe in my house.

[00:19:31] I'm trying to get over it but I consistently feel like somebody is behind me. Yesterday was probably the strangest encounter. I was in the kitchen loading the dishwasher when Bubbles runs in with her fur all pointed.

[00:19:44] I know that that means that the dog is on edge so I ask her what's wrong. She goes to the back door and looks at me. She looks pissed. I open the door and I watch as she runs towards the shed.

[00:19:56] I decide to follow her because of her enraged behavior and I completely freak out when I see her behind me walking in from the living room. I quickly close the back door and look out the window. Right next to the shed where I last saw Bubbles is Dakota.

[00:20:12] He looked extremely angry. His face terrified me so I yell for Dakota and he runs into the kitchen. I point out to the shed only to see that Dakota is gone.

[00:20:23] I don't know what this is but I have the suspicious feeling that they are trying to lead me to that shed. There's always something unsettling about someone or something trying to come into your house,

[00:20:36] especially when it's disguised as a loved one, but that's exactly what happened to this family. The witness says, I remember one Sunday morning my brother and I were watching TV and someone knocked on the front door.

[00:20:49] We lived in an apartment that was empty because the owner hadn't rented the second floor. It was a two bedroom apartment with a kitchen and a bathroom by the door. It was a small apartment but it had a big window that faces out to the door.

[00:21:02] So when I heard someone knock, I looked out the window and I saw my father standing at the door or so I thought. I was going toward the door to open it and as I was going to unlock it, my mother pulled

[00:21:13] me away and screamed at me to not open the door because I didn't know who it was. I told her I saw my dad. She freaked out, going to the window and checking, and then checking the people.

[00:21:24] She started to get terrified and she said to go to the farthest room in the apartment and not to come out. She went and woke up my dad who got up angry and confused.

[00:21:34] We told him what we saw and that the man was still knocking on the front door. My dad came out and screamed, who is it? But there was no answer. He yelled that he would call the cops, you know the regular threats, but nothing.

[00:21:47] We saw while my dad was busy screaming at him that the man outside was just standing still in front of the door. So my mom took us to the farthest room from the front door while my dad got ready to open the door with a metal bat.

[00:22:00] Once he did, the man was gone. My dad went out looking everywhere around the apartment. The main door to our building was a heavy metal door and we could always hear when someone

[00:22:10] would come in and out, but we heard nothing that morning and nothing after my dad opened our apartment door. We heard no footsteps either, but my brother, my mother, and I all saw that the man at the door looked exactly like my father.

[00:22:28] This next story comes from a witness that clearly saw someone that they worked with while commuting to work, only to find out later that it wasn't who they thought it was. This is their encounter. This encounter begins with my everyday commute to work.

[00:22:42] As I only live within 5 miles, I usually run or cycle there as a way of maintaining my fitness. I believe this is relevant to the story because it suggests that I wasn't in some kind of state of sleep, but quite the opposite.

[00:22:55] The details of the occurrence begin with a cycle to work, no different to any other day. As I came out of an underpass of what is a busy roundabout and onto a slight ascent 3

[00:23:06] quarters into my journey, I happened to glance to my right to see a car traveling in the opposite direction. The driver beeps his horn and smiles at me, and I recognize him as my colleague from work.

[00:23:18] He has his window completely rolled down, and he waves at me as I pretend to struggle up the hill, jokingly panting as I wave back. Nothing really concerned me about what had happened so far, but then I realized he was

[00:23:29] traveling away from our place of work, and was probably going toward the city to work in one of our other school sites. I arrived at work at 8am, and passed another colleague, and told him that I had seen John

[00:23:41] driving away from the school building, and jokingly we cursed him for abandoning us and having to arrange cover sessions for the students. I got myself ready for the morning, and by then other staff had arrived, and I informed

[00:23:54] them that I had seen John and again questioned whether he'd be with us for the morning at the school. It would have been almost 8.20 by this time. I exited a classroom, and I see John walk to his room with his bag. I called out,

[00:24:08] Where were you going earlier? To which he replied, When? I recalled passing him on the street and waving at him, and him waving back. John appeared to be very confused with what I was saying, and was adamant that it was not him that I had seen.

[00:24:23] I smiled at him and said, Yeah, whatever, but he stated that he had driven straight here, and that he had only just arrived. John appeared genuinely as confused as I was. After this revelation, I began to feel quite uneasy.

[00:24:37] I walked back into my room and began to go through the details. It was the same car, the right color, and the fact that it was John that I had seen made it no easier to comprehend.

[00:24:50] I thought about it the whole day on and off, but it was only later in the evening that I began to question the occurrence even more. If it wasn't John, then who was it? It was definitely made to appear in his guise.

[00:25:02] I then thought of the phenomena of doppelgangers, and this led me to more questions. Looking back, the John that I saw on the road was very insistent that I see him, beeping his horn with his window down, and looking directly at me and waving.

[00:25:17] If anything, it was a bit too animated. Our last story of the night is another of the more well-known encounters with a doppelganger that was experienced by none other than Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States.

[00:25:34] Lincoln was a true believer in the unexplained, and it was well known within his family and close friends that he felt a connection to the paranormal. Lincoln also shared this interest with his wife Mary, and on the evening of his first

[00:25:47] election, Abraham would have an experience that he and his wife would never forget. After a long and tiring day, Lincoln went into his room and decided to rest on a nearby couch. While surveying the room and replaying the day's events in his mind, his gaze eventually

[00:26:04] came to rest on a large mirror that faced the couch where he was sitting. Lincoln's relaxed state eventually turned to confusion as he stared at his reflection in the mirror. Not only was his reflection looking back at him, but right next to it was another image

[00:26:20] of his own face, which seemed to appear pale and sickly. Somewhat frightened, Lincoln quickly stood up and moved toward the mirror, but the phantom face completely disappeared. Hoping to see it again, he sat back down on the couch, and as he did, the ghostly double

[00:26:36] of his own reflection returned once more. After several minutes, the second face apparently faded, and Lincoln was left to ponder who or what had come to visit him in such a bizarre manner. Lincoln tried many times to recreate the strange encounter in the weeks that followed his initial

[00:26:54] experience. Only one other time was he able to see the creepy duplicate image staring back at him from the mirror. After sharing his experience with his wife Mary, Abraham became even more uneasy regarding his encounter, as Mary believed it to be an omen.

[00:27:11] Mary wholeheartedly came to believe that this was a sign that her husband would be re-elected for a second term, but that he would not live to see it through. Of course, her worst fears were realized when Lincoln was shot on April 14th, 1865

[00:27:26] and died the following day, just 41 days after being re-elected for his second term. There are several other brief encounters throughout history that have involved well-known people, one of which was Queen Elizabeth I, seeing her own doppelganger lying on her bed just before her death in 1603.

[00:27:47] Another being Catherine the Great, as well as her servants witnessing her own doppelganger sitting in her throne shortly before her death in 1796. In both of these cases, the entities did not interact with anyone and they seemed to be

[00:28:01] an omen of what was to come in the near future. This is what I find fascinating and perplexing about this phenomenon. There seem to be different versions of these entities, and in some cases people say that

[00:28:14] they got a very negative or evil feeling when they saw the doppelganger. Time and time again, you hear people say that the entity didn't speak, but that it stared at them with a sinister grin.

[00:28:26] Many people report that there is usually one specific detail about the appearance of the entity that doesn't match the original person's appearance. Many people have also said that these entities will sometimes give bizarre answers when asked simple questions. So what do you think? Are they ghosts? Demons?

[00:28:45] Astral projections? More importantly, have you had an encounter with one of these entities? If you've seen a doppelganger, I'd like you to email me. You can contact me at paranormalmysteriespodcast at gmail dot com.

[00:28:59] You can also get involved by joining our forum and by following us on social media. If you're wondering how you can support the show, you're supporting it right now just by listening, and we thank you.

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[00:29:21] New episodes are available on all of your favorite podcast apps, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and iHeart Radio. From all of us at Paranormal Mysteries, thank you for listening and remember, don't wait for the unknown to come to you. Get out there and find it.