DOPPELGANGER, SPIRIT DOUBLE, DOUBLE WALKER, TIME WARP, JULIE VON GULDENSTUBBE, EMILIE SAGEE, ANCIENT EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY, NORSE FOLKLORE, ORKNEY ISLANDS IN SCOTLAND, NATIVE AMERICAN FOLKLORE, BI-LOCATION

DOPPELGANGER II

Hi to all my readers out there! How has the week transpired for you all? I unfortunately have been sick, first a sinus infection and now a bronchial infection. Ugh! But I never forget that there are brother and sister Christians out there that are in far worst circumstances than me and I always feel the love of our Lord Jesus so I push on through the week and try not to complain. (But I can’t help but wonder if my doppelgänger out there is sick too, ha-ha!)

What did you think of those pictures last week? Pretty Amazing huh! At first I really thought that some of them were actually the same person doubled in the photo. But non of them where!  So this week we will look into the other definition of doppelgänger; the one that is sometimes portrayed as a paranormal phenomenon; or as a harbinger of bad luck; or the as an evil twin; or can a person be in two places at once? How did these inquiries come about and does it have any validity.

“There are many intriguing accounts throughout history of people who claim to have either encountered apparitions of themselves -- their doppelgängers -- or have experienced

the phenomenon of bilocation, being in two separate locations at the very same time…Traditionally, it is said that

only the owner of the doppelganger can see this phantom self, and that it can be a harbinger of death. Occasionally, however, a doppelganger can be seen by a person's friends or family, resulting in quite a bit of confusion. In instances of biolocation, a person can either spontaneously or willingly project his or her double, known as a "wraith," to a remote location.This double is indistinguishable from the real person and can interact with others just as the real person would. 

“One of the most fascinating reports of a doppelganger comes from American writer Robert Dale Owen who was told the story by Julie von Güldenstubbe, the second daughter of the Baron von Güldenstubbe. In 1845, when von Güldenstubbe was 13, she attended Pensionat von

Neuwelcke, an exclusive girl's school near Wolmar in what is now Latvia. One of her teachers was a 32-year-old French woman named Emilie Sagée. And although the school's administration was quite pleased with Sagée's performance,

she soon became the object of rumor and odd speculation. Sagée, it seemed, had a double that would appear and disappear in full view of the students. n the middle of class one day, while Sagée was writing on the blackboard, her exact double appeared beside her. The doppelganger precisely copied the teacher's every move as she wrote, except that it did not hold any chalk. The event was witnessed by 13 students in the classroom. A similar

Sagee

incident was reported at dinner one evening when Sagée's doppelganger was seen standing behind her, mimicking the movements of her eating, although it held no utensils.

“The doppelganger did not always echo her movements, however. On several occasions, Sagée would be seen in one part of the school when it was known that she was in another at that time. The most astonishing instance of this took place in full view of the entire student body of 42 students on a summer day in 1846. The girls were all assembled in the school hall for their sewing and embroidery lessons.

“As they sat at the long tables working, they could clearly see Sagée in the school's garden gathering flowers. Another teacher was supervising the children. When this teacher left the room to talk to the headmistress, Sagée's doppelganger appeared in her chair -- while the real Sagée could still be seen in the garden. The students noted that Sagée's

movements in the garden looked tired while the doppelganger sat motionless. Two brave girls approached the phantom and tried to touch it, but felt an odd resistance in the air surrounding it. One girl actually stepped between the teacher's chair and the table, passing right through the apparition, which remained motionless. It then slowly vanished. Sagée claimed never to have seen the doppelganger herself, but said that whenever it was said to appear, she felt drained and fatigued. Her physical color even seemed to pale at those times.”¹

Another example of such an incident occurred much more recently. “On a very hot July day in 2005, I was sitting in the family room of my one-story brick ranch located in O'Fallon, Illinois. It was 11:45 a.m. and I had just finished watching a video and was contemplating eating lunch at a nearby Chinese restaurant. My husband, Mike, had been at his church for a workshop since early in the morning. He had

told me there would be a luncheon served after the meeting.

“I looked up at the clock and noted the time. I then saw my husband walk up our sidewalk, from the driveway outside of the family room's window, to adjust the outside faucet (in order to water the grass and ivy). I watched him as he walked through the ivy, twist at the faucet, then shake his hands of the water that had gotten on him from turning the faucet. He stood a moment watching, to make sure the water was trickling across the ivy. He wore a yellow short-sleeved shirt, khaki dockers, dark suspenders and his causal work shoes.

“At this time, as I was watching him, my two Boston terriers raced across from the family room into our living room to the front door. They began barking excitedly in the entryway hallway. I assumed they heard him and knew he would be shortly approaching the door. I watched him a good three to four minutes while he fiddled with the faucet. Absentmindedly, I thought, Darn, he doesn't like Chinese food, so I will have to cancel my plans for lunch.

“Nothing seemed out of the ordinary to me at that moment. It was at that moment that I literally started shaking. Fear ripped through me when I realized I had not heard my husband's car.(He always locks it with a device on his key chain that beeps indicating the car is locked.) I had not heard the faucet turn and squeak, nor did I hear any sounds of water running, which can be heard every time my husband activates it. (The window from which I had observed my husband is full-length and about four feet from where I had been sitting.) I realized, I could not have missed the distinctive sound of the faucet and water.

“Additionally, I began seriously shaking when I realized that the outfit my husband had been wearing while "watering" was not the outfit he had left in that morning. He had been wearing blue-jean shorts with a short-sleeved, blue-checked shirt and athletic shoes with white socks. Very anxious with this thought, I turned to see why my dogs were still making such a racket and were still barking at the front door.

“When I turned my head back to the window after a brief time, Mike was gone. I had a clear view of the front of my yard, the driveway, sidewalk and street. He just vanished. The dogs became quiet.

“Totally afraid of what I had just witnessed, I started trying to piece everything together in a logical manner: Mike came home, changed his clothes, etc.... My mind was churning

over what I had just witnessed. How had this been possible?

“I immediately grabbed the telephone and called my husband on his cell. He answered right away and told me he had just sat down for the luncheon. He had never left the church! I asked him what clothes he had on, etc. He told me shorts, etc. I related what I had just witnessed. My husband of 32 years took this very calmly. He really didn't react because he had no explanation for the event. (My husband is a civil engineer with typical, logical left-brain thinking. Odd occurrences do not fit in the realm of science as he knows it.) Could it have been some time warp? I consider myself an educated, mature, ordinary person, but I have no reason for this to have happened. I still get shivers when I think about this today. I just know that our world, as we know it, is very small. There are so many strange and odd events which happen continually to ordinary people, I have concluded there is the possibility of paranormal events which cannot be scientifically explained.”³

“So where did belief in spirit doubles come from and is there any real truth to them? While many today still belief in the existence of a double self, some scientists believe the phenomenon occurs based on injuries or stimulation to certain parts of the brain which cause errors in spatial reasoning. Others believe it is the result of a vision, hallucination, or that we live in a parallel universe in which everything in this world is replicated in another dimension.”²

There are many legends and myths of doppelgängers found around the world; in Ancient Egyptian mythology, in Norse folklore, the Orkney Islands in Scotland (originally occupied by Mesolithic and Neolithic tribes and then by the Picts, Orkney was invaded and forcibly annexed by Norway in 875 and settled by the Norse), and many Native American tribes. So just as the legends of a single global flood and the split of one original language point to a core truth, there is some truth to doppelgänger phenomenon. 

Belief in the spirit double has instilled both fear and wonder in people for thousands of years. But if you notice, the cultures that have most often encountered spiritual doppelgängers are not Christian or at least their origins are

not Christian. And though in the example I gave of the 2005 doppelgänger incident, the man was at church, the article did not specify what church. And I would like to point out, there are many churches that claim to be Christian, yet do not follow the teachings of Jesus and all of scripture. They pick and choose what they want to follow and so become false churches. Whether that is true of the man in the article, I do not know. 

What I do know is that Jesus and His angels reveal themselves to us mortals. In scripture, the angels always reassure us with the words, “Fear not!” We can recognize that these beings are from the Lord. The doppelgänger apparitions however, leave people confused and afraid. Demons are masters of disguise and confused. We know from scripture that there are other principalities out there including the principality of darkness. I think it is reasonable to conclude that any of this type of phenomena, whether it be bi-location, a spirit double that others see, or one that only you can see of your self, or a time warp, is not of the Lord and should be prayed against. Pray that Jesus covers you in His precious blood. Run to Him and be safe.

Until next time, God bless and be safe!

Willow Dressel

Just to lighten the mood a little!

References:

¹http://paranormal.about.com/od/Doppelgangers/a/doppelgangers.htm

²http://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/doppelgangers-and-mythology-spirit-doubles-001825?page=0%2C1#sthash.ScNddU0S.dpuf

³http://paranormal.about.com/od/humanenigmas/a/tales_09_01_06t.htm