DOPPELGANGERS RUNNING AMOK

The mythic figure of the doppelganger has made a recent appearance both in my own life and  in a number of different disguises across  in the noosphere.  The word "doppelgänger" is German.  It has come to generically refer to any double or look-alike of a person. Doppelgangers are generally regarded as harbingers of bad luck. In some traditions, a doppelgänger seen by a person’s friends or relatives portends illness or danger, while seeing one’s own doppelgänger is an omen of death. 

My hope is that by tracing the path left by this character, we may glean a bit of truth about the interlocking web of symbols, archtypes and myths that compose the matrix-like, future we now live in.

I first came across a doppelganger in my own life last December.  At a restaurant one evening, I was introduced to a guy named Matt who, after about 30 seconds of conversation, I realized was a literal doppelganger for one of my best friends, Julian.  Matt looked like Julian, talked liked Julian, had the same body expressions as Julian, and even talked about the same things.  It was an AMAZING experience.  And I think I freaked Matt out because after I told him he literally WAS my friend Julian, I couldn’t help but study his every word, inflection and body movement.   I can’t get across to you enough how strange it was to be looking at Julian, who wasn’t Julian.

Of course I’ve heard the expression, "Everybody has a Twin!" before but I had never actually experienced it to such a degree.  This went WAAAAAAYYYY beyond a simple look alike thing.  Again, Matt was a literal doppelganger of my friend Julian.

The doppelganger has a rich history.  On 8 July 1822, Percy Bysshe Shelley, English poet, drowned.  On  August 15th, while staying at Pisa, Percy’s wife Mary Shelley wrote a letter to Maria Gisborne in which she relayed Percy’s claims that he had met his own doppelgänger. A week after Mary’s nearly fatal miscarriage, in the early hours of 23 June, Percy had had a nightmare about the house collapsing in a flood, and

"… talking it over the next morning he told me that he had had many visions lately — he had seen the figure of himself which met him as he walked on the terrace & said to him — "How long do you mean to be content" — No very terrific words & certainly not prophetic of what has occurred. But Shelley had often seen these figures when ill."

Note that Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, one of the most famous doppelganger stories in the world.  The Frankenstein monster being a kind of manufactured double of a real human being.

President Lincoln once saw his doppelganger in a mirror.  He once wrote about the instance:

"It was just after my election in 1860, when the news had been coming in thick and fast all day and there had been a great "hurrah, boys," so that I was well tired out, and went home to rest, throwing myself down on a lounge in my chamber. Opposite where I lay was a bureau with a swinging glass upon it (and here he got up and placed furniture to illustrate the position), and looking in that glass I saw myself reflected nearly at full length; but my face, I noticed had two separate and distinct images, the tip of the nose of one being about three inches from the tip of the other. I was a little bothered, perhaps startled, and got up and looked in the glass, but the illusion vanished.

On lying down again, I saw it a second time, plainer, if possible, than before; and then I noticed that one of the faces was a little paler — say five shades — than the other. I got up, and the thing melted away, and I went off, and in the excitement of the hour forgot all about it — nearly, but not quite, for the thing would once in a while come up, and give me a little pang as if something uncomfortable had happened. When I went home again that night I told my wife about it, and a few days afterward I made the experiment again, when (with a laugh), sure enough! the thing came back again; but I never succeeded in bringing the ghost back after that, though I once tried very industriously to show it to my wife, who was somewhat worried about it. She thought it was a "sign" that I was to be elected to a second term of office, and that the paleness of one of the faces was an omen that I should not see life through the last term."

Here’s some images of recent manifestations of the doppelganger.

This is a poster from a Japanese film about doppelgangars.  When people see their doppelganger, as told by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, they are destined to die soon.  

Here’s another images from a movie having to do with doppelgangers.  It is a still from Southland Tales.   The story centers around Sean William Scott’s character who is confronted with his double.   Note the semantic play on the word UPU2 in this mirrored image.

Below is another image from the movie, at the movie’s climax when Scott confronts his doppelganger.

If you haven’t seen this movie, do so now.   Run, do not walk. It’s a post-post modern fairy tale that examines many of the symbols and themes we currently find coursing through our collective consciousness. Here’s some clips from the film.

Above is the film’s trailer.

A great scene with Justin Timberlaka aka Pan, aka The Trickster, the films narrator.

Sarah Michelle Geller’s best role since Buffy.

Here’s another great Doppellganger image.

The Mini-Me is a classic Doppelganger.

A couple celebrity doppelgagners.  The first is Katy Perry and Zooey Deschanel.

Here’s Bono and Robin Williams

Here’s John Heder and James Blunt

Here’s a doppelganger from the fantasy cardgame Magick: The Gathering

In this playing card the doppelganger is atop a Freemasonic black and white checkerboard floor – shown below in a Masonic Tracing Board.

In this picture the columns are symbolic of the Twin Towers in New Yok City, which brings us to another double or doppelganger.  We were recently graced with a resurfacing, or an echo, or doppelganger of the 9-11 event with the release of new images of the collapse of the Twin Towers – doppelagangers of the original 9-11 images that were burned into everyone’s brain.

Here’s some playful doppelgangers.

Leggo my doppelganger!

We saw the dopellganger in relation to the now infamous Norway Spiral.  Perhaps as a way to quiet speculation about the first spiral, perhaps as a real coincidence – regardless, not long after the first Norway Spiral spun onto blogs across the internet, we saw a second spiral over russia.

However, this one didn’t really look that much like the first one that spiralled over Oslo, Norway.

Here’s the first Norway Spiral

Norway has a long tradition of doppelganger stories.  A couple days after seeing the doppelganger of my friend Julian, I came across a great tale of Norwegian doppelganger called a vardoger, or an "arrival case" which means the appearance of a person before their actual arrival. 

In an arrival case the arriving phantom frequently appears in the same clothing the individual is wearing at the same time.  The individual is usually not aware of appearing in a distant location until told about it. . .Arrivals have been claimed to eat, sleep and seem so real that anyone could believe it was a double (doppelganger) of the real person."

"One unusual vardoger case occurred in Oslo and concrened Erikson Gorique, and American importer.  For years, Gorique had wanted to go to Norway but was forced to keep postponing his trip.  In July, 1955 he was finally able to go.  On his arrival in Oslo, Gorique asked where he might stay.  Much to his astonishment, when he arrived at the recommended hotel he was greeted by name by the hotel clerk.  The clerk told him it was nice to see him again.  When Gorique protested that he had never before travelled to Norway or been at the hotel, the puzzled clerk insited that he not mistake Gorique’s unusual name and American appearance.  He said Gorique stayed at the hotel several months earlier and had made reservations to return that month.

Gorique was even more surprise when he visited a wholesale dealer, who also greeted him like an old friend, saying it was terrific to have him back to conclude previous business.  Gorique told the dealer that he hadn’t been there before, whereupon the dealer nodded knowingly and explained the vardoger phenomneon.  "It is not uncommon in Norway," he said."

Why Norway?  Why Oslo?  I don’t know.    

But at exactly the same time we saw the two Norway Spirals, we saw another doppelganger situation arise in Oslo, Norwway. 

Scientologist Will Smith made an  appearance at the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize awards in Oslo, Norway to honor president Obama.    As the Norway spiral was appearring in the skies above Oslo, doppelgangers Burak Obama and Will Smith were there together.  Here’s a quote from Obama about Will Smith:

"In an interview with Entertainment Tonight last year, Obama said he’d like to see Smith play him if a movie is made about his life."

Here’s Mr. Smith clapping as Obama enters the Ceremony. 

Here’s a picture I found on the Internet of the doppelgangers.

If Obama had a Facebook page, and had to put a celebrity doppelganger as his look alike, he would choose Will Smith.  Two doppelgangers in a country with a long history of doppelgangers at the same time a symbollically stunning event occurs (and it’s double – the two Norway Spirals).

Obama split from the Oslo celebration early, but he left his doppelganger Smith to take his place [ - and who can blame him for leaving early with Russian Missle tests going awry above the city!]. 

The following picture is of Will Smith in the movie ‘Pursuit of Happyness’. 

Note that in this picture, with the child leaning in, Will and boy form a capstoned pyramid with the kids head being the all-seeing eye and his arm being the bottom of the capstone.

‘Pursuit of Happyness’ is a movie about Will Smith working as an unpaid intern in a stock brokerage firm to avoid becoming homeless, and ‘make it’ in the fast pace world of Wall Street finance.  It’s a touching story on one level.  On another level, it’s a story about a man’s initiation into the world of the corporate Matrix.  ‘Making it’ in this movie means embedding yourself in the Matrix., or becoming an agent of the Matrix.

Right about the same time this movie was being released (again, showing Will Smith being initiated into the Matrix), Obama was being initiated into the position of presidential candidate, becoming another type of agent of the Matrix. The movie ‘Pursuit of Happyness’ came out on December 15th, 2006.  Obama was behind Hillary Clinton in the polls at this time, but would soon rocket ahead.  That would make his initiation into the role of president (an agent of the Matrix) at the same time Will Smith was being inititated into his role as an agent of the Matrix on the big screen.  Again, doppelgangers.

The doppelganger made an appearance on Facebook recently as well.  Millions of people celebrated their celebrity doubles by posting famous look alikes as their profile pictures in a meme fest coined doppellganger week by the press.

The status posting announcing it read:

"It’s Doppelgänger week on Facebook; change your profile picture to someone famous (actor, musician, athlete, etc.) you have been told you look like. After you update your profile with your twin or switched at birth photo then cut/paste this to your status."

It looks like Facebook is becoming a meme-garden. . .  but to what effect?

In our current post-post-modern society where memes and archtypes seem to run rickshaw through our collective consciousness,  we need a place where they are born.  Perhaps Facebook is that place, or is becoming that place.  It’s been amazing to watch the viral power of memes as they spread through social networks over the past year.  This is a recent development that has added a new dimension of physicality to the noosphere and has made the internet even more of a playground for archetypes and memes.

 The mini-me is a miniature doppelganger and is symbolic of the clone or cloning in that both are doubles. 

Here’s another.

Mini Me (writing): Are you sure you don’t have a little clone in you?
Foxxy Cleopatra: Yeah. I’m sure.
Mini Me (writing): Would you like to?

The mini-me doppelganger showed up again during the superbowl in a commercial starring the rock band K.I.S.S.  Kiss, in black and white make-up reminiscent of the black and white checker-board of the Masons, told us to Trust them as they played on stage with their mini-mes and told us they were doctor love.

We also see a mini-me appear in another recently created node in the noosphere – an occult laden hip hop video by pop star, Ludacris called "How Low".   It’s about summoning demons by dancing really low to the ground.  The demon, played by Ludacris, is called "Low"

In the middle of the video, before the "Get Low" demon,played by Ludacris,can jump through the stargate/mirror into our dimension, his mini-me must come out before him to test the waters.

Demon summoning, doppelgangers and the word "Lo" find themselves bound together in another recent narrative – an indie film called, Lo.  I don’t want to give too much away other than to say it features a demon named Lo, the demon’s doppelganger, and a man that summons them to do his bidding. It also features the entangling of the ideas of demons, doppellgangers and love like the KISS commercial.

 Lo! was also the name of the third book by Charles Fort and was recently recommended on the late night conspiranoid talk show Coast to Coast AM as the book to read if you want to dig into Fort’s often obtuse tomes.

Link to a free hypertext version Charle’s Fort’s Lo!

Here a quote about the book by late conspiranoid researcher Mac Tonnies:

"This book is a singularity, a focal point so rich with heretical memes that it’s infected an entire century with its bizarre implications and sense of the inexplicable. Perhaps if Charles Fort had never existed, we would have been forced to invent him, or someone like him. But it’s doubtful we could have improved on him. LO! is something new and correspondingly startling: a crack in the veneer of orthodoxy and an impassioned plunge into the deep black waters of a most enigmatic planet."

This connection of the word Lo to demons is interesting as on the New York Stock Exchange the symbol LO is for Lorillard, Inc. – the third largest and oldest running tobacco company in the United States.  They make Newport cigarettes.

I’ve heard cigarettes called little devils befores.   Perhaps Lo is a minor deamon that Ludacris is calling upon by imitation in his video?

That a Demon is named after a cigarette company and vice versa is very interesting in terms of semantic synchronicities.  Could this cigarette company be the manifestion of some kind of dark energy?  A dark energy that has a name?  Lo. 

It’s also interesting in terms of how our language is encoded – that the word Low (down, trampled as opposed to up, enlightened) would resonate with the name of a demon.  Is there a demon called down? 

Lo also has deep mythological roots. In Greek mythology Lo was a priestess of Hera that Zeus saw in a holy grove.  He  proceeded to "Get Low" with her.  Hera catches them in the middle of this carnal act and she or Zeus, we’re not sure, transformed her into a white cow for her transgressions. 

Hera set a giant one-eyed (all seeing eye?) guard to watch after her.  Zeus, feeling bad for what had happened , sent Hermes to rescue Lo from the giant.  He beheaded the one-eyed giant and turned it into a peacok.  He then  swept Lo away to Egypt where she gave birth to Epaphus and began the Egyptian race.

Here’s Zeus and Hera

The last doppelganger sighting I want to call out is a new movie called Primer.  If you’re the type of person that would read this site, and have actually made it this far into the article, the do yourself a favor and watch the movie Primer.  It’s the smartest movie since the Matrix, and probably smarter.  We’re calling it out as the new Matrix for the deep, ontological questions it raises about reality and our place in it. 

It has to do with time travel and the multiplication of people so that two versions of the same person can exist in the same reality together.   This is similar to the issues that the Philip K. Dick movie Southland Tales talks about.

An internet prophet once conjectured that humanity died on 9-11.  I think he meant that the public ritual of taking down the twin towers, the double magick encoded in that act, was enough to split reality in two so that we spiraled off from what may have once been our destiny.  We’ve become unhinged.

The idea is that we are now moving through a freer, more chaotic timeline.  We are now doubles, doppelgangers, of what we are really supposed to be.  We are doubles of the timeline we are supposed to be on, or doubles now caught in a separate dimension we’re only now beginning to see.

 The doppelganger represents a new, seemingly tennable situation where we have two living things, ostensibly the same thing, living side by side – either by  split personalities, Time Travel, through cloning, or by transfering your personality into some alternate version of yourself. 

Leave it to humanity – no sooner do we discover mulitple dimensions, then we hurl ourselves into one.

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Related posts:

1. Doppelganger Sighting on American Dad
2. Doppelganger Sighted in Parody Story about Elders of Zion
3. Questioning the Norway Spiral
4. Cruise Passengers Describe Freak Waves – NEW UPDATE!
5. The M Doppelganger