Ghosts of the living are generally doppelgangers — in German, “double goer” — described as a double or lookalike of a person.

Though they don’t necessarily predict tragedy, many people believe that it’s bad luck to see a doppelganger.  Usually, it’s supposed to predict a terrible event related to the person whose image is seen, not the person who sees him or her.

There have been many doppelgangers — or ghosts of the living — in history and in literature.

Percy Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelley is one of the more famous ones.  According to reports, he saw the image of himself — a doppelganger — several times.

In 1820, he wrote in Act I of Prometheus Unbound:

“Ere Babylon was dust,
The Magus Zoroaster, my dear child,
Met his own image walking in the garden…”

Later, Percy Shelley’s wife, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley (best known for her novel, Frankenstein) described a nightmare in which Shelley saw himself.  The dream occurred during the early morning hours of June 23, 1822.  According to Mary, Percy saw himself in his house as it collapsed in a flood.

… 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; but the strangest thing is that Mrs Williams saw him. Now Jane, though a woman of sensibility, has not much imagination & is not in the slightest degree nervous — neither in dreams or otherwise.

She was standing one day, the day before I was taken ill*,  at a window that looked on the Terrace with Trelawny — it was day — she saw as she thought Shelley pass by the window, as he often was then, without a coat or jacket — he passed again — now as he passed both times the same way — and as from the side towards which he went each time there was no way to get back except past the window again (except over a wall twenty feet from the ground) she was struck at seeing him pass twice thus & looked out & seeing him no more she cried — “Good God can Shelley have leapt from the wall? Where can he be gone?”

Shelley, said Trelawny — “No Shelley has past — What do you mean?”

Trelawny says that she trembled exceedingly when she heard this & it proved indeed that Shelley had never been on the terrace & was far off at the time she saw him.

*The “taken ill” reference meant about a week earlier, when Mrs. Shelley nearly died during a miscarriage.

Percy Shelley appeared to have drowned about two weeks later, on July 8th.  When the body washed up on shore, it was cremated on the beach.

Some thought Shelley’s death was a suicide, but more evidence suggests a political assassination.  Several previous attempts on Shelley’s life had been unsuccessful.

Yet another theory — supported by a rumored deathbed confession — involved an attempted robbery by an Italian fisherman.

Abraham Lincoln

According to Carl Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln saw himself reflected twice in his own mirror.  One image was normal, but the other was deathly pale.  Lincoln and his wife interpreted the vision to mean that he’d be elected twice, but wouldn’t live to complete his second term.

In 1895 book, Washington in Lincoln’s Time, author Noah Brooks describes a story told to him by President Lincoln in 1864.  He described the same event, in which Lincoln saw himself in the mirror.

“…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…”

Modern interpretations

Doppelgangers — or images of the self — appear throughout fiction and in many computer games.   Often, the person is symbolically learning to overcome his (or her) own weaknesses.   For example, in the Star Wars series, Luke has a dream in which he fights himself and learns an important lesson.

The movie series, Back to the Future, also includes doppelganger-like images.  However, they are attributed to time travel and parallel realities.

A Swiss experiment in 2006 was able to recreate visual images similar (but not identical) to a doppelganger by using EMF to affect the person’s brain.

Some people have speculated that cloning efforts have been successful, and that explains some apparent doppelgangers.

One of the most popular rumors is that King Leopold II of Belgium (died December 1909) was cloned shortly before his death, and one well-known clone was Errol Flynn (born June 1909).  Proponents of that theory point to remarkable physical similarities, including a near-identical ear pattern.

However, most people believe that doppelgangers are a paranormal phenomenon, and either evidence of time travel (or parallel realities) or a kind of premonition.

Though doppelgangers don’t represent deceased people, they’re often referred to as ghosts of the living.

Related posts:

1. Living with Ghosts
2. Meadowbrook Farms Ghosts – Part 1