There are many stories about people who have seen their own counterparts. Most often, such cases are referred to as the so-called paranormal. Meanwhile, in psychiatry, they are well known as autoscopic hallucinations. They happen both with mental illness and in people who are mentally quite healthy. What is the reason?
What do doubles look like?
Experts identify common features of the appearance of twins. As a rule, they appear unexpectedly. Most often, the double is located facing the original, and you cannot reach it with your hands …
Although the size of the phantom is usually the same as the size of the original, often only certain parts of the “body” are visible, such as the head or torso. In this case, the details can be clearly visible, but the colors are either dull, or the double is generally colorless … It is transparent and looks either as consisting of a jelly-like substance or as a reflection in glass … Very often the double repeats all the movements of the original, copies the expression on his face. Mentally ill people often complain that their double is "mimicking" …
Writers and lookalikes
The phenomenon of twins has been repeatedly described in fiction. In G. Heine's poem "The Double", a typical description of the phenomenon of one's own "copy" to a healthy person is given. And the story of the same name by Dostoevsky tells about the hallucinations of a mentally ill hero.
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In the old days, there was a belief that a person who is destined to see his own double will soon die. Meanwhile, in the textbook "General Psychopathology" for medical students it is said that autoscopic hallucinations are often associated with severe forms of brain disorders. Indeed, in many cases doubles are seriously ill people …
A clinical case is a story that happened to the famous French writer Guy de Maupassant. In 1885, Maupassant was working on the story "The Eagle", which dealt with an invisible creature who settled in the hero's house … Suddenly, a man entered the room where the writer was, sat down opposite him and began to dictate the continuation of the work … Not immediately Maupassant realized that before him was his own "reflection"!
The double, however, quickly disappeared. And soon the writer fell ill with a mental disorder, which ultimately led to death …
Berkovich's case
A classic example of autoscopic hallucination is the case of Dr. Berkovich, which was described in detail by the outstanding Russian poet Vasily Zhukovsky in his article "Something about Ghosts." Zhukovsky, in turn, heard about this from his friend A. M. Druzhinin, who held the post of chief director of schools in Moscow.
According to Druzhinin, he was briefly acquainted with Dr. Berkovich and once, together with a certain Mrs. Peretz, went to visit him. Everyone was cheerful, had a pleasant conversation … At ten o'clock in the evening, Berkovich's wife asked him to go and see if they were setting the table for dinner. The doctor went into the dining room, where a door led directly from the living room. He returned a minute later, pale as a sheet, and until the end of the evening hardly spoke. All his former gaiety vanished as if by hand …
After supper Berkovich went to see off Mrs. Peretz and apparently caught a cold. The next day, Druzhinin was sent for with the news that the doctor had fallen ill and asked him to come. When he appeared, Berkovich told him: “I will soon die, I saw my death with my own eyes. When yesterday I left the living room and into the dining room to see if dinner was coming soon, I saw that the table was set, that there was a coffin on the table surrounded by candles, and that I myself was lying in the coffin. Be sure that you will bury me soon. Indeed, after a while the doctor died …
Zhukovsky himself gives this explanation: "It is very likely that in his body there was already an embryo of the disease, the cold developed the disease, and the disease, with the help of the imagination, frightened by the ghost, produced death."
Not a prophecy, but a diagnosis
In 1907, a book by the writer and journalist V. V. Bitner "Into the realm of the mysterious." In it, he also examines the phenomenon of doubles.
“Of course, this phenomenon… is abnormal,” the author writes, “and it testifies to a serious illness of the whole organism, indicating a deep disorder of the nervous system; therefore, if it happens to someone, in most cases it happens shortly before his death, or even at the very moment of transition to another world. Thus, the appearance of a double can only serve, so to speak, as an ominous diagnostic sign, but of course there is nothing prophetic in it …"
In general, if you saw a ghostly copy of yourself, then it is recommended not to go into mysticism, but to undergo a serious medical examination as soon as possible …