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Mirror Images & Life 'Reversal' Events

Vida Loca

Devoted Cultist
Joined
Feb 2, 2019
Messages
226
Location
Somewhere...out there...
I dont know if anyone else experiences this but it has happened to me a lot over the years. It cant be down to coincidence nor can it be put down to being deliberate in any way. I seem to end up in buildings years later that were opposite ones I was in before some years earlier. Also I feel as though I am in a mirror image of my life as to what it should be when this happens. I will try and explain if I can as it is most odd and hard to describe really. I hope someone else has experienced it as it will make me feel better about it as it unsettles me. Here are some examples.

Many years ago I worked in an office in the town centre. I would often look out across the road at a house with a little garden and wonder who lived there as they seemed an 'arty' type of family with a couple of children. Many years later after I had left the office my daughter bought the house and I ended up looking out across the road to the office.

Another time in a former life I was working in an office in the next town. Our tea room was at the back of the building and if you looked out of the window further along was another building with windows that jutted out too. I often looked across and wondered what went on in there while sipping my coffee. Anyway some years later after leaving my job a lot of things changed for me and I started doing voluntary work in my home town. I would sometimes go on courses and attend events all over the country. I was then selected to do a course of training in the next town right in the building opposite to my old office. I was then able to look out of the back window at the tea room. It was like a role reversal if that makes sense. I found it all rather weird as it had been some years since I had worked there and a lot of changes had happened in my life.

I live in a flat that is opposite a pub that we have been regulars in for may years. I used to live in a house but had to leave and this flat was the only suitable one I could find in an emergency. I often used to look up out of the pub window and wonder who lived there etc. I didn't expect what happened to my house to cause me to move after 16 years and didn't intentionally create the situation if that makes sense.

There are other incidents of this and some not building related that are hard to explain. It is as though people I was friendly with have stolen my lives/careers and their now lives should be mine had I not met them but I am in opposite situations and negative ones. They aren't friends anymore and weren't genuine friends. I expect this sort of thing has happened to others but it is weird and unsettling to feel your life is a reflection of what it should be or could be.
 
Do you live in a big town/city where this sort of thing really shouldn't be expected to happen?

Round here is hugely rural, not much in the way of jobs or suitable housing, and you are quite likely to find yourself living next door to your previous self, or working opposite where you used to work. Or, in my case, stabling a horse with someone you used to see riding from a distance and envy madly.
 
Hi Catseye

I like that comment you made too. I live in the Welsh valleys which I know tends to be tight knit at times but thinking deeper no I wouldn't expect it to happen as it does. Hard to explain but I don't know of anyone else with the same weirdness. It all just amazed me. There is a definite pattern of this over many years involving buildings and also employment situations.
 
On this theme... my parents live in a house across the road from where they used to live.
They originally bought a house on a new estate, but they did a swop with people across the road from them. All new houses, all with the same spec, but for some reason both they and their neighbours came to the same decision after being there for a month or two.
 
On this theme... my parents live in a house across the road from where they used to live.
They originally bought a house on a new estate, but they did a swop with people across the road from them. All new houses, all with the same spec, but for some reason both they and their neighbours came to the same decision after being there for a month or two.
I love this. Did they ever explain why? I'd settle for knowing how - I'm picturing furtive glances of yearning being cast as they pop over to borrow yet another cup of sugar. Who was first to broach the subject?
 
That sounds like an ideal life swop to me.
 
I love this. Did they ever explain why? I'd settle for knowing how - I'm picturing furtive glances of yearning being cast as they pop over to borrow yet another cup of sugar. Who was first to broach the subject?
I can't remember why. It was before I was born. I remember them explaining to me about the house swap, but I can't remember the why.
It may have been because they wanted a bigger garden or something like that.
 
I dont know if anyone else experiences this but it has happened to me a lot over the years. It cant be down to coincidence nor can it be put down to being deliberate in any way. I seem to end up in buildings years later that were opposite ones I was in before some years earlier. Also I feel as though I am in a mirror image of my life as to what it should be when this happens. I will try and explain if I can as it is most odd and hard to describe really. I hope someone else has experienced it as it will make me feel better about it as it unsettles me. Here are some examples.

Many years ago I worked in an office in the town centre. I would often look out across the road at a house with a little garden and wonder who lived there as they seemed an 'arty' type of family with a couple of children. Many years later after I had left the office my daughter bought the house and I ended up looking out across the road to the office.

Another time in a former life I was working in an office in the next town. Our tea room was at the back of the building and if you looked out of the window further along was another building with windows that jutted out too. I often looked across and wondered what went on in there while sipping my coffee. Anyway some years later after leaving my job a lot of things changed for me and I started doing voluntary work in my home town. I would sometimes go on courses and attend events all over the country. I was then selected to do a course of training in the next town right in the building opposite to my old office. I was then able to look out of the back window at the tea room. It was like a role reversal if that makes sense. I found it all rather weird as it had been some years since I had worked there and a lot of changes had happened in my life.

I live in a flat that is opposite a pub that we have been regulars in for may years. I used to live in a house but had to leave and this flat was the only suitable one I could find in an emergency. I often used to look up out of the pub window and wonder who lived there etc. I didn't expect what happened to my house to cause me to move after 16 years and didn't intentionally create the situation if that makes sense.

There are other incidents of this and some not building related that are hard to explain. It is as though people I was friendly with have stolen my lives/careers and their now lives should be mine had I not met them but I am in opposite situations and negative ones. They aren't friends anymore and weren't genuine friends. I expect this sort of thing has happened to others but it is weird and unsettling to feel your life is a reflection of what it should be or could be.

Very interesting, Vida Loca - it sounds as if this is a thread running through your life. When such things happen, I tend to think to think that we are supposed to figure out the meaning of it - perhaps what @David Plankton suggests is the correct way to handle it.

I haven't had this exact thing happen, but maybe a little similar.

When I was about 12, I had a huge crush on an older boy. I didn't know much about him, but would daydream about him all the time. When my family would take trips to the city (maybe twice a week or so) there was a house we'd pass, and as I was always mooning about in the backseat, I'd imagine that that was his house...no idea why, really, it was just part of the daydream. However, as it turned out, it really was his house, and eventually I ended up spending lots of time there.

Similar thing happened years later, when I was crushing on someone else. This time I knew which apartment complex he lived in, but not which apartment. I randomly selected a window and designated it as "his" window. (silly, yes, but that's love for you. ;)) Sure enough, it turned out that it actually was his window.

In a slightly different example, I once saw some girls talking on a stairway at another apartment complex, and had this sudden, intense surge of wishfulness. I thought it would be so nice to sit there on that stairway, talking to friends - as if everything would be okay then. A few months later, through pure happenstance, I did end up living at that place, spending much time sitting on that stairway with friends.

This sort of thing has happened on and off through the years. I've often wondered if there wasn't some sort of subtle foreknowledge that these places would be meaningful one day.
 
Ulalume that is an amazing twist on things. Seems you have a kind of weirdness too running through your life but in a different way of course.
 
Well, Vida Loca! This is a timely post! For me, anyway.

What I'm about to relate is not quite what you are talking about, but I get a strong sense of what you are feeling.

I've lived in my current house for 20 years this April, so most of my adult life. The mortgage will be paid off in 5 years, at which time my other half and I are going to quit the rat race and buy a house in the country.

But! The house next door to us is currently undergoing a massive renovation. It was rented-out by my neighbour and friend, Sue, until she died last year. She had lived in that house for most of *her* adult life and raised her children and grandchildren there.

When she passed, her landlord wasted no time kicking her youngest son out, chucking what was left of her worldly goods onto her front lawn, and selling the property. It was a massive shock and I've really grieved for the loss of my friend.

The guy doing the renovation has gutted the whole place (it needed it tbf) and is adding a two-story extension that will really make it a smashing house. He's a friendly chap and he often chats to me about what's happening.

This weekend my husband and I had a serious talk about buying that house when it's done. Our own house is worn and tired and it's going to need work done to it before we do sell it. With two teenagers it feels too small, and there's always something that needs fixing because we haven't been investing in it for years. The idea of moving to a newly renovated bigger house, just next door (so no moving fees), with the possibility of selling our house to the guy we're buying from (so no chain) just seems like such a good idea! Especially as we can't move to the country until the kids have spread their wings.

I keep thinking though, what it would be like to live in the house that Sue had lived in, seeing my old house as she did, seeing my old garden, my old life, through her windows, seeing my old house change, seeing new people move in, and... well to be frank it feels spooky.

It's not even that I feel great sentiment towards this current house. I don't much. It's more about, as a poster here put it, I don't know if my current self would much like living next to my old self. Would the shift disturb too many memories and muddy my every day life?

There is a strange thing, something about buildings only existing for just as long as you live or work there. An odd sense of time travel when seeing it's still there in brick and mortar even though to you it's a memory. And the knowledge that other people have memories of the place you live or work in, that feels a bit intrusive.

I do believe Vida Loca that the first step to getting something is to focus on it, and I do think it entirely possible that the universe arranged itself because of your idle moments looking through windows and reflecting on the inner lives of the buildings you were later to occupy.
 
Very interesting thoughts there Scribbles and yes I do know exactly what you mean.

You stated ( sorry not got the hang of quotes yet)

The guy doing the renovation has gutted the whole place (it needed it tbf) and is adding a two-story extension that will really make it a smashing house.

Which is exactly what is happening right now with my old house after 20 years of being empty - your post is timely too!
 
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There are other incidents of this and some not building related that are hard to explain. It is as though people I was friendly with have stolen my lives/careers and their now lives should be mine had I not met them but I am in opposite situations and negative ones.

This bit of your post makes me feel really sad. When I feel like things aren't right, what helps me is thinking that I'm absolutely on the correct path and that things are unfolding precisely as they need to. I find that gives me a bit of perspective and helps me calm down a bit.
 
Thanks Onetwothree I shall try doing that. Still it makes me wonder and has also affected my levels of trust in making friends with people. I have become more insular and only trust a few. Such is life I suppose. I am no longer as open as I used to be.
 
Years ago, I split with a boyfriend and spent sometime looking at houses. I wandered up a street and Instantly knew I would live there. The house at the end of the road was for rent. I rang the company. Had a look round, it was dearer than I could afford, but I still took it. I think I blurted out "what the hell I'll have it". Two hours later the company rang and said they had given me the wrong price. It was £50 a month cheaper than originally quoted. For some readon i hadxways wanted to live in a house that was a shop previously. Turns out It was an old off licence (this was well before I moved to this town). It's now been made into flats which makes me a bit sad.
 
Its not the same but a variation on a theme...

I live in a part of an old converted house, and I sometimes find myself wondering what my predecessors would have seen as they looked out of the window (the grounds are now mostly built upon), or how they would have used the rooms that I call my bedroom, kitchen etc.

Also, after I started my current job I realised that the company had adverts on the roundabout that I used to pass every day when I was working elsewhere. It's funny to think that I would have seen the signs daily and yet, at the time, I had no idea I'd end up working for them.
 
I'm currently staying in an apartment in a block which I watched being built over the course of 18 months living in the apartment block opposite. Moving next door to your previous self is indeed a dislocationary experience.
 
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