• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Thai Doppelgänger

A

Anonymous

Guest
I attended university in a small mountain college from 1990-1995 and studied Travel Industry Management while there. Our school had an exchange program with a university in Thailand which meant that at any given time we had many Thai students enrolled in the travel studies curriculum. I became very close to several of these students over the years and was "adopted" into their group and even given a Thai nickname. In my last year of study I went to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand for a resort internship and then spent another week with a friend in Bangkok.

Since graduating and returning from Thailand I have lost contact with many of my former friends until recently. I received an indignant email a few months ago from my friend in Bangkok asking me why I hadn't informed him that I was visiting his city...

http://www.forteantimes.com/happened/thai.shtml

Link is dead. See post below for complete text.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
re: Dopplegangers

I've heard of things nearly identical. Had a girlfriend who at one point was seen in locations that she wasn't, when she wasn't. Even to the degree people engaged her in conversation. In short, she seemed to be in two places at once. I attribute this to a person's astral body being sighted. Or else some sort of transferrence of psyche that people who know the person pick up on.

Hoodoo yes, but so far I haven't found a more reliable explanation for the several very reliable people who reported her "double" interacting with them.
 
I am very fascinated by doppleganger stories. It is an interesting phenomena, to say the least.
I've noticed that in many of these stories, the "doppleganger" has a blank look about them, and often ignores or acts as if he/she doesn't hear things people say to them.
Hmmm....
 
,..,

Regarding the first story, I would imagine to your Thai friend we whiteys all look pretty much alike :D

As for the second, did you not think of comparing blood groups?
 
I am not sure what you mean by comparing blood groups? This was not extended interaction. No one thought of asking, or forcing a blood test from the doppleganger. For example in one instance, the girl came into a room and spoke extensively with her brother. She was not even in the same town at the time, much less home. He did not find the situation strange until he tried to locate her in the house later that day...and she subsequently returned later that night.
 
,..,

No no, i'm referring to the original poster's (Alex's) 2nd story (Last paragraph)

I mean, if it were me i'd have said to the nurse "so what was my bloodgroup this morning then?" :D

(Hopefully they wouldn't match, but knowing sod's law they probably would :D )
 
Perhaps, and this is a stretch I know, some of these doppleganger stories are coincidences. For example a few times in my life I've had complete strangers mistake me for someone they used to go to university with or live next door to and when I tell them I don't know them they are quite shocked as I apparently look very similar to the person they used to know. The human mind does tend to fill in the blanks and I suppose its possible that we could see someone that bears an uncanny resemblance to someone we know and assume its them. The fact that in a lot of these stories the doppleganger is wearing identical clothes to the original person could be a coincidence. I mean for example wearing a red jumper and jeans is not that unusual.

The astral projection theory is interesting but if a person is just sitting in a lecture or at work whilst their double is seen how could they project themselves while in this state? If the person is asleep it would make more sense to me. Also why project yourself getting a blood test and how could the nurses take a blood sample?
 
few years ago I moved to Huddersfield, where my parents had moved to while I was at uni. One night at the pub a guy who new my friends started talking to me like I knew him, when I said I had no idea about any of it, he realised I was someone else. When questioned, he said the guy I looked like was one of twins(didn't say identical, so I guess not). Strange thing is, that although the person I was supposed to be visited that pub regularly, I never saw him. Please bear in mind I'm 6"2', got very long hair, and dress fairly unusually. What made things stranger was a couple of months later, my mum was in town and started walking towards who she thought was me, until she realised it couldn't be because I had green hair at that point. But she would have spoken to this person before realising it wasn't her child if my hair had been normal!
Lots of people say they have seen me where I haven't been, and I'm not exactly your average joe, but I've never seen anyone who resembles me remotely.:confused:
 
I think I might be someone else's doppelganger. People keep thinking they know me, or that they've met me as well. A couple of times strangers have come up to me and greeted me happily by the wrong name. Once it was a group of about six, and none of them noticed that I wasn't the person they thought I was. What can you do in a situation like that but play along? I smiled and greeted them all, made a bit of small talk, and said goodbye.

I can only imagine the confusion when they found their real friend, and grin evilly to myself.
 
,..,

You should have asked 'em to lend you some money.
:D
 
I agree. And you should have made them take you to lunch after doing so in order to catch up on old times and ordered lavishly. Six people!

The story about the guy giving a blood sample is a bit disturbing. Those nurses should have had records of who was coming, should have taken details and verified the patient before proceeding and would have noted the info on his medical records. Its a bit serious having someone else's procedures marked down on your medical records even if they did think there was a doppelganger. Having realised that the mistake there should also have been a serious investigation into who the patient actually was and what the results of the test could tell them, etc. Sounds a bit fabricated to me, that one. I just can't believe that two medical staff well versed in confidentiality and data-protection of medical files etc would have dismissed the incident so lightly. Sorry.

I've never been mistaken for anybody.

You lot all sound like you're destined to haunt places after your demise.
 
Re: ,..,

Diabolik said:
As for the second, did you not think of comparing blood groups?
Click to expand...

I'm a bit confused about that, too. Why not ask "what was the name of this person?" or something along those lines. Presumably there are patient confidentiality issues if it's a totally different person, but someone would be able to come to a conclusion about the identity of the doppleganger without too much difficulty under those circumstances.
 
dont have a briefcase full of soap do you? :)

" If you wake up at a different time in a different place, could you wake up as a different person? "
 
About two years ago while having blood drawn for routine medical tests, the attending nurses welcomed me back into the laboratory and asked me to please be more cooperative this time while being stuck with a syringe. I looked at them with a perplexed look on my face and asked what they meant. It seems that I had been in just a bit earlier that same morning and had put up quite a fight whilst having my blood drawn which is totally out of character for me. The nurses both insisted that not only did the earlier patient look and talk exactly like me but had on the exact same clothes as I was wearing. I assured them that it was not me because I would have been in my GP's office during that time to which they replied that I must then have an identical twin in town who shopped in the same clothing stores as I did.
Click to expand...

I agree with Chant about this bit- I'd have been very worried indeed if someone had appeared to impersonate me at a clinic.

They'll be stealing your kidneys next.....:eek:
 
I'm always being mistaken for other people. Seems I have more than one twin running around. I think the Rev. Kirk sort of summed it up though when he said the fairies (UFO types, demons?) make a duplicate of you, but it doesn't seem to have a soul.

I've read stories of bodies being washed up on the beach, identified by parents, and then the "real" person showing up later. Who or what is buried in that grave? And why?
 
here is my personal take on this:
There are billions of people on this planet so of course some people are going to look and act extremely similar. I went to school with a guy who was my mirror image (just like in Edgar Allan Poe's "Wiilam Wilson") He shopped at the same type of clothing stores, spoke in the same manner, and looked so much like me that my own mother and many others were fooled. To make things even stranger I am Dutch-American and he is Puerto Rican-American, yet we got mixed up for each other on the phone and in person despite being of different ethnicity.

He and I joked about this many times. I used to ask him to take my girlfriend out to dinner for me cause no one would know the difference:D.
I know we are raised to beleive that every person is unique, but the truth is many of us wear the same kind of pants, get the same haircut etc. . with the number of humans there are on this planet i'd be amazed if i didn't have many other dopplegangers.

this story reminds me of the day my mother attended my high-school graduation. "my son looks so handsome" she said as she erroneously took about twenty pictures of my "doppleganger" friend.
---'goblin
 
When I was at university in Leeds between 1986-1990, I bumped into... myself! Just outside the student union one Sunday at about 3pm, I happened across a chap dressed almost exactly like me (in mountaineering/mountain biking gear - not exactly fashionable just then), with a pair of specs just like mine, a beard and hairstyle just like mine, the same height, build, face... it was like looking in a mirror.
I fired off tens of questions at high speed straight at him - just like you would, but guess what? He answered in SIGN LANGUAGE! Oh no, I thought, he can't speak... and therefore can't tell me who he is! Devoid of pen or paper (unusual at a place of study!), and in a hurry to get somewhere (as he seemed to be), I couldn't even find out his name.
I was flummoxed by all this, but felt sure we were destined to meet, and therefore destined to meet again. I took a course in British Sign Language, to the rudimentary CACDP 1 level, so that I could quiz him fully when the big day came. In the following years, many of my friends saw him but couldn't communicate for the same reasons... some of them even thought he was me, just putting them on!
Several of my friends had been quizzing me for months about a red-haired woman who they had seen me around with, and apparently while in her company I would mysteriously ignore or fail to acknowledge them, even when they shouted across the street at me. It took a while for the penny to drop, that this was someone they had seen with HIM... Even my ex-girlfriend had seen them together and was quite convinced he was me, she was quite insulted when he "ignored" (ie failed to hear) her, as she thought he was me, blanking her. She was not at all convinced by the excuse provided by "the real me".
I saw him pass me on a bus about a year later (I was on a bicycle) and sprinted like mad to catch the bus, but just couldn't quite hack it. I even joined Leeds Deaf Club, convinced I'd meet him or at least someone who knew him... all to no avail.
I left Leeds in 1999, never to hear of him again. Who on earth was he? I might never know...
 
hey sev you should read Edgar Allan Poe's "William Wilson"
It's about a guy who meets his doppleganger at university. The only difference between the guy and his clone is that the doppleganger can't speak above the tone of a whisper. sounds pretty similar to what happened to you.
In the story the guy and his doppleganger end up fighting to the death by the way.
 
The link in post #1 is long dead. Here's the complete text, salvaged from the Wayback Machine ...

-------------------------------------------

Thai Doppelganger

Alex Jones
Chapel Hill, NC., USA


I attended university in a small mountain college from 1990-1995 and studied Travel Industry Management while there. Our school had an exchange program with a university in Thailand which meant that at any given time we had many Thai students enrolled in the travel studies curriculum. I became very close to several of these students over the years and was "adopted" into their group and even given a Thai nickname. In my last year of study I went to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand for a resort internship and then spent another week with a friend in Bangkok.

Since graduating and returning from Thailand I have lost contact with many of my former friends until recently. I received an indignant email a few months ago from my friend in Bangkok asking me why I hadn't informed him that I was visiting his city. Apparently he was driving along Sukhumvit Road-Bangkok's most important road and cosmopolitan area-and while stuck in traffic I had walked directly beside his car a few feet from him which afforded him a face to face close up view. He rolled down his window and waved and spoke to me but I was totally unresponsive and kept walking. Keep in mind that this is someone who I knew very well over a period of many years and he would easily recognize my Anglo-Welsh face anywhere but most especially amongst a crowd of Thais where I would have stood out. My doppelganger was dressed in my manner, had the same type of hair cut, mannerisms, and my distinctive walk. I emailed him back assuring him that I was indeed in the USA at the time of this sighting and had not been anywhere near Bangkok for over eight years but to this day he insists that it was, in his own words, "100% you".

This is only the most recent example of my doppelganger making an appearance. About two years ago while having blood drawn for routine medical tests, the attending nurses welcomed me back into the laboratory and asked me to please be more cooperative this time while being stuck with a syringe. I looked at them with a perplexed look on my face and asked what they meant. It seems that I had been in just a bit earlier that same morning and had put up quite a fight whilst having my blood drawn which is totally out of character for me. The nurses both insisted that not only did the earlier patient look and talk exactly like me but had on the exact same clothes as I was wearing. I assured them that it was not me because I would have been in my GP's office during that time to which they replied that I must then have an identical twin in town who shopped in the same clothing stores as I did.

--------------------------------------------

SALVAGED FROM: https://web.archive.org/web/20030812203049/http://www.forteantimes.com:80/happened/thai.shtml
 
When I was working in HMP Blundeston in Suffolk I was walking to one part of the jail from another. I wasn't paying much attention to anything until I looked up and saw...me! A chap and I were looking each other directly in the face...we must have been thinking the same thing...a really awkward uncomfortable feeling passed between us as we were both clearly very shocked that we were looking at someone that was identical to oursleves...I recall we both looked down at the pavement and hurried along. I was very shocked...and there feeling between us was both weird and, if I'm honest, really disturbing.

The whole thing was weird because I'd been working there for about two years...prisons are small, close-knit communities...it seemed absolutely impossible that I'd been there for two years and I'd never seen this chap before (I knew all staff members enough to say "hi") or, that nobody had ever made a comment before. Seemed unbelieveable.

I saw him a few times since then...but, if I'm honest, we both kept our distance. For me at least because of that disturbing uncomfortable feeling. I'm assuming it was the same for him. I went on to work another few years in that particular jail and no colleague ever said a thing about or similarity. Only once, I was chatting to a couple of prisoners and something was obviously amusing them. When I asked what it was they asked, "have you got a brother that works here too?" But that was it. Nobody else ever said a word. Always makes me wonder if they found it as disturbing as I did.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top