Throughout history, meeting a doppelganger usually meant bad luck and was considered as an evil omen by many folklore tales. Meeting a doppelganger in real life was seen as meeting with a malevolent twin or even a paranormal entity.
The science behind these twin strangers is also quite grim as heautoscopy or hallucinations of seeing your own body in the distance might be signs of schizophrenia and epilepsy, which explains why it was seen as a harbinger of bad luck in the olden days. Thankfully, today, we use the term doppelganger in a more general and neutral way to describe a person who looks or acts the same way as we do.
Bored Panda collected a list of people who experienced this bizarre look-alike phenomenon, and it genuinely looks like a glitch in the Matrix. Just think about it. You inherit the looks of your ancestors, and someone happens to look exactly like you, and you happen to meet him accidentally. What are the odds? And though it is quite an eerie experience, the chance for a fun picture is just too good.
If you have met your doppelganger in real life, we'd like to hear your story!
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My Doppelganger Was Seated Next To Me On A Plane, Then We Accidentally Checked Into The Same Hotel And Went For A Beer
The best part of this photo is the guy in the background getting a kick out of it!
I Found My Literal Doppelgänger Just Now Wtf
I Ran Into My Doppelganger At My Cousin's Wedding And She's My Cousin's Husband's Sister, No Other Relation
Are Doppelgangers Real?
The word “doppelganger” comes from the German language and literally means “double-goer” or “double-walker,” meaning a person who’s your visual copy. Unlike having an actual twin sibling, the doppelganger twins DNA will never match as they are supposed to be a carbon copy of you sans the shared genes. Spooky, right?
And although doppelgangers are very real in mythology and in popular culture (think “Twin Peaks” or “Us”), chances to meet one in real life are very, very slim. We’ll discuss just how slim they are in the next section.
My Friend Met His Doppelganger Last Night
When Retired Priest Neil Richardson Moved To Essex He Found People Kept Coming Up To Him To Say "Hello John" - Because His Double Already Lived There
My Own Doppelganger That I Ran Into At A Music Festival, Plus A Face-Swap Of The Photo
Is it Possible to Have a Doppelganger in Real Life?
In a nutshell, yes, it is possible to have a doppelganger in real life, but there’s one huge caveat—the chances of having a real-life doppelganger that matches the measurements of your facial features exactly is about one in a trillion. So, if you’re worried about identity theft or if the thought of doppelganger scary stories keeps you up at night, you can rest assured that meeting one in real life is nearly impossible.
This leads us to another question—does everyone have a doppelganger? While we’re not aces in math or statistics, the odds are against this. You may certainly find someone who looks similar to you in your lifetime, but to say that every one of us has an exact match or a real-life doppelganger wandering around is a far shot.
My Friend Found Her Doppelganger At A Party
My Friend Also Found His Doppelgänger At A Party
Doppelgangers. Truly Freaky
Are Doppelgangers Evil?
If we’re talking about real-life doppelgangers, one can never know with them! There are all kinds of people, and doppelgangers in real life can be both as good as you or as bad as your upstairs neighbor who seemingly wears wooden clogs and dances Kozachok in ungodly hours of the night.
If we’re talking about mythological doppelgangers, they almost certainly are all evil. Some mythologies name doppelgangers as harbingers of bad luck; most say they’re your evil twins, and the portrayal in popular culture almost always doubles them with the battle of good and evil.
So now that we know what a doppelganger is and the truth behind doppelganger's meaning, it’s up to you to decide whether to believe in their existence. Whether you think of them as evil entities or pure gene lottery, one thing is sure—they’re downright entertaining. Scroll down our list of real-life lookalikes and decide for yourself are doppelgangers real.
Bumped Into My Doppelganger At Subic Bay. My Dad, Cousins And Brother Accidentally Mistook Her For Me, So My Aunty Asked Her If We Could Take A Photo Together
DNA test needed! I mean even her own dad thought the doppelganger was her.
10 Years Ago When I Went Off To College For The First Time, People I Didn't Know Kept Coming Up To Me And Calling Me "Brian". My Name Is Josh. Then A Few Weeks Into The Semester I Met Brian And We Took This Picture Together.
Found My Doppelganger. Funny.... We Even Share The Same Birthday
My Dads Coworker Is Also His Doppelgänger
My Girlfriend Met Her Doppelganger
I Met My Twin Brother From Another Mother At The Bar. His Name Is Adam And He Also Likes Beer
My Bf (left) Met His Doppelganger At Ikea Last Night
Saw Doppelgänger On Front Page Met Mine A Few Weeks Ago
His Girlfriend Of One Year Started Walking Towards Me Thinking I Was Him...
Met My Doppelgänger And Thought I'd Share. We Even Had Matching Hair Accessories. I'm On The Left
I (im The Shorter One) Met My Canadian Doppelganger On A Cruise Ship With My Wife On Our Honeymoon!
Got Stationed In Okinawa And Shortly After My Doppelgänger Joined My Unit
I Was Walking Around A While Back And Met My Doppleganger, We Even Have The Same First Name
Met My Doppelgänger. He's A Better Smiler Than I Am.
So My Friend Found His Doppelgänger?
This Is Me And My Doppelgänger. Have Any Of You Redditors Met Yours In Real Life?
Met My Doppelganger
My Friend Just Found His Doppelganger
My Friend Met His Doppelganger On A Night Out...
I Met My Doppelganger In Australia!
Just 20 Minutes Before I Walked Into The Restaurant, The Server Told Her She Looked Like Me. We Actually Already Know Each Other.
Was Out Last Saturday Night Minding My Own Business When A Guy And His Parents Approached Me For A Photo. Apparently I'm His Doppelganger?
Ran Into My Daughter On A Business Trip... Oops. Guess Not.
Ran into a server on break at Stone Brewing in San Diego and did a double take - she not only looked like my daughter (pictured on right), she dressed the same! I took the photo (with her permission and sent it to my daughter). When I got back home we staged a pose and sent it back to the server.
It's Always An Interesting Night When You Randomly Run Into A Beard Doppelganger
My Wife (left) Met Her Doppelgänger On Our Holiday In Rome.
I Found My Doppelganger In A Bar Bathroom
Found My Doppelganger, Bought Him A Jager And Got This Photo Op.
Doppelganger
I Finally Meet Longtime Virtual Pal Steve Burnett. Other People Stare In Horror At The Uncanny Duplication.
My Brother Met His Black Doppelganger Last Night
I Think I Found My Beard Doppelgänger
I Met My Doppelganger A Year Ago In A Choir. I Was A New Member. Everyone Kept Telling Us That We Look Alike. We Denied For Months, Until We Decided To Do Snapchat's Face-swap. We Couldn't Stop Laughing When Looking At The Result.
Met My Doppelganger At Work! Now We're Besties!
Just Now, Found My Doppelganger. Surreal. My Mom Told Me To Ask My Father Why This Guy Looks Like Me...
My Brother From Another Mother.
Met My Doppelgänger At Work! She Was Hired To The Same Unit 3 Months Before Me
Never Met My Doppelgänger But He's A Korean Rapper Called Zico!
Found My Doppelgänger At The Pub After My Friends Went Up And Hugged Her
Different chins, different eyes different cheekbones....same dyed hair color.
My Fiancé Ran Into His Doppelgänger At A Car Show. I Called The Guy Over And Made Them Take A Picture Together.
Been Told 3 Times I Have A Dopplegänger. Where Are They??
My husband is/was your doppelganger. He passed away. I was showing your picture to my mom. I handed the phone to her and said "Tell me who this looks like?" She had a shocked look on her face. Our oldest son leaned over and said, " Hey that's my dad!" Yall could have been twins :)
I (left) Met My Doppelgänger (jenna) At Chick-fil-a! I Actually Didn't Even See It Until All Her Coworkers Started Flipping Out. They Were Convinced We Were Twins Trying To Pull One Over On Them. After They Took The Picture I Flipped Too.
morgan freeman is more of a doppelganger to clint eastwood than some of the people on this list.
That's a little freaky. But interesting to see. I have yet to meet my doppelgänger.
How does the convo even come up? "excuse me, has anyone ever told you that you look like me? No? lets take a selfie" lol
I would wonder if some of them were twins that had been seperated at birth.
This is all great and interesting but what if someone who looks like you commits a crime and police is looking for "you"?
This is all nice but considering how police act in some countries, what if some Doppelganger of yours commits a crime?
Many years ago, I slipped off to Galveston with my sister in law. While there, we both saw my husband partying with a group next to us. We were certain we had been busted but he never acknowledged us. We went home and when my husband came home he never said anything. To this day I don’t know if it was him or his doppelgänger.
I am supposing that genetic similarities could be manifested on the facial features, skin and hair colour, but what about the exact same choices of outfits and same hair styles?
Understand genetic similarities which could be manifested on facial features but what about the exact same style and choices of outfit and hair style? Could that be such a big coincidence?
Everyone acting like they MUST be related....smh... This isn't the least bit uncommon for people to look alike, they just usually don't run into one another. How do you think body doubles are a thing?
People say my doppelganger is actor Jason Statam ( sorry if I misspelled the last name)
All these people looking for their doppelgangers....How bout backing that camera up so we can see your face without looking up your nose? And get rid of the filters, half the time we can't tell what you really look like underneath the black and white filters or the ones that make everything far too bright to look at for more than half a second. Or things are just plain covering your face. If you really want help looking, give us your REAL face the same way we see people as we walk past them on the street.
There areapps and such for FINDING doppelganger photos — NOT here! 😕
looks cool..i mean like when u find that a person who look like you..that kind of feeling is like WoW another Me ! haha
I supposedly met my doppelganger. I say supposedly because everyone but us and our family thought we looked the same.
I once met a boy who looks very very similar to me (I'm female). To be fair, however, there is a very good chance he might be my half-brother. Daddy was a busy, busy man XD. I'm wondering how many of these might be explained the same way - anyone remember how Liv Tyler found out Steven Tyler was her dad?
I actually have a doppleganger of me as a kid, though it's a rather disturbing one. Casey Anthony's daughter, Caylee, looked exactly like me when I was her age. I felt a weird sense of foreboding when I saw her picture.
My both twins are Lisa and Lena,The Musically girls.. Wish they knew about me..
If we think about this cosmically then somewhere out there in space is the exact duplicate of our planet with same history etc. This comes because of the limits on chemical combinations. There will also be ones just a bit off and ones that took a totally different destiny. Very likely we will never meet them.
met my dopppleganger at school when i moved to town everyone called me sydney and my name is shelby ( right ) we have been best friends every since 10714582_6...7c35b7.jpg
me and my doppleganger met in the hall at school when i moves to town weve been besties every since 10714582_6...6edd25.jpg
My friend once saw my doppelgänger on musical.ly. We have the same name. But my friend says she (my doppelgänger, according to her) deleted her account.
#152 these girls don't really look alike but I know someone that looks EXACTLY like one of them!
Id like to find my doppelgänger!! I was able to find my friend sammie doppelgänger #415
There were a lot of them that looked a like. Some of them not so much, but this was fun. It's amazing to see that even a person that you would think would never have a doppelganger would have someone that looks exactly like them without having to be related.
I call BS! a lot of these pictures are altered with Photoshop. I'm sure a lot of these are also fraternal twins also.
How on earth could the doppelgangers have the same hairstyle and in some cases, the same shade of hair color?
Guess submissions are done or something but I found mine last October at a Burn haha doppelgang...3bd671.jpg
omg, this is amazing :) Its like Adam Sandler and Jason Biggs. I'd like to meet my doppelganger as well! :D
#22 on left is David Bazan. Solo artist and former lead singer for the band Pedro the Lion. Seriously.
I think this is all b******t and these are all twins and the stories are all lies.
I think it's a b******t article and these are all twin pictures with lies for stories...
I know #47's doppleganger (if he's been told three times he has one, he probably has several)! 13600300_1...fc3d6c.jpg
My brother is an exact lookalike to the person who plays bran stark in game of thrones it's really creepy
#47 look at this and compare to Shay Carl Youtube Shaytards likeness from 10 years ago when he was heavier and wore a beard.
Pretty cool except for all the wannabe's at the end... I feel like most of them are just looking for compliments on them being pretty tbh
#49 is my husbands doppelganger. I was showing the picture to my mom and our oldest walked by and said "Hey, that's my dad!" Maybe one day we will run into him lol
Over the course of 7 years, when I was working at a store in my city, 4 or 5 customers told me they knew a woman who looks just like me. So, my doppelganger must live nearby. On one hand, I'd love to meet her. On the other, I'd be really pissed if she was slightly better-looking than me.
Omg !!! Unbelievable !!! Hahahaha what would you do if you will meet one of yours one day???
morgan freeman is more of a doppelganger to clint eastwood than some of the people on this list.
That's a little freaky. But interesting to see. I have yet to meet my doppelgänger.
How does the convo even come up? "excuse me, has anyone ever told you that you look like me? No? lets take a selfie" lol
I would wonder if some of them were twins that had been seperated at birth.
This is all great and interesting but what if someone who looks like you commits a crime and police is looking for "you"?
This is all nice but considering how police act in some countries, what if some Doppelganger of yours commits a crime?
Many years ago, I slipped off to Galveston with my sister in law. While there, we both saw my husband partying with a group next to us. We were certain we had been busted but he never acknowledged us. We went home and when my husband came home he never said anything. To this day I don’t know if it was him or his doppelgänger.
I am supposing that genetic similarities could be manifested on the facial features, skin and hair colour, but what about the exact same choices of outfits and same hair styles?
Understand genetic similarities which could be manifested on facial features but what about the exact same style and choices of outfit and hair style? Could that be such a big coincidence?
Everyone acting like they MUST be related....smh... This isn't the least bit uncommon for people to look alike, they just usually don't run into one another. How do you think body doubles are a thing?
People say my doppelganger is actor Jason Statam ( sorry if I misspelled the last name)
All these people looking for their doppelgangers....How bout backing that camera up so we can see your face without looking up your nose? And get rid of the filters, half the time we can't tell what you really look like underneath the black and white filters or the ones that make everything far too bright to look at for more than half a second. Or things are just plain covering your face. If you really want help looking, give us your REAL face the same way we see people as we walk past them on the street.
There areapps and such for FINDING doppelganger photos — NOT here! 😕
looks cool..i mean like when u find that a person who look like you..that kind of feeling is like WoW another Me ! haha
I supposedly met my doppelganger. I say supposedly because everyone but us and our family thought we looked the same.
I once met a boy who looks very very similar to me (I'm female). To be fair, however, there is a very good chance he might be my half-brother. Daddy was a busy, busy man XD. I'm wondering how many of these might be explained the same way - anyone remember how Liv Tyler found out Steven Tyler was her dad?
I actually have a doppleganger of me as a kid, though it's a rather disturbing one. Casey Anthony's daughter, Caylee, looked exactly like me when I was her age. I felt a weird sense of foreboding when I saw her picture.
My both twins are Lisa and Lena,The Musically girls.. Wish they knew about me..
If we think about this cosmically then somewhere out there in space is the exact duplicate of our planet with same history etc. This comes because of the limits on chemical combinations. There will also be ones just a bit off and ones that took a totally different destiny. Very likely we will never meet them.
met my dopppleganger at school when i moved to town everyone called me sydney and my name is shelby ( right ) we have been best friends every since 10714582_6...7c35b7.jpg
me and my doppleganger met in the hall at school when i moves to town weve been besties every since 10714582_6...6edd25.jpg
My friend once saw my doppelgänger on musical.ly. We have the same name. But my friend says she (my doppelgänger, according to her) deleted her account.
#152 these girls don't really look alike but I know someone that looks EXACTLY like one of them!
Id like to find my doppelgänger!! I was able to find my friend sammie doppelgänger #415
There were a lot of them that looked a like. Some of them not so much, but this was fun. It's amazing to see that even a person that you would think would never have a doppelganger would have someone that looks exactly like them without having to be related.
I call BS! a lot of these pictures are altered with Photoshop. I'm sure a lot of these are also fraternal twins also.
How on earth could the doppelgangers have the same hairstyle and in some cases, the same shade of hair color?
Guess submissions are done or something but I found mine last October at a Burn haha doppelgang...3bd671.jpg
omg, this is amazing :) Its like Adam Sandler and Jason Biggs. I'd like to meet my doppelganger as well! :D
#22 on left is David Bazan. Solo artist and former lead singer for the band Pedro the Lion. Seriously.
I think this is all b******t and these are all twins and the stories are all lies.
I think it's a b******t article and these are all twin pictures with lies for stories...
I know #47's doppleganger (if he's been told three times he has one, he probably has several)! 13600300_1...fc3d6c.jpg
My brother is an exact lookalike to the person who plays bran stark in game of thrones it's really creepy
#47 look at this and compare to Shay Carl Youtube Shaytards likeness from 10 years ago when he was heavier and wore a beard.
Pretty cool except for all the wannabe's at the end... I feel like most of them are just looking for compliments on them being pretty tbh
#49 is my husbands doppelganger. I was showing the picture to my mom and our oldest walked by and said "Hey, that's my dad!" Maybe one day we will run into him lol
Over the course of 7 years, when I was working at a store in my city, 4 or 5 customers told me they knew a woman who looks just like me. So, my doppelganger must live nearby. On one hand, I'd love to meet her. On the other, I'd be really pissed if she was slightly better-looking than me.
Omg !!! Unbelievable !!! Hahahaha what would you do if you will meet one of yours one day???