What is a Doppelganger?
A doppelganger is a non-biologically related look-alike or double of a living person, sometimes portrayed as a ghostly or paranormal phenomenon and usually seen as a harbinger of bad luck. Other traditions and stories equate a doppelganger with an evil twin. People in modern times occasionally use the term “twin stranger”. The word “doppelganger” is often used in a more general and neutral sense, and in slang, to describe any person who physically or behaviorally resembles another person. How To Find My Doppelganger?
Mythology
English-speakers have only recently applied this German word to a paranormal concept. Francis Grose’s, Provincial Glossary of 1787 used the term fetch instead, defined as the “apparition of a person living.” Catherine Crowe’s book on paranormal phenomena, The Night-Side of Nature (1848) helped make the German word well-known. However, the concept of alter egos and double spirits has appeared in the folklore, myths, religious concepts, and traditions of many cultures throughout human history.
In Ancient Egyptian mythology, a ka was a tangible “spirit double” having the same memories and feelings as the person to whom the counterpart belongs. The Greek Princess presents an Egyptian view of the Trojan War in which a ka of Helen misleads Paris, helping to stop the war. This is depicted in Euripides’ play Helen. In Norse mythology, a vardøger is a ghostly double who is seen performing the person’s actions in advance. In Finnish mythology, this is called having an etiäinen, “a firstcomer”. The doppelganger is a version of the Ankou, a personification of death, in Breton, Cornish, and Norman folklore.
Is it possible?
In a previous era, coming face-to-face with someone with your physical likeness was believed to signify one’s imminent death. Now, social media is alight with people actively tracking down the total stranger who could be their identical twin.
Doppelganger means “double walker”, and it is said that we are statistically likely to each have at least seven lookalikes – “twin strangers”, or “paranormal duplicates”, as some believe them to be – somewhere in the world. So how hard could it be to track down my Doppelganger?
Statistically, any of these matches is a surprise. Researchers from University of Adelaide’s school of medicine collected data on eight facial measurements for 4,000 people and didn’t find one match. In their study, published in Forensic Science International, they calculated that the chances of finding two people with eight of the exact same facial metric traits were less than one in a trillion.
But the study relied on measuring the exact distance between various facial features, rather than “descriptive” traits such as a curved nose.
“Descriptives are not considered a reliable method of evaluation because a trait such as the color of someone’s eyes is subjective,” said Professor Maciej Henneberg, co-author of the research, in a statement.
Which means, though it’s statistically almost impossible to find someone who is an exact match in terms of facial measurements, there’s a far higher likelihood of finding two people who look identical at first glance.
So, How To Find My Doppelganger?
Six degrees of separation.
This question can be answered by using Frigyes Karinthy’s theory of “six degrees of seperation” published in 1929.
According to the theory:
Six degrees of separation. Is the theory that everyone and everything is six or fewer steps away, by way of introduction, from any other person in the world, so that a chain of “a friend of a friend” statements can be made to connect any two people in a maximum of six steps ….. wikipedia.
Best Tools to Find Your Twin
TwinStrangers recently made news due to their Facebook campaign that helped find people their doppelgangers across the globe. It’s a cool website that shows you your twins based on your facial features. When you create an account at TwinStrangers, it lets you select your facial features like face shape, eyebrows type, eyes type, nose type and more. You also need to upload a couple of pictures of yourself. Once your account is set up, the website will show you people who have similar facial features.
While some matches may be disappointing, you might end up finding your twin, so keep looking.
Remember Microsoft’s How-Old.net? It is a fun website which tries to guess your age and there’s also a game that lets you guess other people’s age. Well, there’s one more cool website from Microsoft, TwinsOrNot.net, it lets you know how much your face matches with another person’s face. While Microsoft’s tool doesn’t let you discover twins, it does let you know if you and someone else look alike.
One more
ILookLikeYou.com
ILookLikeYou has been a very popular website to find your twin and it still remains pretty viable. When you register on the website, you will have to upload a picture. This picture have to show your face clearly or let the webcam take one right then. Once you have set up your account with other details like age and location, the website will show you people who look like you the most.
Sadly, we did not have much luck with the tool with most match results being totally inaccurate. Moreover, the website does not take gender into account. So, it will show a girl as your match even if you are a guy. Well, we hope you find more luck with it. Do let us know if you indeed get lucky with ILookLikeYou.
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