The Strange Mystery of Emilie Sagee and Her Ghostly Doppelgänger
Emilie Sagee had a doppelganger, a ghostly twin that would accompany her everywhere. The mysterious twin would choose to make herself visible to others at random moments, scaring people around her.
What Is a Doppelgänger?
What is common between President Abraham Lincoln, Catherine the Great, and Percy Bysshe Shelley?
All of them saw their doppelgangers at some point in their lives that may have led to their misfortunes,
President Abraham Lincoln saw his own doppelgänger in 1860; five years later, he was assassinated.
The servants of Catherine the Great saw her double sitting on the throne while she was sleeping. Catherine died within weeks after the incident.
Percy Bysshe Shelley saw her own doppelgänger before his death in 1822.
As Catherine Crow writes about this phenomenon in her book “The Night-Side of Nature, or, Ghosts and Ghost-seers,"
“We might, indeed get rid of them by denying them, but the instances are too numerous, and the phenomenon has been too well known in all ages to be set aside so easily.”
The above incidents beg us to ask the question, what is a doppelgänger?
The word “doppelgänger" comes from German, which means “double goer” in English. The term describes two people who are so similar in appearance, peculiarities, and attitudes that they can be very well mistaken as twins. The doppelgänger often differs from the main characters based on their beliefs and actions.
Novelists often use the doppelgänger concept to portray the evil twin characters. The best examples are the characters Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in Robert Louis Stevenson's iconic classic “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” In this book, while Dr. Jekyll is the epitome of goodness, his twin, Mr. Hyde, is evil and sadistic.
Sightings of doppelgängers have been going around for centuries in all cultures, with myths, superstitions, and fantastic stories weaved around them that often obliterate the truth and the veracity of the reports. Traditionally they are viewed as evil, and seeing them is often associated with an ill omen or premonitions of imminent disasters.
One such strange and documented case is that of Emilie Sagee, a schoolteacher who used to teach in the 1840s in present-day Latvia. She was attractive, intelligent, and passionate about teaching. And at the mere age of 32 years, she seemed to have a bright career in front of her. Except that, fate had something completely different in store for her.
Emilie Sagee had a doppelganger, a ghostly twin that would accompany her everywhere and would choose to make itself visible to others at random moments, scaring the hell out of them. The first time it happened was when she was teaching a class of 17 girls. The twin just came out of nowhere and started imitating her actions, from writing on the blackboard to sitting on the table.
The children got scared, and Emilie was promptly fired from the school. This cruel fate would continue for her for the next 16 years when she was fired from 18 schools due to her ghostly twin. Strangely Emilee never knew or saw her twin.
The Story of Emilie Sagee
Emilie's story was first told by the famous social reformer and spiritualist Robert Dale-Owen in 1860 in his book called “Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World."
In the book, Robert talks about hearing the story of Julie von Güldenstubbe, daughter of Baron von Güldenstubbe, who attended the elite boarding school Pensionat von Neuwelcke in the year 1845 in present-day Latvia. This was the school in which Emilie Sagee was employed that year. The school was run by a headmaster, Mr. Buch, who initially supported Emilee.
Emilie was well-liked by the students and teachers alike and soon established the reputation of a quiet, hardworking, knowledgeable teacher. The school catered to girls of wealth, nobility, and fine upbringing, so snobbery and arrogance were prevalent among the girls. So, in such an atmosphere, being well-liked and respected was a significant achievement.
Odd Things Started to Happen
Students and teachers started complaining about seeing her “twin” in the classroom, imitating her actions, sitting on her desk, or even trying to fix her dress like the real Emilie.
Everybody started avoiding her, and complaints began piling up against her on Mr. Buch's table, who dismissed them as crazy, saying “the girls are dreaming” or “mass hysteria." The interesting part is when Emilie was asked about this; she was at a loss. She had never seen this twin who was ruining her and thus had no control over its actions.
And the last straw in this series of unexplainable occurrences came when her twin was witnessed together by a whole classroom of 42 girls. One afternoon, Emilie gave sewing assignments to a class of 42 girls and then stepped out in the garden outside to pluck some flowers while the girls were busy with the task.
But while she was in the garden, her students looked on open-mouthed and scared as ‘another’ Emilie was sitting casually in her seat looking outside at the garden at the real Emilie.
Most of the students were spooked out and ran from the class. A few, however, were brave enough to go and touch this Emilie. They found that their hands could go through her, and a sensation of handling “cobwebs” could be experienced. By the time the shouting and screaming started and the real Emilie returned, the twin had gone.
The principal had no option, as many parents threatened to take the girls out of the school. Mr. Buch let her go reluctantly, even though she was one of the best teachers he ever had.
Emilie left the institution, and nothing was ever heard afterward about her or her ghostly twin.
Is There Any Explanation?
Yes, if you use a scientific, logical mind, you will dismiss all this as hogwash. Robert was lying. Julie von Güldenstubbe just made this story for publicity, and the school just wanted to be in the limelight. But then, Emilie is not the only case in history. People have encountered doppelgangers of famous personalities, from Catherine the Great to Percy Shelley, and there were no explanations available to explain the phenomena.
Yes, scientific explanations offer solutions to some cases, but hundreds remain within the annals of history, unanswered across cultures and nations. It is time for us to take a step back and do much-needed deeper reasoning about their existence rather than dismissing them as hallucinations of over-imaginative minds. After all, these unanswered questions make our lives worth living and thinking about.
Stephen King has rightly said.
“The unanswered questions make it worth getting up in the morning.”
Sources
· Kahn, Nina. (2018). The Mythology Behind Doppelgängers, Aka Having A Ghostly “Evil Twin,” Is Terrifying.www.bustle.com.
· Gillan, Joanna.(2020).Doppelgangers and Curious Myths and Stories of Spirit Doubles.www.ancient-origins.net.
· Ananthaswamy, Anil. (2015).The disturbing consequences of seeing your doppelganger.www.bbc.com.
· Crowe, Catherine. (2017). The Night-Side of Nature Or, Ghosts and Ghost-Seers. Kessinger Publishing.
· Owen, Robert. (2018).Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World.HardPress
Sometimes in a twin pregnancy one partner gets lost and suppose we all have spiritual existence too in physical body and spiritual existence of lost partner keeps on developing without physical body and becomes enemy to surviving partner-this may explain doppelganger phenomenon
Typo: her/his
Percy Bysshe Shelley saw her own doppelgänger before his death in 1822.