[11] Many majority Muslim countries have the concept of a karin or qarin, which is a potentially benevolent or harmful spirit double of the same sex, race and parallel temperament as the person it is connected to.
[17] Izaak Walton claimed that John Donne, the English metaphysical poet, saw his wife's doppelgänger in 1612 in Paris, on the same night as the stillbirth of their daughter.
To which Mr. Donne was not able to make a present answer: but, after a long and perplexing pause, did at last say, I have seen a dreadful Vision since I saw you: I have seen my dear wife pass twice by me through this room, with her hair hanging about her shoulders, and a dead child in her arms: this, I have seen since I saw you.
A week after Mary's nearly fatal miscarriage, in the early hours of 23 June, Percy had had a nightmare about the house collapsing in a flood, and also ... talking it over the next morning he told me that he had had many visions lately—he had seen the figure of himself which met him as he walked on the terrace and said to him—"How long do you mean to be content"—No very terrific words & certainly not prophetic of what has occurred.
[21]Percy Shelley's drama Prometheus Unbound (1820) contains the following passage in Act I: "Ere Babylon was dust, / The Magus Zoroaster, my dead child, / Met his own image walking in the garden.
The pain of quitting for ever noble Alsace, with all I had gained in it, was softened; and, having at last escaped the excitement of a farewell, I, on a peaceful and quiet journey, pretty well regained my self-possession.
[27] In addition to describing the doppelgänger double as a counterpart to the self, Percy Bysshe Shelley's drama Prometheus Unbound (1820) makes reference to Zoroaster meeting "his own image walking in the garden".
In Vladimir Nabokov's 1936 novel Despair, the narrator and protagonist, Hermann Karlovich, meets a homeless man in Prague, who he believes is his doppelgänger.
In Das Mirakel and The Miracle (both 1912) the Virgin Mary (as Doppelgängerin) takes the place of a nun who has run away from her convent in search of love and adventure.
Doppelgängers are a major theme and plot element in the 2006 film, The Prestige, directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale.
Illusionists Robert Angier (Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Bale) compete with each other to perfect a magic trick in which the performer appears to transport across the stage instantaneously.
In the 2007 children's film Bratz Kidz: Sleep-over Adventure one of the stories involves Sasha being tormented and replaced by a doppelgänger she finds in a house of mirrors.
In Richard Ayoade's The Double (2013), based on Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel of the same name, a man is troubled by a doppelgänger who is employed at his place of work and affects his personal and professional life.
Estranged couple Ethan and Sophie find doubles of themselves trapped in the retreat house their marriage counselor recommended in Charlie McDowell's The One I Love (2014).
In the episode "Mirror Image" of the first series of The Twilight Zone (originally aired 25 February 1960), a young woman repeatedly sees her double in a New York Bus Terminal.
The plot of the "Firefall" episode of Kolchak: The Night Stalker (originally aired 8 November 1974) revolves around the spirit of a deceased arsonist that becomes the doppelgänger of a renowned orchestra conductor.
The Hammer House of Horror episode "The Two Faces of Evil" (originally aired 29 November 1980), focuses on the part of the doppelgänger mythology where meeting yours is a harbinger of your imminent death.
In the season two finale of Twin Peaks—"Beyond Life and Death" (originally aired 10 June 1991)—Special Agent Dale Cooper encounters a variety of doppelgängers in the Black Lodge, one of whom is a malevolent version of himself.
A total of three different doppelgängers are dispatched from the mysterious Black Lodge to bedevil the forces of good in Showtime's 2017 series Twin Peaks: The Return.
The theme of doppelgänger has been frequently used in music videos, such as Aqua's "Turn Back Time" (1998), Dido's "Hunter" (2001), Madonna's "Die Another Day" (2002), Kelly Rowland's "Commander" (2010), and Britney Spears's "Hold It Against Me" (2011).
The 1995 video game Alone in the Dark 3 features a nameless enemy that Edward Carnby calls "his double", a doppelgänger that mirrors the protagonist's moves to stop him from climbing the Water Tank.
The 1997 Konami game Castlevania: Symphony of the Night features an enemy boss known simply as "Doppelganger", a duplicate of the main protagonist Alucard.
In the 1999 game Final Fantasy VIII, SeeD mercenaries and Forest Owls resistance fighters devise a complicated plan to kidnap the president of Galbadia Vinzer Deling, which includes switching the presidential train wagon from its tracks and replacing it with a mockup.
The 2002 MMORPG Ragnarok Online features a boss-type monster named "Doppelganger", a demon who summons Nightmares that looks like a shadow of the default appearance for the male Swordsman class.
The 2015 Konami game Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain plot revolves around the story of Punished "Venom" Snake who has been chosen as a decoy to replicate and take on the persona of the legendary soldier Big Boss.
The 2015 and 2017 Touhou games Urban Legend in Limbo and Antinomy of Common Flowers feature the character of Sumireko Usami, whose legendary attack is labeled "Doppelganger".
The Alternates, the main antagonistic force in the analog horror web series The Mandela Catalogue, are a race of demons that are marked by their ability to almost perfectly replicate human beings.
They share genes affecting not only the face but also some phenotypes of physique and behavior, also indicating that (their) differences in the epigenome and microbiome contribute only modestly to human variability in facial appearance.
[39] Criminologists find a practical application in the concepts of facial familiarity and similarity due to the instances of wrongful convictions based on eyewitness testimony.
Freud explains that the Doppelgänger, or 'the double,' is an idea rooted in the narcissism of children and is found in mirrors, guardian spirits, souls, and the thoughts of terror associated with death.