The Disturbing Consequences of Seeing Your Doppelganger

Supposedly, we all have a doppelganger. Anil Ananthaswamy explores the disturbing consequences of seeing your double.

More than two decades ago, Peter Brugger, as a PhD student in neuropsychology at the University Hospital Zurich in Switzerland, was developing a reputation as someone interested in scientific explanations of so-called paranormal experiences. A fellow neurologist, who had been treating a 21-year-old man for seizures, sent him to Brugger. The young man, who worked as a waiter and lived in the canton of Zurich, had very nearly killed himself one day, when he found himself face-to-face with his doppelganger. Read more