What Does It Mean to Dream of a Double (Doppelgänger)?

Double (Doppelgänge) Dream Meaning & Symblism

Sometimes you might wish there were two of you if there are more possibilities in life that sound interesting than you are personally capable of pursuing by yourself.

In waking life, of course, it is not possible to double yourself. If you dream of having a double, however, you can get a chance to see how you would be different if you tried another path.

Double Dream Summary

Double Dream Symbolism

A double, also referred to as a doppelgänger, in your dream can be your exact clone or twin. It can also be a peer who is similar to you in age and gender, like a sibling or a friend.

A double dream can symbolize parts of you that you may not express in your life. It could be similar to a dynamic that happens in some families where, for example, one sibling is typecast as the pretty one and the other sibling as the smart one. If you are the pretty one, you may feel uncomfortable developing your capacity to become smart because it would threaten the stability of the family dynamic.

A double can also symbolize wondering what might have happened if you had chosen differently at some crucial juncture in your life.

Common Double Dreams

  1. Dream of sitting with your double
  2. Dream of your double attacking you
  3. Dream of your double getting in trouble

Double Dream Symbolism

Double Dream Symbolism

Opposites

Many human talents and traits are more accurately thought of as a spectrum than as something you either have or you don’t. If you tend to live at one extreme of some spectrum, however, you may find yourself dreaming of your double who lives at the opposite extreme.

One example of this type of pair is in the novel Narcissus and Goldmund by Hermann Hesse, which portrays the friendship between Narcissus, an intellectual scholar at a monastery, and Goldmund, a bohemian artist. “Opposites attract” is a common saying regarding relationships, though it can become restrictive if you feel like the other person needs you to be the scholar so they can be the artist or vice versa.

Dreaming of a double who has qualities that are the opposite of what you are known for may symbolize that you need to express some of those qualities. Even if it upsets the equilibrium of some of your relationships, you need to become a fuller version of yourself.

Paths Not Taken

Baseball player Yogi Berra advised, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” Unfortunately, major life decisions are not always so simple, and sometimes you have to choose one option that makes the other options impossible.

Even if the option you choose works reasonably well for you, you might continue to wonder what would have happened if you had gone to the other school you were considering or married the one who got away. Dreaming of your double can give you a window into how things might have gone if you had chosen differently.

Understanding

If you feel like no one understands you, you may long for a double whose personality and experiences are similar enough to your own that finally someone else would see your side of the story. In this case, your dream of a double could be the fulfillment of your wish for understanding and companionship.

Common Double Dreams

Dream of sitting with your double

Dream of sitting with your double

A dream of sitting with your double, or otherwise having a calm and peaceful interaction with them, can be very healing if you are worried that you made the wrong choice at some point in your life where you had to commit to one path or another.

For example, if you think you ruined your life by choosing a line of work where success was not guaranteed, while someone you went to school with who chose a safe profession now appears on social media to be doing great, dreaming of a peaceful meeting with this schoolmate could symbolize that both of you are exactly where you need to be for your own personal growth, regardless of how things look at this point.

Dream of your double attacking you

Dream of your double attacking you

If you dream of your double attacking you, this could symbolize that you need to embrace some quality you have refused to express or admit to having yourself. Perhaps you have projected the quality onto some other person you are close to.

For example, maybe you don’t think of yourself as a drama queen, but you think of your best friend as the drama queen in the friendship. If you then dream of your best friend attacking you, this could symbolize that your friendship would be healthier if you could admit, at least to yourself, that you are a bit of a drama queen too.

Dream of your double getting in trouble

Dream of your double getting in trouble

If you dream of your double getting in trouble, like engaging in antisocial behavior, this could symbolize that you are so invested in seeing yourself as good, kind, and perfect that you cannot acknowledge having any impulses or desires that do not live up to your lofty image of yourself.

The more you suppress such impulses, however, the less control you have over them. Your dream could therefore be warning you that you need to admit, at least to yourself, that you have these feelings you are uncomfortable with before they come out in some unpredictable way.

Conclusion

Life is finite, and you can’t do everything no matter how much you would like to. What is especially likely to provoke a dream of a double, however, is a situation where you feel like you have gotten boxed into a role or path that feels too limiting.

Your double dream can show you what you need to explore to find wholeness in your life. Instead of going from one extreme to the other, you might be better off meeting your double on the middle ground.