“Doppelgänger”The word Doppelgänger was first introduced by German author Jean Paul in 1796, in a book he wrote wherein the protagonist exchanges identities with a lookalike. The word Doppelgänger’s literal translation is “Double Walker” or “Double Goer”. However the myth of doubles dates as far back as ancient Egypt, where in mythology, a “ka” was regarded as a tangible “spirit double” that could possess the same memories and feelings as their counterpart. However, Doppelgangers aren’t just bound to legends and stories, they’ve been documented in several real-life accounts throughout history. In this particular campfire episode, we’ll hear from Linda, who grew up in a town near Lubbock, with religious parents who taught her it was best to never meddle with the dark side. But against her best judgment and with a little peer pressure from her best friend, Linda’s first session with a Ouija board as a teenager may have been the catalyst for a series of strange events and eventually a sighting of her very own Doppelgänger.“Malice”As kids, we can all recall being afraid of the dark and imagining that there were monsters hiding in the closet or under our bed. We relied on our parents to come in and make it all better. Tell us that the shadows were just from a tree limb outside our window, that the noise we heard was just the house shifting and that there was no actual monster under our bed - just a smelly old pair of socks we’d lost under there. But in one specific ase, our worst nightmare as kids, came true for one young girl named Alisar. In 1997, her and her family moved from California to Texas, and immediately upon settling into their new home, began noticing something dark lurking in the shadows. Her cats would notice and react strangely to this dark presence as well. Like all children, Alisar was no different in screaming out for her mom when the presence began to expand its territory and into her room at night. But in this story, Alisar’s mom couldn’t easily tell her daughter that the monster under he bed wasn’t real. Because secretly, she knew, this one was.Alisar is now an author still living in Austin, TX. And her experiences with this particular entity inspired her to write a trilogy called The Soulfire Series. The books are available on Amazon.com and you can learn more about her work at www.alisareido.comPhoto Credit: Larm Rmah