A Photo Mystery

reply to post by NorEaster


I found the OP very interesting. Many years ago my cousin claims to have see me at a mall. He said he called out my name and was waving at who he thought was me. He stated I look at him and walked away. Later that evening he came to see me wanting to know why I ignored him. I had no idea what we has talking about. I think this was my dalpolganger and this might be your brothers in the picture as well.
Just my opinion

if its film you need to look at the negative before freaking out. if its a "print" there's no reason he couldn't have been printed there from a sepatrate frame.

reply to post by NorEaster


I found the OP very interesting. Many years ago my cousin claims to have see me at a mall. He said he called out my name and was waving at who he thought was me. He stated I look at him and walked away. Later that evening he came to see me wanting to know why I ignored him. I had no idea what we has talking about. I think this was my dalpolganger and this might be your brothers in the picture as well.
Just my opinion

reply to post by NorEaster


Bi Location possibly?

It would be interesting to find out if he were sleeping, in an "elevated state", or such.

Although no pictures, I've discussed this sort of thing with others concerning dreams and events that corresponded along timelines.

Are you 110% sure this is at the VFW hall and taken at that time. Do the woman in the photo have the exact same clothes on in the other photos taken at this event? The hall would have changed a lot since then so going back there is out. Can you get photos from other people that were taken at the VFW at this time and this event and other events at the VFW hall around this time. If so try and find other photos that match the back wall and ceiling. The flag will be a good center reference point. I am trying to remove all question of the exact location and time frame of the photo. And this may help explain the odd lighting if the same is seen in other photos.
I do not think it is a 'look-a-like" for they would have been shoot by mistake. You got a real good mystery on your hands there.

Interesting story, read the thread all the way through.

I'm not going to personally dismiss this - I've heard of these sort of incidents before, (but can't recall any famous or recent ones). I have to say though, on examination of the photo I do agree there is something a little odd about the light on the roof, and why, what starts as light reflection on the left, ends up being a solid block of color that completely erases the wires of the light.

That said, the other light near the center of the photo, which some have said could be an open door, is an interesting theory. From what you remember, do you remember a door on the opposite side of that hall, that could have been opened to reveal the outside light? What else exactly was in that hall at the time, where was wedding cake etc?

I'm not 100% convinced about that being an open door though, because the top right of that bright light, that streaks upward toward the flag - well, that isn't particularly normal.

All that aside, I think it's a nice photo, no matter what the explanation. Ghost Brion has an epic beard. My spiritual side wants to say - it's perfectly apt. Two lovers torn apart thanks to asshole Frank, but were always destined to be together (like you say they are now, finally). This photo proves it. They were always going to be together, no matter what.

Nice thread!

Ok... Its really not your brother...
i know that seems hard to beleave....

My uncle who is now dead (but wasnt when these pictures were taken) is in the background of a photo of my grandfather (also now deceased) when he was in hongkong...

Now this cannot be the scenario, we all know that the uncle in question was not in hong kong at the time,
i would have to rummage around old photo's to find this... my aunt (sister of said uncle) was spooked many years ago when we found it going through my grandfathers stuff...

Anyway as i said, it may just llok like your brother, much like the man in the photo is exactly dentical to my uncle, but there is no way he could be there.

I had a very similar experience to this at the end of the eighties, regarding a lookalike, doppelganger photo.

In the middle eighties I used to live in an area called the Black Country in the West Midlands, UK. That particular area is called the Black Country because that is where a great deal of the industrial revolution began, therefore loads of smog and soot is from where the area got it's name.

In the eighties between 1984 and 1987 I used to play in a band, all the members of the band used to perform wearing 1920's and 1930's clothing, I was the only member of the band who used to wear a bowler hat. I am instantly recognisable, not because of my bowler hat, but because of my build, face etc. For those people out there who know what a person with Acromegaly looks like and their characteristics, then you will know what I am talking about, we are normally sighted and whispered about within seconds of getting on a bus or entering a room, that's how much we stand out.

Anyway, in the Black Country area there is a weekly paper called The Black Country Bugle. The Black Country Bugle is a weekly paper that looks at years gone by in history from around the local area. Every week there are old black and white photographs that people send into the paper to be published along with a particular story to run alongside it. On this particular week in about 1986 there was a photo published on the front cover of the BCB that was taken in 1919. The photo was of a cricket match that was taken alongside a band stand where a band were sitting with their brass instruments and people standing around watching the game of cricket.

But this is where the photo became interesting....Slap bang in the centre of the photo, and looking straight into the lens of the camera and smiling, was me. When I say it was me, it really was the spit of me. I was dressed in the clothes of the day and was wearing a bowler hat, the person had my face, my stature and even stood in the same way as what I do.

I wasn't even aware of this photo being published until I got a phone call from a friend asking me how I managed to be part of photograph from 1919 and wearing the clothes that I was wearing and performing in as part of my band attire. People I bumped into over the next few weeks kept commenting how they had seen me on the front of the newspaper and asking if it really was me. To this day I still do not know who that person was and why they looked like me. I still have the paper clipping in my mothers loft in England somewhere. I now live in Australia, but when I get the chance I will try and get the photo from 1919 and post it alongside a band picture of me from 1986, the resemblance is totally uncanny.....

I actually remember the next band rehearsal we had after the photo was in the BCB. We all sat round staring at it in amazement, not really knowing how it was possible......

Is it a possibility that your brother is a time shifter, he super imposed himself to that very room when the picture was being taken and then shifted back to original location ergo he was not disposed of by the evil fellow who wanted to take him out.

reply to post by NorEaster


I think I may be able to explain the light shining on the rear wall. We use to get this effect happen almost everyday on my highschool gym wall, you can clearly see the staggering effect in the light caused by what looks like the gym seating against the wall in the lefthand side of the photo as if the light was shining straight past it. We also had a gym with no external light sources except the doors and living in Australia we would often have these doors open all the way or even just slightly when it wasnt too cold and it would often cast light such as this. As for the photo I have no idea except that he truly was there, but if you claim he definately wasnt who I am to say your lying! Interesting situation though.

To further the investigation, one would want to see the other pictures of this wedding.
Problem 1) the event does not look like it has been decorated for a wedding. Perhaps it was another event.
Problem 2) the alignment of Brion and the blue dressed bride seems too perfect. When you look at the intersection of his white tee shirt and her Jodie Foster haircut, there is some convenient blurring.

Additional pictures of the event would 'pardon the pun' shed more light on the artifact in the middle of the picture; was it captured on any other pictures....etc.

reply to post by davethebear


Hi Davethebear
From the Black Country myself originally and there is something about that area. So many ghost/paranormal stories come from that region.
That is a cool story and if you do get the chance you should defo post those pics for us.
Did you trace back in your family to see if it could have been a relation and where did you get your band/gig outfit from?
Just thinking, is it possible to reincarnate as yourself years later and then be drawn to your old clothes if you saw them in a charity shop or something? Ha, maybe not.

If the truth has been divulged here completely by the OP than I would say either astral projection, doppleganger, bilocation, or like another poster conjected a parallel universe swapped photo, a parallel universe where Frank was not with Cindy and Brion did in fact go to the wedding and the reception, and the look on his face may have been being caught off gaurd by the camera. I like that idea, and there are a few others who have posted camera photo incidents like this on some of those time shift threads. Also I don't think he would be a "time" travel but maybe temporally displaced if that was his Physical body. Just some thoughts.
Very interesting and cool story. I love this kind of mystery!

Interesting thread, I've enjoyed the read.

One part of me wants to believe something paranormal or supernatural is happening here while the logical, scientific side of me is saying the complete opposite.

The OP seems genuine enough on this occasion, full credit for answering the questions posed and providing additional photographic evidence to support his claims - we don't get that too often.

Occam's razor suggests a number of things (most already mentioned); simply a case of confusing memories - I often associate a particular event with a time frame in my life when reminiscing, upon recounting the story with a friend, the girlfriend or family get told that what I'm remembering didn't happen at the time I'm describing.

I like the idea of Brion being a prankster but don't really buy it to be honest - you would need a pretty warped sense of humour to stage a photograph of yourself at a wedding where some bloke would have killed you - think about it, if the OP's being genuine and there was serious bad blood between the pair then I highly doubt Brion would find it humorous playing a "prank" like this.

It's also possible that the fellow in the picture isn't the OP's brother but simply a look alike- however assuming the OP is genuine then it's fair to say he knows what his brother looks like and wouldn't make such a basic error.

The Doppelgänger theories are interesting from a paranormal point of view but I'm not entirely sure I believe them.

Put simply OP, if your sure that's definitely your brother in the photograph then he was there. I can't think of any other logical reason....

P.S. Cindy is hot!

Bilocation could be the explanation.

Bilocation can be defined as the simultaneous presence of a person in two different places. Numerous witnesses connected to the Christian religious tradition have reported events of bilocation, which have been attributed to many Saints. Padre Pio had this charisma and had been seen by eyewitnesses in different places at the same time. Here are several testimonials.

www.padrepio.catholicwebservices.com...

Originally posted by daydoesez
If as you say your brother was not there, and from the new photo it certainly looks like the same person,
then this is a cool story.
Sorry, nothing useful to add at all. Other than having heard similar stories of Dopplegangers, which have already been mentioned, Have never come across a story like this one.
Wierd that theres no windows in that room

The room is an old function room within the VFW. It's not the best room for a reception, but it rents cheap. I only know about the window situation because less than a month ago, my older brother rented it out for attendees at my youngest brother's funeral to meet afterward and have a plate of food. I hadn't been in that room in decades, and I noticed that it seemed odd that there were no windows in that function room. That terrible paneling is still there too. My hometown is pretty small, and not much changes.

Originally posted by elevenaugust
OK, I took a second closer look at this photo:

The central bright light is probably caused by a slightly opened door to the outside on a sunny day

I wish that the flag in this photo was still on that wall when I was there a couple seeks ago. There is a door to the parking lot, but I'm not really sure where it is located relative to this shot. Still, that light has a very distinct shape to it. It's not an amorphous flash, as one would expect from a lens reaction to glare. That's the part that's become interesting to me. It almost looks like a table edge, with a length of one leg, but that doesn't make any sense either.

I have some real problem with the dof of this picture. The ladies look too '3d'. The foreground and background looks different either.

Originally posted by amaster

Originally posted by NorEaster
That shining thing in the middle doesn't make any sense either. My brother pointed it out to me when I called him a little bit ago. It has a definite "shape" to it, and that room doesn't have a skylight or any windows. It's obviously not a flash against the back wall, since it isn't even vaguely symetrical in shape.

This photo's getting weirder as it gets examined.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/2ff49725f9f3.jpg[/atsimg]

It's really starting to bother my brother. He's eager to believe in impossible things happening, but this one involves him, so he's pretty rattled by it.

Sorry, I hit reply too quickly

Is you're brother Brion much of a prankster, because I'm starting to think that he's seriously screwing with you.

A closer look at the pic shows something very interesting about the light at the top of the photo. It seems to be cut off at the reflection on the ceiling. The reflection appears in front of the hanging light. That tells me it's been manipulated. Look at the other photos and see if this chandelier appears in any other photo.

I talked wioth John last night (the bride groom from this event) and he found the roll of negatives. The photo was taken with a Kodak 110 camera, and the light is in the negative. So is everything else. My late brother Jeff had gotten the photo from John at some point, and it was in with a bunch of photos (in a shoebox among is effects), along with all is other personal items that I had to drive down to GA to get from an efficiency apartment that he dioed suddenly within. There were all kinds of photos, and my brother Brion has been going through them to scan them for Jeff's memorial page.

Given the type of project this is, I'm kinda doubting that Brion would be messing around like this with any of it. It's been pretty painful for all of us. Especially considering that the prime suspect in Jeff's death is a faulty Fentynol medication patch. The VA prescribed it for treating the pain from a decades-old sciatica problem, and we've since discovered that many others have also died from the patch suddenly flooding their systems with too much of this powerful drug. Resperatory failure is how they die. Sudden onset reperatory failure. He probably never even knew what hit him.

No, I doubt that brion's having any fun with this. It's really messing with him. I've been trying to figure it put, since I'm the only person he knows who's got any expertise in this field of study. He's an Evangelical, and his magical stuff involves Jesus and only Jesus.

That vertical light on the back wall is the result of a light source off to the left and behind the photographer. Possible an open door. Also, see if anyone remembers there being a movie projection at the event. The "box" portion of the light looks as though it may be just that, concidering the rounded corners.

The two women in the photo have no idea what that light is. This was in 1985, and in a crappy little town with hardly cable TV at the time. Sandy - the woman on the left - recalls that there was a band that eventually set up under that flag, but they showed up late. Other than that, nothing fancy.

I know you said you saw the photo first hand, but it's not that hard to fix a photo and print it out on some old photo paper, a few scans and reprints latter and you have a pretty authentic looking old photo with no traces of manipulation.

Did you pull the photo out of the box or did your brother? Who saw it first? Also, we're talking about the 1980's so this is 35mm film, find the negatives.

edit on 7/11/2011 by amaster because: (no reason given)

edit on 7/11/2011 by amaster because: (no reason given)

I took the box from Jeff's apartment, and Brion took the box from me. The photos were just piled in there, and there were several old photo albums. John found the negatives strip last night, and the photo is genuine. That's all I have.

Originally posted by Skorpiogurl
This is interesting. I've heard of ghost photos but not when the person is still living...

... and sorry but the PR part of me needs to know if you got the permission of all parties in the photo before you posted

Yes, I did. A couple of them have been following this thread. I told them that if any group of folks can shine some light on this, you folks can. They want to know what this is all about too.