Mirrored Double and The Future Self

The bathroom in my childhood house had a three part mirror hinged in a way that allowed angling them at each other to get endless doubles of myself. Or, I could fold them into a triangle, insert my head inside, and see reflections of myself in all directions. This fascinated me, feeding my narcissism, and inspiring Sy-fy fantasies of alternate versions of me that could be living in other worlds I could only glimpse through the looking glass.

I am still intrigued when I find similar mirrored reflections, a sure sign that I never outgrew that narcissism. But that should be no surprise to anyone who knows me or knows of my practice of writing letters to my future self. I lived in a rich inner world as a child, a world that was reinforced by constant illness and a protective mother. My sister once commented that I seemed really happy as a child even though I often played alone.

Here's a link to Garnier Malet's work:

Now, I keep a foot in both worlds, the wonderful world of fantasy and imagination and the “real" world of work to pay the mortgage and put food on the table. That childhood sense of alternative worlds, of another self that lives a grander life and invites me to step up in my life, has remained strong and there is lots of evidence that it is more than the fancy of an immature mind. Look up the work of Garnier Malet, the French physicist who proposed the theory of "Doubling Time,” a theory that postulates the necessity of a future self with whom we can interact! 

Photo, prose, & audio © 2016 Nick LeForce.All Rights reserved
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