Facial 'Molds?'

[Bar Kochba]

I have a terrible memory & no access to the forum search engine, so apologies if I or anyone else have posted this before. I've noticed many people's faces bear remarkable similarities to ppl I've seen or even know. Almost uncannily, as if there are a limited number of 'molds' available. Ex: here in Az, a mexican co-worker bears shocking facial similarity to a caucasian friend of mine in Pa. Eyes, smile, bone structure...everything but skin color. Uncanny!

 

[Al Today]

... many people's faces bear remarkable similarities to ppl I've seen or even know. Almost uncannily, as if there are a limited number of 'molds' available. ...

Looking back, I "wish" I would have written down the hill-folk lore and legends my ole grandmother used to tell me. Now mind you, my mammaw could not read nor write. Born and raised deep in the hollers of Appliacia. Back in the horse & buggy days. In the 1970s, she passed away in her 90s after having 18 children. Having her first at 13 while my grandfather was in his early 50s. I was told all those children were all his. They DO look the same. That's the way it was there, back then...
Anyway, your posted reminded me of when she told me:

[quote author= my mammaw]"Everyone has a twin on this here earth. Imagine, there IS someone out there that looks just like you, but ain't you."[/quote]

 

[theos]

I know what you mean, Bar Kochba. I've seen people of different races from different parts of the globe that "remind" me of or have the same facial and physcial structure of people that I know. A guy I work with reminds me of my ex-boyfriend. Different race, but they could be brothers. They even have some of the same mannerisms.

People freguently tell me that I look like their cousin or neice or someone. I've asked for pictures but I've never been presented with "proof". And I did once see an old CD cover of Ziggy Marley and I thought I was looking at myself -- minus the dreads.

Facial molds? Doesn't seem incredibly far fetched. Makes me think of the saying, "they broke the mold when they made you."

 

[mkrnhr]

This is funny, I had this thought yesterday coming back from restaurant. The restaurant chief server looks like like a cousin of mine, even in his manners and his voice (but talking another language as my cousin is from the other side of the planet). Many people in this town remember me people i knew in another place, as if they were recycled actors for roles that are different. Seriously, IMHO it is our brain who categorizes some facial features according to those we are used to see, which reduces our perception of small differences between faces.

 

[gwb1995]

This is funny, I had this thought yesterday coming back from restaurant. The restaurant chief server looks like like a cousin of mine, even in his manners and his voice (but talking another language as my cousin is from the other side of the planet). Many people in this town remember me people i knew in another place, as if they were recycled actors for roles that are different. Seriously, IMHO it is our brain who categorizes some facial features according to those we are used to see, which reduces our perception of small differences between faces.

In other words, people are 'seeing' what they remember from other peoples faces and features and just morphing these other people into who and what they remember from past experiences. Do you think they are also doing the same thing with the mannerisms, etc.? I can see the logic in what you are saying, but just can't grok it totally, as I have not had such a experience in this life. At least one that I can associate with this subject.

I have had multiple situations where I thought I saw a person from my past, but it always turned out to be someone else. I am sure this situation is totally different from this subject.

 

[mkrnhr]

Do you think they are also doing the same thing with the mannerisms, etc.?

Manners can be categorized into a finite set of patterns too : kind, attentive, cold, friendly, snob...

I have had multiple situations where I thought I saw a person from my past, but it always turned out to be someone else.

Yes, it seams different. Have you considered the possibility that our cognitive process tend to use memory to recognize people until it figures out that the person doesn't fit to the memorized individual? Just a possibility though.

 

[Bar Kochba]

This is a "theory" I've thought about for years. Some ppl look similar to others, yes, but then some look nearly identical. Even down to the body type & mannerisms. The aforementioned Az Mexican co-worker has the same ectomorphic body type, same intense eyes, etc, as my friend in Pa. I'm glad others have noticed this phenomenom too so I know I'm not completely wacked. Hopefully.

 

[Al Today]

[quote author=Bar Kochba] ... wacked ... [/quote]

Thanks, I needed that today...
What do they say? Youre not crazy if you think you're going crazy?

 

[Gawan]

This is funny, I had this thought yesterday coming back from restaurant. The restaurant chief server looks like like a cousin of mine, even in his manners and his voice (but talking another language as my cousin is from the other side of the planet). Many people in this town remember me people i knew in another place, as if they were recycled actors for roles that are different. Seriously, IMHO it is our brain who categorizes some facial features according to those we are used to see, which reduces our perception of small differences between faces.

I think imo Mkrnhr is spot on. I'm not quite sure which parts of the face we "scan" and remember when we are talking to persons, it may be the eyes, the mouth etc. what could get imprinted/remembered in our brain. And this detail could make the whole person, we know from another town.
As far as I remember there is one part in our brain, which recognises faces and is connected with our eyes and perception.

By the way, these situations also occurred in my life, where I kept smiling to myself, because this or that person looked so similar to one I knew in another city.

What would be interesting to take a picture of the person which looks so similar (or think he/she does) and then compare it, to the person we already know, to get some objective data.

 

[Bar Kochba]

Let's say there ARE certain "molds." I don't notice the phenomenom very often, but enough to merit more than a passing "hmm." If mannerisms are similar also, then what of attitudes & thought processes? I guess the only way to find out is to befriend my co-worker.

 

[Al Today]

[quote author=Bar Kochba]Let's say there ARE certain "molds." ... [/quote]

A thought...
Isn't there also the possibility of other "I"s walking around here at the same time. Consciousness patterns kinda matching to the physical DNA makeup, a type of mold perhaps?

 

[Biomiast]

A thought...
Isn't there also the possibility of other "I"s walking around here at the same time. Consciousness patterns kinda matching to the physical DNA makeup, a type of mold perhaps?

I think you touched the subject a little. Here is my personal hypothesis:

The genetic difference between two individuals' genome is believed to be dependent on SNPs(Single nucleotide polymorphisms). This variation among people is defined in this wikipedia article:

The Variome is the whole set of genetic variations found in populations of species that have gone through a relatively short evolution change. For example, in the human population about 1 in every 1,200 nucleotide bases will differ. However, as the human species diverged only 10,000 years ago this variation rate is comparatively small in number. Variome in practice can be the sum of SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms). Variomics is the bioinformatic study of variome.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variome

As you can see, materially speaking, what makes me different from any other human is around %0.083. What I thought is that SNPs are basically our genetic makeup and Cassiopaeans said genetic makeup marries soul pattern, which also affects the frequency of each individual.

I think whatever in your DNA/soul/frequency that attracts you to the person you know, also attracts you, not as strongly, only momentarily to the person you resemble to him/her. Mimics and facial characteristics are part of the equation as well as many other things like emotions and thought processes of different person which may vary differently because of the environment they choose to incarnate. I think that is why it is only momentarily for you.

I also encounter people resembling each other. Another kind of example: My friend is a Circasian immigrant, I am an Arabian immigrant and although the color of our skin, eyes and hair are much different everybody thinks we are brothers, some people even propose that we are twins. :)

 

[gwb1995]

Have you considered the possibility that our cognitive process tend to use memory to recognize people until it figures out that the person doesn't fit to the memorized individual? Just a possibility though.

I think you are right on target here. I think that we may 'program' ourselves in a manner of speaking to remember certain features and thus we hit on these features from time to time in those situations that trigger a response.

 

[Peam]

I was shopping in the local town once, and a complete stranger came up and said “hello” to me as though he knew me. “Hey up, how are yer going on?”
After noticing the confused look on my face as I struggled to recognise who he was, he realised his mistake and said he could have sworn I was a bloke who does dee-jaying a couple of times a week in a pub in a local village, “you look just like him, I can’t believe it!” etc.

Well, I went on my way feeling happy, but confused at the same time. Happy in the thought that at least there was someone else knocking about out there who looked as ugly as me, but confused because how the heck could someone who looked like me be so outgoing and talkative as to be a DJ in a pub?

It was a bit of a shock. If this bloke looked so like me how come he wasn’t as introverted and shy as I was? Wasn’t he bullied like I was at school because of his looks? How could he be so confident, when I always kept myself to myself, kept a low profile, tried to be invisible, hardly ever spoke. If he looked so like me why didn’t he act like me?

Well this was before I found the work. Internal considering, ego etc, and especially the childhood early imprinting experiences and distorted thinking which can affect the personality.
Imprinting such as trying to become invisible to avoid attention from school bullies, (which never seemed to work.) Then when you mechanically try to avoid attention when an adult, due to that childhood imprinting, you’re liable to attract more attention to yourself.

If there’s someone out there who looks like me and only lives a few miles away, could there be hundreds more all over the world, and hundreds of people who look like you as well?

Having said that, just look at all those celebrity lookalike websites out there like the one below. OK, they try to dress like their respective celebrities, but the facial similarities are there in a lot of them.

http://www.splitting-images.com/celebrity_list.html