The term heautoscopy describes a reduplicative hallucination where one sees one’s own body at a distance. This can be considered as a possible explanation of the doppelganger phenomena or a form of bilocation. It can also be metaphorically linked to the principles of vision in general, where the eye provides sensory information before it is consciously realized. Therefore, perception of the world is asynchronous, with one consciously seeing the world not as it is now, but as it existed a moment ago.

The folklore surrounding hawthorn trees, their branches and thorns is ancient and extensive. In Greece, they were associated with the triple goddess Hecate and were sometimes worn as bridal crowns. They are also symbolically connected to boundaries and liminal spaces as well used for apotropaic practices.