Twins: The Psychic Connection

Twins as defined by Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin ) are offspring resulting from the same pregnancy, which can be the same or opposite gender. The general term for more than one offspring from the same pregnancy is multiples, for example triplets refers to cases of three offspring from the same pregnancy. A fetus alone in the womb is called a singleton. Twins are usually born in close succession. Due to the limited size of the mother's womb, multiple pregnancies are much less likely to carry to full term than singleton births, with twin pregnancies lasting only 37 weeks on average, 3 weeks less than full term. Since premature births can have health consequences for the babies, twin births are often handled with special precautions. There are estimated to be approximately 125 million human twins and triplets in the world. The current rate in the United States is 31 twin births per 1,000 women. The above link goes deeper in depth about different sorts of twins.

It is suspected that as many as 1 in 8 pregnancies start out as multiples but one or more dies before even being detected. There are many stories of twins being psychically connected. Perhaps sensing the other twin's wish to communicate or even a trauma involving their twin. It has been reported more than a few times that a twin has felt the other's anguish, even actual physical pain simultaneously.

Even though the idea of a special connection between identical twins is often myth and legend a little research has been done in this field. The book 'Twin Telepathy" claims an overwhelming body of evidence indicating that there is indeed a special connection. One of the experiments involved 8-year-old Richard Powles who was put in a soundproof room in front of a bucket filled with ice-cold water. On command, Richard plunged his arm into the ice cold water, giving a gasp as he did so. In another room well out of sight or earshot, his identical twin brother Damien was wired up to a polygraph. A polygraph expert monitored his respiration, abdominal muscles, pulse and galvanic skin response (sweat on the hands). All Damien had to do was sit quietly and "tune in" to his brother's feelings. At the exact moment of Richard's sharp intake of breath caused by the freezing water, there was a sudden blip on the line monitoring Damien's respiration rate. In another experiment, Richard was asked to open a cardboard box; in it was a huge rubber snake that jumped out at him. This, too, was instantly picked up by his twin as the pulse line on the chart clearly indicated. The book also concludes there are three especially telepathy-prone groups - mothers and newborn babies, dogs and their owners, and identical twins. Of these, it is the twins who pick up the signal at full strength most often, provided that they are in the right states of mind. For this and more twin stories see link listverse.com/people/10-extraordinary-tales-of-extraordinary-twins/

Most of such cases are strictly of identical twins, but some siblings and fraternal twins have claimed to have this connection also. Twins separated at birth have been found to have an astounding amount of things in common, such as spouse or children's names or occupations. Some believe that we all have these psychic abilities but just don't use them. While others think twins have this ability uniquely.