As a twin of almost 26 years now, with younger twin brothers, I’d say I probably know more about twins than the average person.
First and foremost, I know that every set of twins has a story.
My sister and I have experienced countless examples of ‘twintuition’, from waking up and recounting the same dream, to walking out of exams and discovering we’d written virtually the same essay, to receiving identical marks in our HSC (before scaling put me in the lead by 0.02…confirming that I am the smart twin and Clare is, unfortunately, the dumb one).
When I studied Greek mythology, twins were always characterised as either an omen or a blessing. They were divine, and therefore were met with great superstition. It would seem that since the beginning of time there has always been something about twins that others don't quite understand. And in 2016, researchers are still attempting to decipher twinship - arguably one of the closest human bonds.
The ABC recently conducted a study entitled Truth about twins: Do they feel each other's pain, have ESP or share the same DNA?
ESP stands for Extra Sensory Perception, which simply means the awareness of information not gained through the senses. So, even though a twin may not be in the physical presence of their mate, they can feel that something isn't right.
Telepathy is defined as "the supposed communication of thoughts or ideas by means other than the known senses...." and indeed, there is a form of communication, which isn't sight, sound or touch, which twins seem to be able to utilise.
Clare Blumer argues that although twins "may have a shared understanding or have plenty in common..." it's more "generational or environmental than telepathic".
Ultimately, the study attempted to distinguish twin 'facts' from 'fiction'.
But I think the story might be more complicated than that.
I spoke to my twin friends and asked if they'd ever had a weird twin experience (because twins hang out in twin covens and make up spells/curse non-twins etc). Here are some of the responses:
Labour
Only a month ago my mum called to tell me about a set of identical twins she knows. Both were pregnant, but were due months apart. Twin A went into labour and went to hospital. Without communicating this to her twin, hours later, twin B went into labour. She too went to hospital.