Attachment and exceptional experiences among twins

The attachment between twins has for many years been known to be very strong, but has so far not been very much researched, and since it seems to relate to another under researched area, the deep empathic experiences reported by twins, generally called twin telepathy (including remote sensitivity to illness, and distant empathy, e. g. one twin sensing if the other twin is in an accident or has an injury), the aim for this thesis was to investigate if there is a connection between them. Do twins with a strong attachment report having more cases of so-called exceptional experiences? Three experimental studies were carried out with UK twins on twin telepathy, where electrodermal activity for one twin was used as an indicator of twin telepathy, when the other twin in a distant room was exposed to a surprise event. The overall result for these three experimental studies was significant, justifying the method to be used in further research on twin telepathy with improved methodology, possibly also including testing if any kind of field is involved as a possible mechanism. Attachment data was collected from more than 2000 UK twins in a web survey and was also related to the exceptional experiences they report having had. Two questionnaires for attachment were used and questions added about their exceptional experiences. Identical twins were found to report stronger attachment than non-identical twins, and female twins were found to report stronger attachment than male twins. For age, the attachment was found to be strong in early ages and then it slowly decreased. The attachment was very strong for the twins in this study, and for attachment-related anxiety and avoidance, it was stronger than the published norms. Many twins reported having had an exceptional experience with their twin, and some even with other than their cotwin, some of these having a genetical relationship. Twins reporting having had exceptional experiences with their twin reported a stronger and more positive attachment to their twin than those who did not.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

phd

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Greenwich

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Brusewitz, Goran

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Luke, David
• Piterou, Aleksandar

• HQ The family. Marriage. Woman

Language dc:language

en