On 19 August 1939 twin boys were born in Piqua, Ohio, USA. One
was adopted by the Springer family in Dayton, Ohio, who thought the
brother had died. The named their baby James. The second child was
adopted by the Lewis family of Lima, Ohio,and they too believed
that the twin was dead. By coincidence Baby Lewis was also called
James.
Six year later Jess and Lucille Lewis accidentally found out that
their adopted son's brother was alive. Then in January 1979 their
son James Lewis began looking for his twin, and after only a few
weeks the two brother were reunited -- at the age of 39.
The Jims were monozygotic, or identical, twins -- created from the
same single fertilised ovum that split in two, and sharing the same
placenta in the uterus. It is hardly surprising that genetic
make-up should produce similarities beyond physical appearance. But
the coincidences in the Jims' lives were astonishing.
The twins had first wives called Linda, then they divorced and both
married women called Betty. Lewis named his first son James Alan;
Springer's was James Allan. Both had dogs answering to Toy. The two
men had worked as gas station attendants and for the same hamburger
chain. The twins drove the same type of car, and smoked the same
cigarette and drank the same beer brands. They had regularly taken
their annual vacation at the same resort in Florida. The both
disliked baseball but enjoyed stock-car racing and woodwork. Both
gained and lost our kilograms at the same age, bit their
fingermails compulsively and had experienced a minor heart attack.
And the Jims had bothe suffered haemorrhoids and migraines.
Thomas Bouchard, professor of psychology at the University of
Minnesota, recorded the similarities of the Jim twins and studied
the lives of other identical twins who had been separated at birth.
An English pair, Bridget Harrison and Dorothy Lowe, born in 1943,
met for the first time in 1979. The lives of the twins matched in
various ways. Bridget's son, for instance was named Andrew Richard,
and Dorothy's son Richard Andrew. Then in 1962 they had both kept
diaries for only one year in books of the same make and colour. The
days they filled in and those they left blank corresponded
exactly.
Professor Bouchard explored the role of genetic inheritance as
opposed to environmental factors. But his findings and other
examples of coincidence, such as the synchronicity of pain at a
great distance or, in rare cases, death, sugges there are psychic
connections between idential twins.
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