What I learned from being a twin

I am a non-identical twin.

My twin sister was born first, followed by me 1 1/4 hours later!

I like to say jokingly that I was happy where I was and didn’t fancy coming out into the world.

Anyhow, the first Golden Rule about twins is:

A twin is a unique and separate person

We were called “twinnies” by one of our adoptive brothers, which I hated. We looked extremely alike when we were younger and although I don’t remember, we were told that we were mischievous in Grade 1 at the Catholic Primary School in Australia that we attended, and swapped seats to confuse the nuns. Sorry, Sister Philomena (my favorite teacher).

At university, my sister studied Information Technology and I studied Biology, and one day one of my friends saw my sister and chatted to her for half an hour then asked her if she could borrow her Biology book. My twin replied “But I’m not Celine” which made my friend’s face turn beet red.

These cases of mistaken identity never failed to amuse me. They were funny then and still are now. We had long hair down our backs and one day my sister went into a hair salon and had her black locks cut, then I walked in. The poor hair-dresser went white as a ghost and spluttered “But but — I just cut your hair.”

I stared at her at first puzzled thinking she’s lost her marbles, then I said nonchalantly “Ohh that was my twin sister.”

I was at work one day and one of my buddies came racing over to me, and said excitedly “Celine, YOU are on the phone!” I was astonished then said “But Greg how can that be possible. I’m right here and I’m not phoning myself.”

Then I added “Oh but my twin sister is picking me up today, it must be her.” The look on Greg’s face was priceless. Even our adoptive mother got us confused on the telephone, telling us she couldn’t tell which was which.

One day I had a long happy conversation over the phone with Mum, then I said Goodbye, and mum asked me “who are you anyway.” LOL

Do twins have ESP? Well the answer is Yes and No. They may do to some extent but not 24/7 and it is not “on tap”. My twin and I have both tuned into each other’s stress or grief on several occasions though.

After we finished Uni, I was like a mad person, racing around doing hundreds of things including one day racing home from work to bake a cake for a volunteer group that I was involved with. I got severe cramps in my hands.

In walked my sister after being at work and immediately demanded of me, “What’s the matter?’

“What do you mean, what’s the matter?” I asked.

She shrugged. “Oh I just thought something was wrong”.

Speed forward to a more spectacular event when my sister’s car broke down and a passerby helped her push her car to a safe spot off a busy road. I was waiting for my sister at an auto place and she rang there on her mobile phone to say her car was incapacitated.

As I chatted to her, I heard a man’s voice say “turn the wheel to the right.”

My sister had her car towed eventually and went home, and I too went to my home. Later that evening I rang her for an update on the car business. She told me that a kind man appeared out of the blue (like an angel she said) and helped her push the car aside.

“I heard the man” I told her happily, “while I was on the phone to you, at the auto place. He said turn the wheel to the right.” Her reply was:

“How can that be? That happened five minutes before I phoned you!”

We were both truly astonished at this revelation. Yes I had somehow traveled to the “past” and with my sense of hearing, heard what happened. To this day, I believe that part of my consciousness went to where she was, to check on her.

I know that I have very good hearing, and maybe there is such a thing as clairaudience or hearing things with the “inner senses”.

It could have been telepathy of the clairaudient sense, and has extended beyond a connection with my sister. One day I was at my partner’s sister’s house and her 3 year old twins were in the swimming pool with their parents.

I had been in the pool but had got out. As I sat there, I saw one of the twins in the pool, with her mother holding her, looking at me, and I quite clearly heard a voice say loudly in my mind “are you coming in the pool?”

I knew it was the 3 year old, who was looking expectantly at me, talking to me telepathically.

“No I’m not coming back in the pool” I shouted, and everyone around me thought that I was cuckoo.

One afternoon I was in a happy zone at home, and I went to get a cookie from the dolphin-shaped cookie jar, and I froze.

I felt a presence at the jar. That’s funny I thought, then shrugged thinking nothing of it. The next day our house was burgled and a lot of things stolen.

Could I have astral traveled to the “future” and sensed someone?

Well, I think that there is no such thing as linear “time” and that we experience movement of energy and have perceptions of “things” but experiences or things are not as linear as we like to think, which we do in order to make sense of things.

People think that I am totally crackers when I speak about this, but hey that’s okay as long as people don’t abuse me. Each to their own, as long as you don’t disrespect or harm things is the golden mantra that everyone should know.

Every being in the universe knows right from wrong.

From the movie “K-pax”

Well what has all this got to do with being a twin?

When we were younger, we were dressed the same and treated as one homogeneous or combined unit. We were astonished when we found out that we could each wear what one liked.

Many people did treat us as though we had exactly the same interests, experiences, character traits and abilities, but we did not (and do not).

The lessons that I have learned from being a twin is that we are no different to anyone else. We don’t have super powers, always being able to know what the other is thinking or what’s happening to the other.

There may be some connections of closeness between twins, not experienced by non-twins, but I believe that such relationships can be fostered between non twins. The connection touted to exist between twins is a sort of “knowing” or a claircognizance, but anyone can develop psychic abilities.

I believe that as babies and younger human beings, we all have psychic abilities, but do not cultivate or use them as we “grow up” in a world where natural connections of the “clair ..” types are frowned upon or pooh-poohed.

I will end by saying that either as a person or as a twin, I like having others around me and always need to be helping someone or to feel supported.

Actually it must be because of ME and not being a twin, because my twin sister is quite happy being alone, whereas I hate being alone, so I reiterate:

Every being, and every person, whether a twin or not, is a unique and separate person, honor this.

P.S. When I was a toddler, I somehow got out of my cot and into my twin sister’s cot (as mum told me). An amazing feat but the reason for it was simply that I love to be around other people and to have and give hugs; and thus it was handy having a twin.

You can read about a wonderful true “Rescuing Hug” twin story here, if you don’t know it already.