The One Mind

S ilvia and marta landa were fouryearold identical twins who lived in the village of Murillo de Río Leza in northern Spain. One day in 1976, their father took Silvia to visit their grandparents, who lived several miles away. Marta, the other twin, insisted on staying home and helping her mother with household chores. Marta burned her hand on a hot clothes iron, causing a large red blister, a seconddegree burn, to erupt. At the same time, miles away, an identical blister formed on Silvia’s hand. Silvia was taken to the doctor, unaware of what had happened to her sister Marta. When the two little girls were united, their parents saw that the blisters were the same size and on the same part of the same hand. After being featured in their local newspaper, the twins became local celebrities. Word spread, and a team of nine psychologists, psychiatrists, and physicians from Madrid thoroughly investigated the happening, with the consent of the twins and their parents. Research suggests that around 20 percent of identical twins respond in this way, but most such cases occur in nontwins. The prerequisite seems to be profound emotional closeness between the individuals involved—most often mothers and children, bonded spouses, lovers, and close friends.