Twins share a special bond that can’t be replicated elsewhere: they share nine months in the womb together, they grow up together, and they often share a nearly identical set of experiences as kids. It’s no wonder that they are often extremely close — and that they have an extremely deep understanding of one another.
But can twins have an uncanny mental connection or even read each other’s mind?
Over on TikTok, Adrea Garza, of Edmond, Oklahoma, loves sharing her life with her 7-year-old fraternal twin daughters, Koti and Haven. On Wednesday, she shared a video called “Twin Telepathy” that shows her daughters repeatedly choosing the same colored block, despite a wall up between them.
The video has been viewed 35 million times, and over 12,000 people have left comments.
“Y’allllll, I’m shook,” Garza wrote in the caption as her daughters first both pick a white block, then a red, then a red again.
All in all, the twins picked eight of the same blocks in a row — and their mom’s surprise is super evident. “Oh my god,” she exclaims during the video.
Down in the comments, some were impressed while others were more than a little skeptical.
“You can tell this was staged because there’s a pattern…but good memory,” one skeptic commented.
Another said, “Plot Twist: She’s holding up the color for them to grab.”
A few twins chimed in, though, and said that they believe it.
“Twin telepathy is REAL my twin sister and I do it every time. If her vibe is off I can feel it,” one person commented.
“Growing up my twin was non verbal and I always knew what he wanted even though he never spoke. I was my moms translator basically,” another added.
In the next posted video, Adrea responded to a comment from a viewer who asked her to stand behind the twins so that it’s clear that she’s not feeling them answers. She shared a new setup where she sat with the girls while one is blindfolded and the other is holding up her fingers. The blindfolded girl guesses several in a row.
“How’s her [sic] getting it so correct?” Koti asks adorably.
Okay, but: does telepathy really exist between twins?
This is a bummer, but the answer is that it probably doesn’t.
Telepathy and/or ESP has never been scientifically proven between twins. While there have been some anecdotal evidence, usually self-reported by twins, of some level of mind-reading, or of eerie instances when twins could “feel” something that their other twin was feeling, most of these instances can be explained by either coincidence or the simple genetic and physical closeness of the two people. This is likely since siblings, couples, and other close pairs have also reported these types of experiences.
It is true that studies in which identical twins were separated at birth have found that twins often lead bizarrely similar lives — driving the same model of car, holding the same job, suffering from the same ailments, even smoking the same cigarettes. But these connections are likely due to genetics and not some sort of mental or magical bond.
It’s not clear if Haven and Koti are lucky guessers, if their videos are somewhat staged, or if they are so close they can often guess what the other is about to do, but it is clear that they’re having fun playing together.
