We brought Hutch and his brother home against the admonitions of most veterinarians. Hutch and Star were male littermates. Males who are brothers and of the same litter rarely get along very well. Usually they want to fight with each other excessively, and the admonition was given to avoid adopting them altogether.
We ignored the advice, and worked through the first few months of sparring activity that was done to establish the dominance of one over the other. Finally, after both agreed that Hutch would be the beta dog, and his brother would be the alpha, all was fine. Once they found they could get along, they were an impressive duo. With both over a hundred pounds (Hutch at one point 126 lbs) – they were as trophy horses, trotting against their bridles and their leashes, running the trails of North Carolina with their master in tow. The bonds they developed between themselves, and with me, were awe inspiring.
Many years passed and Star became ill. A cancer wrapped itself around his spine, cutting it off and paralysing him. He lay on a hospital gurney, dying. At home, my wife sat at the table, watching Hutch. A phone call informed that his brother was going to be put to sleep. At almost that exact time (really, about ten minutes later) – Hutch’s face appeared suddenly worried. With big eyes he looked towards the pad where his brother usually slept. Then he began to whimper. Ten minutes would have been about the correct time, from call to injection.
Our big bear part-rottweiller / part german-shepherd Hutch did not take to whimpering easily. He was no chiwauwahua. But, he was a serously concerned dog. There have been anecdotal stories of human twins with similar experiences. One twin “knows” when the other has died, or is in serious trouble.
It’s not true that dog littermates are much like human twins. In humans however; recent discoveries indicate that a little of what happens to twins, happens to everybody. Twins have identical DNA, if they are identical. Probably, fraternal twins have some identical portions of DNA, but some that is not. And children, it is now suspected, take a little bit of identical DNA from their parents due to the simple fact of gestation. I am not a doctor, so this is an uneducated opinion that derives from my mind’s ability to connect dots. If I’ve connected them inappropriately, or made other inaccurate assessments, the reader has been forwarned.
At one time, it was thought that the body could not have two sets of DNA. IIRC, this has been proven wrong. In any case, perhaps it is not necessary for all of the DNA to be identical. Perhaps it is enough for long sections of it to be matched with each other, without being entirely identical. This would be the case (it seems to me) – for siblings that share a home during gestation.
A dog littermate, by the just described reasoning, would have some of his brother’s DNA, in exact form. Psychic studies seem to imply (based on anecdotal data) – that identical twins are most likely to have these kind of psychic experiences, and fraternal twins are somewhat less likely to have them (by 5 to 1 ratio). There is little or no data on the incidence of psychic phenomenon between mother and child.
If you look at the Wiki page on Twin psychic phenomenon, you will find the scientist’s viewpoint on the matter. It is simply that, due to the inverse square law, psychic phenomenon is impossible. They insist that all twins episodes are simple coincidences.
To an aetherist (not atheist BTW), the scientist’s viewpoint has a fatal flaw. While it’s true that “normal” transverse light, taken as a whole, is dependent upon the inverse square law, a single photon, taken as itself, that has mostly longitudinal momentum, and also has perfect incident angle, does not observe the inverse square law in the same way. There would be a much less deletiorous effect.
With an acceptance of a universal aether (latin pronounciation of “ether”) comes the ability to avoid the disqualifying inverse square law restriction, and leave open the door to psychic phenomenon based on what Einstein called “spooky action at a distance”.
Scientists have recently discovered what they believe is a non-local interaction between strands (and sections of strands) of DNA. This is effectively “spooky action at a distance” – but operated over tiny intervals of space. The interaction is dependent upon the exact structure of the DNA, and so one perhaps could make the guess that it would work between twins in the same way as it works inside of and between elements of their own DNA.
Food for thought …
RIP, my ole’ buddies.
Note: the author is a writer on technical subjects in some areas, of novels, and of other literature, but does not have any formal credentials related to the medical field, or in physics. Thus, this all constitutes an opinion of what might be possible, based on his own hobby-level knowledge quests.
Musings 