Hello everyone! I'm Xiao Wu, welcome back to brain hole utopia.
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Twins, especially identical twins, are likely to have had very similar faces since they were born, with movements between hands and feet, and even eye contact. The story I'm going to share with you today happened between twin sisters. Not only do they look alike, but they also speak a language that only they can understand with each other. And these two people firmly believe that their souls are split in two at birth, and only one of them can live like a normal person if the other dies. In 1993, the twins' younger sister died suddenly due to acute myocarditis. And the changes that happened to my sister after that were incomprehensible to everyone, even many medical researchers.
In the 1960s, a young couple, Gloria and Aubrey, moved from Barbados to England with their children. Her husband, Aubrey, works as a mechanical repairman in the British National Air Force, while his wife stays at home to take care of the family's diet and work as a full-time wife. On April 11, 1963, twin sisters were born into the family.
Gloria named the sisters June and Jennifer. Three years later, the couple had a young daughter, Roshi. The twin sisters have been inseparable from birth and have a tacit understanding of their actions. At first, the parents felt that there was nothing, after all, they were identical twins, and the two fetuses were developed from a fertilized egg, which always made people feel that there was a special bond between them. But gradually, to the parents' concern, the two children were much quieter than their peers and began to talk late. And for the most part, two people only talk to each other or talk to their dolls. As a parent, I can't even understand what the children are saying, it feels like English, but I can't be sure.
When the little sister was 8 years old, Aubrey was transferred to Chivenor Air Force Base in the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the family moved to Devon. Later, in 1974, when the children were 11 years old, the father was transferred to another air base, and the family moved to Haverfordwest, Wales, England. I don't know if it is because of the frequent changes in the living environment and school, the two children have less and less communication with the outside world. At school, the twin sisters were the only black children and were often discriminated against and ridiculed by their classmates. All this makes the two little girls who do not communicate with the outside world much become more and more withdrawn. The two children cling to each other every day, do not talk to any classmates, and even communicate with their families less and less. Teachers at the school also reported that the two children communicated individually in a special language that only the two of them could understand. Originally because of the problem of skin color, in that era, they were often racially discriminated against, coupled with the strange behavior of the two little girls, so that they were even bullied in school. In order to solve this problem, the teachers allowed two people to leave class five minutes early to go home so as not to be bullied by other classmates on the road.
However, the two children actually performed very well in school, they did not deliberately cause trouble, attend classes on time, and did not argue with their classmates on purpose. Because two people completely ignored each other, other than each other. When a classmate called out their name, the two people did not react at all, and they did not hear the same. The school teachers had to work very hard to understand what they were saying. But no matter what, the school teacher still comforted the couple and said that they were still children and would grow up in the future. But things didn't get better and better, only getting worse. The two little girls didn't even talk to their families anymore.
At the same time, the behavior of the two men began to become strikingly consistent. It is beyond the scope of similar behavior of the twin sisters. For example, when two people ride a small wooden horse, they will shake back and forth at the same frequency. When one person falls, the other person will fall down with it. The family did not know whether the two of them had done this on purpose, or whether there was a special ability to sense between them.
At the age of 14, the couple took their two children to a psychiatrist. At the time, two people were diagnosed with selective mutism. This is a form of social anxiety disorder. That is to say, the patient has the ability to speak, but in a specific case it is impossible to speak. The disease is an extremely rare disorder in children. The patient's other behaviors and learning abilities are normal, but they are reluctant to participate in group activities. On the surface, it may seem as if the patient is extremely shy. But people who are generally shy may be reluctant to speak in public, but when they return home, they are willing to talk to their families. Selective mutism does not ease as your child grows older. Therefore, when symptoms appear, it is necessary to actively treat it immediately. The advice given by psychiatrists at the time was to allow two people to try to separate and go to different schools in order to force them to communicate with others other than each other.
However, all these attempts turned out to be ineffective. The two people became more withdrawn after they separated. I didn't even say a word for a whole day. Once, when he went to get vaccinated, the doctor vaccinated the two children separately, but he found that the two children could not speak, and how to ask them did not open their mouths. Gloria fears that in the long run, the sisters will really lose their ability to prophesy and will have to put them back in the same school. But this time, the parents sent them back to special children's education institutions, where teachers know better how to care for these children with special needs. It was there that the teachers found that the two children had not actually invented a special language for them, and that the two of them spoke English, but with a strong local accent, interspersed with some Barbados slang and humming murmurs, plus the two spoke very quickly, so that outsiders could not understand.
After returning home from school, the two of them shut themselves in their rooms to play with dolls. Their sister Roshi shared a room with them. Roshi said the two sisters had reached the point of obsession with dolls.
Later, Roche had his own room. The two of them never spoke to Roshi again. Not only Roshi, but the twin sisters gradually began to cut off all verbal communication with their families. Even when they eat, they hide in their rooms alone. If they wanted to watch any TV show at night, they would write a small note to their mother saying Mom, what TV we want to watch at what time of night. When the mother would tune in the TV show, the two girls would hide in the corridor leading to the living room and secretly watch it.
However, if you think that the two of them are so inseparable and act in unison, out of love for each other, then you are wrong. Psychologists believe that the relationship between two people is more like a kind of love-hate mutual control. Jennifer once wrote in her diary:
"In each other's eyes, we have become mortal enemies. We felt deadly rays radiate from inside us, stinging each other's skin. I said to myself, can I get rid of my own shadow? Impossible or impossible? Without my shadow, would I die? Without my shadow, would I be born again, free or die? ”
In an accident, June even once tried to drown Jennifer. After regaining his senses, June also wrote about the process in his diary.
The sisters have also tried many different ways to establish normal social relationships with others. Their parents also bought them a course on how to communicate with others, but in the face of others, neither of them could open their mouths. In such a process of repeated entanglement and struggle, the sisters are also physically and mentally exhausted. They need a catharsis.
In 1979, at the age of 16, they both received birthday gifts from their parents, two hardcover notebooks. Since then, the sisters have become obsessed with writing novels, and thriller novels. They feel that this is their only emotional outlet, the only way they can communicate with the outside world. Until 1981, the home was filled with notebooks written by the sisters, including fantasy stories, midnight thrillers, crime novels, and so on. The two also tried to send the manuscript to the magazine to publish the novel. They thought that what they wrote would definitely attract a lot of attention in society, making them famous novelists. However, all that awaited was a rejection from the magazine. This incident hit the sisters particularly hard.
At the same time, the sixteen- and seventeen-year-old sisters also met their first love, a pair of twin boys from the United States. The boys took them to a party, and under the influence of alcohol, the two people's always tense nerves were relieved, and they began to try to communicate with the boys. However, after the holidays, the twin boys are returning to the United States. This was another fatal blow to the sisters. The relationship between the sisters also became more and more delicate. On the one hand, they are interdependent, and on the other hand, they feel that each other is a stumbling block in their own lives. Parents began to hear two people arguing in the room. The escalation of the war also made them think of killing each other several times. Jennifer also once recorded in her diary that she once nearly strangled Junene with a wire on a radio. But after each quarrel, the resentment against each other was defeated by years of interdependence. It belongs to the world of the two of them, others can't come in, and it seems that neither of them can go out.
But the novel was not published successfully, coupled with the pain of losing his first love. The sisters decided what to do to get revenge on this society. In October 1981, the sisters set fire to a shop in the town. June wrote in her diary that the night after the arson, she felt so happy, she said, "Am I not qualified to express my grief?" After that, the sisters also frequently began to steal. On November 8 of the same year, they smashed the windows of a local technical college and were arrested by a nearby patrol police officer just as they broke into the school and were about to set fire to it. Police then searched their rooms, found diaries, and determined that they were the real culprits in a series of arson thefts in the town in recent months.
During their detention, the sisters were initially held in the same cell, but due to conflict and disputes between them. Prison guards had to separate them. However, after separation, the two people are completely unable to move and live normally, unable to eat, unable to walk, and even unable to sleep. In the end, the police re-detained the two men. At that time, the sisters said that they already hated each other to the bone, and even hoped that the other would die. But without each other, the two are like lost souls again.
At trial, the two were found by the court to be antisocial personality disorder, and the judges even suspected they had early symptoms of schizophrenia. The two were then taken to Broadmoor Psychiatric Hospital for treatment. It was one of the most secure psychiatric hospitals in Britain, housing severely mentally ill people, including some vicious rapists and murderers. The judges and adjudicators believe that the two will eventually return to normal through treatment and rehabilitation in a psychiatric hospital. But things are getting worse.
When they were first admitted to the hospital, the doctors were helpless against the two girls because they were completely unresponsive to the outside world. If they were tried to separate, the two would yell at the nurse like crazy. No one could understand their language, or no one tried to communicate with them patiently. In the end, the courtyard decided to separate them into two different rooms. At this time, the nurses at the hospital noticed something strange. Although the two people are locked in different spaces, they seem to have telepathy, and they will do the same movements and maintain the same strange posture. I don't know if people believe in telepathy, but the two girls seem to know what the other is doing at any time.
During the years they were held in a psychiatric hospital, they were both allowed to write letters to each other and to their families. At the same time, the "Silent Sisters" incident also attracted the attention of a reporter for the London Sunday Times, Marjorie. Marjorie spent a long time trying to establish a relationship of mutual trust with the two girls. Psychiatric hospitals also began giving girls medications such as tranquilizers to treat schizophrenia. Under the influence of the drug, the girls began to speak, but also became mentally confused all the time. I've never had a good impression of a psychiatric hospital, and I think a lot of normal people go crazy when they're locked up there. And many years later, doctors said the two of them were never truly diagnosed with schizophrenia. But in any case, the girls thought that when they started talking, the hospital would let them out. They proved too naïve.
In the following trial, the judge found that the two of them had not recovered from their illness and that they would continue to be hospitalized. Because in the eyes of outsiders, the twins' behavior is indeed too different. In this way, in trial after trial, the discharge date was constantly postponed. The two men have been locked up for a full 12 years.
When they were 30 months away, the two were transferred to Bridgend Hospital in Wales, England. Management here is a bit more relaxed than at Broadmoor Psychiatric Hospital. The two girls were finally able to catch their breath. But when the reporter Marjorie found the two girls again, Jennifer told her that I was going to die soon. Marjorie thought Jennifer was just joking, and laughed and said, you are only 30 years old, and your days are still long. In fact, the two of them seem to have made a life-and-death contract in their hearts, and if the day comes, one of the two will sacrifice one person, so that the other person can be free and reborn. The person who survives must turn his gaze to the outside world and start a normal life.
Jennifer also wrote to June, "I know I'll die soon, much sooner than you." But it doesn't matter, I just hope that you can be happy if you stay.
Then something happened that surprised everyone. Not long after Jennifer was transferred to the new hospital, she began to feel unwell, aches all over her body, and sometimes even delirious.
On March 9, 1993, Jennifer, who was less than 30 years old, died suddenly due to acute myocarditis. The disease is one of the most common causes of sudden death in young people under the age of 40. Because I had heard of the so-called "life and death contract" between the two sisters before, after Jennifer's death, the hospital carefully examined her body, but did not send any clues that he killed, poisoned or committed suicide. Jennifer predicted her own death in such a weird way.
When she first learned of her sister's death, June's expression was extremely complicated, and she kept muttering to herself, "I, finally free, liberated....Jennifer gave up her life for me..."..." That night, June lay on Jennifer's bed, resting on her pillow, his eyes blank and sluggish, and he hadn't closed his eyes all night. But a few days later, June really began to turn his eyes to the outside world, as they had agreed. She began to talk to people slowly and help them communicate. Although her speech was still a little vague, more and more people could understand what she was saying. The psychiatric hospital re-evaluated June's mental state and found that she was much "normal". A few years later, June was diagnosed with a full recovery and an independent life. On the tombstone of her sister Jennifer, there is a poem written to her by Junen, "We were two ... We become one again....we are no longer two... In the continued life, there is only one... Rest in peace. What makes people feel cold behind it is that this poem was written by June before Jennifer died.
June and Jennifer have been called "silent twins." So far, no one has been able to explain the strange behavior of the two people before Jennifer's death, and why After Jennifer's death, June immediately returned to normal. Or Jennifer's prophecy of her own death. There are those who believe that two people's souls are divided in two from birth, and that one soul is shared by two bodies. Only when a body dissipates does the soul become complete. Others believe that the sisters may have been cursed. I don't know what everyone thinks?