When identical twins are born, do they share consciousness?

Question

They have the exact genetic makeup. Their brains are wired exactly the same way. Are they two people, or one? What if those twins are conjoined, and are both products of the exact same environment, do they share consciousness? If one conjoined twin shuts their eyes, and the other keeps their's open, would the one with eyes shut see what the other sees? What is consciousness?

Answer 1

No --- they do have differences. They showed co -joined twins on tv and one was crying and the other one was content and playing with it's fingers. They see what is in their own range of view. Went to school with triplets and 4 sets of twins --- it was a lot of fun!
Consciousness is a quality of the mind generally regarded to comprise qualities such as subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, sapience, and the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and one's environment. It is a subject of much research in philosophy of mind, psychology, neurology, and cognitive science.

Answer 2

As the mystery of how sensations are processed through the brain to achieve consciousness is still unanswered I cant give a definite yes or no but I would tend to No.
You say "when they are born" yet I believe that consciousness doesn't come at birth but needs to be developed like the other functions of the body. But if they did have a shared consciousness or mind then 2 siblings would presumable know or remember everything the other does. Although twins are eerily similar and often predict each other or finish each others sentences this could be explained by their extremely similar makeup and experiences.
Conjoined twins could be different especially if they share a spinal cord. as this is a direct extension of the brain it could be classed as a single central nervous system and therefore a single, albeit unusual brain. If there is such a thing as telepathy, which allows two brains to share a joint consciousness, then identical twins would be the obvious place to look for it.

Answer 3

When my youngest son was in the hospital, his roommate was an identical twin. He had to undergo an appendix operation. When they came to draw blood, my son was in the room with him. I was outside with his twin. The twin felt a sharp pain in his arm in the exact location that the blood was taken from his brother. I have had many twin friends that had similair experiences. This just came to mind.

I think twins have different consciousnesses. They are after all unique individuals, but it is spooky how much they feel about what's going on with the other.

Answer 4

I have twin cousins. When one of them got pregnant, the other one felt the symptoms. morning sickness, the works. It happens.
And, you do not have to be a twin to share a "connection" with your sibling. You can feel their happiness or sadness because you are spiritually connected to each other in that way. So yes, I think that twins, or very close siblings, can share a consciousness.

Answer 5

they share a collective consciousness like you and me are part of. The difference with the twins, the identical twins is dat they get to constantly be reminded of what they look like, like a miror.
a living reflection dat is indeed seperate. Only one soul is allowed per body.
Lapis Lazuli

Answer 6

they might not have the EXACT same consciousness, but two startlingly similar ones. you could call it "parallel" consciousness. but this is assuming that they are never seperated. have you read the kurt vonnegut novel "slapstick"? the main character has a twin, and the further apart they get from one another, the "dumber" they become. i mean, it's just a fictional book, but something about that one part made me think.

Answer 7

Good question.

They would have different consciousness as they will always be in different places and thus sense their environment differently.

Answer 8

We all share consciousness.

Unfortunately, we are not aware of this.

Answer 9

I've heard that some do .