The little mushroom was a womb twin survivor!

When browsing the net in my usual way for twins and womb twin survivors, I saw this chapter in a book written in 2005:


The little mushroom and the blighted twin

On the strength of this title alone, I downloaded the chapter and bought the book.

I was astounded at what I read there, and even more astonished by discovering who had written it: a former President of the Royal College of General Practitioners!




The chapter explained how the author, Dr Roger Neighbour, a GP from Hertfordshire (just 4 miles away from where I live)  had come to the conclusion that Franz Schubert was a womb twin survivor. Dr Neighbour tried that idea out on his colleagues when speaking at a convention in the 1990s. He elicited  the kind of response that I am beginning to expect when addressing, in any context,  the 90% of the population who do not understand about this.

One of my musical heroes since boyhood has been Franz Schubert ......, and one of my greatest passions has been his music. At some point I made the connection between various unexplained features of Schubert’s life and works and what I had come to understand about foetal memory. The hypothesis suggested itself that Schubert may have been the singleton survivor of a ‘blighted twin’ pregnancy.
 
I presented this theory in an illustrated talk to a meeting at the Royal Society of Medicine over a decade ago. Something alarmingly close to fisticuffs broke out. Some of the audience said it was the biggest load of hogwash masquerading as science they had ever heard. Nonsense, riposted others, it was the most refreshing and original talk it had ever been their privilege . . . Friend berated friend, husband argued with wife. I slipped away in the confusion. Clearly, even the very possibility had touched some deep psychological strata.

Deep indeed!  But how wonderful to find such open-mindedness about the possibility of pre-birth memories!

Congratulations, Dr Neighbour!  Keep at it - we are all listening!

My book is just the start - there is so much more to discover and learn!