I believe many people have seen the movie "The Truman World". The life of the protagonist is a large-scale reality show that has been designed, and every move is constantly monitored and observed. But that is a movie after all, but such a thing actually happens in reality. If from the moment you were born, your life was a well-designed experiment, and you were like a guinea pig in a laboratory, how would you feel when you learned the truth? The triplets, who had been separated for 19 years, reunited unexpectedly by chance. After the joy of reunion, they discovered a dark academic conspiracy... Today, let's talk about this true story that is even better than the movie - twin strangers
The whole incident originated in the summer of 1980, when Sullivan Community College had just started.
The happy summer vacation has just ended, and freshmen are coming one after another. It was Bobby Shafran's first day on a college campus. He carried his luggage while looking for the dormitory building and wandering around the campus. However, the strange thing is that everyone he met on the road greeted him, and even some girls took the initiative to kiss him, as if everyone knew him for a long time.
What puzzled him even more was that everyone who saw him called him Eddie.
While Bobby was packing his luggage in the dormitory, a boy came in, claiming to be Eddie's buddy. When he saw Bobby, his face turned pale. Because the person in front of him and Eddie have the same smile, the same hair, and even the same expression. But he couldn't be Eddie, because the real Eddie didn't come back to school.
He immediately realized that the person in front of him was likely to be the twin brother of Eddie. And Bobby and Eddie's birthdays are indeed July 12 !
Bobby was also taken aback because he was indeed adopted by his parents from an adoption agency. If there is a twin brother, it is not impossible, but he didn't know it before.
The two called Eddie right away and drove quickly to Long Island to meet. There is no doubt that they are twins, because the two are like copy and paste. The same eyes, the same hair, face to face is like looking in a mirror.
The bizarre incident was noticed by reporters in the New York Times, and it quickly became front-page headlines in major newspapers.
This is a heart-warming story to remember, however, it doesn't end there... Someone recognized the two people in the photo at a glance, and it looked a lot like his friend David . Not only looks alike, but even the habit of raising hands and feet is very similar!
He took the newspaper to David, and David saw two people who looked a lot like him. David realized he might be the third. This is not a twins story, but triplets.
David got in touch with Bobby and Eddie through the New York Times. The three finally meet. This dramatic scene made everyone lament the greatness of genes. Three people who grew up in different environments are so similar.
The three hit it off. Although they were strangers a month ago, perhaps it was blood that gave them a natural sense of intimacy.
The story of the triplets' unexpected reunion quickly became a household name, grabbing the headlines of nearly every newspaper.
Various interviews and variety shows made the three brothers quickly become popular. People love this quirky and heartwarming story.
In every interview, the conversation revolves around the triplets' magical telepathy and similar interests. Although they grew up in completely different families, the three people's temperaments and preferences are surprisingly similar. They both like Chinese food, they both used to be wrestlers, they both smoke the same brand of cigarettes, they both like the same color, they both like mature women...
The three of them are more like clones than brothers. Whether these similarities are intentional or not.
In fact, the three people grew up in completely different backgrounds. Bobby was adopted by a wealthy family. His father was a doctor and his mother was a lawyer. Both parents were well educated and lived in a high-end wealthy community since childhood.
Eddie was adopted by a middle-class family, his father was a teacher, and the family lived in a middle-class neighborhood.
David was adopted by a blue-collar family of immigrant parents who ran a small shop and had a minimally educated family.
The reunion of the three brothers is undoubtedly a touching story, and everyone is so immersed in joy that it is too late to question why. Because no one questions why this happened. But when the three families met for the first time, all were furious. Unbeknownst to all parents, there are two other children.
After the three brothers became famous, they were even more proud. They played almost all the bars in New York and attended parties everywhere.
They have always been the target of media coverage, and they are equivalent to modern top-notch Internet celebrities. The three brothers even starred in a movie.
Later, the three simply moved in together and rented a large apartment. The longer the time together, the more indistinguishable between the three brothers. Once, Eddie had an appendicitis attack, and without insurance, he pretended that Bobby was in the hospital and went unnoticed.
With the growth of age, the three brothers who became famous have also entered into marriages. After having a family, the three began to work hard for their careers. They ran a restaurant in New York called The Triplets. Just as celebrities now open restaurants, their popularity has attracted a lot of business for them.
Just when everything is thriving, the truth about the triplets' origins gradually emerges. Writing about twins, a journalist named Lawrence Wright stumbled across a secret study— raising identical twins separately to study how they grow and how psychologically change.
The secret study separates newborn identical babies from the Louise Wise Service, an adoption agency where triplet brothers are adopted. This heartwarming reunion story quickly turns into a brutal conspiracy.
The triplets were undoubtedly the subjects of the experiment, and someone deliberately separated them and studied them like lab mice.
The three brothers then recalled that when they were children, people would often come to their home to test them. Usually IQ tests, personality tests, eye-hand coordination tests, and tests that get more complicated with age.
The researchers' explanation to parents is that this is normal research on adopted children. Parents have no doubts and cooperate with their tests every time.
The researchers had always known that the triplets lived within a 100-mile radius, but did not know each other.
In this secret experiment, many data of the three boys have been calculated and arranged with precision. For example: the adoptive families of the three boys are both parents, and each has a sister who is 2 years older than them. The goal is to have the three genetically identical boys grow up in structurally similar families. Only a difference is the difference between professional and family conditions of parents.
The leader of this research is Dr. Peter Neubauer, who is known as one of the great men of American psychiatry.
As the experimental project came to light, more and more twins and triplets came forward to reveal the truth. They are all "experimental subjects".
No one knows exactly how many twins were involved in the study, and what's even more outrageous is that the study was never published, and the results were never published. The production team found Peter Neubauer's assistant, who was not a direct participant in the box of experiments, but only knew a thing or two. It is said that Peter Neubauer did this because he wanted to solve the "nature or nurture" paradox once and for all.
This is also a question that the psychology community has always wanted to understand - how do we become us, how many innate factors, and how many nurture factors can shape us into us?
Although the results of the experiments were not made public, what was evident was the influence of innate genes. Even though these twins and triplets grew up in different environments, their temperaments and even behaviors were remarkably similar.
For the triplets, it was sad to be the subject of the experiment, lucky to be reunited again. However, doing business together is wrong.
With the expansion of the business, the contradictions between the three people are also increasing. Bobby feels left out and leaves, and both Eddie and David feel betrayed again. And Bobby's departure hit Eddie deeply.
Eddie became moody and often called people in the middle of the night who he hadn't contacted for a long time. He was eventually diagnosed with manic depression
After being hospitalized for a period of time, Eddie chose to shoot himself.
Even more frightening is the fact that some of the children who participated in this study also committed suicide. Many of the children selected for the study had experienced mental health problems. Moreover, their biological parents also have different degrees of mental problems. Is it possible that scientists deliberately selected children whose parents had mental illness and placed them in different families to see if mental illness was hereditary.
But why only Eddie is like this, and David and Bobby are normal? Is it because Eddie is unlucky and just inherited his mother's mental illness? Many people ignore the influence of the acquired family environment on a person. Eddie has been an artistic and somewhat childish person since childhood, with a sensitive and introverted personality.
However, Eddie's adoptive father was a teacher, very serious and strict, and his lifestyle was very traditional. Can be said to be a strict manager.
Eddie grew up in such a demanding environment, and he always felt like he was in the wrong place.
In contrast to him is David, whose adoptive father was a generous and warm man.
After the triplets were reunited, they all wanted to stay at David's house and play with his adoptive father. From the film, it is obvious that David's character is the healthiest and most cheerful among the three brothers.
One of the purposes of this study is to verify the innate condition and the acquired environment, which has a greater impact on people. Eddie's suicide made people have to face up to this problem. When the triplets became popular on TV, the most talked about was how similar they were. Audiences love scenes like this - look, they smoke the same brand of cigarettes! That's the gene, it's amazing!
Yet people overlook more differences in triplets. Apart from their similar appearance, they are actually three completely different people. Bobby is calm, David is lively, Eddie is sensitive.
Although this research is very inhumane and the ending of the three brothers is somewhat sad, it provides a reference for people to judge whether a child's character is innate or acquired.
Genes are important, but acquired cultivation is the decisive factor. It is worth pondering: the one with the healthiest growth and the most sound personality among the triplets is precisely David from a blue-collar family with the worst family background.
*The author of this article: RAMA
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