Margery Runyan, PhD

Margery Runyan, PhD

  • Dr. Mercy met Karen on Pine Island in SW Florida and fell in love with her strong spirit and work...
     
  • Dr. Mercy will discuss the experimental evidence for anomalous retroactive influences on cognition and affect, research recently published by Daryl Bem. Daryl J Bem is a social psychologist and emeritus professor at Cornell University. He received his PhD in 1964 from the University of Michigan and taught there before going on to join the faculty at Stanford, Carnegie-Mellon, Harvard, and Cornell. He had a distinguished career in psychology, then turned his attention to parapsychology; the self-perception theory of attitude formation and change has been named after him, and he was invited to co-author one of the core international psychology textbooks, known by generations of students as ‘Hilgard and Atkinson’.
  • Dr. Mercy and her guests will explore the topic of life stages and discuss whether twins have rites of passage that differ from singles.  The road of life is littered with surprising events when we know that nothing about us will ever be the same and seminal moments when we know that we must go forward because there is no turning back.  These benchmarks on the journey can be marked by rituals, holidays, chance meetings, life-long friendships, marriages, divorces, hospitalizations, incarcerations, spiritual awakenings, growth spurts, rituals, graduations, certificates, and deaths.  Are these states of transformation and maturation experienced in the same way by singles as by twins?  Do the same types of events precipitate change?  Is there an added complexity in the life stages of twins?  Tune in to hear the discussion. Biographies: Don is still visiting Dr. Mercy in Bokeelia, Florida, and he will return to the show for this episode.  He lost his twin Ronnie three years ago and then came very near death himself.  He believes that he has been given another chance at life.
  • Bio: Don and his identical twin brother Ronnie were born in Charleston, South Carolina, the youngest two sons of four brothers.  Their mother was raised in poverty and worked in the textile mills.  Later during World War II she worked in a munitions factory. Their father was a fighter pilot in the 8th Army during the war and flew numerous missions in Europe before being shot down over Italy near the end of the hostilities.  He was a prisoner of war until the Allies liberated Italy.  Don and Ronnie played in the cotton fields while their mother worked and later themselves worked in the fields of the southern farms.  They stayed with their father until his death from congestive hearth failure several years ago and then Ronnie died at 55 three years ago.  Don is finding his way back to life after a near death experience himself.  He has reunited with his brother’s ex-wife Theresa who is helping him regain his will to live. Program description:  Don has been resurrected from despair and near death.  He and Dr. Mercy met each other at Twinless Twins Support Group International during the 2009 annual conference in Denver.  They have since realized that they were destined to meet and create a deeply meaningful relationship as twins are here on this planet to do.  His love for his twin brother Ronnie ran wide and deep and he almost followed him into death and the afterlife.  Theresa’s loving care for both twins since the age of 15 brought him back to life on earth.  She found him near death in a hospital where his older brothers had abandoned him to die.  If Theresa can get away from her job responsibilities as an engineer, she will join us briefly on the show to discuss her experiences with these extraordinary twins.  Sometimes love IS enough.
     
  • Dr. Nancy Segal, Professor of Psychology and Director of Twin Studies at the California State University, Fullerton, will be discussing her life time of research on twins. As a fraternal twin, psychologist and researcher, Dr. Segal has been uniquely positioned to perform ground-breaking studies on twins including her work at the University of Minnesota with twins separated at birth and reunited in adulthood and her most recent study on the development of Chinese twins adopted internationally both apart and together. Her other research has included the behavioral similarities of virtual twins (same age unrelated children raised together) and the behavioral consequences of twin loss. Dr. Segal is considered one of the foremost experts on the nature versus nurture controversy based on her quantitative studies of twins’ behaviors. Dr. Segal will be prepared to discuss the nature of twin relationships, twin development, twins accused of cheating at school, and twin relationships within the family. Dr. Nancy Segal has written seven books about twins.  Dr. Segal has authored approximately 250 scientific articles and book chapters in addition to her many books. A recent paper won a 2007 Award for Excellence in Research from the Mensa Foundation. She is also an Associate Editor of Twin Research and Human Genetics, the official journal of the International Society for Twin Studies. She serves on the editorial boards of a number of journals, including Twin Research and Human Genetics, Evolution and Human Behavior and Human Ethology.
  • Dr. Nancy Segal, Professor of Psychology and Director of Twin Studies at the California State University, Fullerton, will be discussing How Identical are Identical Twins. Dr. Segal has written seven books about twins. Dr. Segal has authored approximately 250 scientific articles and book chapters in addition to her many books. A recent paper won a 2007 Award for Excellence in Research from the Mensa Foundation. She is also an Associate Editor of Twin Research and Human Genetics, the official journal of the International Society for Twin Studies. She serves on the editorial boards of a number of journals, including Twin Research and Human Genetics, Evolution and Human Behavior and Human Ethology.
  • Dr. Mercy has heard from many twins that she would love the novel I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb, whose books have been popularized by the Oprah Book Club and the merits of his fictional style. The 40-year-old ‘hero’ is an identical twin whose brother has paranoid schizophrenia. The novel covers their childhood, family history (which includes twins), and his psychotherapy with a psychologist who helps him integrate these pieces of his psyche.  Dr. Mercy will be discussing the patterns of twinship attributed to the characters in the novel and their importance in the structure of the novel. Tune in and hear how Wally Lamb, a celebrated fiction writer and teacher, handles the twin theme. #1 New York Times Bestseller and Oprah Book Club selection: "Thoughtful . . . heart-wrenching . . . . An exercise in soul-baring storytelling—with the soul belonging to 20th-century America itself. It's hard to read and to stop reading, and impossible to forget."  — USA Today Dominick Birdsey, a forty-year-old housepainter living in Three Rivers, Connecticut, finds his subdued life greatly disturbed when his identical twin brother Thomas, a paranoid schizophrenic, commits a shocking act of self-mutilation. Dominick is forced to care for his brother as well as confront dark secrets and pain he has buried deep within himself—a journey of the soul that takes him beyond his blue-collar New England town to Sicily’s Mount Etna, the birthplace of his grandfather and namesake. Coming to terms with his life and lineage, Dominick struggles to find forgiveness and finally rebuild himself beyond the haunted shadow of his troubled twin. I Know This Much Is True is a masterfully told story of alienation and connection, power and abuse, devastation and renewal—an unforgettable masterpiece.   I Know this Much is True - Amazon
  • Dr. Mercy interviews female 53-year-old twins who have recently been confronted with a dire diagnosis threatening the survival of the second born twin.  Sonya and Tonya believe in their hearts that they are identical. Their mother and father were not sure.  They are very similar in every way and have a strong telepathy which includes feelings each others’ emotions and symptoms.  Their lives have also been similar, marrying husbands who were insecure about the twinship, having two children (boy and girl), and staying close until Tonya developed the disease of alcoholism.  The twins talk about this disease, how they coped, Tonya’s recovery and their reunification. Tonya has recently been diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver and this second disease has challenged Tonya to remain hopeful and Sonya to face her twin’s mortality. Dr. Mercy will speak with them again after a biopsy is performed in August.  Stay tuned.  
  • Dr. Mercy interviews Dr. Nancy Segal, Professor of Psychology and Director of Twin Studies at the California State University, Fullerton, will be discussing twins switched at birth. As a fraternal twin, psychologist and researcher, Dr. Segal has been uniquely positioned to perform ground-breaking studies on twins including her work at the University of Minnesota with twins separated at birth and reunited in adulthood and her most recent study on the development of Chinese twins adopted internationally both apart and together. Her other research has included the behavioral similarities of virtual twins (same age unrelated children raised together) and the behavioral consequences of twin loss. Dr. Segal is considered one of the foremost experts on the nature versus nurture controversy based on her quantitative studies of twins’ behaviors. Dr. Segal will be prepared to discuss the nature of twin relationships, twin development, twins accused of cheating at school, and twin relationships within the family. Dr. Nancy Segal has written seven books about twins.  Dr. Segal has authored approximately 250 scientific articles and book chapters in addition to her many books. A recent paper won a 2007 Award for Excellence in Research from the Mensa Foundation. She is also an Associate Editor of Twin Research and Human Genetics, the official journal of the International Society for Twin Studies. She serves on the editorial boards of a number of journals, including Twin Research and Human Genetics, Evolution and Human Behavior and Human Ethology.
  • Brenda Pritchett and Linda DeWitt are two of the most beautiful identical twins ever.
  • These sets of twins from Texas fell in love, went on a double date to Las Vegas, and won thousands...
     

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