#luke.

to begin, first and foremost,    yes.    i do believe the twins have inherited olivia’s “sensitivity” along with their siblings upon birth.   olivia has established having known this,   or at least suspected,  when she openly asked nellie for her opinion about the house upon moving in,   and marvelled when all nellie responded was that it was “cold”.    without further ado,   let’s break down the exact abilities that have been showcased by the twins so far:

second discussion : establishment of abilities.

mediumship, the ability to observe and communicate with spirits.   additionally,   while the twins may not be able to differentiate it when they were much younger,   i do believe that they both eventually grew to learn to naturally spot spirits amongst the livings.   however,   given how their sensitivity was treated and past experiences,   they would either ignore it and pretend they haven’t seen it,   or,   they make a quick escape because spirits,  mutually sensing their abilities to see them when no one else could,   tend to flock around them.

precognition / second sight, the ability to perceive future and/or past events via extrasensory perception usually in the form of a vision.  think:  seer.

telepathy ( with high focus upon emotions-sharing ), ability to transmit or receive communication, in this case in forms of strong emotions whether physical or mental, via thoughts supernaturally.   however,  this ability seems to only be effected among the twins and not the rest of the crain family members. 

temporary possession of body, * highly headcanon based,   but i also believe the twins have a suspiciously sensitive vessel that may allow temporary  (  or,  in some dangerous cases,  permanent  )  possession by spirits.   with their permission,   the possession process is easier;   without,   the physical body may react negatively.

in my interpretation as well:   the twins are powerful psychics with an equal amount of power distributed between them.   however,  whether they both have manifested them at the same level during the same time is a different discussion altogether.

second discussion : sensitivity in reflections of health.

in any case,   luke and nell’s abilities as supernatural psychics depended wholly on their health   -    whether that being physical or mental,   it doesn’t matter.   the healthier they are,   the less haunting they will receive.    the longer their health deteriorates,    the stronger the haunting can become and the faster it will to overwhelm them.   

case-in-point:   when nell’s health soars as soon as she fixes her sleeping pattern and falls in love with arthur,   the less she’d see of the bent-neck lady.    luke’s case on the other hand,   can obviously be studied during the betrayal of joey,   how he’d gotten physically assaulted in the streets and then later felt the cold and painful sensation at nellie’s departing that his ghost, the tall man in the hat,  came to visit him again.

now a point can be brought up:    when luke was effected by the drugs and thus,  his physical health went down,   why wasn’t he actively haunted then?    well,  to be honest,   he took the drugs  because  he wanted the haunting to stop.   taking drugs dampened his abilities effectively,    but not enough   -   clearly   -    because eventually,   the hauntings always came back.    to add to that,   luke and nellie shared a strong emotional telepathic communication:   everything nellie felt,   luke felt with her.   and while it’s no excuse,   since nellie went through the same thing,    feeling her suffer and in pain can be too much for him when he’s struggling on top of handling his own haunting.   another reason he’s taken to the drugs was because he wanted that temporary dullness to their connection.   it’s shitty,   of course,   since nellie clearly depended on the connection, but it’s partly what led him to addiction.

third discussion : addressing ability of precognition.

i'm sure you're asking:   bella,   when the hell did they predict the future?    well,  to be fair,   i don’t think they are able to. i think they can somewhat perceive them rather than outrightly predict them,  though one may argue that this may just be something they picked up due to the sickly nature of the house not completely obeying to the rules of time.    however,  to further support my case,   remember the scene where nellie had visions of luke poisoned on the ceiling?   yes,   that’s what i meant by them being able to perceive future / past events.    (   past,  can be attributed to the fact that nellie has been visited by ghosts of her own self throughout the span of her being alive,  maybe ?   )     of course,   luke didn’t exhibit this ability.   but again,  remember:   luke’s health,  at this point,  was progressing well while nellie’s was going through the opposite effect. the haunting was stronger on nellie and her "sensitivity meter"  was going haywire.  it’s like her abilities are pouring out without any filters,  which isn’t all good since she’s had no proper practise nor firm understanding of it,   because eventually the haunting overwhelmed her and,   in spite of her last-minute realisation that she has been manipulated,   she was brutally killed.

fourth discussion : why was it important to address their abilities?

so anyway,   the summary for this is just that:   their lives would be so much better had the family genuinely discussed or they were not gaslighted into thinking everything was simply a tragedy, or something completely than whatever they were seeing.   i don’t think luke would be so easily dismissed from his “active imagination” and nellie’s cries for the bent-neck lady won’t simply be treated as a nightmare.   in fact,   proper discussions about how to handle  -  and possibly fight  -  the negative haunting’s influences could have been held, leading to  their mental health not having to suffer so much. had their sensitivity been addressed by either parents, or at least were acknowledged far more properly, they would’ve understood why this was happening to them,    or at least had known enough of their abilities to know that they aren’t “crazy” or what they’re seeing aren’t just “imaginary”. of course,   i won’t deny that luke would still  …   be experimenting with drugs.   choices of his life along the way may largely still lead him to be an addict,   but at the very least,   he would’ve been much,  much sober sooner once he knew nellie was in danger.   i believe like,   if they had known about their abilities,    “warnings” in forms of hauntings from the house would’ve led him to reach out to his family quicker because apart of him would figure that one — or more — of his family member are being actively targeted. nellie too,  i think,  would’ve had a better chance at possibly knowing she was in a trance and that arthur was just a figment of what the house wanted her to believe was real.   thus,  she could’ve had a chance at escaping much earlier than when she was fooled and realised she was already standing at the edge.

tl;dr    luke and nellie crain are powerful psychics / mediums by blood.   they just don’t know it.   if they had,  circumstances might’ve turned out differently for them and not necessarily have to end with one of the twins sacrificed due to ignorance on this particular yet large aspect of their lives.

luke.