The Mandela Effect

The Mandela Effect is an interesting phenomenon that I’ve been researching, and I have found that it shares a surprising number of similarities with some experiences of being kin. 

Firstly, like otherkin/fictionkin it is an experience that is impossible to talk about without certain people immediately questioning your sanity. 

Also, like being kin, its a phenomenon that none of those who experiences it can pinpoint or agree on the origin of it, because the experience takes place entirely internally and has to do with the self-perception of reality. 

Another similarity  is that one possible origin involves the multiverse theory and the way other worlds theoretically interact with and influence this one. 

And also it also has to do with “impossible” memories of events that could not have happened, yet are experienced/remembered anyway.

So what is the Mandela Effect?

The Mandela Effect is a phenomenon where past events and/or some aspect of the environment appears to have been altered in some way relative to the observer’s memory of it.

Some examples of the Mandela Effect may be easily explained as false memories and confabulation, and probably at least some posited examples are. However like being kin, what is interesting is not that so many people may be coming to what may be a wrong conclusion about their reality, but that so many people are having the same anomalous experience of reality. People have weird experiences and beliefs all the time, but what’s worth noticing and talking about is when peoples weird experiences and beliefs line up.

The titular example of the Mandela Effect is the death of Nelson Mandela.Specifically, that people were surprised that Nelson Mandela had been alive, or surprised when they discovered that he had died in 2013– because they believed that he had died in prison in the 1980s. In fact these people, and there are lots of them, have quite vivid memories of his death being reported on the news, and some have memories of footage of his funeral, rioting in response, etc.

Another common example of the Effect that may shake some of my readers is the Berenstein Bears spelling “problem”. Specifically that despite a huge number of people remembering it spelled as Berenstein– the actual children’s books are, and always have been, spelled Berenstain; named after their authors, Stan and Jan Berenstain.

A staggering number of people, myself included, have been floored to look at images of the Bears’ books, and see the spelling Bearenstain because they have vivid memories of it being spelled with an E. People have done lots of research to make sure the spelling wasn’t just changed somewhere along the way– but no, as far as THIS timeline goes, anyway, the spelling has always been with an A.

Some other (possible) examples of the Mandela Effect that people have been shocked to discover:

• Billy Graham didn’t die in the late 2000s or earlier. (He is still alive at time of writing)
• Dilemma not being spelled dilemna (There’s a whole website for this)
• Froot Loops cereal not being spelled Fruit Loops
• Some people remember being taught there were more than 50 US states. (Commonly people remember 52)
• “Depends” brand adult diapers is actually Depend with no s.
• Henry VIII never had a portrait painted holding a turkey leg
• Some people believe New Zeland has changed position relative to Australia.
• Some people even believe that the quality of the sky/sun has changed relative to their memory.
• and many more. I tried to include all ‘types’ of Effect reportings rather than just the most common ‘spelling change’ ones.

Not only do some people remember Berentstein being spelled differently, and other memories as cited above, but some also report what are called ‘anchor’ memories. These are memories that could not have happened, or do not make sense unless at the time/in the universe the memory was formed, the other memory was true.

A good example of this is that many people recall asking their parents if “Berenstein” was pronounced ‘stine’ or ‘steen’ which is very unlikely to have happened if the actual spelling was “Berenstain”.

No one can agree on exactly what is causing this phenomenon, but it is certainly being more and more talked about.

Skeptics of the phenomenon agree chalk it up entirely to misremembering, and misperceiving events. But why do so many people misperceive things the exact same way?

Many who believe that the phenomenon has a deeper cause believe it may be linked to people ‘jumping from one timeline in the multiverse to another’. In other words, those who remember it being spelled Bearenstein grew up in a world where that’s true, and then somehow ‘switched’ timelines into this one, where the spelling is different. This is the main theory set forth by Fiona Broome, the writer of the original website on the topic. However, even those who agree that timeline hopping is involved don’t necessarily agree on how or why. (Some believe CERN is involved, deliberately or accidentally.)

Other theories include psyops/mindcontrol, time travel, the universe being a simulation, etc.

Whatever the origin, and whatever you believe, it certainly is fascinating that so many people are coming together to discuss such an odd phenomenon. I am personally riveted to (and somewhat unnerved) by the subject, and will continue to watch the discussion and the community as it develops. 

What do you think? Is it all down to bad memory? Do you remember Berenstein or Berenstain? Whatever the case may be, you have to agree, the human mind, our world and our perception of reality certainly intersect in interesting ways.

links
http://mandelaeffect.com/
https://www.reddit.com/r/MandelaEffect/
http://www.woodbetween.world/2012/08/the-berenstein-bears-we-are-living-in.html
dilemna.info