Before we start this post, there are several questions we would like you to answer. Please don’t Google anything yet. Just mark the appropriate response.
1) Have you heard of The Mandela Effect
Yes
No
2) Nelson Mandela died in Johannesburg in 2013.
Yes
No
3) Nelson Mandela died in prison in the 1980s.
Yes
No
4) Do you know who Fiona Broome is?
Yes
No
Rob and I first heard about the Mandela Effect from Sharee Geo, who co-costs a radio show on Truth Frequency Radio, with her husband Chris. Rob and I were recently guests on their show and before our scheduled appearance, she emailed us suggestions about what we might discuss:
Synchronicity and Meditation are both hot topics on the show. However, we’ve gone even a little further lately with ideas about a holographic reality that uses synchronicity to reinforce reality, along with phenomena like the Mandela effect – The idea that something has happened to our “timeline” sometime in the past that is now changing small things in our present reality/timeline.
Rob and I have experienced things like she was suggesting, but weren’t aware that it actually had a name, so I started Googling it. Nelson Mandela is one of my uncontested heros, so yes, this interested me. This article, from a website called Odyssey, explains it as a conspiracy theory about how people often remember events that didn’t happen in the way they remember. Another website calls the Mandela Effect a theory about parallel universes. This theory makes more sense to me than any conspiracy.
The phrase first appeared online in 2010, when blogger Fiona Bloom described an experience she’d had at a Dragon Con conference. She realized that other people had a memory completely different from hers about when Nelson Mandela had died. She believed – remembered – that he died in prison in the 1980s. She remembered the news clips of his funeral, the mourning in the country, rioting in the cities, even Winnie Mandela’s speech. Then she discovered he was actually alive
Fiona went on to discover other widely held alternative memories that include Star Trek episodes that never existed, and the death of Billy Graham. Then, in 2012, another blogger, Reece, who also happened to be a physicist, described a similar dichotomy about the spelling of the old cartoon The Barenstein Bears. That’s the spelling I remember. But these days, the spelling is The Barenstain Bears. And Reece the physicist provides a theory of the universe that would account for this.
I propose that the universe is a 4-dimensional complex manifold. If you don’t se habla math jargon, that means I propose the 3 space dimensions and the 1 time dimensions are actually in themselves complex, meaning they take values of the form a+ib, part “real” and part “imaginary”. Within this 4D manifold, there are sixteen hexadectants (like quadrants, but 16 of them), corresponding to whether we consider only the real or imaginary part of each of the four dimensions. In our particular hexadectant, the three space dimensions are real, and the time dimension is imaginary.
I honestly have no idea what any of that means except that he seems to be talking about a four-dimensional universe that sounds more like string theory- with multiples realities sandwiched alongside ours. But to keep things simple, let’s call them parallel universes, similar to the idea put forth in the 2011 independent movie Another Earth.
Just for the record, I remember this cartoon as The Berenstein Bears. Here’s the You Tube video about the Bears. In the course of this video, the narrator notes how he went back into cartoon archives and found that the spelling changed some tine between April and August 5, 2001. In other words, the spelling changed anywhere from three weeks to five months before 9-11, when the world did change.
Interestingly, Rob and I experienced something like this when we were house hunting in early 1999. My dad was living with us then, my mother was in an Alzheimer’s unit, and we were looking for a house large enough to accommodate the four of us. At the time, we lived in a 3-bedroom house in Boynton Beach. Megan was sleeping in the living room because she had turned her bedroom over to my dad, and Rob’s office was in the hallway.
One of the places we looked at was in Jupiter, Florida about 25 miles north of where we live now. The house and the property, about two acres, were terrific. We loved the place. It had two master bedrooms, one on each side of the pool, with a wide open kitchen that opened to a spacious family room with a great fireplace. We recalled that the owner was a pilot. But it was too expensive.
Six or eight months later, on another house-hunting Sunday, we ran across the house again and eagerly went by for a look. Same address, but the house and property were totally different. It wasn’t the same house. We asked the Realtor about it, if any changes had been made to the place in the last six months, if the zoning had changed, the addresses. Nope, nope. Nope.
In Robert Moss’s book, The Boy Who Died and Came Back, he describes a number of similar experiences he has had over the years. He’s aware of a number of parallel selves- the Robert Moss who continues to write thrillers, a Robert Moss who is living with Australian Aborgines, a Moss who is a shaman. The idea here is that’s if the Multiple Worlds theory of quantum physics is true, then for ever decision we make, the path we didn’t choose shoots off on its own and we live it out. And sometimes, the lives bleed into what we call our present reality.
Is it possible that the Mandela Effect is tangible evidence of these parallel lives? I find the idea tantalizing!
It does seem that a similar effect can happen, even on small events that happened within days.
There was a Literature and Music Festival for schools a couple of weeks ago and Sammy had been chosen by his class to recite a poem (about a mouse). The children had to go on stage at a local hall, one at a time, recite their poem and then leave the stage after the applause stopped. Sammy did his bit, remembered the words but Karin and I saw the end differently. She is adamant that when he left the stage he did a bow to the audience. I’m adamant that he didn’t. So I wonder how we both saw something different as we were both paying full attention.
That’s eerie, Mike. But that kind of thing has happened to Rob and me, too, on small things, and it’s always puzzling.
A little synchro — this is a letter written to Cynthia Sue Larson, who literally wrote the book on Reality Shifts (her term for the Mandela Effect), from her most recent newsletter —
Your Reality Shift Stories
Berenstein Berenstain Bears
Both Berenstain and Berenstein Bears at Sams Club
Susan
Maryland, USA
I thought you would find this interesting. I was shopping at a Sam’s Club, owned by Walmart, here in Maryland, and saw a Berenstain Bears book. I was curious to see what it said Berenstain or Berenstein. Well it said both as you can see in this picture. It was too cool not to share with you.
Note from Cynthia: WOW! What a find! Evidently, whoever posted this item for sale on that store’s computer system remembers the “Berenstein” spelling that so many people also recall, despite the book itself clearly being marked “Berenstain.” I can’t help but wonder whether this Berenstain / Berenstein ‘glitch’ appears at other local Sams Clubs or Walmarts in the area, or if it’s an isolated case.
Now I’m going to have to check! Thanks, Sheila, for letting us know!
My husband and I both were sure that Yogi Berra had died several years ago.
I knew the Nelson Mandella answer but have also been perplexed by The Berenstain Bears.
This is all so fascinating. Does this explain free will?
I’m not sure, Vicki! It’s a fascinating phenomenon, though. I really need to dig out those old bear videos of Megan’s!
Gosh, that’s got me thinking (again!) about things what we consider our past to be bleeding into what we call our present. Very interesting – thanks Trish and Rob, will do some more reading on the Mandela Effect,
I figured it would get you thinking!
I hear they’re called reality shifts
I remember the bears as Bearenstein as well. I also remember being perplexed at one point when I noticed they had changed, however, my daughter says while she remembers them as Bearenstein; she found an old, old, copy of one the books and it was Barenstain.
Weird.
Wow, this intrigues me. Rob reminded me that somewhere we have some old Barenstein videos that Megan used to watch. I’m going to dig around in the attic to see if I can find them.I wonder if one of the turning points was W’s election and the invasion of Iraq.
Can we create an alternative reality where the Presidency of George W. Bush never happened?!? I’d give anything to have Gore been president and me working as a loyal aide in his administration!
I figure there has to be a reality where that happened. What a totally different world we would be living in. I wonder if it’s possible to slip into that reality?
If left to West Palm Beach!
Rob MacGregor I was sure that Yogi Berra was long dead…until I heard he died a few months ago.
Jenean Gilstrap what??? are you sure???
Jenean Gilstrap i had to google that cause i thought he had BEEN dead too – but wiki says he died in september 2015!
Rob MacGregor I met the singer Richie Havens at a party years ago, and I remember him complaining that when he meets people they often say, “I thought you were dead.” I didn’t tell him, but I had thought the same. I thought he was part of the 27 crowd.
A Channel I listen to called Bashar says the past is created in the present, not the other way round and therefore the past is malleable. The earth is currently sifting from the 4th to fifth dimension, we have been trapped so long in the illusion of duality. I love all this parallel universe stuff. Great post!
Trish,
There is a theory out there that something changed with “time ” in 1995, could be 1985 , mandela effect sorry had to. 😉
That we are “living” in a changed timeline and if Cliff High is correct, a time event happened a few years back during high profile football game. What is the take away? Time is malleable, it has its own consciousness, it is driven by motivations unknown to any human or non human …
Just some random thoughts
Be well,
Laurence
p.s. Could time be a construct like a tulpa?
Wow, I had totally forgotten about Cliff High! And what an intriguing thought, time as a kind of tulpa…
Jenean – Gypsy Woman – left this comment on facebook about the post:
Jenean Gilstrap really interesting post, trish – i have had numerous such experiences – however, did not realize why/how until just now – i mean, i would argue over knowing what i had seen or knew to be etc – even reciting just how i knew and where i had seen, etc – but while i was sure of my own memory, could not explain the difference in then and now or whatever – about mandela, i knew the answer – and i have the same memory of the bears as you – was very surprised to see that it had changed – and especially intriguing as to when it changed – again, neat post!