The Mandela-Effect

©August 19, 2016, Olan L. Smith

I thank you for reading this article on the Mandela Effect, or as I like to call it, the M-Effect for mind-effect. I want to point out this has nothing to do with God or gods, in my opinion, but it has more to deal with humans exploring their shared memories like they have never been able to do before, now we have instantaneous communication with people from around the world, via the internet, and before the internet an issue like this would have died a quick death. I call this shared memory a collective memory where we share common events and happenings; however, now we have to deal with glitches in our collective memory. We humans seldom agree on anything, causing battles of I don't agree with you and you don't agree with me, and leading to arguments on a micro level when disagreements happen with our spouses or friends. "Fred, where did I place my keys?" the wife asks before going out.

Fred answers, "How would I know? Just trace back your steps." She does, and she finds the keys right where she remembers, in the entertainment center. I am not going to discuss with you these memories, but memories that are acquired through the following educational vehicles: The family nucleus, church/Sunday school, peers, higher education, songs, poetry, movies, TV and internet news.

One thing you don't mess with is our shared memory, for that is our foundation, our tribal stories, if you would. Mess with them, and you risk the whole society falling apart because we wouldn't have a foundation. This was a TV skit from Jay Leno's Tonight Show, where he would interview random people on the street, asking them shared memory questions. Most often, everyone failed to correctly answer his questions. We don't seem to remember when we are pulled into a scene and suddenly asked questions without clues. This is similar to the walking through a doorway syndrome where suddenly everything is forgotten, and we don't know what we came into the room to do or get. But I am not talking about that memory either. I am talking about the most common memories, like, is it? Mirror, mirror, on the wall? Or, a magic mirror on the wall. ...?" Well, it is a little of both. The magic mirror hangs on the wall, and she turns to it and asks, "Mirror, mirror on the wall who is the fairest one of all? This still doesn't account for the old movie saying, "Magic mirror on the wall who is the fairest one of all."

"If you build it they will come" from Field of Dreams, is it the word "they will come" that is used or is it phrased, "...he will come." Using the word "they" in the storyline context doesn't make sense. Why is he building it? Only at the end of the movie do we learn "he" is the ghost of his father.

"Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get," from the movie Forrest Gump. I just listen closely to Tom Hanks recreate the line on an old interview show, and it is difficult to tell, but it sounds like he is saying, "Life was like a box of chocolates," although I clearly remember that he used the word in my shared memory. Are we just misremembering phrases and words? Was it Berenstein or Berenstain? I will go with Berenstein. I remember Sex in the City, and I heard announcers say, "Sex in the City," but logically, I imagine the word "and" was elided to 'n. So it looks like this: "Sex 'n' the City" pronounced by the presenters as "Sex in the City."

However, there are those you cannot so easily dismiss, and this is where I hang my hat for the Mandela Effect being real. The Bible has changed. Some will answer, well, no two versions are the same, but Isaiah 11:6 now says, "The wolf will dwell with the lamb..." and I remember clearly, in my reality, "The lion will lay down with the lamb." It didn't change in just one version of the Bible, but every version of the Bible throughout the very history of it. There is no reference today for a lion lying down with the lion, and there is no reason for artists and photographers to depict a scene of a lion and the lamb lying down together. Another non-Biblical shared memory; this one seems more prominent, and that is the title of the movie, Interview with a Vampire, and even the author uses the word "a" and not the word "the" in her book's title.

Think about this one for a moment because Sally Fields, the actress, is now named Sally Field, no plural ending. Other changes that make you think are from the King James Version of the Bible only. Exodus 13:12 uses the word "matrix" instead of womb, and that blew me away. We used the word matrix more than " superstructure, web, or lattice, so this one took some digging before I found the word matrix used in the 14th century as womb. It could be that King James Scholars inserted the word matrix for womb, but I don't remember matrix " being used in that version. I remember New Zealand was east and north of Australia, and Australia was further south of where it is now, and I do know my continents quite well. North Korea for me was not across a bay from Japan, either. Weird shit as we might say, but what are we to do, drag them back to where they fit our memory.

In the end, we will just have to deal with it, accept the changes and move on. Something has, without a doubt, messed with our shared memories, and if they mess with the Bible they don't fear anything. I will discuss more on what is causing this in my next segment. I am tired and need some rest.

Love, peace, and freedom (lpf), Olan