The Mandala Effect
The Mandala Effect
The Origin of the Mandala Effect
The phenomenon got its name in 2009 by self-described ‘paranormal consultant’ Fiona Broome at a DragonCon conference. However, the ideas of the Mandala Effect proposals have been around much longer. The most popular and well known case of the mandala effect is with the case of Nelson Mandela’s death in prison.
The Reddit Thread
In 2018, Reddit user “Reignoffire9” posted the popular social media site, Reddit, claiming that he had never knew of philanthropist and conceptualist Elon Musk before 2008. The post claims that Elon Musk appeared out of no where like a real-life Iron Man Tony Stark figure. The thread also suggests that SpaceX and the privatization of space travel and exploration bloomed in the year 2002. This led to threads of upvoted commentary surrounding the validity of computer technology and our general understanding of space exploration in the early 2000’s.
The Hinton Twitter Thread
On July 25, 2019, Nick Hinton began with a ‘conspiracy thread’ asking “Did the World End in 2012?”. Hintons first tweet was awarded 100,000 likes
The difference between FMS (False Memory Syndrome) and the social phenomenon known as The Mandala Effect
In 1992, the False Memory Syndrome Foundation (FMSF), an advocacy organization for people claiming to be falsely accused of sexual abuse, announced the discovery of a new syndrome involving iatrogenically created false memories of childhood sexual abuse; iatrogenically created meaning the causation of a disease, harmful complication, or any other medical condition due to misdiagnosis or pure negligence. Epidemiological evidence is also examined to determine whether there is data to support its advocates' claim of a public health crisis or epidemic. Such a syndrome lacks general acceptance in the mental health field, and that the construct is based on a series of faulty assumptions, many of which have been scientifically disproven. There is a similar lack of empirical validation for claims of a “false memory” epidemic. It is concluded that in the absence of any substantive scientific support, “False Memory Syndrome” is best characterized as a pseudoscientific syndrome that was developed to defend against claims of child abuse.
Mandela Effect phenomenon:
1. Curious George with a tale vs without a tail
2. Nelson Mandela’s Death:
• The theory that started this whole conundrum was coined by the uncertainty surrounding Nelson Mandela’s death in 2013. Countless people distinctly remember him dying in prison in the 1980’s. Yet his death isn’t the only example of a Mandela Effect.
3. Looney Tunes, Not Toons
4. The Berenstein Bears didn’t exist
• The lovable cartoon bear family actually spelled their last name with an “a”: The Berenstain Bears
5. ‘Sex and the City’
• While these four women were having sex in the city, the show was actually titled sex and the city
6. Febreze vs Febreeze
7. Sketchers vs Skechers
8. Monopoly man and his monocle
9. Pikachu’s tail?
10. In the Disney animated movie “Snow White” we remember the wicked queen saying “Mirror, Mirror on the wall” when in fact, the queen says “Magic mirror on the wall..”
11. STAR WARS: Episode 5, The Empire Strikes Back, Darth Vader saying “Luke, I am your father” when in fact he really just said “I am your father”. Yer pop. Yer papino aye
12. Lord of the Rings: Gandalf the Grey yelling “Run, You Fools!”, yet before his treacherous fall you can hear him say “Fly, you fools!” ???
13. Silence of the Lambs: We all remember Hannibal Lector saying “Hello, Clarice” even when quoted in popculture media. Yet all he said was “Good Morning.” Uh-What?
14. The infamous Queen song “We Are The Champions”. We all somehow remember Freddie boy belting out “...of the world!” Yet it never happened. Perhaps they changed all the versions on streaming services and radios to a different edit? Since audiophiles collect multiple singles of records that have been mixed and/or mastered differently from other versions of a released song.
15. Tank Man: during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, recollections of the event vary. Some say the unidentified man known as “Tank Man” was run over and killed, but other videos show him moving away from the scene. Cha cha slide???
Your ‘memories’ could actually be lies you fabricated:
• Researchers observed through a survey that 40% of the 6,641 respondents recalled first memories that didn’t happen
• This was due to memory fragments that their brains combined with outside knowledge they’d gained about events - through family, photographs, or anecdotes.
Theory 1:
The Mandala effect is evidence of alternate realities created by modern day scientist in attempts to learn about the universe and they might’ve split it into two, leaving some folks stuck in another reality.
This philosophy originates from quantum physics and relates to the idea that rather than one timeline of events, it is possible that alternate realities or universities are taking place and mixing with our timeline, In theory, this would result in groups of people having the same memories because the timeline has been altered as we sift between these different realities.
A grounding exercise I play around with, usually when im fairly zoinked and zooted, is to ask people a series of questions:
1. What was the first thing you said today?
2. What was the last thing you thought about before falling asleep last night?
3. What were you doing on this day last month?
4. What were you doing last year around this time?
Kimberly Wade of the University of Warwick described it like this to the BBC:
“Our perceptual systems aren’t built to notice absolutely everything in our environment. We take in information through all our sense but there are gaps. So when we remember an event, what our memory ultimately does is fills in those gaps by thinking about what we know about the world.”
How misinformation and false memories can have life-altering consequences:
False information and/or accusations can do more than defamation to someone’s title, it can also overturn cases in the court of law where an eyewitness mis-remembered what - or who - they’d seen commit a heinous crime. (This is when dystopian tech like the cookie concept displayed in Black Mirror S4E3, “Crocodile”). This concern has been observed and approached by an organization called “The Innocence Project”. Through advances in forensic science and the ability to analyze DNA acquired and stored years and even decades earlier, the innocence project is now able to overturn cases where an eyewitness mis-remembered what - or who - they’d seen commit a heinous crime.
The innocence project strives to exonerate the innocent through DNA testing and reform the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice.
Possibilities to consider
1. Confabulation: Confabulation involves your brain filling in gaps that are missing in your memories to make more sense of them. This isn’t lying, but rather remembering details that never happened. Confabulation tends to increase with age.
2. Post-event information: Information that you learn after an event can change your memory of an event. This includes event subtle information and helps to explain why eyewitness testimony can be unreliable.
3. Priming: Priming describes the factors leading up to an event that affects our perception of it. Also called suggestibility and presupposition, priming is the difference between asking how short a person is, versus how tall a person is. Saying, “did you see the black car? Instead of ...a black car?” Makes a subtle suggestion that influences response and memory.
I digress by addressing Premature concerns of being a participator within the Mandela Effect:
Some people discover an anomalous memory which leads them into a rabbit whole of inner-conflict. “It’s all in your head” “What else am I wrong about?”
When there are examples of a large population that experiences said anomalous memories, we can’t rule that out as simple confusion.
An example of these memory flashes can be exemplified in the idea of being a tourist - sliding into the DM’s of the alternate reality. We’re home wrecking that marriage to reality and that grounding energy that differentiates our home reality and the alternate reality.
There has been some ties with the Mandela effect phenomenon and pagan beliefs tied to witchcraft and mind control/hypnotic suggestion.
Donation Links: Be a part of the innocence project’s groundbreaking work to free innocent people and transform the legal system:
innocence project.org/donate
---Citations
Janaki Jitchotvisut. “It turns out some of your ‘memories’ could actually be lies you told yourself”. https://www.insider.com/earliest-memories-can-be-lies-2018-7 (accessed August 16)
Wikipedia. “List of Black Mirror Episodes”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Black_Mirror_episodes (accessed August 16)
Innocence Project. https://www.innocenceproject.org (accessed August 16)
