When I first read about some people remembering news reports of Nelson Mandela dying in a South African prison in 1991, I knew I was not one of those people. I knew Mandela had been released from prison and went on to be elected President and died around 2013.
Of all of the weird stuff you can read on the internet, the Mandela Effect was not something I wanted to spend much time with. But, wait a minute what was this? The popular children’s book series the Berestein Bears, that I had read, again and again, to my two sons sixty years ago, was actually written as being about the Berestain Bears. It is just that many people misremember it as being about the Bearstein Bears. Don’t ask me why I am certain the books I read to my sons were Berestein and not Berestain, I just know.
When I first read this nonsense, I went right to the bookcase for books I read to my granddaughter. I read her Berestien Bears books too. I bought them new. The copies of books I had read to my sons were long since recycled. What? Berestain! I had been reading Berestain books to my granddaughter like I had once read Bernstein Bear books to her father. Why did this popular series decide to change the name of the bears? After all, they were named after the couple that wrote the books.
I guessed my aging brain was as susceptible to the next to misremember in the way other Bernstein Bear book fans did. What else could I have misremembered?
From the ages of 9 to 12, I attended a church that believed the King James Version of the Bible was the word of God. I was instructed to memorize and be able to recite selected passages from that book. One such reading was about the Peaceable Kingdom to come, where “the lion will lie down with the lamb.”
When I went to college, I bought my parents a reproduction of an Edward Hicks painting depicting the lion lying down with the lamb. The painting depicted other animals lying around, including a wolf. The Mandela Effect alarmists say today’s King James Version of the Bible says the wolf is the one that will hang out peacefully with the lamb. If you think the Bible speaks of the lion doing, so you are misremembering.
First misremembered bears and now lions, oh my.
I wasn’t too good at remembering Bible verses, but I do remember about the lion and the lamb and if I didn’t get it from the Bible where did I get it from? It might be the same place other people have, but I haven’t found it yet. How did the lion put on wolf’s clothing?
I did look around and found the Bible I used to memorize from. It included the inscription my Grandmother wrote to me documenting she gave it to me in October 1961. In that book, the wolf now lies down with the lamb.
If you want to believe these Mandela Effect people, you have to believe that some magic caused the print in the leather bound, zippered, “onion skin” papered book my Grandmother gave me, changed from lion to wolf without there being any signs that I am aware off of illicit tampering.
Not only that, but the same thing has happened to every other copy of the King James Version of the Bible worldwide. No way.
Of all of the things I had memorized from the Bible, it was John, Chapter 3, Verse 16, I remember word for word without a doubt in my God-fearing mind and I quote, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that who so ever believeth in Him, shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” I had memorized that on like my everlasting life depended on it. Mandela Effect freaks claim that it now reads “should” instead of “shall”. Not in the Bible Grandma gave me in 1961 it doesn’t see! Holy crap it does read “should.”
Now bears and lions are one thing, but everlasting life is another and should means something different than shall. Should is chances are you will, shall is, it’s going to happen.
If you look around online a little you will find hundreds of examples of Mandela mass misremembering posted by hundreds of posters. There may be at least hundreds of conspiracy con-artists out there, who want to sell you something or attract your “likes” and Youtube subscriptions and the mainstream media has more interesting things to report. Do you honestly believe that?
Many men are very interested in understanding power. Who has the most to it, how do they use it and how can you reduce your chances of getting burned by it? How can any man ignore these Mandella effect reports of historical accounts being misremembered en masse?
Those who ignore are most likely motivated by the denial of the primal fear that is generated by the knowledge unseen forces are playing with our sense of reality and we haven’t a clue as to how they do it and what can be done about it.
I realize the premises I hold dear, that lead to my belief in Jesus Christ, may be being tampered with, but I believe all the more. In my book that is what faith is for.
If you have heard about the Mandela Effect and still believe there is nothing there to see other than similarities among groups of people having false recall difficulties, revisit. If you have concluded you know enough to know it is all nonsense and not worth wasting any more of your precious time with, think again.
May increased awareness of the Mandela Effect take you to where it has taken me.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Thanks for posting this, David! I’m heartened by your words, and by reading of your faith. I’ve been researching this phenomena of reality shifts and Mandela Effects since the 1990s, and I believe there is a scientific explanation for what’s going on, in which we’re witnessing quantum effects on a macroscopic (bigger-than-quantum) scale.