In 1985, a television series was released about a family of four bears: Ma, Pa, Sister, and Brother. This show targeted a young audience and was later remade by PBS Kids in 2003. Now, think to yourselves. What was this show called? How is it spelled? More so, how was it spelled? That’s an odd question to ask.
I conducted a survey on October 26, 2015, and out of 49 people who took the survey, 43 recall the show being called “The Berenstein Bears.” That’s 88% of people believing that ‘Berenstein’ ended in e-i-n.
This, contrary to popular belief, is simply incorrect. The correct title is The Berenstain Bears, ending in a-i-n. Why is it that only six people recalled this correctly?
Let’s look at another example. Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood was on air in the US from 1966-2001. If you’ve watched this show before, you probably recall the memorable theme song: “It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood.”
Does that sound correct to you? Because in reality, “It’s a beautiful day in THIS neighborhood.” Once again, 88% people fell for the wrong answer, but why?
The Mandela Effect is a theory to explain why a mass majority of people remember specific things incorrectly.
Caroline Siede, a writer at avclub.com, believes, “We have gone under a π/2 phase change, or a 90 degree rotation in all 4 dimensions.” Siede refers to the ever popular “Berenstain” example, stating, “we moved to the a-i-n hexadectant, while our counterparts moved to ours.” She also refers to other examples such as the fact that, “plenty of people remember Nelson Mandela dying in jail in the 1980s, or that Chartreuse is ‘something other than yellow-green.’”
There are over 100 other examples of this theory:
-
Curious George: does he have a tail? According to mandelaeffect.com, “He’s a chimp, so he’s never had a tail, but many remember otherwise.”
-
“Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?” As stated in the original Snow White movie, the quote is actually “Magic Mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?”
-
“Luke, I am your father.” As a matter of fact, Darth Vader actually said “No, I am your father.”
-
“Life is like a box of chocolates.” Still wrong, “life was like a box of chocolates.”
-
“Looney Tunes” is actually spelled “Tunes,” not “Toons.”
-
Sex in the City? Nope, Sex and the City.
The list goes on and on. There has to be some reason that this phenomena is happening, regardless if you believe we switched to a parallel universe or not.
If you would like to see more examples of the Mandela Effect, you can click here or here.