I don't typically give conspiracy theories the time of day, but I came across a shared Facebook post that blew my mind. Before I explain, get out a piece of paper and write down answers to the following questions. Do not Google anything, just answer whatever you honestly thing the answer is.
1. What is the name of these bears?
(Hint: Berenst#in Bears, fill in the '#')
2. JC Penny's or JC Penney's?
3. Chic-fil-a or Chick-fil-a?
4. Did Nelson Mandela die in prison?
5. What did The Evil Queen say to her mirror in Snow White?
(Hint: ______ mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?)
6. How did Mr. Rodgers Neighborhood theme song start?
(Hint:"It's a beautiful day in ___ neighborhood.")
7. Sex And The City or Sex In The City?
8. Does Curious George have a tail?
9. Fill in Forest's Gump's quote, "mama always said life ___ like a box of chocolates."
10. Fill in Darth Vadar's quotes, "____, I am your father."
Have your answers? See if they match.
1. Berenstain Bears
2. JC Penney's
3. Chick-fil-a
4. Nelson Mandela died in 2013
5, "Magic mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?"
6. "It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood."
7. Sex And The City
8. Curious George does not have a tail
9. "Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates.
10. "No, I am your father."
We're your answers right? If not you're probably pretty mind blown just like I was. For some reason there is a large majority of people who believe the answers are as follows:
1. BerenstEin Bears instead of BerenstAin Bears. I remember joking when I was younger that the authors (Jan and Stan Berenstain) couldn't spell there names right. You can check out the whole Reddit discussion here.
2. JC Penny's instead of JC Penney's
3. Chic-fil-a instead of Chick-fil-a
4. Many people believe Nelson Mandela died in prison some time around the 80's (I specifically remember my freshman history teacher teaching us this.) But he actually died in 2013, who knew.
5. "Mirror mirror on the wall" instead of "Magic mirror on the wall". Can you believe it? There is even a movie called Mirror Mirror after Snow White, but that is not even how the saying goes!
6, "It's a beautiful day in THE neighborhood" instead of "It's a beautiful day in THIS neighborhood."
7. Sex IN The City instead of Sex AND The City, that just doesn't sound right.
8. When I think of Curious George I picture him with a tail, hes never had a tail.
9. "Mama always told me life IS like a box of chocolates." Instead of, "Mama always told me life WAS like a box of chocolates."
10. "Luke, I am your father." Instead of, "No, I am your father." Wait, what.
Don't believe me? Look it up. There is a larger list of these anomalies here.
This concept of a large group of people specifically remembering things that were never true is called the Mandela Effect. The Mandela effect is defined as "The Phenomenon where a group of people discover that a global fact, one they feel they know to be true and have specific personal memories for, has apparently changed in the world around them."
While some of these aren't exactly a big deal, and most likely just a faulty memory, I was 100 percent sure that the wrong way was in fact the right way. I Googled all the questions and was positive that what I saw on Facebook was a lie, there is no way it was ever spelled Berenstain Bears and there is no way the Evil Queen says "magic mirror on the wall" but apparently that is how it has always been spelled and that is always what she said. I'm not buying it.
There are several theories as to why so many people have the same false memory, whether it's a glitch in the matrix or a glitch in our memories, I will leave that up to you to decide.
Theory #1: Time Travel
"At some point between the years 1986 and 2011, someone traveled back in
time and inadvertently altered the timeline of human history so that
the Berenstein Bears somehow became the Berenstain Bears," he wrote.
"This is why everyone remembers the name incorrectly; it was Berenstein
when we were kids, but at some point when we weren't paying attention,
someone went back in time and rippled our life experience ever so
slightly."
Theory #2: A Parallel Universe
There is at least one other universe parallel to our own. I will distinguish the two by the stEin universe and the stAin universe, depending on the surname of the creators of the famous children's book.The stEin universe was the world we resided in during the 1990s. Sometime after we all stopped reading kids books, that is when we were shifted in to the stAin universe. There may be more differences than just the surname of the Berenst_ins, in fact there almost certainly are more differences, and we just need to find them."
While we should probably just handle this with the Occam's Razor principal, the idea that thousands, maybe even millions of people have a false memory of the way Berenstain is spelled is completely unreasonable. A parallel universe though? That is most certainly reasonable.