What Is The Mandela Effect?

You may or may not be aware that there’s a new major conspiracy on the block, based on a genuine psychological phenomenon called the Mandela Effect.

However, this one has reached worrying levels of absurdity, and is hotly defended by its followers.

It is being claimed that:

• Every bible text on earth has been altered
• Countries have been relocated or removed
• Geographical sites have been changed or moved
• The Statue of Liberty has moved to a different island
• Brand names and Logos have changed
• Books, movies and TV shows have had their titles changed
• The scripts of some movies have changed
• And so on…

I believe it’s yet another trial run for the Great Delusion mentioned in the bible: 2 Thess 2:11 “…they refused the love of the truth that would have saved them. For this reason, God will send them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie…”

What Is The Mandela Effect?

To begin in relative sanity, the Mandela Effect is a known mental aberration where large numbers of people believe a lie. That’s right. It was named from the fact that many people believe Nelson Mandela died in jail, whereas in fact he survived, was released, and went on to become President of South Africa.

Here’s a classic “Mandela effect” from way back in the 60s. A teacher in 1969 told his students, “Truman’s dead – I watched his funeral on television twenty years ago!” Harry Truman died in 1972.

Did Darth Vader say “Luke, I am your father?” You may think he did, because everyone has said so, but the facts are against you. Watch it on Youtube. (He actually says, “No, I am your father”)

• The Berenstain Phenomenon – How the Bear Books ‘prove’ we are living in a parallel universe.

Deliberate Lies

Now in addition, the intention of some Christian sites, whether accidentally or by design, is to create the Mandela Effect to support their ministry, because it’s easier to attract people with shocking headlines than to discuss boring doctrinal issues. Thus, many popular websites present a photo (either accurately or not) with an attention-grabbing title, knowing that the majority of readers will not get beyond the first two lines. If the news gels with their preconceptions, they will accept it regardless of the truth.

Thereafter the readers will say, with great authority, so-and-so did this, he said that!! In fact, so-and-so said nothing of the kind, but it no longer matters, because everybody believes he did.

It becomes a fact, simply because people have believed it, and now (as we see) the next stage is to place greater reliance on what we have believed, than verifiable evidence.

Memory and belief is considered more trustworthy than observable fact!

Even after many years, false stories continue to circulate on email and social networking, simply because people WANT to believe it. Stories such as Madalyn Murray O’Hair’s campaign against Christian radio, Janet Reno’s definition of a cult, or Charles Darwin’s supposed deathbed conversion. These are not true, but many will swear they are simply because they have “seen it on the Internet” or had it passed on by word of mouth.

People will believe and recirculate the news that:

• Non-Christian Band “Lamb of God” Accepted a Christian Award from Joel Osteen
• President Obama apologised to Japan for bombing them.
  • (Obama did offer condolences for the loss of those who died, but not an apology)
• The store Target stopped selling the Bible
• Airlines refuse to have all-Christian crew members because of the Rapture
• A concerned Christian Mom has rewritten the Harry Potter books to remove the witchcraft.
• Pope Francis declared at the Third Vatican Council that ‘all religions are true.’
• Steven Furtick claimed to be the Son of God

Now in some, or many, cases what is reported  (if it’s not just a spoof from a satirical site) has a grain of truth but it’s distorted to mean something else. I am no supporter of Obama, the Pope or Steve Furtick, but it turns out that the above reports are inaccurate.

Should we as Christians be gleefully circulating gossip and delighting in the failings of others, no matter who they are? Everyone deserves a fair hearing. And we are to minister in truth and exercise justice, if we want to receive the same from God.

When we accept a lying report, or a much-exaggerated report given a spin by somebody for effect, is this not what the bible calls “bearing false witness” or “tale-bearing”?

How honourable or reputable are those who are prepared – for the sake of popularity – to make the very worst of a throwaway statement simply to blacken further the name of somebody who is already classed as heretical? Is there not enough to worry about in false doctrines being preached without creating controversy out of next to nothing?

We do Christianity a disservice if we are to support our genuine concerns with less than honest reporting.

The trouble is, somebody in two minds who has come looking for help about a false teaching or minister will read what he or she knows to be an exaggeration and as a result will end up rejecting ALL reports, even the true ones, having discovered the dishonesty in one or two. The reputations of anti-apostasy ministries are only damaged by false reporting, or exaggeration. They lose credibility in the eyes of those who need help the most.

The Unstoppable Virus

One would hope that a person afflicted with a M.E. (Mandela Effect) lie would accept correction when confronted with the truth in various forms including video, photos and news reports. This is where psychological dogma hits the wall of conspiracy theory, because the latest virus of the M.E. cannot be halted by a simple injection of fact. No, it is immune to all reason.

I want to explore this current major outbreak. But I want to go beyond that and look at some earlier, perhaps less virulent, strains of a similar phenomenon – doomsday prophecies – all of which are trial runs for the biggest lie of all. (What is that? I’ll get to that shortly…read on)

Who, Why, and How of Conspiracy Theories (PDF File)

Mayan Calendar ended on Dec. 21, 2012 – what happened, nothing!

The 2012 phenomenon was a range of eschatological beliefs that cataclysmic or otherwise transformative events would occur on or around 21 December 2012. This date was regarded as the end-date of a 5,126-year-long cycle in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar.

Planet X/Nibiru – did it arrive, NO!

First put forward in 1995 by Nancy Lieder, founder of the website ZetaTalk. Lieder describes herself as a contactee with the ability to receive messages from extraterrestrials from the Zeta Reticuli star system through an implant in her brain. She states that she was chosen to warn mankind that the object would sweep through the inner Solar System in May 2003 (though that date was later postponed) causing Earth to undergo a physical pole shift that would destroy most of humanity. Latest prediction, Planet X will destroy earth by the end of 2015 or by April 2016.

Blood Moons – what happened, nothing.

The blood moon prophecy is a series of apocalyptic beliefs promoted by Christian ministers John Hagee and Mark Biltz, which state that a tetrad (a series of four consecutive lunar eclipses—coinciding on Jewish holidays—with six full moons in between, and no intervening partial lunar eclipses) which began with the April 2014 lunar eclipse is a sign of the end times as described in the Bible. The tetrad ended with the lunar eclipse on September 27-28, 2015.

September 23rd 2015 – passed without incident.

The claim that the U.S. government had secret information about an impending asteroid impact catastrophe that would occur in September, 2015. Begun by self proclaimed “prophet,” Rev. Efrain Rodriguez, who claimed he had received a message from God that an asteroid that would “soon be seen in the alarm systems of NASA” was approaching. He said the asteroid would hit the ocean near Puerto Rico and cause a massive earthquake and tsunami that would devastate the East Coat of the U.S., Mexico, Central, and South America. Rumors, fueled by online NWO conspiracy theory websites, claimed that FEMA was stocking up on body bags, coffins, and other emergency response supplies in preparation for a major catastrophe in Puerto Rico.

Walmart Death Camps / Jade Helm (Spring 2015) – no problems!

Jade Helm 15, the multi-state, two-month U.S. Army Special Operations Command training exercise in the Summer of 2015 turned into a story of death camps, military takeover, stockpiled coffins and body bags.

Temple of Baal – April 2016 – nothing!

The erection of a reproduction Triumphal Arch in New York’s Times Square and London’s Trafalgar Square on April 19th set off a conspiracy theory that the actual “Temple of Baal” was going to be built in “thousands of cities around the world” complete with blood sacrifices and the worship of Baal. Furthermore, these arches were “portals” to the demonic realm and would result in an invasion of aliens or demons.

All these predictions – even though they were unbiblical and disproven by events – were believed by, and promoted by, Christians as well as non-Christians; indeed some of the most ardent supporters were Christian believers.

The Earth is Flat?

To this we add the current spate of fervent flatearthers. Yes, a surprising number of otherwise sound Christians today believe that the earth is flat and motionless, with a domed ceiling.

To support this theory, they deny all scientific evidence to the contrary, such as space exploration, photographs of the earth from space, maps – and every other kind of evidence for a spherical earth orbiting the sun.

Once having decided that science has been wrong for thousands of years, these flatearthers cannot go back to their former beliefs. They have been deluded, and their minds have been altered.

There is a process happening right now on earth to lead people into alternate and sometimes very bizarre belief systems, which once adopted are defended against all-comers.

Why should this be so? I think there might be an explanation in the devil’s plans for this world, as explained in the bible.

Fake News Adds to the Mandela Effect

As a second string to the conspiracy bow, we find the huge and ever-growing amount of fake news sites.

Despite a few individuals valiantly exposing them, these fake or hyped news reports circulate their stories widely. They offer no supporting evidence, attribution, source or corroboration.

Nonetheless, people happily circulate the news, which is either entirely fake, half-truth, purely satirical or hyped out of all proportion to the original, merely for effect.

Indeed (and pertinent to the theme of this article) EVEN when the news outlet or fake news is demonstrated conclusively to be untrue, followers are STILL inclined to suspend their powers of investigation and continue to promote a story because it appeals to their preconceptions.

Feelings are All, Facts are Discarded

The key here is that feelings and emotions and reactions have become much more influential than facts.

A news story is assessed by its impact, by how angry or disgusted or worried or sorrowful the reader feels, and NOT by the truth or evidence. Truth has now become secondary to feelings – and THAT is the basis for this article.

Before the Internet, we used to say “People believe anything if they see it on TV”. Now that is true of the Net.

All you need to do is set up a monetised blog or website – anonymously, no contact email or address, and a hidden domain location – grab some photos from Google and circulate them with a sensational title. That is the route to becoming an overnight hit, and making a lot of money from people visiting your site.

Genuine news reporting is careful to attribute a photo, that is, the caption will tell you where and who it is, what was the situation and date, and what is happening. If a recent photo of the event cannot be obtained, a “stock photo” will be used, and it will be labelled as such. That is called, being responsible.

Nothing like that happens on the fake news sites.

The suggestive, and often lying, headline grabs your attention, and the photo might be something entirely different, in a different country, showing a different event, and taken many years ago. But it grabs the reader – it’s “click-bait” and soon it’s being recirculated throughout Facebook and other places where people gather.

But worse, almost all of these sensational website have an angle.

They plant fake or half-truth stories deliberately aimed at a certain, mostly American, audience who can be relied upon to recirculate them as true stories, because they appeal to their way of thinking. See the verbatim quotes from one such fake news site below.

The domain names, red-white-blue colours, eagles, flags and quotes on these sites are most likely to get a reaction from conservative, disgruntled, patriotic, bible-loving Americans. (LibertyTalk.fm, Mrconservative.com, Theuspatriot.com, Liberalbias.com, Americannews.com; Truthandaction.org; Thegatewaypundit.com and VeteransToday.com for instance. The latter admitted that over 40 percent of the content is pure fake.)

Once the story is released into the wild and gains respectability by being reposted by ordinary people on Facebook, the site owners can sit back, count the money, and laugh at those they consider to be poor suckers. See the following quotes.

NationalReport.net (100% fake political stories)

The site NationalReport.net seems to be actively trying to embarrass conservatives on social media. People think it is a mainline conservative/TEA Party site because they have a picture of Sarah Palin and Ted Cruz in their top banner. When a conservative website falls for one of their hoaxes and syndicates the story, left-wing websites then mock them.

NationalReport.net has become a source of entertainment for the Left. “We have been targeting Tea Party types recently as they are the most gullible and are willing to spread misinformation across the Internet with little/no research,” National Report publisher “Allen Montgomery” told the Casper (Wyo.) Star-Tribune in 2014.

“In general, people are eager to suspend critical thinking if what they are reading confirms their viewpoint,” Montgomery told The Daily Banter in a 2014 interview, where he also described fooling people as “a public service” intended to make them think more critically about the media. [Source]

Some FAKE news sites. See another list here, for example. [PDF File]

• RealNewsRightNow.com
• DailyCurrant.com
• TheMidEastBeast.com
• DrudgeReport.com.co (not affiliated with The Drudge Report.)
• Huzlers.com
• BigAmericanNews.com
• ChristWire.org (Fake Christian conservative material)
• CivicTribune.com
• DCClothesLine.com
• DuhProgressive.com
• EmpireNews.com
• PoliticalEars.com
• TheNewsNerd.com
• TheUsPatriot.com
• WitScience.org

However, to get back to our main theme, that of the Mandela Effect.

As I said previously, there are increasing numbers of claims that CERN has somehow altered reality thus changing things in the media or even geography. Some of the claims are laughable. Others are of genuine concern to Christians who hear of them.

It is said that certain bible texts have changed – supposedly as a result of activity in the Large Hadron Collider – which they call CERN even though that is an acronym for the European Organization for Nuclear Research, a European research organization that (amongst other things) operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world.

Because CERN built the Hadron Collider it has unwittingly become the bogeyman for all things supernatural, such as opening a portal for demons, creating a black hole that will swallow the universe, and – now – creating an parallel universe where things are no longer as we remember them.

Problem Number One

There’s a big problem with that concept (apart from the obvious) and it’s this: IF we were indeed in an alternate reality, then we would not notice any changes, because to us everything would seem normal. For instance, if we saw people using paraffin to fuel their cars, we would not claim that things had changed, because in this reality we ALWAYS use paraffin.

Therefore, those who say they have observed changes, and can remember things being different, have by their very statements ruled out their premise.

But secondly, all the supposed proof for the changes rests on one factor – the MEMORY of the observers. People will insist that, in the cartoon Snow White, the evil queen says “mirror, mirror on the wall…”  but now she says “magic mirror, on the wall”. No, in fact the cartoon has always said “magic mirror” but people believe otherwise.

However, it is easier to believe that the Hadron Collider has changed the cartoon than to admit you are wrong and that your memory is faulty!! Do you begin to see the possibilities for the Great Delusion to come?

Problem Number Two

Actually we have not yet asked the question as to WHY anybody at CERN would – even if they could – selectively alter a Disney Cartoon. Such a question never arises in the minds of those who promote the theory of an alternate universe!

As to the altered bible verses, the changes are explained by different translations and by the faulty memories of those who heard the bible read when they were young and never checked the original. The bible text has NOT been changed.

Did you know that the Lord’s prayer that you repeated in school or church isn’t the one in the bible, even though you think it is? So which is true, the bible or YOU??

The Lord’s Prayer (English Book of Common Prayer, 1662).

Our Father, which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth,
As it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive them that trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
The power, and the glory,
For ever and ever.
Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer  (Matthew 6:9-13 KJV 1611)

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

• Please compare the different versions over the years.  [PDF file]

If you were brought up reciting the “trespasses” version as many of us were, don’t be too shocked to find that it’s not what the King James of today says! CERN didn’t alter it, bible translators did. You just heard and were taught from the Book of Common Prayer of 1549 onwards, used in most churches and schools when you were young. The trespasses part was in the pre-KJV  Tyndale Bible (1526) where it says  “And forgeve vs oure treaspases eve as we forgeve oure trespacers“.

In short, from the KJV onward the translation of Matthew 6.12 has used “debts.” But the 1526 Tyndale Bible had it as “trespasses.” This translation was used in the 1549 Book of Common Prayer and is preserved in the BCP to the present day.

What about the “lion and the lamb”?  This fallacy (that the words have changed from lion to wolf in the bible text) is another mainstay in the claims of the M.E. proponents.

Oh yes, you THINK the bible says “the lion shall lie down with the lamb”, but does it? Is it just the way you remember it, having heard it so many times from other people and looking at mistaken pictures on the Internet?

This bible verse has been misquoted so many times that it has become a famous saying, reappearing in book titles, poems, photos and elsewhere.

But just because so many people are WRONG doesn’t meant CERN rewrote the bible.

King James Bible
The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. Is 11:6

The verse has NEVER been “the lion will lie down with the lamb”. It has ALWAYS said the WOLF, but since everyone opted for a misquotation and forgot to check what the bible actually says, suddenly there is a BIG shock when perhaps for the first time, internet Christians look at Isaiah 11:6 for themselves.

Now they have a choice – and that’s what this article is about, at base. It can go one way or the other.

(1) Either they accept that they were WRONG and their memory is faulty, so they agree with the bible and correct their own perceptions with the truth – OR

(2) They refuse to believe the evidence and continue to insist that they must be RIGHT because that is how they feel and the way they think. (That is, the bible text is wrong because I am right!)

The Mandela Effect dictates that people prefer the second option; they prefer to trust their own fallible memories for truth. Even when it means correcting the bible text by some kind of supernatural or demonic means beyond our understanding.

Oh yes, it’s more comfortable to believe the lie than the truth, if it means discovering your own fallibility. It’s more pleasurable to believe some nasty European scientists altered reality, than to accept that YOU are at fault!!

The Sinister Agenda

It is of concern that so many people are being dragged into a conspiracy that is so easily disproved; and even more worrying that they are reluctant to admit their mistake.

It is that above all that speaks of a more sinister agenda:  a plan to deprive ordinary people of their senses and powers of reason, and plunge them into a delusion from which it will be impossible to escape.

The endtimes lie will be no different, in essence, to the lie once told in the Garden of Eden: you don’t really need God’s guidance or laws because you have reached a place of wisdom from which you can order your own life effectively and safely – even righteously – without having to refer to God all the time.

Not Rejecting God, but Becoming Gods

Does this mean that people will be atheists? Absolutely not. Indeed, the world could be more religious and even more “Christian”  (or at least more God-believing) under the sway of the Great Delusion.

People will still believe in, pray to and praise God insofar as they understand him, only the unchanging TRUTH of the bible will have been replaced by experimentation, social action, human rights and a kind of universal love, or tolerance, that accepts every kind of behaviour. This they will call “becoming wise”.

The coming Ruler of the New World Order, we are told, is the epitome of LAWLESSNESS.

God created us to function and grow under His direction. But the serpent suggested to Eve that she was being deprived by that system. God (or your mistaken interpretation of Him) is holding you back from activities and beliefs that are useful and exciting; human pleasure and knowledge should not be governed or curtailed, he said.

The idea of limitations and punishments is for babies, the devil claims, and today man has grown out of such restriction. Mankind should rise up in its god-like dignity and ability to reclaim all the earth as a paradise of pleasure and provision, regardless of the bible and nay-sayers who are just bigoted haters.

Great Power

The devil will also convince people that the powers of the universe are ours to command (and he will demonstrate the fact by amazing signs and wonders).

No longer do we need to feel fearful of receiving and using inward and supernatural powers which (according to the devil) have been kept from us by a mistakenly over-protective Father – even suggesting this fatherly God has been cheating mankind out of its true potential for millennia.

Large parts of the Church are already preaching this LIE, but it needs to spread universally, with the help of a bewitching delusion.

On what does the promulgation of this great deception rest? On the desire of people to accept and believe a lie that appeals to their senses rather than their reason, without recourse to external proof or substantiated facts!

So the proliferation of fake news sites – albeit a joke being carried out against conservative Americans – is also a testbed for a deeper plan, and is dividing mankind into the gullible, careless, emotion-driven and unwary, and the adherents of truth, whether biblical or worldly.

The Flesh or The Spirit?

A more biblical division is this: those who have done as the Lord commanded and died to the Old Man of the senses, feelings and emotions, not being driven by human desires or needs, but heeding always as a very first requirement the Spirit of God and the Word of God as direction, are unlikely to be tempted by a delightful enticing lie even if it has an ingredient appealing to the flesh.

On the other hand, those – including Christians – who are more influenced by the world’s standards and pressures, either political, religious, military, monetary or any other aspect of life on earth, are in danger of giving into their feelings regardless of biblical truth.

Peace and love on earth before the Lord’s coming are known by biblically literate Christians to be unachievable. Indeed, the world will chant, peace, peace, when in fact there is no peace to be found. (Jeremiah 6:14)

Jeremiah 51:7-9 “Babylon has been a golden cup in the hand of the LORD, intoxicating all the earth. The nations have drunk of her wine; Therefore the nations are going mad. Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been broken;Wail over her! Bring balm for her pain; Perhaps she may be healed. We applied healing to Babylon, but she was not healed; Forsake her and let us each go to his own country, for her judgement has reached to heaven and towers up to the very skies.…”

Thoughts of creating a better world and turning back the tide of evil are delusionary, yet they are greatly attractive to anyone who cares more about security and prosperity than the bible text.

With that in mind, the emotional life rather than intelligence is now being used against us in every possible way, by the entertainment industry in particular, but sadly also the Church leading the way in persuading us to FEEL or EXPERIENCE something rather than KNOW it.

How Long?

How far away are we from the ultimate Great Delusion?

I don’t know, but the way the world is heading, it cannot be a very long time. Need Christians bother themselves about it? I can only say yes, since the bible is perfectly clear about it. We WILL experience these temptations before the Lord comes for us.

2 Thess 2:3 Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed….(9) [whose coming] will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing.

Be prepared! Learn to distrust your own perceptions and feelings, and base your beliefs on provable TRUTH both in the world and the Church, in secular and spiritual matters.

Get used to reading the Internet with a sceptical outlook, don’t leap to accept everything that is posted on Facebook or Youtube or a blog or website, check and double-check what you read, go to the sources, distrust almost everything until you know it is factual.

There are many lies out there, and this is a practical test run for spotting the biggest fraud of all!

• Watch.  Debunking The Mandela Effect – part one by “facelikethesun”