A paranormal enthusiast named Fiona Broome noticed that large numbers of people around the world seemed to share particular false memories. She posited that these so-called false memories (what psychiatrists label as the disturbance "confabulation") are evidences of parallel universes overlapping one another. Her theory turned into an internet meme, with thousands of people collecting and analyzing their own evidences that the world they live in is Uncanny. The effect was named after Nelson Mandela, since many people "remember" Mandela dying in the 1980s as opposed to the 2000s. What we find really neat is that by coining this memory disturbance, Fiona Broome has unrolled a red carpet for the general public to viscerally understand parallel universes/alternate realities. To our eye, Fiona Broome has acted as a magician with her framing that engenders an experience of wonderment. And what a Olde Worlde witchy-sounding name she has, too!
Indeed, the "Mandela Effect" phenomenon is sweeping the masses into wonderment in ways that might approximate the rise of Spiritualism. The average person is instantly swept into an alternate universe when he or she ponders things such as: "I remember the phrase being 'Mirror, mirror on the wall' and not 'Magic mirror on the wall'" or "Didn't the Statue of Liberty used to be on Ellis Island?" How very brilliant to frame collective "false" memories as artifacts of parallel universes bleeding into one another. We took great pleasure in working up a brief video about the phenomenon, relating it to Heidegger's perspective on the Uncanny and encouraging folks to use the Mandela Effect to their advantage. We suggest forgetting the old motto, "Be the change you wish to see" -- instead, "Free the strange you wish to flee." (That's a Googlewhack in this universe.)
Now the question for you: have you noticed any uncanniness involving Tarot card imagery? Familiar symbolism that no longer looks quite how you remember it? Let us know in the comments.
— Craig Conley is author of The Young Wizard's Hexopedia, the Tarot of Portmeirion, HarperCollins' One-Letter Words: A Dictionary, Pomegranate's One Letter Words Knowledge Cards Deck, and Weiser Books' Magic Words: A Dictionary. He is co-author of New Star Books' Franzlations: A Guide to the Imaginary Parables. He has published dozens of articles in such magazines as Verbatim, Pentacle, Mothering, and Magic. His work has been profiled in the New York Times, the New York Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune, National Public Radio, The Dallas Morning News, Publishers Weekly, The Associated Press, and dozens of others.
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