Short Story: The Mandala Effect

"The Mandala Effect refers to a phenomenon in which a large number of people share false memories of past events, referred to as confabulation in psychiatry. Some have speculated that the memories are caused by parallel universes spilling into our own, while others explain the phenomenon as a failure of collective memory."

"In psychiatry, confabulation (verb: confabulate) is a disturbance of memory, defined as the production of fabricated, distorted or misinterpreted memories about oneself or the world, without the conscious intention to deceive.[1] Individuals who confabulate present incorrect memories ranging from "subtle alterations to bizarre fabrications", and are generally very confident about their recollections, despite contradictory evidence."

"In 2010, blogger Fiona Broome coined the term 'Mandala Effect' to describe a collective false memory she discovered at the Symposium in Toronto, where many others believed that the Dalai Lama died during a Tibetan revolt in Communist China in the 1960s. A healing sand mandala was prepared by Tibetan monks to welcome the Dalai Lama's visit. That year, Broome launched the site MandalaEffect.com to document various examples of the phenomenon."

"A mandala (Sanskrit: मण्डल, lit, circle) is a spiritual and ritual symbol in Hinduism, representing the universe. In common use, "mandala" has become a generic term for any diagram, chart or geometric pattern that represents the cosmos metaphysically or symbolically; a microcosm of the universe.

The basic form of most mandalas is a square with four gates containing a circle with a center point. Each gate is in the general shape of a T. Mandalas often exhibit radial balance."

"Many people who visit the Mandala Effect website have fond memories of the Berenstain Bears books. They read them as children, or family members read them aloud. It’s a cherished childhood memory.

However, the books in this timestream are Berenstein Bears. E, not A, in last syllable."

External References:
MandalaEffect.Com
Know Your Meme
Wikipedia
Wattpad