Thank you to everyone that participated in this survey. Answers have finally stopped trickling in, so I’m ready to present the results. We had 246 responses, though of course there were also a handful of trolls. This may not be a scientifically representative sample (you can find one like that here), but the results are informative and provide a good overview of the Mandela Effect community online. I’ll keep the initial analysis brief, but I may go deeper in the future. So without further ado:
1. How old are you?
| Answer | Percentage |
|---|---|
| 35-54 | 56.1% |
| 18-34 | 34.1% |
| 55-70 | 8.1% |
| Under 18 | 0.8% |
| 70+ | 0.8% |
2. When did you first hear about the Mandela Effect?
| Answer | Percentage |
|---|---|
| 2016 | 17.9% |
| Before 2012 | 13.0% |
| 2015 | 11.8% |
| 2018 | 9.3% |
| 2012 | 10.2% |
| 2020 | 6.9% |
| 2017 | 8.1% |
| 2023 | 3.3% |
| 2021 | 3.3% |
| 2014 | 7.3% |
| 2019 | 4.1% |
| 2022 | 2.4% |
| 2024 | 1.2% |
| 2013 | 1.2% |
3. When did you first personally experience a Mandela Effect?
| Answer | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Before 2012 | 22.8% |
| 2016 | 17.1% |
| 2020 | 7.3% |
| 2015 | 8.1% |
| 2018 | 6.5% |
| 2012 | 8.5% |
| 2021 | 3.3% |
| 2023 | 4.1% |
| 2014 | 5.7% |
| 2019 | 4.1% |
| 2022 | 3.3% |
| 2024 | 3.3% |
| 2017 | 4.5% |
| 2013 | 1.6% |
4. What was the subject of the first Mandela Effect you experienced?
| Answer | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Business | 26.0% |
| Literature | 14.2% |
| History | 13.8% |
| Spelling | 13.0% |
| Movies or Television | 13.8% |
| Other | 7.7% |
| Geography | 4.5% |
| The Bible | 2.0% |
| Art | 1.6% |
| Celebrity Name Change | 1.6% |
| Music or Lyrics | 1.2% |
| Video Games | 0.4% |
5. If you are willing, please specify your first Mandela Effect.
| Answer | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Berenstein Bears | 32.5% |
| Fruit of the Loom | 17.7% |
| Nelson Mandela | 8.4% |
| Other | 15.3% |
| Personal | 4.9% |
| Objects in Mirror | 3.0% |
| Shazaam | 4.4% |
| Apollo 13 | 1.5% |
| Chick-Fil-A | 1.5% |
| Moonraker | 1.0% |
| Celebrity Death | 1.0% |
| Mirror Mirror | 1.0% |
| Danielle Steele | 1.0% |
| Monopoly | 1.0% |
| New Zealand | 1.0% |
| Celebrity Name Change | 1.0% |
| Flintstones | 1.0% |
6. Shortly before witnessing your first Mandela Effect, did you experience any of the following?
| Answer | Percentage |
|---|---|
| None of the above | 63.2% |
| Personal or psychological trauma | 23.1% |
| Near-death experience | 13.0% |
| Loss of friend or family member | 8.5% |
| Serious illness | 8.5% |
| Physical injury | 5.7% |
7. Have you used psychotropic drugs?
| Answer | Percentage |
|---|---|
| No | 51.4% |
| Yes | 48.6% |
8. Have you experienced or been exposed to any other paranormal phenomenon?
| Answer | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Deja Vu | 68.4% |
| Ghosts/Poltergeists | 38.6% |
| Sleep Paralysis | 42.5% |
| Extrasensory Perception | 37.2% |
| UFOs | 22.7% |
| Occult Ritual | 9.7% |
| Cryptids | 3.6% |
| Alien Abduction | 2.4% |
| None of the Above | 12.6% |
9. Have you made any attempts to jump dimensions or time shift?
| Answer | Percentage |
|---|---|
| No | 66.8% |
| Don’t Know | 13.4% |
| Yes | 19.8% |
10. Have you ever seriously questioned whether the world around you was real?
| Answer | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Yes | 77.3% |
| No | 17.4% |
| Don’t Know | 5.3% |
11. About how often do you encounter a new Mandela Effect?
| Answer | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Once every few months | 41.7% |
| Once a year | 15.0% |
| Once every few years | 27.9% |
| Once a month | 7.3% |
| Once a week | 6.5% |
| Once a day | 1.6% |
12. Have you ever located residual evidence (aka residue) of a Mandela Effect?
| Answer | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Yes | 40.1% |
| No | 39.3% |
| Don’t Know | 20.6% |
13. Have you experienced a change to your personal history?
| Answer | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Yes | 33.2% |
| No | 35.6% |
| Don’t Know | 31.2% |
14. Have you personally witnessed an instantaneous change of reality in front of your eyes (aka a glitch in the Matrix)?
| Answer | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Yes | 37.7% |
| No | 46.2% |
| Don’t Know | 16.2% |
15. What was your first theory as to the cause of the Mandela Effect?
| Answer | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Reality/Timeline Shifting | 22.8% |
| False Memory/Confabulation | 17.1% |
| Multiversal/Interdimensional Bleeding | 16.7% |
| CERN | 13.4% |
| God/Creator | 3.7% |
| Time Travel | 4.9% |
| Other | 8.5% |
| Simulation/Holodeck | 6.1% |
| Devil/Demons | 2.8% |
| Quantum Computing | 2.4% |
| Conspiracy | 1.6% |
16. Has your theory changed?
| Answer | Percentage |
|---|---|
| No | 46.2% |
| Yes | 27.1% |
| Don’t Know | 26.7% |
17. Have you ever had a lucid dream, astral projected, or had any sort of out of body experience?
| Answer | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Yes, lucid dream | 63.6% |
| Yes, astral projection | 19.0% |
| Yes, out of body experience | 27.1% |
| No | 24.7% |
18. Have you experienced ringing in your ears?
| Answer | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Yes, frequently | 45.7% |
| Yes, occasionally | 42.9% |
| No | 8.1% |
| Don’t know | 2.8% |
19. Have any of your immediate family or friends also admitted to experiencing Mandela Effects?
| Answer | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Yes | 58.3% |
| No | 24.3% |
| Don’t Know | 17.4% |
20. Have you been drawn to read any spiritual texts (i.e. The Law of One, Conversations with God, A Course in Miracles, etc.)?
| Answer | Percentage |
|---|---|
| No | 58.7% |
| Yes, The Law of One | 17.4% |
| Other | 15.0% |
| Yes, A Course in Miracles | 7.7% |
| Yes, Conversations with God | 6.5% |
| The Bible | 3.7% |
21. Do you believe in God/Creator/Source?
| Answer | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Yes | 57.3% |
| Don’t Know | 26.4% |
| No | 16.3% |
22. What religion did you grow up in?
| Answer | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Christianity | 72.7% |
| Atheism/Agnosticism | 12.7% |
| Other/Prefer not to answer | 7.8% |
| Spiritualism | 1.6% |
| Buddhism | 1.2% |
| Hinduism | 1.2% |
| Judaism | 0.4% |
| Mormonism | 2.0% |
| Islam | 0.4% |
23. What is your current religious affiliation?
| Answer | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Atheism/Agnosticism | 26.8% |
| Christianity | 26.4% |
| New Age/Spiritualism | 17.9% |
| Other/Prefer not to answer | 24.0% |
| Buddhism | 2.8% |
| Hinduism | 0.8% |
| Islam | 0.8% |
| Judaism | 0.0% |
| Mormonism | 0.4% |
24. Did your religion/beliefs change after experiencing the Mandela Effect?
| Answer | Percentage |
|---|---|
| No | 75.7% |
| Yes | 21.5% |
| Prefer not to answer | 2.8% |
25. What continent do your currently reside on?
| Answer | Percentage |
|---|---|
| North America | 85.8% |
| Europe | 10.5% |
| Australia | 1.2% |
| Asia | 1.6% |
| South America | 0.8% |
| Antarctica | 0.0% |
| Africa | 0.0% |
26. What country do you currently live in?
| Answer | Percentage |
|---|---|
| USA | 78.1% |
| Canada | 7.4% |
| U.K. | 4.5% |
| Australia | 1.2% |
| Germany | 1.7% |
| Mexico | 0.8% |
| Japan | 0.8% |
| Ireland | 0.4% |
| Brazil | 0.4% |
| Netherlands | 0.4% |
| Poland | 0.8% |
| France | 0.4% |
| Bulgaria | 0.4% |
| Denmark | 0.4% |
| Kuwait | 0.4% |
| Colombia | 0.4% |
| Italy | 0.4% |
| Hungary | 0.4% |
27. What is your race?
| Answer | Percentage |
|---|---|
| White | 90.8% |
| American Indian or Alaska Native | 4.6% |
| Other | 2.8% |
| Asian | 3.8% |
| Black or African American | 2.9% |
| Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander | 0.8% |
28. What is your ethnicity?
| Answer | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Not Hispanic or Latino or Spanish Origin | 92.7% |
| Hispanic or Latino or Spanish Origin | 7.3% |
29. What do you consider yourself politically?
| Answer | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Liberal/Left-wing | 32.1% |
| Moderate/Independent | 27.2% |
| None of the above | 28.8% |
| Conservative/Right-wing | 11.9% |
Analysis:
If there’s one thing this data shows, it’s that there is no singular cause for recognizing the Mandela Effect. As much as loss, trauma, near death experiences, psychotropic drugs, dimension jumping, or other causal effects may play a role in some of our experiences, there are just as many of us that didn’t experience any of that. This leads me to believe Mandela Effect recognition is perhaps exclusively dependent upon the individual and individual experiences. This may also relate to why there are no two people that will agree 100% on every Mandela Effect. If there is no universal cause, there will not be a universal result.
So what is the most that we have in common? 88.4% of us have have been exposed to some other paranormal phenomenon, with Deja Vu being experienced the most. Does that make us more open-minded? At least 77.3% of us have questioned whether the world around us was real at some point or another. Does that make us more able to see? 63.6% of us have had a lucid dream. Could there be a connection with that? 58.3% are close with someone that has admitted to experiencing Mandela Effects. Here’s where I would have liked to ask if you had to point one out first. And 88.6% of us have experienced ringing in our ears. That could be spiritually significant.
I have my own hypotheses regarding the ME, so I naturally inserted some questions into the survey to test. I believe that it emerged in 2012, and still do despite some contradictory data. Over 87% did not hear about the Mandela Effect until 2012 or later. And nearly 78% did not experience a ME until 2012 or after. I do not doubt those that had heard or experienced it earlier, but I do wonder if those memories are from the current Earth/universe/timeline. I’m not exactly sure how to test that. I also considered that the ME may be a precursor to a spiritual awakening, but over 58% had no exposure to any spiritual text and over 75% did not experience a change in beliefs. Yet there were some who admitted to being more open-minded, more skeptical, more curious, and even more spiritual as a result of MEs. So I would say there is no direct link between MEs and spiritual awakenings, but there is the potential for expanding consciousness.