Thursday, August 23, 2012

The Berenstein Bears: We Are Living in Our Own Parallel Universe

if only facebook would make this the preview photoWhen I was growing up, all through elementary school we would watch movies and read books about the Berenstein Bears.  I still even remember the theme song for the TV show, mostly, which wasn't a song so much as a guy in a gruff bear voice speaking in rhyming couplets.  If you don't know who the Berenstein Bears are, they were nuclear family of anthropomorphic bears who lived in a tree out in Bear Country and had family-based situational comedy and taught life lessons.  And Ma Bear always wore a blue shower cap.

These bears appeared in a series of children books by the married Stan and Jan Berenstein, that later became a TV series, that got beamed to 3rd grade classrooms all over the country.  Anyone between the ages of 23-30, and maybe more, will know who the Berenstein Bears are.  And they will remember the flashy cursive bubble-letters on the front of every single book and in the opening credits of the show.  The bubble letters that spelled out "Berenstein Bears".

About a year ago, Jan Berenstein passed on, as had Stan some time before.  And appearing in headlines across the internet, I saw "Jan Berenstain Dies at 88".

BerenstAin.

They misspelled her name.  In her obituary.  Gosh, that's really just morbidly embarrassing.  "Berenstain" doesn't even make sense.
When I caught this, I decided to send a correction about the article title.  Jan Berenstein's bears were a huge part of my childhood, I owe her at least this.  Except when I went to the internet to find a source for the name change correction, it turns out everyone has misspelled their name.  And everyone has always misspelled her name.

And then I saw the book covers.  The ones in the squiggly bubble letters from the childhood.  The ones I saw a hundred times a month from the formative ages of 5 to 9.  The ones that every 20-something in the world will tell you read "Berenstein Bears".

Except they don't read "Berenstein".  They read "Berenstain".

They all say it.  At first I thought they had changed their name.  Maybe anti-semitic pressure lead them to spell their name differently?  And then maybe they doctored the images of the cover to turn the original "e" in to an "a".  Except as I read, I learned about people equally as shocked as I am, who ran to their parents house and dug up their own copies of the books and saw, to their own great terror, that the physical book itself no longer says "BerenstEin", but in fact says "BerenstAin", but more horrifying still is that it has always said "BerenstAin".
Stop the lies!

Here's the thing.  These books play such a huge role in the collective memories of so many people, all of whom clearly and distinctly remember "BerenstEin", that I am not the first to propose the notion that somehow, at some time in the last 10 years or so, reality has been tampered with and history has been retroactively changed.  The bears really were called the "BerenstEin Bears" when we were growing up, but now reality has been altered such that the name of the bears has been changed post hoc.

In 1992 they were "stEin" in 1992, but in 2012 they were "stAin" in 1992.

Some explanations have been proposed.  One person suggested a change due to time travel, similar to "A Sound of Thunder" by Ray Bradbury.  It's an interesting theory, and I admire it for its simplicity, but it is flawed.  Time travel doesn't actually work that way, and if someone had "stepped on a butterfly", it would not impact the future because they had already stepped on the butterfly before they left for the past; history has to be consistent.

I would like to make a modest proposal: We are all living in our own 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.

Like, maybe, body-building Carrot Top
I have been turning this over in my mind since I first heard of it.  Here is how I think this works.

Imaginary numbers are very familiar to the physicist, who uses them constantly in everything.  They probably aren't as familiar to non-physicists, who maybe learned them in high school, but then only as some abstract mathematical formality that was kind of neat but didn't really mean anything.  So as a graduate student of physics, let me assure you that imaginary numbers aren't just abstract, but have a solid physical meaning, and are crucially important in describing the physical behavior of a number of systems, most importantly quantum mechanics.

If complex numbers seem "unreal", it is chiefly because the 3 dimensional space of the universe excludes them.

A point in this plane is a complex number.
Each direction and time is its own plane.
I propose that the universe is a 4-dimensional complex manifold.  If you don't se habla math jargon, that means I propose the 3 space dimensions and the 1 time dimensions are actually in themselves complex, meaning they take values of the form a+ib, part "real" and part "imaginary".  Within this 4D manifold, there are sixteen hexadectants (like quadrants, but 16 of them), corresponding to whether we consider only the real or imaginary part of each of the four dimensions.  In our particular hexadectant, the three space dimensions are real, and the time dimension is imaginary.

(Edit: I wrote a longer explanation of what I'm trying to explain.  It does not involve time travel, quantum mechanics, or the many-worlds hypothesis.)

If the above sounds weird to you, please remember that the original proposal of special relativity by Einstein and Minkowski (and others) explicitly treated time as a strictly imaginary coordinate in pseudo-Euclidean space.  It is only modern formulations that have turned to Minkowski space with signed metric tensors.  Also, imaginary time dimensions show up again in quantum field theory to relate quantum path integrals to statistical mechanical path integrals, this done by means of a Wick rotation.

So the concept isn't foreign to physics, was used early on to help get special relativity started, and has shown up since to help quantum field theory to calculate things.

Within this complex spacetime, all mass is shared, and also wave functions of particles are shared, so that effects can leak between them.  This may account for dark matter and dark energy.  Because the imaginary coordinates in a plane wave will turn it in to a decaying function (e^ik(ix) = e^(-kx), which goes to zero as x increases), mostly particles hang out in their own hexadectant and don't leak out.

I further propose that the stEin and the stAin universes are actually just different hexadectants of the same universe: in the stEin universe, all three spatial dimensions are real and time is imaginary; in the stAin universe, all three spatial dimensions are imaginary and time is real.  Of course, from the standpoint of stEin/stAin this won't produce any mathematically significant difference; it's the same as choosing (+++-) or (---+) convention for Minkowski space, which at the end doesn't alter predictions or measurements.  We'd never know if we did swap.

Given the weak interaction of particles between these hexadectants, stEin and stAin both evolved in time along similar lines, staying very close to one another.  Jan and Stan decided to write kids books about bears in both, for instance.  But there have also been differences; like some 16th century scribe accidentally spilled some ink on a census page, changing "Berenstein" to "Berenstain" on accident, and they just left it that way.

Somehow, we have all undergone a π/2 phase change in all 4 dimensions so that we moved to the stAin hexadectant, while our counterparts moved to our hexadectant (stEin).  They are standing around expressing their confusion about the "Berenstein Bears" and how they all remember "Berenstain Bears" on the covers growing up.

I would like to point out, this has nothing to do with the popular and similar theories of the quantum many-worlds hypothesis, nor the cosmological multiverse.  It's a different thing, meant to explain our transfer to the world and the similarities.

That's what I think happened, and I'm sticking to it.


P.S.  This post has gotten a lot of attention in recent months.  I've seen a lot of what he internet has to say about the incident, and have written a post trying to combine a lot of the wisdom from other forums, including photographic evidences, in to a summary post.  I suggest that those curious check it out, and especially the links included there.  The summary post can be found here.

P.P.S. Due to some limitations to blogger, new comments do not seem to be displaying correctly.  If your comment does not appear here, I suggest leaving it on the follow-up post.  I apologize for this and wish they could all be shown here, but it is out of my hands. 

I am shutting down comments on this post to prevent further confusion, as people keep double-posting when they don't see their comment appear.  Blogger will not accept more comments on this post.  I wish this wasn't a problem, as a number of the recent ones have had some great insights.  Please post your comment on the follow-up summary mentioned above.

PPPS I think I figured out what was wrong with comments.  Not sure if me, or the website is fixed, but the most recent comments now appear below. (2017/12/05)

228 comments:

1 – 200 of 228   Newer›   Newest»
Anonymous said...

I normally don't comment on blogs about our family name but yours was so unusual and imaginative that I thought it only appropriate to add my thoughts. "Berenstain" according to our family lore was an attempt by an unknown imigration officer sometime in the late 1800s to reproduce phonetically a highly accented version of the tradtional Jewish name "Bernstein" as pronounced by my Father's grandparents when they came to America from the Ukraine.
In that linguistic region, the name tended to come out sounding something like, "Ber'nsheytn". Since that's how the name was originally documented, it has always been spelled that way by our family and it has always been misread and mispronounced by nearly everyone. It has always been "The BerenstAin Bears". Your parallel reality theory is very resourceful but, unfortunately, by applying Occam's razor, we arrive at the explanation that most people have just misread the name.
Mike Berenstain (Son of Stan and Jan)

Reece said...

Mr. Berenstain,

Thank you very much for replying and explaining the etymology.

I have nothing better to say, so I'll just give you my condolences on the passing of your mother. One thing that has made a lasting impression on me has been that your parents were a husband-and-wife team, who both worked together to make something they love; the only plot line I can remember from the stories is the toy box one, but I've always been inspired by their relationship.

Also, I appreciate the new direction you've taken with the bears, to present the Gospel. Ministry to children is an important area.

Thanks again,
Reece

Anonymous said...

I simply do not buy the explanation given! I know how the original spelling was.(I'm over 40 yrs old). And besides, if the original spelling was incorrect, wouldn't the author have caught the "mistake ' in the beginning? This seems very strange!

Reece said...

Wait, what was the original spelling?

Brent said...

In 1992, in a grocery store in Muncie, Indiana, I saw a display of Little Debbie snackcakes. They had never before existed. I began calling this "The Little Debbie Universe" because in the universe I grew up in prior to 1992 (for 28 years), there were no Little Debbie snackcakes.

Anonymous said...

It wasn't Einstein who first proposed the special theory of relativity you reference, it was Einstain.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Huh. So weird how Einstain's theory of relativity pops up everywhere.

Anonymous said...

You mean Ainstain.

Anonymous said...

OK. I'll admit it. I know it's Berenstain. I've always known.

Reece said...

What's real anymore!? I don't even know.

Anonymous said...

Congrats, bro. It sounds like your old universe suuuuucked.

Unknown said...

I absolutely love the fact that this comment was posted under the screen name 'Anonymous'. :-)

p.s. loved your parents books when I was a kid. I remember my mom reading them to me, and in turn they helped me learn to read.

Anonymous said...

So what you're saying is that you were born in 1993?

Anonymous said...

This sounds like the Mandela Effect: "baffling but widespread alternate memories."

Reece said...

Yeah, I just heard about the Mandela effect recently. This post frequently gets cited in reference to them. I was pretty sure that Nelson Mandela had died at some point in my life, and I think I have seen that Henry VIII portrait with the chicken leg. I don't really have vivid memories of it, though, and maybe it was sort of suggestion after hearing about the Mandela effect. But with the Berenstein Bears, I am absolutely positive that they were and have always been the Berenstein Bears.

Anonymous said...

I can remember a copy of 'Flipsville - Squaresville' in my parents' headboard of their bed. It was absolutely hilarious. When the Berenstain Bears appeared, I couldn't figure why Jan and Stan had changed genres. But, we did have a number of the Bears books when our own children were little.
-C. H.

Anonymous said...

there would be no memory or evidence to support this if your theory were true, we would need someone from that other parallel dimension to point it out to us...

Reece said...

I actually read somewhere in a reddit comment a way that I think could test this.

If the Berenst_in Bears books in our possession all belong to the stAin universe, then so do the writings of people before the switch. Therefore, if we look at old handwritten notes or journals or something from before 'the switch", then we should see "BerenstAin", even when they were written 'by' people now remember "BerenstEin". For instance, in my old school assignments from when I was 8, I might have written "Today I watched the Berenstain Bears."

If we do find such writings, then that is really flippin' creepy.

If instead we find that people who remember "Berenstein" also wrote "Berenstein" before "the switch", then that is strong evidence against this theory; either there never was a switch (which, really, is the most reasonable suggestion), or it was the books themselves that switched, or there's something else going on.

Someone has reported finding an old copy of the show on VHS. The cartridge was labeled "Berenstein", but the video itself, during the intro, says "Berenstain". So, I think that provides evidence against my theory.

I still adamantly insist on this theory, anyway :P

Anonymous said...

But Nelson Mandela has died?

Reece said...

He did die just recently, maybe a year ago. There are a number of people who have memories of him dying in prison in the 80's, and massive riots breaking out in response to his death. I have no such memories, personally, beyond vague impressions, but lots of people do, apparently. The Berenstein Bears phenomenon is sometimes stated as an example of "the Mandela Effect". They have more examples on the website.

Anonymous said...

Occam's razor has failed you. As a child with a last name of Bernstein, one can imagine the elementary school taunts that were thrown at me. Had it really been stAin, I would have pointed to that as an obvious difference, and not just the Beren.

Something's definitely amiss.

Anonymous said...

Did I just enter an episode of the Big Bang Theory???

Reece said...

Pretty much, haha. I'm a PhD student in physics. I study optical materials that mimic the effects of spacetime-curvature. Sometimes I think crazy things, and put them on this blog. Most of my thought processes are tied up in math and physics and geometry, so I tend to encapsulate my crazy thoughts in that language.

Unknown said...

When my kids watched the TV series it was pronounced "stain". Plus, Han shot first. ;)

ArtBraune said...

I think we need to review Albert Einstain's notes... 8^)

Strangely enough - I too lived through this realization a couple of years ago...

Unknown said...

Ok so to discredit your otherwise mindblowing theory of alternate universe, I asked my 8 year old how its pronounced and she replied with "Berenstein" meaning we all just pronounce it wrong. This is why: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRhFKeshWIA

Anonymous said...

jewish conspiracy, got it.

Snapdragon said...

I feel the same way about Oregon Trail, that I grew up in a parallel universe where this game did not exist; I had no awareness of this game until about 7-8 years ago, and by all rights, I should.

Reece said...

They've definitely always been pronounced "Bear-en-steen" no matter which universe you're in. How does your daughter spell it?

Anonymous said...

I'm 30. I distinctly remember one teacher explaining that despite being spelled "stein" it was pronounced "stain." Obviously, she *could* have misread the cover of multiple books over years of reading them to hundreds of children, AND investigated why the pronunciation didn't match the spelling without it being pointed out that she simply read the cover wrong. But if the author's hypothesis is correct then I would imagine that the transfer would effect those in the family with only a small change to the old story that no one noticed.

Can anyone say they've never done something one day that they've done a thousand times before and questioned whether they're doing it right? Who knows how often some kind of parallel reality type reset like this could happen?

Anonymous said...

Just posted this further up, but I had a teacher who explained to my class that the stein spelling was pronounced stain, so an old video would have at least that much correct. Best theory: there were a bunch of mis-printed books back in the 80s. Most of us got used to the idea of stein books, but we bought corrected versions and never noticed the spelling corrected to stain.

I still like your theory as I can stretch it into an excuse for why I sometimes forget how to drive a stick shift. "No, reality swapped parallel universes and I'm having trouble getting used to it."

Anonymous said...

We have always been at war with Eastasia.

Anonymous said...

I'm 37. And, for the record, I always knew them as "BerenstAin." Soooo, you lost me at "parallel universe" LOL.

Reece said...

Skinwalker!!!!

Anonymous said...

I definitely played the original Oregon Trail in the computer lab of my elementary school in the early 90s. It was on an old apple computer that used giant 5 inch floppy disks. Just before 3 1/2 Floppy (A) came around. A few years before we started seeing cd-roms. It was an excellent game, but actually sort of morbid for kids now that I think about it. Life was hard on the trail...

shortstoriesaboutlife said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
shortstoriesaboutlife said...

This is gonna sound ridiculous, but: Operation Dumbo Drop. I swear it came out several years earlier with a different name. Alternate universe theory is as good an explanation as any. And now that I've been tossing stAin/stEin around in my head, I don't know what's real anymore. Would've sworn it was stEin before.

Reece said...

Actually, now that you mention it, there might have been some other movie like it. You should check out the Mandela Effect , they have a lot of stuff like this. Maybe that's on there?

Anonymous said...

If you remember BerenstAin, that only proves that you are a native of this universe. There are apparently many transplants from the BerenstEin universe here though, and I count myself among them.

Unknown said...

It was Bear-an-steen Bears for me (32 years old this year). I have some books but not with me, though I'm tempted to ask my parents to dig them up now.

Reece said...

It's no use. They say BerenstAin. They all say BerenstAin!!!

Anonymous said...

That immigration officer was a time traveler. He's the origin of this whole matrix mess.

Anonymous said...

It appears you have stumbled upon one of the lost Gideon Keys. Please keep the number secret and avoid shadowy areas... you will be contacted soon.

Reece said...

I like time-traveling immigration officer as a kind of compromise theory. I'll stick to that one.

Reece said...

The web address I meant to leave was to the Mandela Effect website , not to the web address that I accidentally hyperlinked above (and which doesn't exist).

Anonymous said...

Weird: I looked through the reddit page you linked to and someone shared this picture:
http://imgur.com/SiDXHoH

It's got a mix of both! The top book says "Berensteins" and the last says "Berenstains." The two in the middle have "Berenstain" in the title but also mention the "Berenstein Bears Cub Club."

Reece said...

Whoa! I totally did not catch that!!! It says right there, "Berenstein Bears Cub Club!" What is that!?

Anonymous said...

How did you know they didn't exist before rather than were just really obscure in India though? And you went as far as to name the entire Universe after Little Debbie?!

Anonymous said...

I want to know why I'm here then..

Anonymous said...

Hectic. I always thought it was Berenstein. Maybe we remember it wrong due to the repeated letter 'e' and the 'n' in "Beren"?

Had a similar experience recently... I've spent the last few years looking for a game I used to play on the Amiga computer called "Robbery"; it was my favourite game as a very young kid and I knew it involved pieces of fruit somehow. I searched online everywhere but couldn't find a trace of it anywhere. Turns out I was misremembering "Bubble Bobble" (our family's favourite game at the time), which I used to call "Robbery"! I've always remembered playing Bubble Bobble, but my mind invented this imaginary "Robbery" game and I was totally convinced it existed as a separate entity. No wonder it was so hard to find! I definitely think it has something to do with the repeated letters and misremembering information stored in long-term memory.

P.S. That picture looks like a shitty Photoshop. Almost like it was done by A BEAR!

LinaBee said...

I think there's a common link here between those that remember it as Berenstein and people who have had near death experiences.
Could it be that maybe when we die, rather than going to Heaven or Hell, our consciousness merely merges with another universe's? It would explain why people 'remember past lives' because that life reached it's ultimate end and merged with the closest resemblin consciousness.

I had a near death experience as did the people I asked and agreed it was with an E so it seems like a likely link.

I don't know much about math so I can't go much further than that but it's an incredible coincidence.

Maybe a poll is neccessary; How many remember it as E that do remember nearly dying (I have at least three times) and how many remember it as E that don't. Then the same for the A-memories.

Anonymous said...

I remember me and my friend and other friends pronouncing it that way, until he told me it was 'berenstain' which blew my mind, and all the other kids we showed were pretty amazed as well. It being spelled different in the 'reader's club' part sounds familiar, but I think the main reason we pronounced it wrong was because in the opening to the show, they pronounce it 'bearnsteen.'
look up berenstain theme on youtube
I dunno though, I read those books so many times, how could I have read the cover wrong every time...

Anonymous said...

I remember it as Berenstein. Can't say I've ever had an *actual* near death experience, but I have had some very very very heavy psychedelic experiences where I was sure I had already died...

Unknown said...

photoshop,imo.

Anonymous said...

I just asked everyone in my house how it was spelled and they all said "stein". Even my 15 year old daughter.

Anonymous said...

I am South African and no one in South Africa has even thought Mandela has died until last year...

Anonymous said...

i was born in 1993 and remember berenstein. my sister as well :/

Anonymous said...

this is shopped, if you go to the original reddit link it is all spelled berenstain

Anonymous said...

It was always Berenstain, I remember as a child reading that name as I learned to read on these books, and the 'Franklin' series. I literally remember reading the name over and over thinking about how I thought it should be Barenstein, but that it was Berenstain. Its like your mind filled in the blank, so in this case I think your mind 'assumed' that it was Berenstein, but it never was. No this isn't a time paradox, you just mis-remembered and have a serious problem accepting the possibility that you could make a mistake. The end.

Reece said...

Definitely shopped. For some reason, I thought the image was the original from the reddit thread. Definitely different, definitely a shop job.

Reece said...

Skinwalker!

Okabe Rintarou said...

This must be the will of StEins;Gate.

Anonymous said...

I know this may sound random, but I remembered it being spelled stEin too, I spoke with my parents and so did they. I showed them this post and then they changed thier mind, saying that they must have remembered wrong, so we got out my big old box full of primary school stuff and sure enough I had done 4 reading reports on the Berenstein Bears, and spelled it stEin 9 times. Go figure, nothing on the reports were miss-spelled, and I even had one teacher comment the bottom saying how perfect my spelling and letter forming were. Hmmmmmm

Meriel Kellyse said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Meriel Kellyse said...

Deleted because I needed to edit the comment.

Holy BearCow I just stumbled upon the motherload of all conspiracies! I never watched this show before, but I remember it coming on when I was a kid. I distinctly remember the spelling to be different than what I see it as today.

Now, personally, whenever I see "-stein" in a word, I have always pronounced it as: (shhtt-EyeN) so, even though I never watched the show, I always thought they were called the: (Bear-In-Shht-EYEn) Bears and spelled with the "E" instead of the "A" but, asI see it, the name can be pronounced (Bear-In-Shht-EYEn) whether spelled with the "E" or the "A", regardless.

Now, after reading your blog, I took the time and encourage everyone else to also take the time to closely listen to the show's theme song (link below). The "Berenstain" name is said 5 times, the first time the name is sung, I can clearly hear the singer pronounce the name as: (Bear-IN-STEEN) and the second time she says the name it is pronounced: (Bear-IN-Stain), the third time it is said again as: (Bear-IN-STEEN) and the fourth time it is alternately pronounced: (Bear-IN-Stain). What I find VERY interesting, is that the fifth time the "Berenstain" name is said, you can hear it pronounced simultaneously using: (-Steen) and (Stain) as the vocals are coupled in dual format, but two pronunciations are really being said at the same time.
If the sounds -"steen" and -"stain" were analogous to positive and negative charges, then, the simultaneous combination and vocalization of both sounds would represent a kind of neutrality, like a centralization, or capstone to a kind of energy force or vortex. The fact that the fifth spoken "Berenstain" alludes to the completion of this positive and negative energy exchange makes me believe that the shape of a pyramid is being subliminally projected into the minds of viewers, which might explain why people are in between on their memory of the spelling of the "Berenstain Bears". When it comes to proper pronunciation, as I see it, neither way, whether it be said as -"steen" or -"stain" is correct, and that it should be said as -"shht-EYEn" and in order to prevent further confusion, the spelling should revert back to the old way, In Order to settle the dispute, which would have the spelling of the name as: "BERENSTAEN" as a representation of a lost letter, AE, ae together represent eternity, "1,000", "forever" something similar to the hebrew Aleph symbol, or two circles overlapped like the MasterCard symbol.
Berenstaen, think about it.

http://youtu.be/oJKpcfm1qD4

Anonymous said...

How kind of the authors son to reply. What is amazing me about all this is that this seems to be an example of mass hypnosis. I too "remember" reading to my children, books about "Berenstein" bears (but pronounced it BEREN-stayn). My 'memory' believed the name on the covers was written "Berenstein". I have often noticed flaws in my memory, but this and the You Tube video on this subject shows that people wold wide 'remember' Berenstein. Mass hypnosis?

Anonymous said...

Can people stop misinterpreting quantum physics please? You're making the rest of us physicists look bad.

Anonymous said...

LinaBee Interesting theory. I remember 'Berenstein'. When I was in high school, I almost died while riding a NYC subway train. As I was moving from one car to the next, the train gave a strong lurch and I was thrown to my right, while outside both cars. What saved me was the force of the lurch made the door of the car I was exiting slide shut on my left arm. I was dangling above the tracks. When the train steadied itself, I pulled myself back, re-entered the car I'd left, and noticed the shocked looks on the faces of the other passengers. One lady who witnessed what happened was absolutely ashen. According to your theory, maybe I wasn't saved from death. maybe I really died in my old universe, and re-entered the subway car of a parallel universe.
Christine

Anonymous said...

Proof:

http://www.biblio.com/book/berenstein-bears-blame-game-berenstain-stan/d/723885758
http://www.isbnsearch.org/isbn/9780375807473

"A deja vu is usually a glitch in the Matrix - it happens when they change something."

...

SeeBass said...

I had to include a link to this post on my blog. My childhood feels empty and violated now. I have to re-evaluate my life. I trusted those Bears...

Reece said...

It'd be a lot easier for me to do that if you'd tell me exactly where I misrepresented quantum mechanics. All I said about it in this post is that quantum mechanics makes use of plane wave representations which, if given imaginary coordinates, turn in to decaying exponentials (as happens in quantum tunneling, there with imaginary energies instead of imaginary distances), and that in some approaches to field theory, a Wick rotation is used that treats time as an imaginary coordinate to allow the path integrals to converge. All of those are true statements.

What did I misrepresent?

Anonymous said...

I was shock-induction hypnotized while relaxing outside of a coffee shop and found myself held in a psychiatric ward 2 days later with someone shining strobe lights in my face every hour-upon-the- hour at bedtime. This was about 2 1/2 years ago. 2011/2012 Reality definitely was shifted at least in my own world.

Anonymous said...

I've been a read of the Mandela Effect website for some time. I have lots of specific alternate memories. This "effect" freaked me out when I first heard of it and it was all I could think about for 48 hours. Believe me, I would rather have believed I misremember things than that reality could be this "freaky." I would think most people would feel the same way. And there aren't many people I'd risk talking to this about in person because I'd get the same kind of reaction you posited "You must have misremembered and if you think you didn't, you must be mentally ill" As far as Berenstein and Barenstain go, I lean toward remembering them as "stein" when I worked in a bookstore in 1986-1988, but I don't feel firm in that memory like I do some of my others memories. - Julia

Anonymous said...

P.S. from Julia - to clarify, my first experience was of hearing something about Billy Graham on the radio and his current activities and be absolutely freaked out because I remembered very clearly his death and funeral on tv. He is a one-of-a-kind evangelist, advisor to Presidents, and not easily confused with anyone else. I felt shock waves hearing that on the radio. I didn't know what to do with that experience so I put it out of my mind for awhile. I experience other alternate memories and then I learned that I wasn't alone - and many shared the same alternate memories. Why would so many people share the SAME alternate memories about certain things if there wasn't something to this?

Tim Goodrich said...

I call bullshit on "anonymous berenstain". TROLL. I remember the spelling. My family remembers it. EVERYONE I ASK TO SPELL IT FROM MEMORY SPELLS IT WITH AN E. Nice fairy tale about how all immigrants names are changed by anglophones at ellis island. I'd like to know how something like this happens, I am fascinated. This also clicks a few pieces of something I have felt for some time now, and I have a feeling it absolutely has something to do with a humans relationship with nature. Ol' Herme may have been right about something.

Unknown said...

This idea overall has to be one of the most bizarre and yet compelling theories I have ever read in my life. I would like to add my thanks and appreciation to Mike Berenstain for taking the time to join this discussion and to explain the origins of his family name.

Good to know that our timeline has not been tampered with, but I must go now, I am studying for an exam on Albert Einstain's Unified Field Theory and it is quite challenging.

Afterwards I intend to relax with a beer and watch Gene Wilder in "Young Doctor Frankenstain", love that scene with "Putin on the Ritz".

Reece said...

"PUUIIN AAH DAA RAAAAZ!!!"

Anonymous said...

I remember saying steen and my mom reading it as steen and I'm 33. My husband is 37 and remembers saying stein (like a beer mug)...so what the hell? Neither of us watched the show on tv, so....this is totally nuts!!

c0ld 3l3m3nt said...

The fact the world is just a perception of reality created by humanity. Infact looking at this screen is altering it. If people mispronounced a word long enough they will later believe that is the spelling of the word. This theory proves nothing. Just proves reality is altered in ones head by perception. It has always been Berenstain. I remember it from the 80s being so. I pronounced it as a kid once or twice as stein but I wasn't looking at the book at the time to do differently.

Anonymous said...

I know this may sound random, but I remembered it being spelled stEin too, I spoke with my parents and so did they. I showed them this post and then they changed thier mind, saying that they must have remembered wrong, so we got out my big old box full of primary school stuff and sure enough I had done 4 reading reports on the Berenstein Bears, and spelled it stEin 9 times. Go figure, nothing on the reports were miss-spelled, and I even had one teacher comment the bottom saying how perfect my spelling and letter forming were. Hmmmmmm NOT THE END

Reece said...

"I showed them this post and then they changed thier mind, saying that they must have remembered wrong, so we got out my big old box full of primary school stuff and sure enough I had done 4 reading reports on the Berenstein Bears, and spelled it stEin 9 times."

This is intriguing to me, as some people have claimed we have this false memory because we just never paid attention to the specific spelling, or never wrote the name out. But I guess you did actually write the name out, and would have had to have known the spelling to have done so.

Of course, why would your papers and memory reflect the stEin spelling, while the old books reflect the stAin spelling?

Reece said...

"Almost like it was done by A BEAR!"

A Berenst*in Bear! A great grizzly bear!

Anonymous said...

I am 27 years old, born in February of 1987. I remember it being BerenSTEIN bears. Definitely pronounced STEEN and I thought also spelled stein. It is possible that it was spelled stain and pronounced stein and I just never noticed because I was young when I read the books. I texted my mom and asked her and she said it is stain and was always stain. She was born in 1962. I don't know if this helps anyone but that's my experience with this situation. I personally think that people just pronounced it stein so I just assumed itwas spelled the was it was ppronounced.
Kelley

Reece said...

If your mom said it in those exact words, keep in mind that this issue has been getting a decent amount of coverage. It may be that your mom has seen someone post something about the spelling, and came to terms with it a lot easier than you did. For instance, if my sister found out the spelling and asked my mom now, my mom would calmly reply that it was always "Berenstain", but at first she was really confused and went looking it up online and tried to find old books of ours.

Anonymous said...

I am 27 years old, born in October 1987.

It's Stain you guys. Lol.

Reece said...

You're just from Universe A. Of course you think it's stAin; in your native universe, that's how it's always been spelled. But me and millions more are from Universe E, where it is properly spelled stEin.

Anonymous said...

Teaching Children the Gospel doesn't do shit.

I know it for a fact, if there was a god, then nothing in the world that is considered as "bad" would ever happen.

Anonymous said...

I was born 1990. I have adored and loved those books as a kid. I know for a fact that it was spelled with an E.
I would read those books every night before bed, and I know for a fact that every book was spelled with an E.

Reece said...

*shrug* Not really interested in debating it at the moment.

I was talking to a guy whose mother had just passed away, who is under considerable criticism for expressing his religious views in the children's books he authors, and who for some inexplicable reason commented on my blog. I was trying to be encouraging to him.

I know of plenty of people who share your view. I hope it works for you.

Unknown said...

I remember arguing with friends in elementary school...

About how the real spelling is Berenstaine, and not STEINE... they all told me steine... yet I wrote it as Stain. I don't remember if I proved it to them or not. I probably did, by getting a library book or showing them some TV show...

Phonetically steine makes more sense, but I've always seen it as Stain. Guess I'm from the alternative universe that most of you are not.

Reece said...

You're actually just from this universe, Universe A. Thanks for having us here :P

Reece said...

To me, this is what sets this apart from the Mandela Effect stuff. No one from South Africa is from the "timeline" where Mandela died in the 80's. No one from New Zealand or Australia is from the "timeline" where New Zealand was north of Australia. It always seems that the people who make the mistake never really had a lot of connection to what it is they mistakingly remember. But there are thousands of people (that I've seen) who read and interacted with the books every day and still remember BerenstEin. Your level of involvement or attention to the books has no bearing on how you remember the spelling.

Anonymous said...

Reece - I love this blog post, Reece. By the way, how do you KNOW that no one from New Zealand or Australia remembers these countries in different locations? :) Being born in California, if I woke up one day and realized that California was south of Oregon which was south of Washington when I had always lived in California just south of Canada, after realizing that no one else was commenting on this momentous event, I'd either not tell a soul and suffer silent torment or I'd tell my nearest and dearest and then head to the nearest psychiatrist. LOL (But seriously, I'd do one of those things.)

Reece said...

Thanks! I'm still shocked it's gotten as much attention as it has.

I don't technically know that none of the NZ-shift Mandela Effect people are from New Zealand, I just haven't heard of any. But I've sent plenty who deny it. With the Berenst*in Bears, I've seen plenty of people say E who read them everyday, and plenty of people who say A who never paid attention to them much as kids.

Maybe some are hiding it? But with the Mandela Effect website up, they could very easily weigh in anonymously. They don't have to tell their loved ones, they can tell random strangers on the internet who believe the same things.

I also don't feel crazy at all telling people that the bears were the Berenstein Bears. The typical reaction is "duh, of course they are, whoever said otherwise?" It's only when I tell them the actual spelling that they look at me like I'm crazy :P

Anonymous said...

There was no hesitation, she immediately responded it was stain and has always been. It freaked me out. I really thought she was going to share in my confusion but she didn't. She's a pod person! Lol

Reece said...

I don't know how to put this lightly... Kelley, I'm afraid your mother is a pod person.

Anonymous said...

im from the universe that doesnt give a shit...and i like cookies

Reece said...

You care so little, you bothered to comment on it :P

Anonymous said...

what he did is just an intelligent way to aviod feeling stupid.

Anonymous said...

I too am 32 yrs old this year and I clearly remember it being Bernstein bears..our berenstein...there was no stain!!I had tons of the books growing up.now are all gone but I do know it was not bernstain!!

Anonymous said...

Will some kind physicist please tell me how to get back to the Berenstein timeline, please? I am not a big fan of this one anymore.

Reece said...

What if our dopplegangers from Universe A, who are now in Universe E, are thinking the same thing? And what if they beat us to it? What if they shift back here before we have the technology to shift back to there? Will there just be two copies of us here in Universe A? Or will we just swap with them again? This could be tricky....

Anonymous said...

When I was a child my mother used to correct me as I referred to it as Berenstain a few times. From then on it was always Berenstein. A month ago it came on TV and I saw the name and stated it should be Berenstein. My wife said no it's alway been Berenstain. Then I saw the post about this on above top secret. I'd just like to say that it was definitely EIN where I came from!

Anonymous said...

I was born 1997 and even I remember it as Berenstein. I really need to get to the bottom of this and am really stressed out seeing everything as stain.

Reece said...

Don't panic. This is how everyone starts out.

If you follow the link to the new post I made, I list a lot of conversations and pictures and things that might help you, where people have already done the research. I tried to streamline this for others, because what you're going to find is that every single book in existence says "Berenstain". Doesn't matter if it was locked in your attack in a safe since you were a kid, it says "Berenstain". Any traces of "Berenstein" are apparent typos; in cases where they advertise a "Berenstein Bears" product, the product itself says "Berenstain" (which is reassuring to know -- they can look at a book that says Berenstain and still think it says Berenstein). If you start calling people to ask, about 90% of them will say Berenstein or Bernstein, some 10% will say Berenstain. There actually exist people who remember Berenstain - Iv'e seen statements from dozens of them.

The simplest explanation is also unsatisfying on an extremely emotional level, but there is definitely a rational explanation for whatever is going on, whatever that explanation is. Please do not take my theory too seriously, especially if it's going to stress you out more.

Reece said...

I've been following that ATS thread. It's pretty fascinating. The amount of work they're putting in to it is amazing. Several times now I've been tempted to make an account just to chime in over there, but... no, I'm not going to make an account over there :P

Anonymous said...

My mom read a few of these to me, and I read plenty more myself when I was a kid. Our best attempt a phonetically pronouncing the name of the family was "Bare N STEEN" because the "ei" conjunction just seemed like it would make the ee sound, and I stuck with pronouncing it that way even after I realized it would probably be pronounced just like "Einstein"... then just today I see a bunch of people talking about "the Berenstains" and I do a Google search... and my head is hurting.

Anonymous said...

An outstanding share! I have just forwarded this onto a co-worker who was conducting a little homework on this.
And he actually bought me lunch simply because I discovered it for him...
lol. So let me reword this.... Thank YOU for the meal!!

But yeah, thanx for spending time to discuss this subject here on your web page.


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Anonymous said...

Born in 1981. When I was little I had this same discussion with both of my parents and they were both exasperated because all three of us thought it was Berenstein. We must have had the discussions in the early 90s when my sister was learning to read using my old books.

BrandonD said...

Yes it has always been spelled STEIN, but my mom pronounced it STAIN. This stood out in my mind because it was not pronounced the way it was spelled.

Interestingly, there is a Japanese anime TV series about alternate time-lines and it is called "Stein's Gate".

Seraph-Nine said...

I had looked at this post fairly recently and thought it was quite strange how many people (including myself) remember Berenstein when it's apparently Berenstain. I went to my old VHS tapes in the garage to see that indeed it says Berenstain, not Berenstein. I asked my dad and he seemed to remember it pretty clearly as Berenstein as well.

I had forgotten about this interesting phenomenon for a couple weeks until I was watching some Wilfred on Netflix, and strangely enough Season 3, Episode 6 at around the 7:30 minute mark - Elijah Wood's character (Ryan) is discussing children's books with Wilfred and audibly says "...something like the Berenstein Bears Go to the Dentist?" He clearly pronounces it as Berenstein and not Berenstain. Just something I thought was interesting to hear it from a TV show.

Anonymous said...

WHAT A DILEMNA! Er, I mean DILEMMA! <<<==== Wait. What? Oh no, another time-jacked word! What the hell's next? Often starts ending up being spelled Offen? =/

Anonymous said...

I was born in 1985 and reluctantly remember stain specifically because when I saw it spelled Stein in an online post about the bears, something felt amiss despite the spelling seeming more logical. Perhaps I came through a wormhole from the other universe very recently.

Anonymous said...

The Berenstein Bear books were indeed "parallel reality" books.

They are markers from Odin himself. It means your parents would rape you if they could get away with it. Luckily the manner of how the matrix works means nothing really happened.

Remember that dream you had of 2 men stealing you and covering your mouth so you can't scream?

I guarantee everyone from the Berenstein universe had this dream, Berenstain universe may or may not.

I promise great retribution. My soul will not allow for any other outcome.

Everyone gets to be janitor God for some amount of time.

Lucifer is far below the great devil. Knowledge is poisonous to our stories. Throwing us away from direct experience is the ultimate sin.

Anonymous said...

The glitch is specifically for the alchemical power of the bear.

The bear is Lucifer's sons alchemical animal.

It is to allude to Einsteins work on metaphysics as well as the Nirvana song.

Courtney did kill Kurt, but she left 0 physical trait. She will only be brought to full justice in death. Monroe did similar to JFK.

Women are never to be trusted or loved.

Anonymous said...

Many alien species have told us that time does not exist. We live in a holographic universe. I have often been sure that something is a certain way, having had much contact with it in this way, only to find out one day that it has changed. I have had much deja vu and fully believe we are in a kind of matrix. Don't sweat it and continue to grow your aura and practice love as a verb.

Reece said...

Many alien species have told us this? I really need to catch up here. I didn't know even one alien species had ever told us anything :P

Anonymous said...

Couple of theories why the change. If u wiki a show called reboot. Appears Mike was involved in creating it. Possible somehow he was going to tie the change as a marketing gimmick at some point??? No idea how but the plot of the show had an eerie resonance I felt. Or, the new spelling anagram to Senna Tribe. Maybe draw attention to the true jews?? Also anagram to inner beast and stain anagram to satin. A poor spelling. Changing the name just have a satanic fascist memory whole vibe to me. Its obvious that it was changed. Old magazine articles use the e. Some of the awards they won have the e. That same boilerplate photo of the two with the a is everywhere. I cant explain the e to a change nor verify it either. Anyway, just some of the things I found that let me feel better. I know it was changed, dont know if the why will ever be copped to. Mike, if u are following, not the most Christ like manuever?

Anonymous said...

e to a change on the old books I meant to say. Just strange ultimately. Certainly have gone to great lengths to make it appear as it always was an a. But, plenty of holes persist and millions of memories.

Anonymous said...

Parallel realities are the same as Time Travel observed from the viewpoint of linear perspective of variable known as time. So called future is our own creation, that is constructed in individual basis, meaning everyone has their own version of reality, which occurs in space/time. This is explained quite fantastically here: http://www.lifeislivingart.info/2014/05/message-from-future-let-there-be-light.html

You are All That IS ~ Experiencing itself all the ways it can ~ » IN « All possible Parallel Reality Expressions ~ Simultanously. You are your version of All That IS. And even then you realize, that there are Parallel Reality Versions of All That IS ~ because All That IS, is experienced by every single individual in the same way that you are experiencing it now

In the sense, that they connect to the idea of their version of All That IS and experience themselves as All That IS, which is slightly different version of All That IS, than All That IS, which you experience yourself to be. So even All That IS has Parallel Reality versions of itself and thus then All That IS has greater All That IS experiencing all the versions of All That IS there are.

Anonymous said...

What many misses on the idea of time, is that time is life itself. There's no difference between us, as an observer and the observed (experience of life). I have explained and documented this wholeness more in detail on my website Life is Living Art, which combines Time Travel, Quantum Entanglement, Living Awareness beyond Consciousness to many worlds and parallel realities:

Revolutionary Quantum Entanglement Superposition System with Time Travel Aspect already developed and working: Life is Living Art website states: "My own personal subjective experiences around the idea of Quantum Entanglement shows wonderfully through many examples, that the scientists are never able to understand it all - unless they experience it subjectively themselves. After experiencing Quantum Entanglement themselves, they can bring the awareness and inner wisdom gained from the experience to the equation. Suddenly many missing links just seem to appear out of nowhere and wholeness becomes Crystal Clear: In Randomness there is Divine Order - Structure, which is contained within everything and no-thing at the same time. Here on this page I have demonstrated how the idea of Quantum Teleportation actually works and I have a solid proof of this system in action.
...
In actuality there's nothing unusual, strange or bizarre in Quantum Mechanics. It may seem strange for those, who only use logical left side of their brains to observe and understand this wholeness. John S. Bell stated in his theorem:

"No physical theory of local hidden variables can ever reproduce all of the predictions of quantum mechanics."

This simply means, that Quantum Physics and it's underlying mechanism can't be understood and measured in traditional, orthodox ways of viewing things (level of consciousness and thinking). In order to understand subtle nature of Quantum World and it's operation, one would have to utilize both hemispheres of their brain. In Quantum World this becomes that - likewise the observer needs to become inseparate part of the observed particle, to fully understand it's existence and properties it helds." http://quantum.lifeislivingart.info

Reece said...

How would one derive the Heisenberg equation of motion from the Schrodinger equation?

Unknown said...

Now that's just wrong! :)

Arsenic said...

The Mayans. New Age. Literal New World. I propose that we shifted from E to A on December 31, 2012.
:)

Arsenic said...

HELLO
https://www.google.com/search?q=berenstein%20site:news.google.com/newspapers&source=newspapers&gws_rd=ssl

Anonymous said...

This can more or less be explained with Casualty.

Something from a similar Universe slipped into ours (wormhole, blackhole), due to this our Universe started pulling the other Universe incrementally in (In our time perception) to eliminate errors, as the only option is assimilation, which has a chance of following with destruction.

And, due to this, the foreign objects in our Universe also started pulling our Universe to the other Universe, thus assimilation, as time goes by, the two Universes swap out objects ad infinitum, eventually realizing the loop both Universes begin deleting the foreign objects, to keep the other Universe from pulling and pushing, this has two effects, it can keep the both Universe stable with minimal loss, or it can destroy one or both Universe due to everything being deleted. (Even the Universe itself may pull other in, due to how this works)

So, again, this ends in either assimilation or destruction, for one or both Universes.

If I am correct, and didn't leave anything out, the Berenstein Bears and Berenstain bears are a symptom of this.

Anonymous said...

So either we shifted into a parallel universe (where the only apparent difference is the title of a children's book)... or... we're just remembering it wrong.

Definitely parallel universe.

Reece said...

Given two competing theories that both explain the same facts, the theory in which the name of the iconic cartoon bears is spelled BerenstEin is best.

Anonymous said...

Indiana, not India.
You know, the state.

Anonymous said...

I for one believe something is off, I remember those books as Stein. To further investigate and get a clearer answer I would try to see if the phenomenon is entirely mental or not. Get a group of kids born after the hypothetical shift, lets say 7 years old, expose them to the berenstein books let them get familiar with them. Dont tell them what ur doing. Then remove all berenstein and come back months later. Ask them if they remember how it was spelt. How they pronounced it. See if they recreate the phenomenon by remembering berenstein and not berenstAin. If they dont and they remember stAin specifically and pronounced it as such then we shifted

Anonymous said...

Just so you all know the comment with Anonymous August 23, 2012 at 3:44 PM
wants to be anonymous but yet at the end says he is "Mike Berenstain" nice one you internet troll. The book as I remember and I am 37 was Berenstein Bears because I remember asking my perents how to pronounce it, something like Berenstain would not be hard to read and I would have made fun of it because of the stain part. Trust this, someone is messing with our universe and they are trying to get our attention.

Anonymous said...

Stop wasting our time with the crappy conspiracy of yours just because you and many people of this earth are too retarded to read. Shameful.

Anonymous said...

Wow, this is crazy! I totally remember the Berenstein Bears. No question in my mind. A year or two ago, I was at the library with my kids and couldn't believe that the books were spelled Berenstain. I thought it was so bizarre, especially since they were named after the authors' last name. I thought maybe the family had changed their name for some reason.

Amanda said...

I clearly remember BerenstEin. I remember as a child (I'm 33 now) being confused as to whether it was pronounced BerenstEEn or Berenstiine. I remember pronouncing it both ways but never, ever BerenstAin. I pulled out my old books and sure enough they are Stain. This has really messed my brain up. Not sure what to believe anymore.

krizmah said...

What is going in.. Doing my own survey and so far it's 3/3 for stein pronounced steen. So fishy! I really think a few people misread it and were really confident in their pronunciation and so corrected everyone else and it just stuck. Lol this was a fun read!

Anonymous said...

I get this isn't serious but

1) The name is on the cover is in cursive which children can read about as well as hieroglyphs.

2) A parent could not possibly read this to a child without their higher brain function shutting down so their only existing memories of the name would be from their child calling it "burn-steen".

3) Virtually all readers at any age never actually read complex proper nouns and if they reoccur frequently, they substitute in "nicknames" based on whatever they were able to grasp of the word during the fraction of a second they spent trying to read it.

4) Even Adults reading a well liked book series are content to mentally pronounce their favorite characters name wrong for thousands of pages and will use their incorrect name even after hearing it pronounced correctly by others. (I once saw a man meet his favorite author and pronounce the main characters name wrong not only the exact way its spelled phonetically in the book as a nickname from someone who's too mentally disabled to say it, and after the author said the correct name.

Anonymous said...

@2: Tips fedora.

Anonymous said...

You people are insane. Get meds.

ohiocpa said...

I was born in 1958, as was my wife. Our children were born in 1983, 85, 87, and 89. I KNOW it was "Berenstein". We started reading them to our first two children, but my wife noticed that the father bear was ALWAYS wrong and ended up looking stupid. She refused to give our children that input, and banned the books from our house -- and, I believe, the church nursery she directed. But as much as we hate the books, we KNOW they were Berenstein.



















Anonymous said...

Speaking of altered timelines from the 80s, I swear the movie despicable me was based on an old cartoon from the 70s/80s, possibly black and white with an evil/bumbling character similar to the gru, but rounder and with a longer hook nose whose catch line was "ohh, despicable me!" in a nasally voice. Something in the vein of Pink Panther or Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons. I can find no reference to it anywhere online. Wiki says it's an original story but I specifically remember seeing the first preview of DM in theaters and thinking, "oh, they made that weird, obscure thing from the 70s into a movie??"

ohiocpa said...

Now I am shaken. Wife comes home, I ask her how the name is spelled. She (English teacher) immediately, without hesitation, says B E R E N S T E I N. Then she drops the bombshell -- she says "check the book on the shelf. We have one." There is a science fair book in the series that she decided was acceptable -- so we find it on the kids' bookshelf. B E R E N S T A I N. They have been in our home and changed it!

Amanda said...

There are some people that remember STAIN and others that remember STEIN. I, myself, have always been slightly obsessed with the way words are pronounced and I remember pronouncing it either STEEN or STEIN (as in beer stein). Not once did I ever pronounce it STAIN.

Unknown said...

(Sorry about the constant reposts/deletions; I keep belatedly discovering my phone has auto-"corrected" something and having to fix it, and there doesn't seem to be an "edit" option here....)

There's one glaring flaw in your theory, namely, your premise is erroneous. I saw Berenst*in books in the early 1970s and they were already BerenstAin, with an A. Your retroactive change could *not* have happened in the 1990s.

My theory is that everybody else (i.e. other than I) simply wasn't paying attention and merely *assumed* the name was BerenstEin without really reading it carefully. Perhaps your parents and teachers misread it first and primed you to repeat the error by mispronouncing it. Culturally, the suffix "-ein" is quite common, and so you all can be forgiven for glancing at the name and misreading it that way.

Me, I paid close, even intense, maybe even obsessive (turned out I'm autistic), attention to spelling and grammar from earliest childhood. I was reading grown-up science books and the newspaper at age 3, and "at the eighth grade level" in first grade. I learned to spell, and to compose complex sentences, simply by paying attention to how it was done in real books. I was honestly astonished, upon entering school, to find out that other people had to be expressly *taught* these things. "Why not just write the words the way you see them when you read?" I'm 51 now, and the only time I've ever misspelled an ordinary word (as opposed to, say, a specialized medical term I've never seen in print) was in the fourth grade (1972); eventually the teacher had me *give* the class spelling tests rather than *take* them, since there was no point to my taking them, since I never made any errors but the one.

So I *noticed* that it was "BerenstAin" on the books--specifically because it made an impression as an unusual departure from the standard "-ein" of which I was well aware.

In summary, it was *always* Berenstain, and you all simply misread it in childhood or are misremembering it today.

Reece said...

Yeah, I don't know why blogger doesn't have an edit feature. It used to. I should check my settings.

Lots of people have come forward admitting to having remembered BerenstAin. Technically, all that means is that you're from Universe A. I've heard testimony from people every bit as fastidious about spelling, you remember BerenstEin. So, the question isn't if Universe A is a real universe (it clearly is), but if Universe E is also a real universe (which, who knows, the only evidence for it is in people's memories of a children's book).

So I absolutely agree, here in Universe A, they have always been the BerenstAin Bears, and every single scrap of evidence proves it.

Reece said...

If it's any consolation, I think the reason why Papa Bear was such a doofus is that Papa Bear was a bear, and male bears are notorious incompetent. Whereas Mama Bear was also a bear, and mother bears are notoriously fierce. I heard that explanation somewhere.

Arsenic said...

I repeat - actual news clippings spelling STEIN

https://www.google.com/search?q=berenstein%20site:news.google.com/newspapers&source=newspapers&gws_rd=ssl

Moury said...

This strongly reminds me of Haruki Murakami's novel 1Q84. If you have not read it yet, the female main character slips into the AU while doing something she wouldn't usually do. She transitions into the AU so seamlessly that she doesn't realize that something is slightly off for a while.

I did not grow up in the United States, so I did not have these books as a child. I moved here in the 8th grade and we did have these books, along with many other children's books in our classroom for us to get used to reading, to familiarize with pronunciation, spelling, etc. I distinctly remember reading this as BearstAin, because I thought it was kind of funny that it would be -stain (like a stain on a carpet). I chalked it up to, "they are bears, so I guess it's supposed to be funny." I did not have any prior knowledge that -stein is a common jewish name in the country so it didn't occur to me that it could be a misspell or a typo.
Now that I am older, fluent in English, and been living here for over 15 years... I can see why this would throw people off. But for me this has always been Bearstain.

I guess I have always been living in Universe A. ESL or not. : )



ps: hopefully it will let me post this time, keeps erasing my comment.

Unknown said...

Don't you mean EinstAIn?

MysticalChicken said...

I had A TON of these books growing up (I was born in 1979), but I no longer have them so I can't check the covers. However, I did also have two VHS tapes of the 1980s cartoon and I distinctly remember the name being pronounced as "Berenstain", as that was the pronunciation I used growing up. I found the old theme song that I grew up with on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjXiIZYsGJY The name is pronounced at approximately :17 ("A great grizzly bear! A Berenstain Bear!") :22 ("Oh, we are the Berenstain Bears") and :38 seconds ("Here are more Berenstain Bears"). I hear it as "stain", very distinctly, all three times, and that's how I remember it being pronounced as well. The name is shown on-screen at least twice as well and spelled "-stain" both times.

(What I was always confused about since I was a kid was the line that starts out "we live in a..." I can't tell if it's supposed to be "sweet little tree" or something else entirely, as "little" always sounded like "level" to me. It's pronounced this way twice.)

Anonymous said...

No. I always grew up with it being pronounced Berenstain. You are making a huge deal out of a bunch of people misreading a rare name as a very similar and common one.

Anonymous said...

My friend and I, both born in 2001, clearly remember it Berenstein. My sister, who was born in late 2005, remembers it this way as well! She read the books and watched the cartoons at least until she was 5, which was 2010, just before the theory gained attention. When would the shift be? Somewhere in between 2010 and 2012?

Anonymous said...

Steve Biko, perhaps?

Anonymous said...

Actually, in 2009 there was a big new coverage on Billy Graham just as recognition while he was still alive. Many of the president spoke about him and also cried, but it was for him as a thank you from the nation with him in the conference.
http://youtu.be/RrBjYb8yPTk

Anonymous said...

How do you guys wanna pronounce "Beerensteyn"? Just another variation... :)

Anonymous said...

I asked my mom, who was an elementary school teacher, about this book, and said she read this to us all the time. I asked her how it was spelled, and she said 'Berenstain Bears'. This was off her memory as well; she wasn't looking at anything. Sorry to disappoint. 

Reece said...

That's the Universe I want to go to! I bet they have awesome airships there. Not like this dumb stEin Universe.

Reece said...

No disappointment. It just means your mom is from Universe A. There's lots of people who never switched.

Anonymous said...

If a change between parallel universes changes physical matter and the causality stream associated with it, in order to be able to even perceive a difference between the realities our memories would have to be outside of the confines of our physical brain. Otherwise, our physical brains would also have changed to reflect such a shift and most of us would start remembering Berenstain instead of Berenstein.

I am 32 and I clearly remember them as the Berenstein Bears not the Berenstain Bears. I question how I and so many others could mispronounce it as Berenstein when Berenstain is so easy to pronounce. Stain is a very common word in our language and Stein is uncommon, a part of last names for the most part. This is a very interesting and unsettling phenomenon. What is going on here?

Anonymous said...

Maybe it could be another explanation more eerie to that.
How many times have we dream that we die in a cataclysm, crash car, shoot etc?
If the contience, when your body dies go to the paralel universe more similar to this.If all the people that remember berenstain in theirs temporality line die in abig event like the crash of a meteorit (yes the typical meteorit that never hits the earth) a nuclear war that never happens in this safe reality.All that dead people now alive in this safer reality where berenstain is written with e not with a.
The things that told this article, these changes i have seen it until with days of difference and when I ask to my relatives they tell me that always have seen it in that way.
Then we'll speak of individual death instead of collective death.

Anonymous said...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_suicide_and_immortality

Anonymous said...

why isnt this comment world famous

Reece said...

It's one of my favorites. Sadly, blogger comments don't have upvoting.

Lily C. said...

EVERYONE!! it's not only 20-somethings who remember it as BerenstEin, okay. In all honesty, I am 14 years old and I seriously remember it as -stein. As a young kid, (not many years ago, I swear) I would spend hours in the bookstore, reading as much of these books as I can. Whenever my parents came back to pick me up, I would regale how many I was able to read (usually around 10 each time). If it was really -stAin, then I definitely wouldn't have a hard time pronouncing the name. I usually went back and forth from saying it as STEEN or STEIN (Einstein way). I have seen the covers a hundred times. I used to jump with excitement whenever the TV show would air. I KNOW IT IS BERENSTEIN. SO WHY IN THE WORLD IS IT BERENSATIN!??! If you ask me, it's a huge conspiracy formulated by the US government to mess with our heads. Well, not really, but you never know. But I really do believe it's because someone in the past screwed it up somehow and now we're left utterly confused. I actually just read 'Sound of Thunder' for school in the past week and the theory that something similar to that may have happened seems very plausible. I'm asking my parents to dig up my own copies of the book. And the fact that these were bought not even a decade ago interests me since everyone is talking about their own books from the 90s. I'll update you guys once I find more interesting things about this.

Anonymous said...

I like the last anon's theory, it seems the most plausible.

I've been thinking over it and I'm beginning to clearly remember I always thought of the authors as Berenstain and the bears as Berenstein. I'm assuming this was because I heard "-stein" from so many people and in the show, they would spell it with the "a", but pronounce it with an accent of sorts, making it sound like either "Beren-steen" or "Beren-stain", leaning more towards "-steen". And looking at the books thinking it was written as I pronounced it, I may remember "-stein", but the authors' names were still Berenstain for me.

Anonymous said...

Maybe this has been said but isn't it possible that a lot of parents saw the cover of the book and decided to pronounce it berensteen instead of beren-STAIN. Sounds like maybe the bears have a shit stain on their fur or something. Now if a ton of people are walking around pronouncing it berensteen, don't you all think it is possible that our brains just assumed the spelling matched. and never caught it? We all know how tricky the brain can be.

Anonymous said...

It did used to say Berenstein, I thought maybe they changed it to avoid Jewish profiling, but you say the old books changed. I specifically remember it because my friend called them the Jewish bears. How weird.

Anonymous said...

Well Anonymous if you would bother to read and researh the Bible then you would know why there are bad things going on. So unless you read the facts please don't make say that what you say is facts. Ok ?????? Thank you and may GOD forgive and bless you. Here is a well known fact -- there are no athiest in a foxhole !!!!!

Adam said...

Oh wow! Anonymous on December 24th is the first person I've seen who has the same memory that I do on this. I actually just posted this on the Mandela Effect website. My memory is that the book name was always "Berenstein Bears," but the authors' last name was Berenstain. I remember I thought it was weird because the title differed from the authors' last name. It's a fairly specific thing for both of us to remember that way.

I have a question for you, if we're from the same "time stream." (If you buy into that.) What do you know about Mongolia? I was looking through the stuff on the Mandela Effect website and the main ones that resonated with me were the Berenstein Bears and Mongolia. I would have sworn to you up and down that China had a long border with Russia and that Mongolia was simply a region in northern China. Apparently that isn't true: Mongolia is its own (fairly sizeable) country. That simply isn't true in my historical narrative.

Anonymous said...

Adam and Anon: I also have the same memory of the author's name being Stain and the bears' being Stein. I thought it was like when a well-known actor stars on a tv show, and they keep the same first name but change the last (Lucy Ricardo, Mary Richards, Tim Taylor, etc), if that makes sense. Like a way of saying that the bears are inspired by them but also purely fictional. I dunno.

And man....... I remember Mongolia that way, too. In fact, I seem to remember looking that up before and finding that it was just a region of the area. In fact I could have sworn that it was kind of in both Russia and China, a region they both shared. Now I'm questioning everything.

Anonymous said...

Wow. You guys really just ruined my day with this Mongolia thing.

Anonymous said...

I think the author has too much time on his hands.

Reece said...

And yet.... never enough :/

Reece said...

That freaked me out, too. Apparently Mongolia was part of China for several hundred years before getting independence. My primary reason for thinking Mongolia was part of China, I think, is the number of "Mongolian X" dishes at Chinese restaurants, but that makes sense, I think, given that Mongolia was part of the Chinese Empire for so long.

Anonymous said...

I hurt my head laughing at this!

Maggie N said...

Absolutely brilliant conversation. Thank you, Reece! I'm 64 years old and am of Universe-E. I read many of these books to my children (now adults in their 30's). After a quick phone call to them, they are both from Universe-E as well, whew. For those of you who like this topic, please check out Alfred Lambremont Webre's Positive Future web site http://www.positivefuture.info/. Best wishes to all residents of either Universe-A or Universe-E!

Anonymous said...

The problem is uneducated and a large number of rather ignorant Americans. People who cannot even spell and read/write in their own fricking native language. Just go out "on the net" and see how people have problems with simple things like there, their, they're, "would of" <-- Cheezus Christ and even more abominations. Because of this I don't buy for one $0.01 what the typical American thinks how it was spelled. BerenstEin or BerenstAin sure would already be way over many people's intellectual capabilities, let alone their ability to correctly remember the actual spelling.

Anonymous said...

You asked your pErents...ah...got ya....

Byron Levene said...

Interesting theory. I'll add that I have died of an overdose (December 2009) and had a weird OBE. I remember Berenstein, I also have a couple of Mandela Effect memories (the deaths of Za Za Gabor and Emanuel Lewis). It was actually a Mandela Effect thread that I first learned of stAin and at first I thought I was being trolled...

Reece said...

You definitely sound pretty smart. What grade are you in?

mike said...

As far as spelling goes, I can spell 90% of everything that I ever see. I got 100's on all of my spelling tests in elementary school and even won a few local spelling bees. If I remember the cover correctly Berenstain is spelled with an A. and the A looks like a lowercase a like this "a" with a bit of a curl on the end. I haven't seen one of these books since I was 8. That was the year 2000. I guess it depends when the parallel universe changed and if my mind remembers the second or first spelling. I lost a spelling bee one year because I spelled judgement without an e. Look it up in the dictionary. It can be spelled both ways. I would assume my mind would remember both ways but my mind has only seen it spelled with an "a" and that's all I remember.

Anonymous said...

Mongolia has both been a part of China and Russia, the only credence to the country as a stand alone was when Ghengis Kahn ruled the countryside. My geography these days is spotty in that range of the world, but wouldn't question it being sovereign after the USSR split.

Unknown said...

Late to the party, I know, but;

I've had two similar things happen to me/friends, both around 2002 when I was 17.
First, I was with my friend at his house,
when his mother asked us a question about her crossword puzzle.
"Who hosted The Twilight Zone."
My friend and I both immediately said Rod Sterling.
She said it didn't fit and we said she was crazy, 'cause we know who it is.
And it's Rod Sterling.
Even his father backed us up, as well as a friend we'd called.
We assumed the crossword made an error.
Then later that day she came up and said she'd figured it out,
and it was 'Serling'.
My friend and I both swore up and down that it was 'Sterling' before she asked us the damn question.
I know other friends that think it was at some point Sterling, too.
Which is crazy, and even more so because of the whole... you know... 'Twilight Zone' thing.
I think we've both come to grips with the fact that we must have just learned it wrong to begin with and nobody ever corrected us, even though I swear I remember seeing it written as 'Sterling' at some point.

The second incident concerns a tree that mysteriously appeared outside my friend's apartment one day.
We walked to school in the morning, taking the same shortcut we always had between the sidewalks in his courtyard.
On the return trip home, taking the same path we'd taken earlier, and while distracted in conversation about nothing in particular, I backed into a tree. At least a 40yr old tree. Right where I had stepped earlier that morning. Between the two sidewalks outside his front door.
It was very confusing to us.
We talked for a while about the possibility/logistics of people installing a tree of that size in an afternoon, as well as questioned why anyone would do such a thing in the first place.
We went out to the living room and asked his dad what he thought about the new tree.
He said, 'What tree?'
'The new one that they put out front.' we said.
Confused, he got up and looked outside.
He was flabbergasted to see a tree out there.
He then told us that people don't move trees like that.
Plus he had been home all day, and there was nobody doing any sort of construction,
but there most definitely had never been a tree there. It was a real head scratcher.
We kinda agreed for a second that we SOMEHOW must have just missed the tree all these years. 'Cause it would be INSANE to assume that someone installed an old tree in some courtyard, or that reality had shifted.
That was until my friend's father jumped up and said he had physical proof that someone must have put a tree there.
He was a painter, and about 15yrs prior, he had painted the courtyard from the doorway.
And he definitely remembered not painting that tree, and actually painting the features behind it.
So he dug in storage til he found the painting, pulled it out, said,
'See?! Look, no tree.'
He then showed us an old painting of the courtyard and wouldn't you believe it, there was the tree. Right in the foreground. All of our minds were blown.
My friend's father didn't handle it very well and I'm pretty sure it drove him a little crazy.
My friend and I, over time, subscribed it to bad filing in the brain and mass-delusions.
The mind can be a funny thing, after all.
Still though. Makes you think.

Anastasia said...

Elite agenda to make father figures seem stupid and incompetent (see Homer Simpson and Peter Griffin). Promotes feminism.

Anastasia said...

Crazy stories!

Anonymous said...

What a load of horsecrap invented by the blog author just to cover their own misremembering.

It was clearly and always Berenstain for me, hell when we were kids (kids a couple years too old for the books any more) we'd jokingly call them the 'Shit Stain Bears' to make fun of the -stain ending.

Reece said...

That just means you're from Universe A.

Ken D. Webber said...

You want to know what happened to you? You want the insults to stop? Here's what REALLY is going on http://www.kendwebber.com/rant18.html

Unknown said...

I'm part of the same universe. I definitely remember that the authors were berenstain, but the bears were berenstein. I can't confirm Mongolia, because I didn't learn enough about it, however i didnt realize it was a seperate country until maybe grade 10

Anonymous said...

I must say that this blog post is one of the most fascinating I've read in quite some time! A wide variety of experiences and theories have been put forth, which is quite refreshing. I, personally, seem to remember the books being titled, "The Berenstein Bears", spelled with an E. I asked my mother and a friend how they remember the spelling, and both replied with an E. My mother dug up one of the old books, took a picture of it, and sure enough the title was spelled with an A! She was just as surprised as I, having for all of these years honestly remembering the title being spelled with an E.

I've looked into the theory of "The Mandela Effect", and it is startling to see so many people sharing the same experience of remembering something which - deduced from objective observation of this reality - seems to be incorrect. It wouldn't be shocking if a handful of people experienced this, as it could simply be written off as a few people with a memory lapse...though, given the vast numbers of people who experience this phenomenon, it begs the question of how it's possible that these people can be so certain of something which (in theory) never happened. There are a few example on the ME website which resonate with me personally. There are many people who remember Jif brand peanut butter, at one point in time, being referred to as Jiffy (myself included). There are also those who remember a certain scene in Star Wars which apparently doesn't exists...I could remember this scene in vivid detail (however, over the years it has gotten fuzzy), though there is no mention of it by George Lucas nor has it ever been included in any deleted scenes material. For years, I wrote this off as a dream I may have had as a child and simply assumed my mind had conjured this scene in my imagination. Though, after reading about the same experience by others, I am beginning to wonder if I indeed watched this scene and it was "lost" in some way.

The theory that the author of this blog posts is one I have often considered. I have had many near-death experiences and the idea that a form of consciousness can "travel" to an alternate universe (in order to continue it's existence after it's host body dies) FEELS right. It's difficult to put into words, and seems absurd to those who aren't open to the idea, but throughout my life I have felt as if I have traveled to different planes of existence where things just seemed..."off". I don't know, I could liken the experience to having viewed a piece of art for years...only to one day find that the shading has changed in a very subtle way - very little has noticeably changed, though it's apparent on a deep level that it's essence has in some way been altered.

Anonymous said...

I'd like to preface this next statement by saying that I have experienced these feelings long before I started to use drugs, though through overdoses on various substances I have experienced very intense experiences relating to this "traveling through planes". The most vivid experience, and perhaps the most frightening, was when I had smoked a blend of the so-called "Spice" product (aka K2, synthetic marijuana, etc.). I woke up one morning and packed a water pipe full of the nasty stuff, took a huge hit, and in moments experienced one of the most intense psychedelic experiences I've ever had. Before the peak of this experience took swing, my consciousness seemed to dull in the preceding moments before I was completely unaware of my physical surroundings (I was in someone's home, with two people present in the room I was in). Once I could no longer perceive my surroundings, my consciousness became immersed in a kaleidoscopic vortex of brilliant colors. Each series of colors became like an image of some kind - depictions of pure energy resonating at different frequencies. What must of been trillions upon trillion of these images flashed across my mind within milliseconds of each other, each one containing different "worlds" or planes of existence. I came under the impression that in order to leave this vortex, I had to find the "correct" image...which would serve as the portal to the plane of existence I was meant to reside in. This experience felt like an eternity...it was as if my consciousness had been traveling through this vortex forever, which I was convinced would remain forever until I found the perfect match for my consciousness to manifest itself in one of these "stable" realities. When I finally came to my senses and was aware of my physical surroundings, the two people in the room looked shocked. I asked them how long I was out for and they told me it had only been about 5 minutes. Upon my "awakening", so to speak, the one friend told me that her boyfriend was on his way over and that the other person in the room and myself had to leave. Prior to smoking the substance (the night before and in the morning directly before taking the drug), there was no mention of said boyfriend coming over...though when I awoke from this experience, she and this other person were acting like his arrival had been planned a few days in advance...when just the night before this girl said that she was going to be free all throughout the following day. It was quite bizarre to say the least. And I know what many of you are thinking..."What do you expect from a psychoactive substance? That experience was just a hallucination." That very well may be the case, but I have read up on near-death experiences and the Tibetan concept of what happens to the soul upon the physical body's death...it has been reported that, during the reincarnation period, the consciousness is presented with a variety of possible lives and it chooses the one most suited for the individual, based upon their state of mind before their physical death in the previous life. This is just one example of such experiences...I don't necessarily place any validity in my theory, but it is fun to think about!

Anonymous said...

The post by Ken D. Webber (February 22, 2015 at 3:06 AM) provides a logical theory in response to this phenomenon. If I understand it correctly, the concept of "FNORDS" represents falsities which, having been repeated over and over, become accepted "truths" by their target audience. This would indeed explain how "Berenstain" become widely accepted by many as "Berenstein", if indeed it's mention in the media was a misspelling that was repeated so much that it became an accepted truth among those who listened to it. The problem with this theory, though, is that in order for this to be the case, there must be a huge conspiracy amongst the editors of these publications and the producers of talk shows, etc. for the misspelling to have gone unchecked so many times for so long. A publication as respected as the New York Times wouldn't leave the misspelling. But, assuming that it indeed was an overlooked mistake, how could so many other publications (including sales ads) be forced to look at the "proper" spelling of the title and, instead, choose to misspell the title in their publications? If what many poster on this blog have said is true - that they have always known Berenst*in was spelled with an A - how is it that these professional companies have misspelled the title for all of these years - in many instances when trying to sell products with the very name "correctly" spelled on it's cover? The big question here, if this theory is indeed correct, is for what possible gain would these companies deliberately misspell Berenst*in?

Unknown said...

Thanks for the laugh. Tears is still rolling down my cheeks as I type this. Damns...

Anonymous said...

Well today I learned some people think I went to school in India. Neat.

...or what if he's just from a universe where India is a state? <(")> spooky

said...

This is so bizarre; I had the exact same reaction upon hearing of her death. I even remember having a conversation about the pronunciation with my mom back when I was in elementary school. (We're both sticklers for correct pronunciation and grammar.) We both pronounced it "Beren-STEEN" because we thought "Beren-STINE" sounded pretentious or somehow un-southern. Neither of us would have had any second thoughts about the pronunciation if it had been spelled Berenstain! The only explanation I can think of is perhaps the cursive font in the old books made the "a" appear to be an "e." But it's very weird that so many of us had this same thought process.

said...

Just wanted to add: I even had a Berenst*in Bears computer game that I spent hours playing with my sister, owned tons of their books (both original printings handed down from my parents and new books), and vividly remember looking at the covers in the library. My parents read with (not TO) me every night from a very young age, so I was reading pretty well before kindergarten. I say all this because people blame the misspelling on people getting their information from secondary sources (like news articles about the books, with the authors' names misspelled) or simply hearing others pronounce the book names, but never actually reading them.

Anonymous said...

Well if this was an alternate universe, then the family member would have always remembered his family as stain, right? So maybe he is telling the truth, but that doesn't mean we all were part of this universe and remember it that way.

Anonymous said...

Just as others have mentioned, I remember stein, because I precisely remember wondering if I was supposed to pronounce it "stine" or "steen". If I was reading stain, I would not have had that issue at all.
The ONLY thing I can think of if stain is true, is if all of us read stain, but saw that it must have been a mistake and thought that it SHOULD have been "stein" so that's how we kept saying it to ourselves and has been kept in our memory like that as stein.

Unknown said...

Wait, you have physical paper of you writing out "Berenstein" from grade school? You should document that. Photos/video

Unknown said...

Wait, you wrote on actual paper "STEIN" in grade school and still have it? You should document. Photos/video.

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