In Search of the Real ME

The real ME can be combination of discrete functions. It is neither only THIS nor THAT. Undoubtedly it is many different things.

The limit of "western thinking" is that someone or something is a binary 1 or zero. That is, it is either good or bad. In eastern philosophy people and things can be and are both good and bad at the same time. Schrödinger showed us this fact in his feline thought experiment where the cat could be thought of as being both alive and dead (until we look at it and only one condition remains.)

The Eastern symbol of Yin and Yang depicts this very well. Half the circle is black and half is white. In the larger black portion there is a small white circle. In the white portion there is a small circle of black.

This symbol can stand for male and female, good and evil, right and wrong or any other dual nature concept.

By this philosophy even the most reviled despotic dictator has a bit of "good", truth and redemption in him. Life and reality itself is described in these terms. The ME is by no means exempt from this symbolism.

Not every claimed ME is significant as part of the whole phenomenon. Some examples are mere faulty memory. Some are the results of fantasy in the minds of the claimant. Others are explained by wishful thinking. A few examples escape classification and remain inconclusive since the entire process is an exercise in trying to prove a negative.

Singular examples can be truly unexplained other than by considering the past to be actually fluid and changed mostly without anyone noticing.

In the book The Lathe of Heaven, Ursula K. Le Guin in 1971 introduces George Orr who has "effective dreams" which alter reality. He claims the world was destroyed in 1998. He dreams it back into existence while dying in the rubble. See Wikipedia entry {en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lathe_of_Heaven#Plot_summary} Much of the exotic claims people have made to explain the ME are very similar to Le Guin's book from 1971 and the movie version from 1984.

In order to get to the essential nature of the ME we must pass everything through a sieve to "separate the wheat from the chaff." Not all "evidence" holds equal value. For example, if Berenstein was the original spelling of the name of the fictional bear family there is negligible probability anyone would mistakenly see it as Berenstain and this would be a non-controversy. Likewise if the title had originally been "Sex In The City" no one would be claiming it to be "and the City." The controversy only arises when the original version was "odd" and claimants swear it was never that way. This observation itself casts doubt on a change ever having taken place.

Secondarily, evidence becomes tainted with manipulation. Any such evidence must be excluded even it it demonstrates the ME in more than a mind game. The examples just cannot be trusted.

Such is the VW logo with or without a division between the letters. Volkswagen never used or licensed a VW logo without the division line. This doesn't mean other companies didn't manufacture knock-off versions and omit the break. Also the photographs of supposed variant logos are all either manipulated forgeries or of poor exposure quality that a bright spot obscures the division. So far there is no "residue" photos which have been fully vetted that stand up to scrutiny.

Did you know you can still buy a classic WV Beetle from the model year 1984, 85, 86? You just can't license them for use in America. The last of its kind rolled off the assembly line in Puebla, Mexico on July 30, 2003.

The same tainting of evidence applied to the JFK assassination limo. The claims people remember a 4-seat lime are from memories which are today 54 years old or are hearsay from listening to a parent or even a grandparent about "how they recall" what took place. Many photographic recreations and cinematic productions have been made over the years using props and actors available at the time. Photo ops have been created to accompany journalistic writing. And not to be excluded are the camera angles and partial vehicle shots which purport to be the short limo but leave out the front part of the vehicle.

The actual limo resides at the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit. It has been upgraded with a permanent hardtop, armor plating and a new engine grille. Yes it is a 3-row, 6-seat limo. None of the popular internet published limo pictures with allege a 4-seat limo survive the vetting process at an evidentiary level.

Many other of the popular ME examples are also tainted with knock-off products and international variations. Flinstones is one of those examples. If Febreze was today Febreeze, I suspect no one would be claiming they remember Febreze, per my earlier suggestion.

Now for Massive Geographic Differences.

If a logo were actually altered by an alleged time traveler that other than the time travel event itself it would be relatively easy to convince a graphic designer in a corporate product development department to make it Froot Loops because the cereal in fact contained no fruit. Besides, Froot Loops has a kind of unique symmetry that goes with the Toucan themed jingles.

A time traveler would have zero mechanisms to move South America 1000 miles east or Australia 100 miles north.

In order to substantiate movement in tectonic plates which float continents around the globe and have two realities we must enlist the concept that there are at least two quantum copies of Earth where the continents are in vastly different locations. We are supposed to assume the veracity of a person who claims he/she remembers the other version from when he/she was in elementary school (when one usually is exposed to Geography.) Interestingly John Tuzo Wilson first introduced the concept of Continental Drift in 1963. Before that time geophysicists could not wrap their heads around the idea that continents actually moved relative to each other. While they do indeed move. It takes millions of years to move a humanly noticeable distance.

This remembrance pre-supposes the person jumped from one quantum Universe to another. We are supposed to accept the notion of a fully formed quantum universe and the idea the claimant exists in both and can move seamlessly between them rather than they were not paying close attention to the teacher and the world maps in 5th Grade. I's be far more willing to accept their explanation of why South America moved 1000 miles if the vetting process of this person revealed a coherent and consistent alternate history which is not in conflict with their alternate geographic configuration.

All such claims of major geographic differences fail the vetting process, so far.

If logo changes and spelling differences are man-made retroactive changes to the past and are consistent with the ME, then geologic differences fail the ME test. Something else in at play including bad memory or outright deception.

Flip-flopping

The idea of Flip-flopping seems to be more of a device to establish credibility or one to convince ones-self of the claim. The failure of this phenomenon as an ME stems from the absolute locality of the Flip-flop. If something were changing Froot Loops boxes it would be happening everywhere all at once (or at least at the speed the change travels.) More than one person would see the differences and the transitions.

Unless several to many people observe a Flip-flop taking place it is more likely the flip-flop experience is a singular personal one. Something no one else can see because it is completely internal. Like a pain. No one else knows you have a one unless you tell them.

Wheat From Chaff

There is some wheat out there. We need to make a distinction. People allegedly dying years ago versus last month or not at all is a very weak example of the ME. It is far too easy and common for such reports to propagate around the Internet and never to be enshrined in ink on paper. The stark example is Nelson Mandela himself. There are multiple published exact dates when he supposedly died. While those publications could actually have published wrong information without malice or conspiracy to do so, his story stands out as an enigma.

And Now This

The indisputable characteristic embodied by the ME is that everyone is only who and what they remember. If you remember life events being a particular way, be prepared to either accept everyone else's take on it or be prepared to accept the inevitable blow-back. While you are trying to preserve your world view, so are they. The simple explanation is either you remember something wrong or something changed things after you experienced it. As with all other situations, chose for yourself what to believe.