OCCULTURE 135: Aaron French // The Mandela Effect, Conspirituality, New Memory & The Convergence of Everything

Aaron French has written what he says is the first academic paper focused on one of the most batshit theories any of us have ever heard of. His paper is called “The Mandela Effect & New Memory” and was recently published by the academic journal Correspondences: Journal for the Study of Esotericism. Aaron’s paper looks at this recent phenomenon and why it’s become such a popular conspiracy theory and Internet meme, and how it sheds light on our contemporary technoscience culture and the influence of advanced information technology on human cognition, memory, and belief, and aspects of the Mandela Effect that are familiar to esotericism, since both conspiracy theories and esoteric knowledge cohabit the same marginalized cultural space. Aaron is also an accomplished academic and has written many pieces of weird fiction, some of which we’ll talk about in the Patreon extension. And he’s also an accomplished anthology and magazine editor, having put together publications that featured interviews with names like Graham Hancock, Peter Levenda, Richard Smoley, Donald Tyson and Whitley Strieber. But it is that paper, the Mandela Effect & New Memory, that lays the foundation for our conversation here today, so let’s groove to that sweet sweetback badass song of conspiracy, spirituality and the memory of how fucked up our childhood really was.  PATREON EXTENSION Listen at patreon.com/occulture D-Wave’s connection to the Mandela Effect & the Great Old Ones from Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos Q Anon as a symptom of the Mandela Effect Weird & horror fiction as a mystical didactic experience The evolution of esoteric & exoteric philosophy in weird fiction from Poe to Lovecraft to Ligotti The Mandela Effect as postmodern weird fiction & postmodern alchemy   RESOURCES Aaron’s paper - The Mandela Effect & New Memory   DONATE If recurring monthly support via Patreon isn’t your thing, we do accept one time-donations via PayPal, Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple. Every little bit helps.   MERCH Tees, tanks, hoodies, hats. Check ‘em out at our Etsy shop.   SOCIAL Twitter Instagram Facebook Tumblr   MUSIC Vestron Vulture - “I Want to Be a Robot (Tribute to Giorgio Moroder)”   PRODUCTION & LICENSING This podcast is produced in the Kingdom of Ohio and is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International. Executive Producers: Carter Y., Mauricio G., Daniel R., Kelly C., Bruce H., Christopher B., Timothy W., Nick F., Michael Q., Jamaica J., Mute Ryan, John W., Andy E., Colleen F., Saliyah S., Michael S., Kevin C., Megan B., Kaleb H., Dionisio T.   REMINDER Love yourself. Think for yourself. Question authority.