The Mandela Effect
- ejorigin
- Aug 10, 2023
- 5 min read
Written By: Maesha Tabassum (23-E3)
Designed By: Dhanya Kumar (23-U1)
Introduction
Have you ever felt an inkling feeling where a particular item had a unique feature in your memory that had never existed? This boggles your mind as you eventually dismiss it as your brain playing tricks on you. This phenomenon might not be as trivial as you think because you never know- you could be a victim of the Mandela effect.
What is it?
The Mandela Effect is a phenomenon that refers to a situation in which a large mass of people remembers an event that has never happened. Does this ring a bell in you? For many of us, this occurrence has been experienced at least once in our life. Scientists at the University of Chicago have described the effect as an internet phenomenon revolving around shared and consistent false memories of specific icons in popular culture. Although this effect mainly revolves around how people remember popular culture over the years, many theories and psychology try to answer why this phenomenon occurs.
How did it originate?
The term Mandela effect originated in 2009 when a self-proclaimed paranormal consultant Fiona Broome discovered that she and several others believed that the political activist, Nelson Mandela, had died in the 1980s in a South African prison where he stayed for 27 years. Others even claimed to remember seeing news coverages of his death as well as speeches by his widowed wife.
However, these memories were untrue since Nelson Mandela had only died in 2013 and even became the president of South Africa. After this incident, the phenomenon was coined the Mandela Effect and has become one of the prominent conspiracy theories to this day.
Why it occurs:
Unfortunately, there has been no clear explanation of why this effect happens. However, psychological research has suggested that the Mandela Effect is an example of ¨collective false memories.¨
A false memory is a cognitive malfunction occurring when we recall things that had never happened. False memories are also created when we alter and embellish memories of certain situations. Even though these memories are fake, they can appear quite genuine and vivid. As such, we often refuse to accept these memories are synthesised because of how real and nostalgic our memories feel.
Characteristics of the effect:
Some things that characterise the Mandela Effect are as mentioned above: The occurrence of false memories, the false contextualization of an event that occurred, the ignorance of linguistics or remembering words spelled incorrectly with regards to visual Mandela Effect and the distortion of existing memories. These are some of the factors taken into account when looking at why the effect occurs.
Famous examples:
Now, the nerve-wrecking part; which are the real-life examples that showcase the Mandela Effect. Be prepared to be astonished by these examples that may reveal yourself to have been a victim of the Mandela Effect.
First, let’s look at the most apparent aspect of the Mandela Effect called the Visual Mandela Effect. This refers to the internet phenomenon in which people consistently share false memories for specific images. They can cause a person to remember the spelling of words incorrectly or misremember certain images. Here are some examples:
Do you remember your favourite Pokemon character Pikachu having a black portion on its tail? But guess what, the picture on the right is actually the correct image of Pikachu!
The Monopoly man was always wearing a monocle wasn't he? The image on the right however, is the correct logo and he has never been depicted wearing a monocle. Shocking, isn’t it?
Next, let’s look at some words or famous dialogues that we have remembered wrongly all our lives.
The famous quote from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs! It was never “Mirror Mirror on the wall”, but the “Magic Mirror on the Wall”!
Maybe the millennial generation can relate to this a bit better: “The Berenstain Bears!” But don’t you remember it as the Berenstein Bears?
Popular theories:
Now the exciting part! Let’s delve deep into some of the wildest conspiracy theories about the Mandela Effect that will blow your mind! These are merely theories made up by different groups of people that have been researching intensely on this topic. Which one do you believe in? Let’s find out!
For those of you interested in the parallel universe or multiverse, this theory is for you! According to quantum physics, the Mandela Effect presents evidence that the multiverse does exist. The parallel universe theory is based on the idea that within each universe, parallel realities and alternate versions of events and objects are present and mixing with the timeline. Basically, there are many worlds that exist parallel to our world in space and time.
It is theorised that the universe splits into alternate versions of itself when faced with a Quantum choice; with every possible outcome creating new universes that are identical until the point when the choice is made.
Although these were created as explanations for Quantum physics, the occurrence of Mandela’s death, both in the 1980s and 2013 could have possibly been true, but in completely separate realities. Those reporting to have remembered his death to be in the 1980s may not actually be misremembering, but instead they could have been living in an alternate universe and somehow been switched into our universe.
Bringing forth another theory which explains why our realities may be shifting so wildly: Some believe that experiments being conducted at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) by the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) are responsible for launching us to an alternate reality. Many also believe that CERN is opening parallel dimensions that are causing changes to our climate, geography and even history. The Mandela Effect is not only limited to certain logos or words that we misremember, but may involve a larger part of our world.
I am sure that you have heard of the Sci-fi Netflix show, “Stranger Things”, that appealed to many across the globe. Is it a mere coincidence that the show portrays portals to parallel universes that humans can enter and even reside in? Are we unknowingly variables of an experiment that has been well planned out by scientists or governments? Are our brains being subjected to manipulation, testing whether we can sustain the memories we believe in?
Conclusion
All in all, the Internet has played a powerful role in facilitating the spread of the Mandela Effect by sharing information,allowing misconceptions and even false memories to gain traction. Taking into account all the theories, this is simply a phenomenon that may not be absolutely true. However, there is no harm in believing in it and coming up with even more crazy possibilities as to why our mind plays tricks on us sometimes. Perhaps, this issue is not even as big as what it seems to be, or, we might just be subjects of an experiment that we don’t even know exist.
References
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