The Mandela Effect is basically the name for the phenomenon of collective misremembering of historical events by a large amount of people. This phenomenon was coined the Mandela Effect, because there are millions of people who incorrectly could swear to you that Nelson Mandela died in the 1980's, even distinctly remembering watching his funeral on live television. Nelson Mandela actually died in the year of 2013, to many people's shock. When I first heard of the Mandela Effect, I didn't take it very seriously. The main examples given to me initially were simply logos or quotes from movies that were not exactly as remembered. I did identify with a few of the examples, but of course I didn't make a big deal about it because human memory is extremely faulty, and false memories can be planted into the human mind through reinforcement. The example that freaks out many people is the Berenstein Bears, the cartoon whom many people watched or read as children. The fact that they have always been called the Berenstain Bears shook many people up. I wasn't too alarmed about that example though, since it had been probably 16 or 17 years since I had watched or read anything involving the Berenstain Bears, so I ascribed it to faulty memory.
So what were the examples that made me change my mind?....
There are various examples of little logo changes and things being different in films that initially peaked my interest. Two of them were from Star Wars:
- Darth Vader never says the famous quote "Luke, I am your father." Instead he says "No, I am your father."
and - The fact that c3po has always had a silver leg.
As a huge Star Wars fan who has watched the series many times, I was somewhat impacted by these realizations. But of course,
I dismissed these examples because popular culture could easily distort a line and then make that line iconic, reinforcing a false memory in our minds.
But the examples that impacted me the most were the following....
- Geography
I am no geographical expert by any means, never have been, so I have learned to admit that maybe it's just my faulty memory that has distorted my thoughts on this, but I was initially really thrown off guard when I saw the map displaying South America in relation to North America.
The freaky aspect to me is that the way I recall it, as do many other thousands, if not millions of people, is that South America was never that far shifted to the East, but was more-or-less lined up with North America, but was slightly to the east.
Basically I remember it as said A.
- Human Anatomy-
This freaked me out beyond belief. Look, I only took one Anatomy class in high school, so again, I'm no expert in human anatomy, but this one jarred me because it shook up everything that I had been TAUGHT in school. When I look at the diagram of the human body, it is glaringly different than what I had learned throughout the course of my life, and I feel crazy even saying that.
What looks off to me? The liver was always lower and much smaller, as was the stomach. Neither were protected by the rib cage. I always remember the heart being more skewed to the left side of the chest, rather than the direct middle (slightly left). The small intestines were never jumbled and taking up the entire abdominal area. Instead, I had learned about them being folded pretty neatly, to the point where they hardly took up much space at all. Also the kidneys, were much lower and not protected by the ribs. These physiological differences really freaked me out because it made me question everything, and made me feel like I was insane. But guess what? I am not the only one who remembers things this way, and that is what is so intriguing about this phenomenon.. Why do masses of people share the same false memories?
- The JFK Assassination
Another one that will make me seem nuts. In all fairness, I was not someone who devoured the tapes and spent hours upon hours studying them, but there are people who have, and are now completely shocked that they are now seeing completely different footage than they had remembered previously. I remember there being 4 people in the car: JFK, Jackie, the driver, and Connaly in the front seat ( his wife wasn't in the car). In every video recording though, there are clearly six people in the car, and that is indisputable. The most memorable thing for me having to do with watching the JFK assassination videos in the past, was that there was a popular conspiracy theory, that the driver killed JFK, as he turned around and put his hand up over his shoulder at the exact moment when JFK's head was blasted... Now? The tape is nothing like that, and there is protective barrier directly behind the drivers, making the prospect of him being the shooter completely impossible. Why do I distinctly remember this being a popular conspiracy theory then? Why do so many other people share this false memory. In addition, when I study the tapes now, Jackie Kennedy looks somewhat suspect, almost as if she could have been the shooter. It's so difficult to tell anything from the tapes, but the way that she moves and acts before and after the shot, is totally different than what I remember. From my memories, there was never a conspiracy that Jackie was the shooter, and now there is.. really crazy stuff.
Do any of these examples relate to you? What do you think? I will say that a few months ago I was really entrenched in this stuff, but I honestly forgot all about it, until last night when I was looking into Kennedy's assassination again. In other words, this stuff doesn't get to me that much anymore, but I find it extremely entertaining.
