Mandela Effect Thoughts, Part 1

Today, I caught myself thinking about the Mandela Effect. For those of you who don’t know, the Mandela Effect occurs when a large minority of people remember something happening in a certain way, only to find it slightly altered (or completely different) in the historical record. It derives its name from Nelson Mandela, who many thought had died in prison, or at least, years before his actual death in 2013.

Believers in the theory feel that either the world has changed around them, or that they’ve slipped through to an alternate universe in which things are slightly different. Detractors say that it’s possible to mistakenly remember things on a large scale. (And, although I haven’t actually heard this one, what if the effect is caused by time travelers inadvertently changing the timeline?)

Popular support for the effect often cites the series of children’s books, the Berenstain Bears, which many people swear was ‘Berenstein’; or that the Monopoly Man had a monocle, or any number of small differences.

While I’m not going to completely discount the idea of people slipping between universes, I’m firmly in the ‘flawed memory’ camp. For example, I’m reasonably sure that the reason so many think the Berenstain Bears were the ‘Berenstein Bears’ is simply because ‘–stain’ is not a common suffix for a family name, and ‘–stein’ is. It’s not that our memories are actually faulty, but rather that we didn’t read it correctly the first time.

And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that there’s at least one Mandela Effect that I ‘know’ has changed. It’s in the 2000 horror parody film Scary Movie. I remember an African American stoner character whispering ‘I see white people,’ in reference to the famous scene in The Sixth Sense. But nope! The character says ‘I see dead people.’ While I agree with several redditors and YouTubers that this isn’t even a joke, I’ve got to think that my memory is faulty.

Here’s an experiment–get on your computer and write a few paragraphs…an anecdote, a story you like, a journal entry…the subject doesn’t matter, but it should be at least three or four paragraphs long. Once you’re finished, read it through to yourself, just checking for content. It’s perfect, right? Of course it is. Now either give it to a friend to proofread or let it sit for a couple of days, then read it carefully. You’ll find mistakes. I guarantee it. Nearly every post on this blog has needed some fixing after initial publication.

Our memories are faulty. That’s all there is to it. If we all remember Scary Movie the same way, it’s because “I see white people” is a better joke. We remember a different funeral. We auto-corrected ‘–stain’ to ‘–stein’ because it’s more common. And on and on.

As much as I’d like to think people are unknowingly flitting between universes, the Mandela Effect isn’t evidence of anything except the limitations of our memories.

NEXT WEEK: My take on why so many people continue to believe in the Mandela Effect.