Do you believe in the Mandela Effect?

[Retired 83]

Hey there!    I didn't know where to post this, so if it's in a wrong spot, I have no problem with it being moved!

 

I wanted to ask if anyone here believes in the Mandela Effect. For those that do not know, it is a whole phenomenon surrounding the death of Nelson Mandela. Some remember it happening in 2013, while others like myself remember it happening in the 80's or 90's. From that point onward, millions have come forward with evidence of remembering a past that is no longer real, and many have come up with theories like alternate timelines and parallel universes colliding. From changes in brand names to changes in historical events, many people have posted a lot of interesting content regarding what they believe is true. I encourage you all to research on the topic and reach to your own conclusions!

 

I, for one, have been a victim of this conspiracy theory to some extent. At first it caused severe derealization/depersonalization episodes in me, so if you're easily freaked out then I don't recommend you researching this further. However, after researching, I don't believe the explanations people have put through, but I do recognize something's rather off about how I remember the past. I mean, how do we know? The more we discover about this universe, the less we know about it. Our minds are finite and honestly I cannot rule out something as ludicrous just because I don't believe in it.

 

I remember Kit Kat having a dash in the middle (Kit-Kat) and the thing is that I remember it clearly. I remember the name of the shoe brand Skechers being Sketchers, as in sketch. I remember Looney Toons, not Looney Tunes because it was short for cartoons. I remember Chic-fil-a, and I remember specifically because I used to stare at their logo for long minutes and going like, "Why didn't they add a K to their name?" and now it's always been Chick-fil-a. I remember Fruit Loops, not Froot Loops, I also remember JC Penny and not JC Penney; Febreeze and not Febreze, Sex IN the City and not Sex AND the City, JFK's car had four people and not six, and the list goes on and on. Here's an entire website dedicated to it!

 

What do you think? Is something really happening that is altering our reality? Or is it just all... bad memory? 

[TBD 17,228]

i think its just a misconception, when words sounded the same but people would spell it differently. 

[RiseofSpectrum 359]

It happens because our brains, although good, are not perfect. We do not keep our memories perfect, so in order to fill in little gaps, we add something else to fill it.

[Blackshirt Brony 415]

I don't generally believe in the Mandela Effect, because it seems more likely people are just remembering things wrong. But with Nelson Mandela specifically - I don't know. Much of what little people know about South Africa is already false anyway.

[Zyrael 1,471]

always thought kitkat was kit-kat 

[BlueStreak98 828]

Bad memory. It's always been JCPenney; I remember misspelling "penny" as a kid because of it.

Edited February 15, 2017 by BlueStreak98

[They call me Loyalty 1,941]

Some cases might be related with symptomatic dissociation of paranoia and psychosis.

You would have address each person's psychology.

[llamalauncher 84]

I swear to god curious george had a tail and now he doesnt?!?!??!?!?!

[SONICchaos 824]

Bad memory. It's always been JCPenney; I remember misspelling "penny" as a kid because of it.

Speaking of, I found this recently as one of the biggest childhood misconceptions I never even heard of. Its actually also mentioned in one of the pages in the link Nameria provided at the top but there are bigger pages devoted solely to fleshing out this "conspiracy".

 

http://www.seventeen.com/celebrity/news/a32934/the-berenstein-berenstain-bears-conspiracy-theory/

[Jeric 46,835]

No. Memory changes everytime you recall a memory. Nothing to remember is like it actually was.

 

Also we are extremely suspectable to having memories altered due to suggestion, and it's a trait that our species needed to survive since we needed concepts like tribalism to survive. A person would only remember the mysterious Kit Kat hyphen because they were shown just enough information to make it plausible in their mind. For instance, edited images become reinforcement tools to help further a memory illusion so when recalling Kit Kat logos you to accept it more readily.

 

Basically, the Mandela effect is already a studied thing. Makes for a great philosophical thought experiment though.

[Techno Universal 2,575]

But this effect I've decided that it should maby be known as the Life Looping effect it's when you die you loop back through the dimensional system and get reborn a few years later or instantly after you die. But it still feels like one life when you come back and you can remember everything from your past life. Now that's just my own understandings of it.

[Retired 83]

i think its just a misconception, when words sounded the same but people would spell it differently. 

 

It may be! I cannot rule out any possibility. How would you explain the "changes" in historical events, however? 

 

It happens because our brains, although good, are not perfect. We do not keep our memories perfect, so in order to fill in little gaps, we add something else to fill it.

 

True. I am also with this notion. Our memories are not perfect indeed. However, it still kind of doesn't explain why I vividly remember things differently. But still, unlike many Mandela Effect theorists, I am willing to accept if my memory failed me. I'm just curious because I clearly remember the past differently. 

 

 

I don't generally believe in the Mandela Effect, because it seems more likely people are just remembering things wrong. But with Nelson Mandela specifically - I don't know. Much of what little people know about South Africa is already false anyway.

 

In my case, I remember I was being taught in school about his death. I remember all the teachers talking about it, and I remember watching the TV because they were broadcasting a memorial in his honor. I saw the funeral, I saw pretty much everything. I still remember it vividly. So it was a huge shocker for me when I found out he died in 2013. 

 

 

always thought kitkat was kit-kat 

 

I thought so too. I remember when I was little looking at the candy wrapper. I have always been very observant from a young age. I would stare at logos, names, wrappers, and I would intricately study every little detail. So when I say I remember something related to a brand, I say so because I remember it very different. Now every time I look at Kit Kat I feel something is missing.

 

Bad memory. It's always been JCPenney; I remember misspelling "penny" as a kid because of it.

 

I do remember saying in my mind that I was going to be able to memorize the name if I remembered a penny because it was spelt just like it. As I said above I was very observant. But yeah, it may be just bad memory.

 

Some cases might be related with symptomatic dissociation of paranoia and psychosis.

 

You would have address each person's psychology.

 

I have no history of mental illness whatsoever and I still noticed these "changes." The only instances, in my case, of a less than ideal mental health is when I have those derealization episodes whenever I feel depressed or stressed. But I think that can happen to anyone, so...  I think it may affect people who have mental illnesses worse than neurotypical people, but I still believe this could affect anyone regardless of their mental state.

 

I swear to god curious george had a tail and now he doesnt?!?!??!?!?!

 

In my case, I always remembered Curious George without a tail. I always saw him as a chimpanzee. But you're not alone, a lot of people remember him having one. 

 

Speaking of, I found this recently as one of the biggest childhood misconceptions I never even heard of. Its actually also mentioned in one of the pages in the link Nameria provided at the top but there are bigger pages devoted solely to fleshing out this "conspiracy".

 

http://www.seventeen.com/celebrity/news/a32934/the-berenstein-berenstain-bears-conspiracy-theory/

 

I personally remember the name being Bernstein. I don't remember the Beren- affix. I just remember the Bernstein Bears. Which is odd, because no one seems to remember it like I do.

 

No. Memory changes everytime you recall a memory. Nothing to remember is like it actually was.

 

Also we are extremely suspectable to having memories altered due to suggestion, and it's a trait that our species needed to survive since we needed concepts like tribalism to survive. A person would only remember the mysterious Kit Kat hyphen because they were shown just enough information to make it plausible in their mind. For instance, edited images become reinforcement tools to help further a memory illusion so when recalling Kit Kat logos you to accept it more readily.

 

Basically, the Mandela effect is already a studied thing. Makes for a great philosophical thought experiment though.

 

I find this interesting! I know that our memories are not as stable as we think they are. However, before I was brought to this Mandela Effect theory, I thought that the past I knew was still the norm and I never thought about it much because I thought it was real. It was until I was shown differently and I saw how things are and always had been that it caused a deep shock in me. Even my husband, who is really see-to-believe, was losing his mind over some of the Mandela Effects because he also remembered things differently. Our minds are so unreliable sometimes, it hurts!

 

But this effect I've decided that it should maby be known as the Life Looping effect it's when you die you loop back through the dimensional system and get reborn a few years later or instantly after you die. But it still feels like one life when you come back and you can remember everything from your past life. Now that's just my own understandings of it.

 

Interesting theory! Being a Christian I do not believe in reincarnation but hey, no one really knows what happens after death, so I always remember to keep an open mind about it. I have kind of been into parallel worlds and alternate timelines lately. It'd be so cool if there were parallel worlds or alternate timelines where things were different and somehow it affected our own?   Heh, sounds crazy but it'd be really amazing.

[GeekySonic 1,150]

Psst. It's always been Berenstein Bears.  :ninja:

[Retired 83]

Psst. It's always been Berenstein Bears.  :ninja:

 

:ninja: I agree with you, but shh, don't let the "Berenstain" people know.  :ninja:

[TBD 17,228]

 

 

It may be! I cannot rule out any possibility. How would you explain the "changes" in historical events, however?

 

Like what sort of changes are you referring to? Sorry i'm a little bit sick to try to think.

[Retired 83]

Like what sort of changes are you referring to? Sorry i'm a little bit sick to try to think.

 

The first one is obviously the one that kickstarted the whole phenomenon, Nelson Mandela's death. Click here for "proof" found in a text book about his death being in 1991. Here are people's testimonies regarding this event. Details regarding JFK's assassination. Again, this is not solid evidence but it's at least something to think about!

[Anneal 2,194]

No. Memory changes everytime you recall a memory. Nothing to remember is like it actually was.

Also we are extremely suspectable to having memories altered due to suggestion, and it's a trait that our species needed to survive since we needed concepts like tribalism to survive. A person would only remember the mysterious Kit Kat hyphen because they were shown just enough information to make it plausible in their mind. For instance, edited images become reinforcement tools to help further a memory illusion so when recalling Kit Kat logos you to accept it more readily.

Basically, the Mandela effect is already a studied thing. Makes for a great philosophical thought experiment though.

I'm taking Psychology in university and we've talked about this kind of distorted memory before. There are the big "seven sins" of memory that cause us to forget, distort, or even create fake memories. The three relevant ones are: misattribution, suggestibility, and bias.

 

Misattribution is when you place your memory in the wrong context, which often creates false memories and people "filling the gap". There's been plenty of experiments where people are given a list of words of a particular theme to memorize. They found out, howevr, that while some people can fully memorize the lists, they can also unintentionally add words that were not on it at all (most people who were given "door, glass, sill, house, frame, and shutter" ended up claiming that "window" was on the list with high confidence). This would explain why people believe there's a hyphen in Kit Kat or call JCPenney "JCPenny"; our memory has been wired to fill in parts that we think are "wrong".

 

Suggestibility is when fake memories are created or existing memories are distorted as a result of unintentional suggestion. Loftus and Palmer did an experiment ( http://www.simplypsychology.org/loftus-palmer.html ) on this where even simple word replacements were able to warp the details of something simple such as a car crash. They were also able to add memories that never happened to them (which is actually very dangerous, as it's been found in some cases that the testimony of witnesses have been warped due to suggetions, leading to more than a few false charges).

 

Expectancy bias, confirmation bias, and self-consistency bias also influences how our own ideas and expectations, or the belief of being more consistent than we actually are, can subconsciously affect our memories. Either way, the Mandela effect is bogus ( http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Mandela_effect ); it's just your memory playing tricks on you.

[Retired 83]

I'm taking Psychology in university and we've talked about this kind of distorted memory before. There are the big "seven sins" of memory that cause us to forget, distort, or even create fake memories. The three relevant ones are: misattribution, suggestibility, and bias.

 

Misattribution is when you place your memory in the wrong context, which often creates false memories and people "filling the gap". There's been plenty of experiments where people are given a list of words of a particular theme to memorize. They found out, howevr, that while some people can fully memorize the lists, they can also unintentionally add words that were not on it at all (most people who were given "door, glass, sill, house, frame, and shutter" ended up claiming that "window" was on the list with high confidence). This would explain why people believe there's a hyphen in Kit Kat or call JCPenney "JCPenny"; our memory has been wired to fill in parts that we think are "wrong".

 

Suggestibility is when fake memories are created or existing memories are distorted as a result of unintentional suggestion. Loftus and Palmer did an experiment ( http://www.simplypsychology.org/loftus-palmer.html ) on this where even simple word replacements were able to warp the details of something simple such as a car crash. They were also able to add memories that never happened to them (which is actually very dangerous, as it's been found in some cases that the testimony of witnesses have been warped due to suggetions, leading to more than a few false charges).

 

Expectancy bias, confirmation bias, and self-consistency bias also influences how our own ideas and expectations, or the belief of being more consistent than we actually are, can subconsciously affect our memories. Either way, the Mandela effect is bogus ( http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Mandela_effect ); it's just your memory playing tricks on you.

 

 

Oooh, super interesting! It's super interesting and it only shows how fragile our minds are. Thank you for your input! 

[Johnny1226 14,674]

at certain times in my life I have been to a place or witnessed an event that I've never seen before yet have gotten a strong sense of dejavu in those places whether it be in dreams or in real life I believe that I most likely had been to those places and done those things in another reality split from my own

[TBD 17,228]

The first one is obviously the one that kickstarted the whole phenomenon, Nelson Mandela's death. Click here for "proof" found in a text book about his death being in 1991. Here are people's testimonies regarding this event. Details regarding JFK's assassination. Again, this is not solid evidence but it's at least something to think about!

Confabulation is what these people are experiencing. I don't think there was any changes in a first place. Like I said before, memories are being misinterpreted. Like a rubble effect, once one people believes one things to be true, anyone else joins. You could think it like rumors being spread making everyone believes that it's actually true and that it did happen.

[Blackshirt Brony 415]

 

In my case, I remember I was being taught in school about his death. I remember all the teachers talking about it, and I remember watching the TV because they were broadcasting a memorial in his honor. I saw the funeral, I saw pretty much everything. I still remember it vividly. So it was a huge shocker for me when I found out he died in 2013. 

 

 

Very interesting. I'm wearing a major tinfoil hat here but I wouldn't be completely surprised if someone faked a "Mandela dies" story tbh.

 

Suggestibility is when fake memories are created or existing memories are distorted as a result of unintentional suggestion. Loftus and Palmer did an experiment ( http://www.simplypsychology.org/loftus-palmer.html ) on this where even simple word replacements were able to warp the details of something simple such as a car crash. They were also able to add memories that never happened to them (which is actually very dangerous, as it's been found in some cases that the testimony of witnesses have been warped due to suggetions, leading to more than a few false charges).

 

Is it possible this could be caused intentionally? During a cross-examination for example?

[Anneal 2,194]

Is it possible this could be caused intentionally? During a cross-examination for example?

Most of the time it could just be unintentional, but yes, someone particularly manipulative can use suggestibility to deliberately distort one's testimony. For example, saying "how fast was the car going when they smashed" and "when they hit" produced a 25% difference in apparent speed. Some more serious cases can occur in distorting or creating false memories of traumatized victims; for example, a psychologist on TV in 1975 was falsely accused of rape when the victim had simply misattributed him to the actual rapist. (https://www.theguardian.com/science/2010/nov/24/false-memories-abuse-convict-innocent)

Edited February 17, 2017 by Minccino

[Steve Piranha 28,782]

it's possible that our brain is deceiving ourselves and remembers things in the wrong way just to fill-up space, or maybe the world it's just crazy enough that alternate timelines do connect with ours

[Props Valroa 26,046]

I believe in it, but it could be explained by a mind error or something. 

[FlootahBabby 265]

I've only experienced it once. Every other case that I've heard of I remember it as the way they found out it was.

 

The one time I experienced it is when I thought that there were 4 people in the car that JFK was assassinated in when there were actually 6.