Do you believe in the Mandela Effect?

[CT-1138 3,180]

The Mandela Effect is an exercise in cognitive dissonance. For instance, the Mandela Effect at work: 

 

And because old George perpetuates it, people will forever insist that Greedo had always shot first. Despite there being hundreds of VHS tapes that show differently. 

[Sovereign Leader Rarity 12,000]

No, it's just bad memory and misconceptions.

There are no such things alternating realities, just alternating, minds, memories and perceptions.

[Prospekt 10,984]

I swear to God when I was a kid it was BerenstEin, not BerenstAin! I even distinctly remember hearing people mispronounce the ending as "steen," not "stain."

 

Very confusing stuff going on. I blame @Azul Maya for getting me interested in this.

[Gestum 2,493]

No. I belive that it is possible to be wrong about stuff.

[Techno Universal 2,575]

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

 

 

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.

 

 

 

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.

 

 

 

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.

 

 

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.

 

 

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.

 

 

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.

 

 

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.

 

 

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!

 

 

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.

Well I'm actually Christian too but this theory in my head is more of a gap filler in my thought logic so I don't continuously keep on asking this question and it never gets answered. Now the alternate timelines or universes are actually very interesting as I currently think of this being the core universe and everything we create as thoughts, stories and moves are actually real in the form of other universes in this moltyverse. So even the smallest events here will hugely effect the events in other universes.

[blackstarraven 142]

I believe that the effect is real.
But there is nothing super-scientific about it.

Its pretty simple.

The human brain is not wired to seek to be correct. (You must train it for that)
Its wired to win a Argument. And that does include convincing yourself that your correct when all evidence states your not.

_

A great example of what is wrong with the ideal is simple. Taking the Kit Kat Example.

https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/2016-10/11/16/asset/buzzfeed-prod-fastlane02/sub-buzz-7941-1476219108-1.jpg?resize=625:156&no-auto

 

We (Some people) Remember a Kit-Kat.

And this picture would support the ideal that there was once a kit-kat.

But there was not..

"But what the image!"

It's fake.....

Just like stuff that has "Sex in the City" on it... Because it was always "Sex and the city."

I can also point out MANY example from Movies.

Luke I am your father.

Life is like a box of chocolates.

Hello Clarice.

None of those lines EVER Happened.

No, I am your father!

Life was like a box of chocolates.

... The one from Silence never happened at all... its just "Good Morning."

 

There are litterally tons of things that fall into this...

Simply put, people will argue instead of admit they are wrong. 

Edited March 17, 2017 by blackstarraven

[SparklingSwirls 21,261]

Yeah, I agree that people just don't like to admit that they were wrong. I guess it's easier to blame your mistakes on a parallel universe instead of your own brain...

 

Just accept that your brain is not perfect.

Edited March 18, 2017 by SparklingSwirls

[CheeryFox 23,811]

Yes. Indeed, I've researched the meta-universe for the past few years now. But it wasn't until about 2 years ago that I went deeper into the rabbit hole. // Lewis Carroll You can only attribute false memories on a small-scale. Confabulation exists--it's an everyday occurrence. The numbers are growing, and people want answers. Brian Greene once said: “Exploring the unknown requires tolerating uncertainty.” You can stick to a linear way of thinking and toss logic around all you want or you can delve into something a bit more...elusive. 

[Buck Testa 5,503]

I think its far more likely that people just remember things wrong than somehow phasing into another reality that had that single minute change. Memory is flawed even under the best of conditions. Good memories become even rosier, bad memories lose their edge or get even worse, and all the little details get muddied as time marches on. There are only a handful of people on the planet with the capability to recall everything in their lives with perfect accuracy. The rest of us do not have such innate gifts. It is not so strange then that a large group of people remembered something wrong in a similar way. 

[CheeryFox 23,811]

Well, hello... https://www.walmart.com/ip/Bright-Air-Macintosh-Apple-Cinnamon-Scented-Oil-Air-Freshener-2.5-oz/27437879 I do fancy computer-scented products. 

 

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/mcintosh

 

@Prospekt: 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYUVRgRI5W0

[Aqua Sunshine 49]

I think i do, few months ago I thought it was a trick of the brain but as I started watching videos I saw that everyone used to be believe, like me, that some words were wrote in a different way or a phrase like on star wars. We thought Darth Vader said "luke I'm your father" but he never said "Luke" on that phrase. Even the person who acted as Darth Vader thought the phrase was "Luke im your father".

[cmarston1 5,952]

Not really.

However I do find it interesting to think about.

[Catsle 604]

I say it's half in half one part I believe I've experienced it but I could see that some of the things might be simple mishearing or readings of words.

[Victoria Sponge 1,014]

Nope, I think it's just an excuse for bad memory. It's a natural thing, our brains don't always pay full attention and our memories can be warped. Take Mandela in prison for example, people think he died in prison because they simply didn't hear about him for a long time and assumed it was because he'd passed away in prison, when he became relevant again when he really died they were so caught up in their own warped memories that they were genuinely surprised he had only just passed away. It's human nature, not alternate dimensions. Deciding that we must be hopping between different dimensions is a ridiculous conclusion to come to.

[CheeryFox 23,811]

If the ME is bad memory...it's worse than we thought... Evangelists are quoting the Bible wrong, people are taking pictures at landmarks that aren't there---teams of scientists are investigating the phenomena as I write this...etc. 

[NotoriousSMALL 1,984]

No. It's just people don't pay attention to things that much. Just the other day I figured out I was reading an artist's name wrong. (their name was 'Mildock' but I read 'Milock')

Take for instance the infamous star wars quote from Darth Vader. Everyone says "Luke I am your father" but in the movie he's just like "No, I am your father." 

When people are quoting it, it makes more sense to say "Luke I am your father" out of context, because the original quote is a reply while the incorrect quote stands alone.

Then, because it got popular, it got quoted a lot and people just started thinking it was "Luke I am your father" and they believed it because obviously they probably hadn't seen the movie in a while.

[CheeryFox 23,811]

9 minutes ago, NotoriousSMALL said:

No. It's just people don't pay attention to things that much. Just the other day I figured out I was reading an artist's name wrong. (their name was 'Mildock' but I read 'Milock')

Take for instance the infamous star wars quote from Darth Vader. Everyone says "Luke I am your father" but in the movie he's just like "No, I am your father." 

When people are quoting it, it makes more sense to say "Luke I am your father" out of context, because the original quote is a reply while the incorrect quote stands alone.

Then, because it got popular, it got quoted a lot and people just started thinking it was "Luke I am your father" and they believed it because obviously they probably hadn't seen the movie in a while.

It doesn't make sense to paraphrase movie lines. In fact, it's foolish. The comedic effect is lost if you do so. Also...if you're an avid fan of quotes, even back then, there were books to check source material. 

[Wingnut 6,732]

This is a fascinating topic. Part of the reason for Kit Kat, Chick-Fil-A,  Froot Loops, and similar anomalies is because of errors made by others writing words like that out.  Even sometimes appearing in newspapers where proofreading is supposed to preventit.  A personal favorite of mine is the biblical passage about the lion lying down with the lamb.  Actually in Isaiah 11:6 the lamb is with a wolf while a calf is next to the lion.  But our minds seem to condense this down to the lamb and the lion because Jesus is regularly called the lamb of God while the lion is considered the mightiest predator.  

Strangely, I have always remembered the Darth Vader quote correctly.  

[Sugar Cube 4,843]

I believe something is going on beyond mere misattrubution. Yes, our memories are far from perfect, but that alone isn't enough to explain just how so many people have the same false memories. The bible talks about a wolf dwelling with the lamb despite the fact that the passage is remembered as being the lion lying down with lamb. My mother who is more bible savy than I, answered lion, when I asked what animal lies with the lamb in the bible. There are statues around the world depicting the two animals together. TV shows and books have quoted the original verse people remember.

[CheeryFox 23,811]

I'm a pop culture enthusiast--and I'm not just saying that. I used to read countless magazines, some books---God knows wtf else on pop culture. I've heard and seen movie lines change from books, magazines, newspapers, and so on. I don't think I need to see a neurologist or take medications. False memories cannot account for that many people. I used to go to church everyday - my grandfather was a reverend/pastor - a revered one in MD (I might add)---anyway, I didn't recall a wolf and a lamb in the Bible - not once. 

[NotoriousSMALL 1,984]

On 5/14/2017 at 2:00 PM, Stormfury said:

It doesn't make sense to paraphrase movie lines. In fact, it's foolish. The comedic effect is lost if you do so. Also...if you're an avid fan of quotes, even back then, there were books to check source material. 

Well it's what people did, and people do it all the time.

 

[KatonRyu 1,026]

I used to call those things 'reality shifts', where I remembered something clearly that had apparently always been the same, as being totally different. In reality, though, I think this is caused by human memory being incredibly malleable and fallible, but people consistently overestimate their ability to remember things and notice changes. This is something also seen in the phenomenon of change blindness. Videos that demonstrate that effect are easily found on Youtube. One of the best known experiments with this is called 'The Invisible Gorilla'.

[Raritas 6,820]

I've actually fallen victim to this recently... There's a common belief on the internet in which people think South Park predicted an Adam Sandler movie years before it even came out, and this is backed up by fake screenshots, but it turns out the scene everyone thinks they remember is actually different and I was so confused.. Dammit internet.

[Mister Asmodeus 28]

I think huge numbers of people can remember things the wrong way. Normally from not paying attention, or just not being educated on certain things.

Just an example. Nelson Mandela wasn't really that well-known worldwide. People likely weren't paying much attention to bits of news centering around him in the 80s. Maybe a lot of people mistook what they did catch on TV for a funeral. Or perhaps all people vaguely know about him is that he went to prison in the 80s and that he's dead, and those two bits of knowledge got merged into one false memory. At the end of the day, human memory is extremely flawed, and this is a more likely explanation than alternate dimensions.

I knew never died in the 80s, but I've noticed other examples of this effect.

• I used to think Kit Kat was Kit-Kat because I never paid much attention, and to be frank, it makes more sense to have a dash present in that name.
• It wasn't until my fifth or sixth viewing of the Star Wars trilogy that I realized Vader says, "No. I am your father."
• I was spelling Skechers wrong for years because, honestly, the rules of the English language dictate that there should be a damn T present in that word.

[CheeryFox 23,811]

Let me explain offhand how memory works. I'm not gonna get into this much because ya can research it yerself. Memories can have strong ties. For instance, if I wanna remember something as much as possible---if it were a [book], I would read it a few times and recall the information. ... And read enough, I should be able to memorize vast amounts. Pictorial interpretation also the same. For the information to be different from what you recollect from the same source--your brain would notice this without hesitation. Because the neural connections are there.  

People love to use the flawed memories argument. It cannot be used for everything. Do that and you'll fail your scientific reproach.