The Mandela Effect: A Glitch in the Matrix or Just False Memories?

How accurate are your memories? Did you see something that you didn’t expect, and your brain had trouble processing it? You experienced the Mandela Effect.

This phenomenon makes us question the credibility of our own memories. Sometimes fuzzy or even distorted details make us wonder if what we saw and experienced was actually true or if it was made up. The power of this effect lies in the creation of conflict between the past and your memory of the past, making it hard to decide what’s real and what’s fake.

When was a name given to this phenomenon?

You would expect that something as odd as this would have had a name long before 2009, but that’s not the case. It received its name when paranormal consultant Fiona Broome recollected the news of Nelson Mandela’s death in the 1980s while he was in prison. We know that wasn’t actually what happened; Mandela was released from prison in 1990 and elected President of South Africa, which gives us an idea of how distorted such memories can become. Strangely, many people agreed with Broome’s accounting of events and convinced themselves that Mandela passed away in the 1980s. He actually passed away in 2013 at the age of 95, but you can see how this phenomenon works and where its name came from.

Less world-changing events

Sometimes, the impact of the Mandela Effect is rooted in simple details that some people remember one way while others remember it another. Many debates involving this phenomenon have sprung up online over the years. One of these is whether or not the popular Pokémon character Pikachu has black on his tail. Some believe the character has the black marking on his tail, while others remember the tail colored yellow with no black at the end of it.

Another such event in the entertainment world is the title of the beloved cartoon “Loony Tunes.” Many people would tell you the spelling of the word is Toons and not Tunes, but if you watch, you’ll find the latter to be correct. It makes sense that our brains might choose to remember Toons because it seems like the title should be short for cartoons, but that’s not the case.

Your side mirror is messing with you

What are the words etched into the side mirror of your vehicle? Most of us think these words leave some doubt as to the distance between your vehicle and the one behind you or in the view of the mirror, but that’s not the case. Many drivers will tell you the words are, “Objects in the mirror MAY be closer than they appear,” which leaves doubt as to the distance and perception, but that’s not true. In fact, these words actually are “Objects in the mirror ARE closer than they appear.” This leaves no doubt and serves as a warning that most of us should heed while driving.

Many-worlds interpretation or strange memory phenomenon?

In an attempt to rationalize the effect, Broome suggests an explanation that would allow multiple realities to take place in several universes at the same time. This theory is called the many-worlds interpretation of the Mandela Effect, and it would be a fitting explanation as to why we remember some things one way when they aren’t actually that way at all. Essentially, if you have memories of events that never took place in your current universe, that doesn’t mean they didn’t take place in another universe during the exact time of your memories.

Does this mean we’ve been pushed into a parallel world with false memories that are suddenly true? Some conspiracy theorists suggest this could be the case, and it would explain a model with many worlds that has become part of the explanation of certain events in time and history put forward by quantum mechanics.

One simple change affects every world

Another way to look at how various events are remembers or misremembered is to think of a world or timeline in which one change happens. One simple change could impact and divert an entire timeline. This would allow those who experience the change to remember something incorrectly that was actually correct in the unaltered timeline. This can be mind blowing for anyone trying to explain this phenomenon.

Confusion Theory

While it’s not the official name of anything, what could happen in our brains to cause the Mandela Effect is simple confusion. We can confuse one event with another or read words a certain way that aren’t correct because our brains somehow tell us the wrong information is correct.

Have you experienced the Mandela Effect? Did any of the scenarios above cause you to take a second look and remember things differently?