Have you ever questioned yourself whether certain events that you think remember actually happened? If you did, you are not alone and in fact, it is a common psychological effect known as the Mandela effect.
The Mandela effect is an anomaly that can make anyone think twice about whether their memory was correct or not. This abnormality is what happens when an individual or a large group of people “remember” something that never happened. Why is it called this way? It’s called this way because many people remember and believe that Nelson Mandela, an important individual on the war of Apartheid in South Africa, died in the 80’s when the regimen of Pieter Willem Botha decided to keep him in prison. The reality is that he got out of prison and became the president of his nation from 1994 until 1999. He didn’t die until 2013, when he was 95 years old. This experience was the result of a global obfuscation that involved this man.
There are other cases where we can see the Mandela effect in action. For example, we have the “Looney Toons”, a very popular cartoon that a lot of people remember. The strange fact is that it’s spelled “Looney Tunes”. Even so, a big community remembers the name being Toons.
Another case is the monopoly character. The little man with the high hat, the suit, the money bag, and the monocle is an image that’s easy to remember. The complication is that he doesn’t have a monocle.
The “Snow White and the seven dwarfs” was one of the first Disney movies. In the movie, there is a scene where the Evil Queen says “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all”. Turns out the queen never said that, as she had really said: “Magic mirror on the wall…”
There are more cases of the Mandela effect and they all bring the same questions: How can the Mandela effect influence a large group of people into believing and remembering something that didn’t happen? Why does it keep happening? A possible answer is that this event is the result of a glitch in the link between realities. This theory establishes that these memories are the result of parallel events happening in other realities; alternative versions of these experiences. It’s like there is a deterioration in the lines that connect these universes and it’s making us remember things that happen in these other realities. This is a theory that can be rebuked by the fact that sometimes it can be a big confusion. For example, the monopoly man incident can be the confusion between him and Mr. Peanut, the Planters peanut company’s mascot; same with the “Looney Toons”, associating Toons with cartoons.
There are always two or more answers to one question. In this case, it can be a very simple confusion between the mind and the events or bigger issues that concern the whole universe. Either way it’s still interesting to learn that this effect is something that affects us in some way.