Have you ever remembered something and you were so positive about it, only to one day find out that it was not true at all and that that memory actually never happened? Welcome to the Mandela Effect.
The Mandela Effect has been described by David Emery as a collective misremembering of some fact or event.
It is just like the moment when you are telling a story and you explain how you, together with your friends arrive at the game in the third running, and you completely believe that until your friend tells you are wrong and you guys arrived right on time.
For some particular reasons, our brains tend to fill in the empty gaps of time which we forgot and make us believe that what we say is actually true. According to psychologists, it is called confabulation:
Confabulation is an unconscious process of creating a narrative which the narrator believes is true but that is demonstrably false.
Furthermore, Emery explains how this term was coined The Mandela Effect:
The first one that became aware of the phenomenon was Fiona Brooke, after discovering that she shared a particular false memory – that South African human rights activist, as well as president Nelson Mandela, died in prison during the 1980s, but he actually died in 2013.
After that, a lot of people started writing in, agreeing with Fiona's statement that he died in the 1980s, only to realize that it was just a false memory which they made up somehow, and yet all believed in it.
Since that event, people were putting together lists of things which the general public swears they remember a certain way, but that was actually very different in reality.
Casablanca
For some particular reason, everyone can swear that the broken-hearted character if Humphrey Bogart known as Rick, tells his friend, as well as a musician to “Play it again, Sam.” After that Sam goes into the beautiful rendition of “Time Goes By.”
The truth is that that line was never said at all. In a frustrated tone, Rick just says, Play it.” But, we have convinced ourselves otherwise over time, claiming that it was one of the most famous lines in the movie history.
States
As quickly as you can, you should say out loud the number of states in the United States. Was it 52, 51, or 50? If you think about it, you will get the right answer, but often times, people just think there are 52, for some reasons assuming that we have 50 states and then they add Alaska and Hawaii, once again to get 52.
Forest Gump
This is one of the best, as well as the saddest movies of all times, with some of the most quotable lines in the history of cinema. Just like Casablanca, there is one line which we all quote incorrectly. Do you think that Forrest tells the lady on the bench that his mama used to say “ Life is like a box of chocolates,” or “Life was like a box of chocolates?” He actually says “was", even though we usually quote it “is.”
Bernstein or Berenstein bears?
This is your favorite childhood bear family, but do you recall their name? Only a few years ago, the phenomenon got nationwide attention. Noelle Devoe wrote about the Mandela Effect, going into details about what Broome thinks about such strange occurrences:
The theory actually states that shared false memories are in fact glimpses into parallel worlds with different timelines.
You will be 100% shocked that the lovable bears, in fact, are the “Berenstain Bears” and not Berenstain; they were actually named by the writers Stan and Judy Berenstain.
Sinbad: a genie or maybe not?
At that same period as The Berenstain Bears phenomenon occurred, everyone talked about the false memory of Sinbad playing a genie in a movie from the 1990s, called Shazaam.
A number of people in the country, as well as probably in the world, thought that Sinbad played a genie in a movie from 1990s similar to Shaq in Kazaam. The idea reached popularity until Sinbad tweeted about the phenomenon saying the following:
Have you noticed no one my age has seen this so-called Sinbad Genie movie, only you people who were just kids at that period. The young mind.
He continued on and offered a $5,000 reward for anyone that could produce footage of the so-called Shazaam movie.
Curious George: tail or not?
This is one of those weird things which are hard to remember. We recall the man in yellow, rain jacket and pointy hat, but did this man had a tail?
The answer is that he didn't. Physically, it does not make sense, because even though we usually refer to Curious George as a monkey, he was a chimpanzee in fact. Members of the great ape family do not have tails.
“We are the champions...of the world” – Queen
When you were a kid, you were probably first introduced to Queen's "We are the champions” in the famous movie The Mighty Ducks when they win the championship. This is actually where a bed of confusions lies. This is some kind of iffy.
In the film, the song really ends with “ We are the champions...of the world,” but in the original release of the song, it us differently. If you heard the song before you watched the movie, you should know better. They do say “of the world” throughout the song, but in the closing note, they are simply champions and not of the world.
Here are some other buzzer beaters:
Oscar Meyer or Oscar Mayer? It is actually Oscar Mayer, and it only sounds like Meyer.
Rich Uncle Pennybags from Monopoly does not have a monocle like a lot of people think. It seems like he has 20/20 vision.
The tip of the tail of Pikachu is yellow, not black., although that is how we used to draw it.
Darth Vader never says, “Luke, I am your father,” but he says, No, I am your father.”
Kit-Kat or Kit-Kat? It does not contain a hyphen in it.
The Evil Queen never says, “Mirror, mirror, on the wall,” But, as shown in the Disney classic from 1937, the nasty stepmother of Snow White says, “Magic mirror on the wall...”
Hannibal Lecter never says, “Hello Clarice.” However, it is supposed to be one if the most famous horror-movie lines ever. Everything he says is “Morning.”
