The Mandela Effect: Is it real? The science behind it

The term, “Mandela effect” was coined in 2009 by Fiona Broome, a “paranormal consultant.” She published a website where she described remembering Nelson Mandela, who had been an imprisoned leader of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, dying in prison in the 1980s. Broome could describe details, but in reality Nelson Mandela had not died. He was released in 1990, and went on to become president of South Africa. He died recently in 2013. Broome learned that many people shared the same memory.

How is it possible that so many people could share the same false memory? Broome has several theories. It could be due to the many worlds theory of quantum mechanics. If a near infinite number of parallel universes exist, then there could be a world where these false memories are correct.

Broome’s second theory is that this could be a sign that our world is a simulation, and there’s some type of glitch in the matrix, where history was rewritten.

Let’s look the possibility of the multiple universes and glitches in the matrix may be causing this. The many worlds interpretation is the concept that the universe splits every time a quantum outcome occurs. This can lead to a near infinite number of universes where anything that is not forbidden by the laws of physics can potentially occur, including a universe in which Nelson Mandela may have died in prison in the 1980’s. But the theory absolutely forbids any communication or information transfer between universes. This would violate not only the laws of quantum mechanics, but also basic conservation laws.

What about the idea of a glitch in the matrix? This is like the holodeck on Star Trek. Maybe our reality is a computer simulation, and we are remembering something that actually happened, but there is a program error.

This is plausible, because theoretically we could be living in a simulation. But if true, the programmers could simply restart the program from a point prior to the glitch. You would not have a memory of this because the program that runs your brain would also restart from that same point. Your new simulated memories would not have formed yet. So the idea that the simulators or the matrix is playing trick on us, is unlikely, unless of course they were trying to simulate this exact Mandela effect. But this is not testable.

Is there a simpler explanation? Science indicates that there is. This has sto do with not only how our brains are wired to store memory, but also the psychology of our thought processes. Memories are organized in the brain so that similar memories are stored in nearby neurons. This framework of the brain is called schema. This was reinforced by a 2016 study that used MRI to take a glimpse inside the brain on how memories are formed. And it showed that similar words are stored in adjacent areas of the brain.

So for example, Mandela didn’t die in prison, however, Steve Biko was also a South African anti-apartheid activist, imprisoned during the same time as Mandela. He was arguably as famous as Mandela at the time. The only difference is that that Biko died in prison. Maybe his was the death many people recalled.

Memory is constructed, not reproduced. So what happens is that when you recall memories, this can trigger other related memories in the brain. This could explain the memory that people have about “Jiffy” vs “Jif” peanut butter. There is a similar sounding brand called “Skippy” peanut butter. And when recalling the name, the brain may be combining two different bits of information and causing the recall of a fictitious Jiffy brand, instead of Jif.

Memories are not permanent, but fluid. They can be influenced by our expectations.So one explanation for the Barenstain vs. Barenstein memory is that names ending in “stein” are far more common than names ending in “stain.” People’s expectation is that it was barenstein not barenstain, so that’s what they recall.

There are websites and facebook groups for example, that create communities based around misinformation. This selective exposure has been studied, and has shown that we are more likely to remember false events when they fit into our pre-existing beliefs and opinions.

Facts don’t seem to change people’s memories or opinions. Frequently reported misinformation can become reality. And the viral power of the internet can magnify these false narratives.

#mandelaeffect

Memories are notoriously unreliable. They are vulnerable to false narratives and suggestions. A 2020 study showed that hoaxes and rumors won out over the truth about 70 percent of the time. We have to be careful to not only not let it harm us as individuals, but not let it harm society as well.

[jetcitysinatra]

Suppose science doesn't want us to know that the Mandela Effect is real.

[alvinaganci]

Disney changed it in newer versions. I remember clearly: over 60 years ago, in children's books, it was, "Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?"

[Torpeddo]

This is a fantastic explanation of the Mandela effect. I will still go to my
grave believing that I read the Berenstein Bears to my children.

[fefefilmprod]

I think some of them can be explained by jokes that comedians have told on television or in specials. Like the Darth Vader line. If the comedian doesn’t say Luke then the audience might not get the reference. Saying Luke makes the line funnier. An example of this is a Bill Hicks joke where one character keeps saying “pick up the gun”. The other character doesn’t want to pick up the gun but eventually he does. The first character shoots him when he picked up the gun and then said “You all saw him, he had a gun”. The way he tells the joke isn’t exactly how that movie goes but Bill told it in a way so people would laugh and still understand the reference. That’s my opinion on some of the movie stuff.

[danielcarter]

The other day I was walking around a pretty small park in a small town. There are houses around the park and you can walk laps around the park because a road goes all around it. As I started, I took note of one particular blacktop driveway because I liked how the gray brick pillars were mounted on either side of the entrance. You could say it was a gate, but there were no actual barriers, just the posts or newels on either side of the driveway. There was also a band of gray bricks inlaid into the blacktop between the pillars. The blacktop looked brand new and I liked the whole aesthetic, so I stopped and looked at it. I thought it might be a nice thing to consider for my driveway.

So I continued on, I did one lap around the park and I came back to this driveway again. It looked exactly the same, but there were numerous tall weeds growing along the cracks in the border between the tar and the brick across the entrance. Some of these weeds were about 10 inches tall. All I can remember seeing was pristine blacktop and brick. I had to keep telling myself that my mind simply blocked out the memory of the weeds because they were not relevant.

The thing that pops into my mind were those kind of scenes from The Matrix where you catch a flaw in the program. And it still freaks me a little....

[jacovawernett]

I experienced the Chalie Hebdo attack twice 2-3 months apart. I spent those months walking around and speaking to people about the attack. Then one day I opened the paper and read of it again and spoke to people about it again. It has happened a several times. I have also had objects appear from thin air when I turned my head for a second. I had an object appear from thin air in Los Angeles that was locked in storage in Massachusetts and my friend in Massachusetts on his end knows it. It also returned to a prior state. So yes, I am viscerally aware, have a great memory and sound mind.

[jcinaz]

I have a memory of me and a friend planting two different trees at another friends home. My friend only remembers one tree. So I asked our mutual friend, the one who owns the house. He says he remembers only one. But my memory of two trees is firmly “planted” in my brain. I can’t let go of it. And the puzzle for me is, the last time I visited “the” tree, I could not see any evidence of the “other” tree.

[karantyagi]

Quantum mechanics says that a particle is always in a superimposed state in reality but it's form gets fixed when observed and it's "partner" particle gets opposite state simultaneously (say if observed particle is detected with state 1 then partner particle would have state 0 for sure)
BUT WHAT IF the same observed particle at the time of observation gets a state 0 as well (but in a different universe/timeline) and in that universe it's partner particle would get state 1.
Thus, the original observed particle always had 2 states simultaneously but in different universes (and the same could be said for it's partner particle)
This may explain not only why in QM, particles can have both states at the same time but also how QM can help in study of parallel (mirror/dual) universes.
PS: I'm no physicist but just a layman who is curious 🙏🏻

[rcmarson]

Nope, sorry! I remember the ad on TV for Jif peanut butter. "Choosy mothers choose Jif!" Not Jiffy. That is just one I remember.

[whataboutrob]

I have made the mistake of calling it Jiffy peanut butter. My friends laughed and said - 'its Jif, you're thinking of Skippy. This happened when I was in high school.

[charlesgallagher]

I remember Nelson Mandela leaving prison. His first words were that he was a committed communist. But nobody mentions that.

[traxxlamarion]

I noticed that people who hadn't experienced it, call it false memory. I know for sure it's not. I've experienced it more on a personal level and it was obvious. I think our universe, time and conciousness is always fluctuating but on a more undetectable frequency, then sometimes it does it a little more than less and that's when most of us notice it.

[drozerlights]

So the monopoly guy never had a monocle? Even though there are literally thousands of residuals?

[Xut]

I also remember Mandela dieing in the 80's. So strange.

[patrickoakes]

Two personal experiences ...i had a crack on my phone screen...i even showed it to my Aunt T...we both could feel the crack with our fingernail...I was really upset because we had just purchased the phones earlier that day...when I went to get the phone repaired the guy behind the counter asked what neede repaired and I told him the screen needed replaced he handed the phone back and said there was nothing wrong with the screen i must have brought the wrong phone but my old phone was a flip phone so visibly shook up i went home shaking my head..

The other time it happened was when my mom and I went to the movie theatre and saw a new previouly unreleased film where I told her each scene verbatim and well i don't really know about all this but that's just 2 things in a whole slew of things over almost 5 decades like premonitions, major deja vu etc. I dunno and have always been befuddled...you decide...I believe.

[rbolo]

We live in a 'nested universe' or multilevel simulation. I practice black-magick using my mind and candles. It bends and changes reality and I don't question it anymore. Branching is occuring all the time.

[johnlameelk]

I've told the story elsewhere, so I'll just say horseshit. I have personal proof, witnessed at the time by another person. Physically, an object, observed to be damaged in an obvious and easily seen way, was repaired between one evening and the next morning, while in a cupboard.

A very notice chip in the surface was brought to my attention by my wife. (I won't say she accused me of being responsible, but she wanted answers.) Eventually the item went in the cupboard.

The next morning, my wife urgently called me to the kitchen, and demanded to know how I had replaced this cracked appliance for a new one? Overnight shipping wouldn't have even worked as the order was from a business that had already ceased by the time it had gone into the cupboard that night.

And it wasn't even new. It still had a couple of scratches, and a discolored spot. It was our old induction cooktop.

And now there was minor damage to the buttons on the side, that hadn't been there the night before. (Trust me, she had examined that thing as only a wife wanting to blame a husband can do.) But the chip and crack to the flat top was now gone. It had never happened. There was no repair, because even with a magnifying glass, there was nothing but a pristine surface.

So the "accident"had to have happened, but in one version, the top was struck, and in the next morning version, it was the side that was struck.

So all the settled science, and reassuring memory trick explanations don't cut it. It wasn't a shared delusion, as her sister knows she called just before bedtime, and my wife mentioned it in passing.

And settled science does NOT support you. Perhaps you meant to say "accepted science". Very little about Quantum Mechanics is settled. Hell, there's still disagreements about the cat.

And even less is really understood about the human mind. We don't even have agreement on where memories are stored, or how many places. Nor do we actually have a solid understanding how memories are catalogued or even accessed.

Instead of talking down to your audience, like we are feeble minded and only you have Tablets of All-knowing straight from the heart of the Universe; try actually knowing what the hell you're talking about before you break wind.

[matttrafton]

Black Tom explosion didn't hapoen on my Earth.

[greytroll]

The greatest proof of the Mengele effect is that now everyone calls it the Mandela effect.

[socratese]

“No communication transfer can occur between (universes) worlds “

Advanced beings: 😂 oh really?