Hey Thoughty2 here. This stoutly man is Rich Uncle Pennybags, but you knew that didn’t
you. Known to many simply as “Monopoly Man”. He’s known for his waistcoat, jacket, top
hat, moustache and of course his monocle. But wait a minute, the Monopoly Man has never
had a monocle, I know, you’re absolutely certain that he does, but I promise you, Mr
Pennybags has never, ever had a monocle, you have made it up entirely. This image doesn’t
exist. Don’t panic, you’re not alone, the vast majority of people are absolutely
certain that they remember the Monopoly Man with a monocle.
So what’s going on here? Well these people and possibly yourself, have all fallen victim
to the Mandela effect. The Mandela effect is when a great number of people remember
something in a completely different way to how it actually was or remember an event that
never actually happened. You know those times when your mind betrays you, you are certain
it happened that way, but the facts say otherwise. It happens to us all and psychiatrists have
a word for it: confabulation, a confabulation is a disturbance or distortion of a memory.
But some people say there’s more to the Mandela effect than a simple distortion of
memory and the real reason that millions of peoples’ memories are betraying them, is
far more terrifying and sinister.
The name “Mandela effect” is named after the man himself, ex-President of South Africa,
Nelson Mandela. In 1962 Mandela was arrested and thrown in jail for 27 years for starting
a worker’s strike in a time when South Africa was led by a minority white rule with an iron
fist. Black and whites were segregated, this was the Apartheid. A large number of people
around the world vividly remember seeing footage broadcast on television of Nelson Mandela
dying inside prison, during the 80s. They even remember seeing his funeral, live on
international TV.
Of course this isn’t true, Mandela was released from prison, became President and died in
2013 at home. So what’s going on here? How come millions recall seeing his death in the
80s? Well it’s the first big mystery that coined the term the Mandela effect.
People are constantly discovering new examples of the Mandela effect. In recent years many
have come into the public eye via the internet. One of the most spine-tingling is the mystery
of The Berenstein Bears. The American viewers among us will remember a series of children’s
books from the 60s onwards. This lovable family of bears was a significant part of everybody’s
childhood in the US. There were over 300 books in total and not to mention a TV series in
2003, that went by the same name, The Berenstein Bears.
Here’s the truly shocking thing, The Berenstein Bears never existed, sure there was a cute
family of bears, but they were called the Berenstain Bears, with an “a”. This has
seriously messed with the heads of millions of Americans because quite literally everyone
knew it as the Berenstein bears. Many have said it’s down to the creators changing
the name at some point because Berenstain sounds less Jewish than Berenstein. But the
name was never changed, it was named after the two creators Stan and Jan Berenstain.
But something eerie is definitely going on here, there are some very rare examples of
official merchandise being uncovered, deep from the back of people’s garages and attics,
showing the franchise being spelt Berenstein, such as on this old VHS. But to confuse matters
even further, the name on the front of the tape is spelt Berenstain. Creepy! But could
this just be no more than a typo by the graphic designer.
You remember the most famous line from Star Wars, don’t you? “Luke, I am your father”.
Except that line was never said in the films. What Darth Vader actually said was “No,
I am your father.” A small difference, sure. But then why does the whole world keep saying
“Luke, I am your father”. There’s more, remember Silence of the Lambs, everyone knows
what Hannibal said to Clarice when they first met, I mean it’s only the most famous quote
from the entire film, he said “Hello Clarice”, nope, never said it, that line never appeared
in the film, don’t believe me, go and watch it. Hannibal actually said a rather forgettable
“Good morning”. Even the University of Richmond quoted the fictitious line in a scientific
paper “Even people who have never seen Silence of the Lambs (1991) are familiar with Hannibal
Lecter’s sinister “Hello, Clarice.”” Another stark example of the Mandela effect.
Remember Sex in The City? It was actually called Sex and The City. The KitKat logo doesn’t
have a dash in it, it never has. The Queen in Snow White never said “Mirror, mirror
on the wall”. Oh and remember Jiffy, the well-known American peanut butter? There’s
no such thing, it’s called Jif, not Jiffy. Hell I’m British and even I recall it being
called “Jiffy”. But then is that just because that’s what millions of other people
have been calling it all this time? The Flinstones was actually called the Flintstones, despite
no one in the history of mankind ever calling it that.
So is there an explanation to all of this? Well kind of, there are two theories that
do explain the Mandela effect, but both are equally as terrifying. The first popular explanation
involves parallel universes. Some believe that we live our lives not just within one
universe, but we are instead, slipping and sliding between multiple universes within
the multiverse, without ever realising it. Each universe is ever so slightly different,
and some believe that the Mandela effect is people noticing the minor differences between
these other dimensions, or universes.
Or perhaps we don’t travel between universes, what if we’ve always been in the same universe.
But instead memories are leaked from other universes and seep into our universe as they
intertwine and collide. This rather outlandish theory isn’t currently backed up by any
specific research but that doesn’t mean it isn’t scientifically possible. New quantum
mechanics theories suggest that there are multiple universes and they do interact with
each other, possibly sharing information.
So when we remember something vastly different to what the archives tell us, is it information
coming from a parallel universe? Or is it something far more sinister? As we all know,
if something strange happens, there’s a conspiracy theory surrounding it. It’s the
second law of the internet, after “don’t click on strange links”. Mandela effect
conspiracy enthusiasts believe the infamous illuminati, or whatever shady group of men
in suits are running the world from behind the scenes, have actually changed subtle elements
of history to better suit their new world order. Just hoping that we wouldn’t notice,
but oops, some people have. Why an omnipotent group of secret world leaders would think
that the Monopoly Man’s monocle just wasn’t quite fitting for their New World Order, is
anyone’s guess.
But what if you actually have made all of this up, and this is the most terrifying of
all the explanations, for this phenomenon implies that our memories are nowhere near
as reliable as we thought. Yet what I’m about to tell you is by far the most scientifically
accepted explanation for the Mandela effect. Psychologists say that we remember these events,
books, films and images so vividly differently to how they actually are, because we’ve
all created false memories.
What do you remember most about your childhood? Is it what you ate for dinner each night,
or what you watched on TV? Your memories of those things are probably fuzzy at best. Yet
you can remember the names of all your friends, and that time when you broke someone’s window
playing football. You probably remember all the times you were naughty and that’s because
you talked about those events afterwards with your friends, your parents talked to you about
it afterwards, you received punishments in relation to that event. Conversation is arguably
the most powerful memory creator and talking about an event after it happened creates far
stronger memories than whilst the event is actually taking place.
Memories are created by connections forming in the brain. Your brain is full of cells
called neurons and connections between them, called synapses. Image a neuron that represents
a window and another that represents a ball. As a child, the moment you kicked that ball
through Batshit Bob’s window, a physical, synaptic connection was created in your brain
between these two neurons, thus forming a weak memory of the event. But then, when you
tell your mates about how you just broke Batshit Bob’s window, that connection actually gets
thicker, strengthening that memory. Then when your mum confiscated your Gameboy afterwards,
the connection grows once again.
But it goes even further, every time you recall that memory from here on out the connection
gets stronger. By simply remembering something you are strengthening that memory, forever.
Of course, this also means, that if you remember something wrongly, every time you try and
remember what actually happened you are instead strengthening the incorrect memory that’s
already there. This is why we can’t see past our memories, our brains tell us they
are unquestionably reliable, but we have no way to know whether that memory was false
to begin with, until someone comes along and tells us or shows us we have remembered incorrectly.
This is called “False Memory”. And it’s by far the most likely thing that’s causing
the Mandela effect.
In 1974 psychologists Loftus and Palmer showed 45 students a clip of a real car crash then
asked the question “How fast were the cars going when they hit each other?”. The range
of answers were vastly unreliable but it was also discovered that by changing the wording
of the question also completely changed the answer. Those who were asked “How fast were
the cars going when they contacted each other?” gave a much slower speed that those who were
asked “How fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?” Demonstrating
how unreliable memories can be and how our conversations with others can distort our
memories.
Mandela didn’t die in the 80s like many thought, but in 1990 he was released from
prison. The event was significant and was broadcast on TV across the world, with millions
tuning in to watch. There was a large state procession on the streets of South Africa
to celebrate his release, which many Americans and others remember watching. But such an
event could easily be confused with a funeral procession. Nelson Mandela’s name was nowhere
near as famous back then as it is now, so people may not have paid much attention to
what was actually happening. Thus creating a false memory that he died.
The Berenstain Bears was read by school kids, who couldn’t give a toss about proper spelling.
“Stein” is also a far more common suffix to a surname than “Stain” so it makes
perfect sense that children simply called it the incorrect name of “Berenstein Bears”
when discussing the book with friends and so grew up with this false memory.
The same logic applies to movie quotes. You’ve probably heard “Luke, I am your father”
and “Hello Clarice” many, many more times in real life, during conversations with others,
than you have heard them in the actual films. At least, the part in the film where the line
was supposed to be.
It turns out that every instance of the Mandela effect can be explained by collective false
memory, which is disappointing to some and scary to others. The simple fact that everyone
you speak to shares the same misconceptions about something actually strengthens that
false memory. You’ve likely spread misinformation to hundreds of others when you’ve quoted
lines from films that were never said and discussed events very differently than what
actually happened. We are all part of the problem and new examples of the Mandela effect
will continue to surface because nobody’s memory is perfect. I for one welcome them,
because that’s what makes us human and such curiosities keeps life so interesting. Thanks
for watching.
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