Exploring the phenomenon known as the Mandela Effect

"Black Mirror,” a Netflix original, released an episode in their premier season titled "The Entire History of You." The premise was that (in the future, of course) every single person has a memory implant that records everything they do. They can access any memories they have and watch them again. This effectively removes the subjectivity of memory. In this scenario, there is no struggle to remember how things happened, and there certainly is no such thing as false memory. So, in this future that writer Jesse Armstrong created, there is no "Mandela Effect".

It is called that because many people remember Nelson Mandela dying in prison in the 1980s, but in actuality, he died in 2013 from a respiratory tract information. Sure, its conceivable that some people here and there and even a large number of them think that Nelson Mandela died in prison. However, if the majority think that, it raises some red flags. There are numerous examples and lots of research has been done on it, notably on the mandelaeffect.com website. There are websites dedicated to proving its factuality. There are also other websites dedicated to debunking it, as Geek.com pointed out.

The main theory (and here is where I state that I don't necessarily believe this), is that there are multiple timelines, or even parallel universes where things happened and we remember them, but we've slid into another timeline or universe where that did not happen.

Maybe that's far-fetched but it certainly is interesting to think about. What if it's true?

Pro Mandela

There are a lot of examples of the Mandela Effect that give cause to believe that something is going on. Maybe not alternate universes but something out of the ordinary. Here are some examples.

"The Berenstain Bears" is classic children's book series and that was its title.

Conversely, a large majority of people, myself included, distinctly remember it being spelled and/or pronounced "Bearenstein Bears".

Billy Graham's death: Yes, Billy Graham is dead.

No debating that. He died recently at 99. However, many people remember distinctly seeing his funeral on TV years back, with Bill Clinton speaking at the funeral.

Queen: "We Are the Champions" lyrics - The final line to the song reads "No time for losers, cause we are the champions... of the world." There are some who say that it ended after the word 'champions' and others who disagree.

Curious George: Does the storybook primate have a tail? At this point, I have no idea, but groups of people unmistakably remember him having a tail, others remember that he does not. Some say he swung from his tail thus proving the existence of the tail. He, in fact, does not have a tail.

"Star Wars": Almost every person who has or will ever quote the iconic line "Luke, I am your father," is quoting it incorrectly.

The line is actually "No, I am your father." So, why does everyone say it wrong? And why can I hear in my head the drawn-out "Luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuke?" Additionally, in Episode IV, C3PO has a silver leg, but no one could remember that fact, and even memorabilia portrays him as entirely gold.

Unknown Protester: We've all seen the picture of the Asian man who stood in front of the Chinese tanks in Tiananmen Square. The official record of what happened to him is unknown, but many people vividly remember him being run over and killed.

Oscar Mayer: The lunch meat brand is spelled as shown, but many people, again including myself, remember it being spelled with an E, Oscar Meyer, but it is in fact spelled with an 'a.'

Patrick Swayze: The actor died of pancreatic cancer in 2009, but large groups of people remember him making a full and miraculous recovery.

The Monopoly Man: Does he or does he not have on a monocle? I, and most others recall the board game icon as having a monocle, but that is not the case. The Monopoly Man wears no eyepiece in any version of the game.

Pikachu: Avid fans would remember and also draw Pikachu with a black tip at the end of his tail. They vehemently swear that the cartoon character had a black tipped tail, but contrary to their belief, he does not.

Snow White: Another oft misquoted movie phrase is the iconic "Mirror, mirror" quote. But it's not "Mirror, mirror on the wall". It's actually "Magic mirror on the wall".

The words "mirror, mirror" aren't actually in the film at all.

Sinbad the Genie: Many people can see in their heads the picture of Sinbad dressed up as a genie in a movie. However, there never was a movie that fits that description, and those images never existed.

Forrest Gump: The popular "box of chocolates" quote isn't exactly what you think. The tense is actually past-tense. Everyone says "Life is like a box of chocolates" but in fact, he says "Life was like a box of chocolates". There are also old VHS tapes with the words "Life is like a box of chocolates" printed on them, furthering us down the rabbit hole.

"Silence of the Lambs": Hannibal Lecter never says "Hello, Clarice" despite it being the films most iconic line.

He simply says "Good morning" with no name attached. How is a movie's most quoted line actually non-existent?

"Looney Tunes": What would make more sense, and what most people can remember, is it being titled "Looney Toons" which makes perfect sense being that it is a cartoon. However, it is "tunes" like music.

Febreze: No, that is not a typo. That's the correct spelling despite people swearing up and down that there were two e's in the spelling.

Anti Mandela

Some of these can be chalked up to just bad information but some actually have somewhat logical explanations.

"We Are the Champions": The common debate over whether "of the world" is actually in the song is easy to explain. The original version, released in 1977 has no such lyric.

It was added to the Greatest Hits version in 1981, perfectly explaining why people remember differently.

"Snow White": The original story by the Brothers Grimm actually does say "Mirror, mirror," although the movie never does. Although it's reasonable to assume that most people have not read that, it is easy to go with the words of the book if some who've read it claim it says that. More people think it was in the movie as it was in the book, and soon everyone thinks so, too.

Darth Vader: Our brains are interesting. One interesting aspect of them is the fact that they can fill in information. When we skim over sentences we can read them fully because we gathered enough to figure out the rest.

In this case, we know he was speaking to Luke and saying "I am your father." It's easy to see how we would make those connections and remember it a certain way.

Monopoly: It is probably another instance of our brains filling in information. The Monopoly Man, or Rich Uncle Pennybags, looks like he would and should wear a monocle. Our brains do the rest.

Conclusion

A lot of these can be summed up by the subjectivity of memory. We remember things kind of how we want to. We want to think Darth Vader addressed his long-lost son by name. We want to remember Patrick Swayze living and dancing again after his bout with cancer. We want to see Curious George swinging by his tail because that is simply more fun.

Some, however, are not things we want to remember. We probably do not want to remember seeing a man get run over by tanks while protesting. We probably don't want to remember the late great Billy Graham dying years before his actual passing.

Granted, the movie quotes and things of that nature, aside from the VHS versions of Forrest Gump, are a lot more apt to change in our memory. No one remembers exactly every detail from even their favorite Movies. But the real things, such as Billy Graham's funeral, Patrick Swayze's recovery and the supposed death of the Unknown Protester are more perplexing. How can there be a widespread false memory of events that literally took place (or didn't)? It's unlikely that there is a parallel universe or alternate timelines, but it certainly would be interesting if there were. Even if there aren't or if absolutely nothing is going on here except people living the fallacy of memory, it is quite the conversation starter. At least, that's what I remember it being.