If you've read my past articles, you might know that I enjoy talking about the creepier side of life. Because I'm a lover of anything supernatural, scary, or simply strange, I was thrilled when I first heard about the Mandela Effect! Combining the idea of false memories and paranormal happenings, this topic both gives you chills and makes you re-think what you (think) you already know!!
In case you aren't familiar with it, the Mandela Effect if a phenomenon that began with the death of Nelson Mandela, a beloved activist and leader. When Mandela sadly passed away in 2013, the world was shocked- for a couple of reasons! Aside from being sad about losing a huge societal figure, many people also found themselves scratching their heads. Somehow, a significant amount of people seemed to remember Mandela having already passed away years before.
False memories are something that a lot of people know about, and they usually revolve around our younger years. But for a large amount of people to all remember Mandela dying years before his actual death (it was so significant, in fact, that there is an actual history book recording his death in the 90s) is bizarre. Thus, when people were freaking out about Mandela seemingly dying twice, the Mandela Effect began to be noticed.
Since its breakthrough following his death, the Mandela Effect has been studied and researched by many people. What's shocking is that there are even more examples, small and large, of Mandela Effects throughout recent history. Here are just a few examples:
1. Forrest Gump: "Life is like a box of chocolates"
"Forrest Gump" is one of America's most beloved movies, and it's not unusual to find people quoting it. From "Run, Forrest!" to an endless list of shrimps, people all over the world like to pay tribute to the movie with some of its most famous lines. One line in particular, however, seems to be misquoted a lot. If you've ever found yourself or somebody else saying, "Life is like a box of chocolates," you may be surprised to know you've been saying it wrong the whole time!
The real line in Forrest Gump goes like this, "Life was like a box of chocolates." Though it's a simple, one-word difference, the misquote appears all over. Somehow, a large group of people have all remembered the line wrong over the years. Even I, somebody who has seen the movie many, many times, didn't realize I'd been wrong until recently!
2. Berenstein Bears
Another classic, the Berenstein Bears is a kid's book/show series about a family of bears that get into many adventures. But even though it's something that has been read to many kids time and time again, many people have missed something- it's not the Berenstein Bears, but actually the Berenstain Bears.
If you're confused, you're not alone! A ton of people report remembering the family as the Berensteins, but if you happen to have a book or movie in your possession, take another look! The 'e' is actually an 'a', which is something that has freaked out a ton of people! This case got even stranger, though, when somebody found an old VHS tape with both spellings written on the case! Spooky!
3. Snow White: "Mirror, mirror, on the wall!"
If you're a fan of Disney like me, you've probably seen "Snow White" a million times. From the time I was a little girl, I found myself asking random mirrors who was the fairest of them all- of course, the answer was always me! But just recently I found out that the famous line is often misquoted by a ton of people!
The truth is, the Evil Queen never said, "Mirror, mirror on the wall." What she actually said was, "Magic mirror on the wall." This is very similar to the case of "Forrest Gump," and a lot of people blame it on simply mishearing the sentence. Still, it seems strange that so many people would all have misheard it!
These are just a few of the many recently-found examples of a large group of people all sharing the same false memory. To tell the truth, there are tons of Mandela Effects out there being discovered every day! (If you're interested, I highly recommend looking at this site!) And while none of them have been nearly as extreme as falsely remembering a well-known figure's death, they are still enough to make you scratch your head and second guess your memories!
Even though the Mandela Effect isn't quite the ghost or spirit-type of scary, it is pretty unnerving to think that the things you swear to remember could really be false all along. And what makes this even more creepy is that a ton of other people could have those same exact false memories. What could cause somebody to have a false memory? What could cause hundreds of people to have the same false memory? Thousands? All of these are questions that many people and researchers are hoping to answer.
With October (aka spooky month) just around the corner, I encourage all of my readers to look into some of the stranger parts of life. From the supernatural to every-day occurrences that aren't quite normal, there is a whole pile of unknown just waiting to be explored- and you might find that it makes day-to-day life just a little more exciting!
