If you have been watching YouTube for a few years or searching for weird things on the Internet you have probably heard of The Mandela Effect. It is a strange phenomenon that many have taken to heart to explain some things that are unexplainable or to finally pin something on the strangeness of CERN. There are some Vloggers (Video Bloggers) who specialize in discovering "new" Mandela Effects. There are just as many explanations and theories posted about this bizarre concept as there are things that have been effected by it. The whole subject is a gigantic can of worms.
At the end of this post I have a few related links that go into further detail about the ME and the theories about what it is and the origins. I think the concept has been around for as long as there have been people.
The basic beginning and the naming of the effect goes something like this. When Nelson Mandela died in 2013 many people got a major case of deja vu as they had a vivid memory of him dying some 30 years previously while he was in jail. Maybe they thought he had died during his major surgery mid to late 1980s. That coupled with a special musical tribute for Mandela in 1988 for his 70th Birthday. The fact that some years later in the mid to late 1990s he would become the president of South Africa, must also have slipped many people's collective minds. Another theory about why people thought Mandela had died was perhaps they were confusing him with another South African anti-apartheid activist Bantu Steve Biko and the 1980s movie based on his life "Cry Freedom". More recently I read a comment from a video I think that mentioned some conspiracy theory that the South African government had spread rumors about Mandela's death for some political reason and had staged a fake funeral even though he was alive and well.
Another major popular confusion that has been attributed to the Mandela Effect and one of the early effects from the newly coined phenomenon is a popular children's book series The Berenstain Bears by Stan and Jan Berenstain. With this book series the confusion is that many people could swear on a planet full of Bibles that the name was spelled differently and the Bears names were Berenstein. Either one of which are common misspellings.
There are many many misspellings that are remembered that many falsely attribute to the Mandela Effect. Simple memories of a misspelling of a name or remembering an alternate spelling is not a Mandela Effect but simply a mass misremembering. There are many Vloggers on YouTube that specialize in the misspelled effects. Some of them I have commented (in the video's comment section) stating that the specific misspelling of the subject name is NOT the Mandela Effect but just a very common false memory.
Most Mandela Effects fall under the "Wait a minute I thought that it was this way, not that" heading. There are many scenes from movies that are in this area of the effect. Like remembering a certain line of dialogue that ends up being totally different. It is the movie line version of Misheard Lyrics. Oh and misheard lyrics apparently are also a Mandela Effect. There is also the subject of product labels and product names and logos. Plus many other things that in some way now appear to many to be totally wrong. Some people claim they remember there being 51 or 52 states, and they weren't DC or Puerto Rico. One was supposedly "Columbia" but they couldn't remember where it was exactly. Some say the other state was North California or some area in North California. Say What?
My original intention for this particular post was to be a potential starting off point for a series of posts about the Mandela Effect. Concentrating on just one or two effects per post. There are a few that have me stumped (like the Moonraker braces thing) but most of what I have seen can often be attributed to remembering something that is actually a common misspelling. Thinking a celebrity named John Smith spelled their name "Jon Smyth", when they spelled it the most common way of "John Smith" all along. Or someone named Jeff who has always spelled his name Geoff.
Related Links:
Mandela Effect: Official Site
The Conversation: The Mandela Effect
Snopes: The Mandela Effect
Wikipedia: False Memory
