MANDELA EFFECT: CHARACTERISTICS, WHY IT OCCURS AND REAL CASES - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2024

The Mandela effect is a phenomenon related to memory that was first exposed by the writer Fiona Broome in 2010. The origin is found in the conviction of having heard and seen the news that announced the death of Nelson Mandela in the 80s. However, the South African leader did not pass away until 2013.

When the author commented on the event, she realized that this false memory was shared by many more people. In addition, more cases of this effect soon began to appear, in which multitudes of individuals mistakenly remembered events of all kinds.

Nelson Mandela in 2000 - Source: Library of the London School of Economics and Political Science, via Wikimedia Commons

The main characteristic of the Mandela effect is, precisely, the fact that they are memories shared by many people and not just individual memory errors. Although paranormal or para-scientific theories have emerged to explain it, psychologists point out that the phenomenon is based on the functioning of human memory.

Apart from Mandela's death, other false but widespread memories are phrases from famous movies, such as "Luke, I am your father" or the famous scene in which a protester stands in front of a tank in Tiananmen Square in China.

characteristics

The most generalized definition of the Mandela effect is the one that indicates that it is a phenomenon in which two or more individuals share a memory of something that did not happen. The term was created by Fionna Broome after learning in 2010 that Nelson Mandela was still alive.

The writer and researcher of the paranormal was convinced that he had died in the 80s, without ever leaving prison. Broome shared his mistake with several acquaintances and found that many of them also thought Mandela was dead.

In addition, that conviction went beyond remembering an erroneous fact. Most vividly remembered seeing images of the news on television, including recordings of the funeral.

Fionna Broome started sharing that false memory online. She quickly found cases of other events that were wrongly remembered by large groups of people.

The blogger, consistent with her interest in the paranormal, put forward a theory that attributed the Mandela effect to the existence of parallel worlds.

Shared memory

Scene from Eternal Radiance of a Mind Without Memories

The main characteristic of the Mandela effect is that it affects more than one person. Unlike "false memory", inaccurate memories caused by this phenomenon are often shared by large groups. It should be noted that these individuals do not have connections between them and the emotional factors are different.

In this way, we speak of the Mandela effect when multiple people remember in a very similar, or even identical way, events that did not occur. These people are convinced that their memory is real, even though they may receive information that contradicts it.

Cryptomnesia and the Mandela effect

Although some psychologists relate the two phenomena, most tend to point out that they are different. According to experts, cryptomnesia could be, at most, one of the causes of the appearance of the Mandela effect.

Cryptomnesia is the fact of experiencing as your own a memory of another person. It also occurs when an individual believes they have had an original idea, without realizing that it already existed and that it was an involuntary memory stored in their memory.

Mandela effect on social media

If something has caused the Mandela effect to multiply, it has been social networks. On the one hand, there are a multitude of followers who are dedicated to sharing those false memories on the internet, looking for people who also have them.

On the other hand, Internet forums have fostered conspiracy thinking, often associated with Mandela affection.

Thus, many consider that these shared false memories are real and that some entity is trying to change them for various reasons. This ends up empowering some to acquire that false memory and consider it to be the real thing.

According to experts, the main difference that social networks have brought is the possibility of expansion of those memories. Before, they could only be shared with close people. Now it is possible to find people all over the world who share the same wrong memory.

Why does the mandela effect occur?

Although there are various theories, as of today it is not known with certainty why this phenomenon occurs. The most common explanation suggests that it is due to the functioning of human memory.

Memory is constructive and not reproductive, which means that it collects information for the brain to store it, but it does not reproduce it as we have lived it, but rather presents us with an interpretation based on how we think it has been.

Memory operation

Despite medical and scientific advances, there are still many unknowns about how memory works. It is known to be a cognitive ability that occurs in the brain. Experts point out that this gives it a large subjective component.

When generating a memory, a network of neurons is activated that transmit specific information to different areas of the brain. Information is stored in these areas, including the hippocampus or the prefrontal cortex.

This process implies that the birth of the memory is not in the experience that has generated the information, but in how the brain processes it. This is the reason why memories of events that have not happened can be generated.

The Mandela effect is not only influenced by the generation of the memory, but also by the attempt to recover it. As noted above, memory is constructive, so when we retrieve a memory, our brain often fills in the gaps with logical guesses. These may coincide with what happened, but this is not always the case.

Conspiracy

Collusion may be one of the elements that explain the Mandela effect. It is a phenomenon whereby people fill in the gaps in their memory. In order for the memory to be coherent, the brain fills in these gaps unconsciously, although following a logic.

This phenomenon has been studied in cases of amnesia or dementia, but it is not unusual in healthy people. Likewise, it is often common in those who have suffered severe trauma and who generate false memories to protect themselves from the suffering suffered.

External induction of memories

Although it is a quite controversial topic, there are researchers who defend the possibility of inducing false memories. The evidence presented by these experts suggests that some hypnotic or suggestion-based processes can easily create memories.

In the case of the Mandela effect, the induction would be produced by the repetition of that false memory by other people. In the end, the subject may be convinced that what he is told is what actually happened.

Cryptocurrency

Related to the above, cryptomnesia causes a memory to be experienced as something lived for the first time due to confusion about its origin.

The best example is when someone thinks that they have had an idea or that they have experienced a situation when, in reality, that information has come through other people.

The individual, in this way, attributes that memory to himself, when in reality he has only reworked an alien information to assume it as his own.

Drag effect

One of the causes of the Mandela effect seems to be the need for social validation. This is produced by the fear of disagreeing with the opinions of people in the immediate environment.

Although it is done unconsciously, many times the brain considers a story as valid if it is maintained by a majority of close people.

The confirmation bias

If the carry-over effect was related to adapting to the environment, the confirmation bias is entirely internal. The mind tends to interpret or remember information that confirms previous beliefs or hypotheses.

False attribution to memory

One of the characteristics of the human being is the difficulty of changing their opinions and memories. This implies that, even if he has verified through images that his memory was wrong, our mind will continue to "visualize" the scene as it thought it was.

In general terms, experts point out that the brain is not predisposed to accept new interpretations of matters that were taken for granted.

Cognitive dissonance

Similar to the previous one, the brain does not usually accept an interpretation that clashes with its stored memories or with the ideological beliefs of the individual.

Other non-psychological theories

The Internet has caused millions of people to share examples of the Mandela effect, something that, in turn, has been able to expand its consequences.

At the same time, many people have also started looking for explanations far removed from the scientific field. Some argue the existence of a great conspiracy dedicated, for some reason, to change reality. The Mandela effect would, in this case, be reminiscent of what actually happened before someone changed it.

Other pages, including that of Broome, suggest that the effect is caused by a quantum phenomenon. This would allow consciousness to travel through various parallel universes. The people who experience these memories could, according to this theory, not be in their universe of origin.

Examples

The best known example is undoubtedly the one that gives the effect its name. But, in addition to this, there are many other shared memories that have been proven false.

Mandela's death

Nelson Mandela

The death of Nelson Mandela or, rather, the false memory that Fiona Broome kept of her, gave name to the effect.

Mandela, the historic South African leader and post-apartheid president of the country, passed away in 2013. However, Broome was convinced that he had died long before, without even being able to get out of prison.

The author found many other people who had the same memory and even claimed to have seen images of the funeral on television.

Luke I am your father

Another film-related Mandela effect affects one of the highest-grossing films in history. It's about The Return of the Jedi, from the Star Wars saga, when Darth Vader faces Luke Skywalker.

The phrase that everyone repeats about that scene, "Luke, I am your father" was never uttered. In reality, the villain only said "No, I am your father", either in the Spanish version or in the original version.

Teresa of Calcutta

Teresa of Calcutta, 1985

Another of the best known Mandela effects is related to the sanctification of Teresa of Calcutta. The Albanian nun was canonized in 2016, after a process that lasted many years.

The false memory shared by many people confuses the date of canonization with that of beatification, which occurred in 2003. Others even advance it to 1990.

White House

Returning to the cinema, there is another mythical phrase that, in reality, never appeared in one of the most famous films in history: Casablanca.

Most everyone is convinced that the protagonist asks the local pianist to play a song using the phrase "play it again, Sam." However, in reality, the request was different, remaining in a "Play it, Sam".

Snow White

Cinema is a great source of Mandelas effects, with dialogue that everyone thinks they have heard but did not appear in the footage. One of the most typical examples is the famous "little mirror, little mirror, who is the most beautiful in the kingdom?" from Snow White, the Disney movie

However, the phrase does not appear as is at any point in the film. The evil stepmother always said "magic mirror" and not the phrase that, somehow, most people think they remember.

Protests in Tiananmen Square

The year 1989 is remembered, among other things, for the demonstrations in China demanding more democracy. A specific image became a symbol of these mobilizations: a young man, standing, standing in front of a tank in Tiananmen Square.

The Mandela effect made many people believe that the video had a tragic sequel. For these, the tank did not stop and ended up running over the young man.

However, the images show that this did not happen and that the tank stopped. Despite that evidence, many people are still convinced that they saw the death of the protester.

Coup in Spain

On February 23, in Spain, a group of civil guards entered the Congress of Deputies with the intention of carrying out a coup. Once it failed, the images taken during the hours that the attempt lasted have been seen countless times.

During the coup there was no type of live television broadcast from inside Congress. However, many are convinced that they have spent those hours watching the television, living the armed assault live.

References

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