Mandela Effect
Why we remember things that didn’t even happen
© fizkes / Shutterstock
Most of the time we trust our own memories unreservedly. But is it really that smart? The so-called Mandela effect makes it clear that our memory is quite often wrong.
Sometimes our memories play tricks on us. We’re sooo sure that something happened exactly as we see it in our mind’s eye… Only to find out that it was completely different. And that happens a lot more often than we like to admit. This scientific phenomenon even has a name: the Mandela Effect.
What exactly is the Mandela Effect?
The Mandela Effect refers to a supposed memory of something that either didn’t happen at all or happened differently. The phenomenon also comes into play in events where a large group of people is firmly convinced that something happened or how something happened. We then unconsciously create new or misinterpret existing memories.
But why is it all called the Mandela Effect? The researcher and author Fiona Broome coined this name in reference to Nelson Mandela. Many people are certain that the South African president and freedom fighter died in prison in the 1980s – he was released from prison in 1990 and died of complications from pneumonia in 2013 at the age of 95.
When Fiona Broome was a guest speaker at a science fiction event in the United States in 2009, the topic of false memories came up in a conversation. Broome then began to delve deeper into the subject. She called the site Mandela Effect.com into life, on which tens of thousands of people still share their stories about memories that they were absolutely convinced of – up to the moment when they realized that these memories are not true at all.
“As it turned out, the memory of Nelson Mandela’s supposed death was just the tip of the iceberg,” Broome explains in a video on the subject. “Anyone can become a victim of the Mandela Effect themselves. It only takes one reminder, something you’re sure about, which then doesn’t correspond to reality.”
Mandela Effect: Where Do False Memories Come From?
One possible explanation for the Mandela Effect is confabulation. This is what neurology calls it when we unconsciously change memories or even create new ones. The thought that we make up events and statements and then practically convince ourselves that this is exactly how they happened or were said is uncomfortable for many of us at first. In fact, this is very common, because our memory doesn’t work like a camera. Our subjective feelings, judgments and opinions immensely influence our memories. And with the Mandela Effect, we’re taking this to the extreme.
For example, confabulation plays a role in Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. This makes it clear once again that people do not change their memories intentionally, let alone with evil ulterior motives. Instead, the brain simply lacks the necessary information, for example in the case of Alzheimer’s patients, so that it then puts something together so that everything makes sense again and fits into their own world view.
However, another possible explanation for the phenomenon goes in a completely different direction. Fiona Broome suggests that these memories may not have actually taken place in “this reality” – but in a possible other. It’s about parallel universes. The theory of the so-called multiverse, consisting of countless parallel universes, comes from quantum physics and string theory. So these erroneous memories aren’t actually erroneous at all, they’re just native to another universe.
Whether the explanation for the Mandela Effect is a kind of wormhole between different parallel universes or the neurological symptom of confabulation, the phenomenon is a good reminder to stop and consider every now and then whether everything our thoughts are telling us so babbling, is really true.
Sources used: mandelaeffect.com, mindbodygreen.com