November 14, 2017 ▸ Conspiracy, Psychology

Episode 249: Mandela Effect: Alternate Reality or Altered Memories?

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On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we explore one of the strangest and wide-reaching conspiracy theories out there: The Mandela Effect. The Mandela Effect is a phenomenon in which people remember things differently than they actually were in reality. This sounds like a pretty tame psychological event, but when it seems to happen to millions of people all around the globe, then social media gets talking, then conspiracies are born.

The Mandela Effect started in 2010 when a paranormal blogger named Fiona Broome posted about a problem with her memory. She remembered South Africa freedom fighter and president, Nelson Mandela dying in prison years ago. In fact, at the time he wasn’t dead yet and wouldn’t die for several more years. However, many people agreed with her and even shared details about his funeral that remembered seeing on television.

But the Mandela Effect spreads to more than just dead-alive South Africans. Many brand name spellings and logos have allegedly changed for people (though internet image searches confirm nothing has changed except people’s memory). From the Ford Logo to Kit Kat bars, we talk about a lot of these. Then, there are movies. Millions of people have false memories of lines from Star Wars, Snow White, and even Crocodile Dundee.

The biggest of them all, though, is the Berenstain Bears. This childhood classic is remembered by people all over the world as being spelled and pronounced differently. So what is the cause of these distorted mass memories? Psychology can quickly point out many factors in memory that could explain it. Naysayers claim there are too many to be so easily dismissed. Other argue that it is a matter of shifting from alternate quantum realities where things were different, or even of glitches in the simulation that runs the universe. Where do we fall on the subject? It doesn’t matter—it could all be different by tomorrow if we shift quantum universes again!

Sub-Reddit on the Mandela Effect: https://www.reddit.com/r/MandelaEffect/

The Simpsons and the Mandela Effect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMXnCCFS2-Q