Today marks the start of our weekly conspiracy series, so we thought we'd kick things off with one of the biggest and most complicated conspiracies that has taken the world by storm; Mandela Effects.
What is a Mandela Effect?
With a name inspired by the late Nelson Mandela, the term Mandela Effects describes the moment a group of people are proved to have remembered something of note completely wrong. It first rose to prominence back in 2010 when a swarm of social media users falsely remembered the death of Nelson Mandela in prison in the 1980s. Some even say they remembered seeing clips of his funeral on television.
What history shows however is that Mandela was actually released from prison in 1990 before passing away in 2013. Thus the name Mandela Effect was termed by paranormal consultant Fiona Broome to describe all similar situations; hundreds of which have popped up in the years since.
Broome says that a number of parallel realities are to blame for Mandela Effects, basing her theory on the idea that the same events and objects exist within each universe, but that there are alternative versions of each. In this case, errors in recalling certain events correctly would be classed as glitches in the system.
What does the science say?
Psychologists say that Mandela Effects are born out of false memory, which is actually quite common. Many, if not all of us will remember particular events from our childhood, only to be told by parents or guardians from the time that this wasn't at all what went down.
The problem with false memory propped up by others who also recall similar false memory is that it soon becomes a collective 'reality'. In supporting another person's false memory, we're giving them the evidence that they need to say that Mandela Effects are in full force, and that we're part of a shared multiverse.
Though it's very unlikely to be the case, some studies say that a multiverse could be a very real thing that we're all living within. Despite that, you cannot scientifically test for one, and we're not sure we'll ever be able to. So, are Mandela Effects a cause of the multiverse, or simply something born out of conspiracy?
Some of our favourites
The Berenstein/Bereinstain Bears: Perhaps the most famous of all the Mandela Effects, save for the one involving Mandela himself, is the confusion surrounding the series The Berenstain Bears. Thousands of people remember the name of the bears being spelled with an 'e' instead of an 'a', which would make the series The Berenstein Bears. Book covers tell a different story. A mistake on the side of a VHS tape posted to Reddit didn't do anything to help and instead fanned the flames of debate...
Life is like a box of chocolates... isn't it? Many of us around the globe have seen Tom Hanks's incredible performance in Forrest Gump, and remember the famous line in which he refers to life being like a box of chocolates. Whilst we distinctly remember him saying "Life is like a box of chocolates", watching a clip from the film shows him actually saying "Life WAS like a box of chocolates", which doesn't even make grammatical sense!
Champions of the world? Not quite... Queen are without a doubt one of the most prolific bands in history. Led by the incomporable Freddie Mercury, the group sold millions of records across the world, with one of their biggest called We Are The Champions. Legions of fans will swear blind that the original song ends with the line "We are the champions... of the world", but the last three words weren't actually ever a part of the single release! We can explain this one however, as Freddie added the last three words during his Live Aid performance in 1985, which was played widely across radio at the time.
Mona Lisa is clearly smiling: The Mona Lisa has gone down in history because of her downturned mouth and vacant expression. Looking at the piece of art today however shows that she's always had a cheeky smirk on her face. This is one of the most mind-blowing examples of a Mandela Effect around! Check it out for yourself below:
Mirror, mirror, on the wall... Remember that terrifying scene in Snow White when the Evil Queen demands to know just who is the fairest in all the land? Snow's evil stepmother refers to the mirror twice, right? Wrong! She actually says "Magic Mirror on the wall," which has left us completely baffled.
There are hundreds more examples of Mandela Effects scattered across the far-reaching corners of the web, so go and have a look for some more and let us know your favourites! If you think you're a master of all things Mandela Effect, take our quiz below and see if you can get top marks...
NOTE: Conspiracies are theories often created with a lack of evidence. Each of our conspiracy reports are based on online research, but should never be taken as 100% fact.
NEXT WEEK: Is the Earth flat?
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