The Mandela Effect

The Phenomenon That Baffles The World

Meg Carney and Bhavana Sunil

The Mandela Effect is an occurrence that many people experience in today’s world. It can be defined as people believing that they remember an object, name, or event in a certain way, when in reality it is another way. This confusion among people’s minds can be partially explained by Catherine Myers, who formally defined the Mandela Effect in 2006 as the ‘spontaneous production of false memories; either memories for events that never occurred, or memories of actual events that are displaced in space or time.’ This term was coined together after people many people in South Africa claimed that they had heard a news report saying that Nelson Mandela had died in jail, but were shocked to see him come out alive. The confusion isn’t because we are living in parallel universe, although there are many conspiracies that point in that direction, but by the fact that people produce false memories. And yes, it is possible for thousands of people to produce the same false memories. That’s what makes the Mandela Effect so frustrating-and baffling.

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