Life’s Little Shockers
Do you think that Curious George has a tail? Most people think he does, but he doesn’t. Did you know that Bugs Bunny and his friends are Looney Tunes and not Looney Toons? If you are just realizing these things now, you aren’t alone. One woman realized that her memories didn’t sync up with reality. This led her to try to find others who felt the same. She found some people and discovered that we might be living in a more complex world than we initially thought. People are developing a strange condition that might prove there’s a parallel universe.
Fiona Broome
Fiona Broome calls herself a paranormal expert. Over the years, she has experienced her fair share of unexplained phenomena. Since the ’80s, she has experienced spirits, shades, and other ghostly entities. She has made it her life’s mission to figure out the connection between the living and the ghostly plane.
Dragon Con 2009
The strangest thing Fiona says that she ever experienced occurred when she was invited to speak at Dragon Con in 2009. The sci-fi/fantasy convention was being held in Atlanta, and she was thrilled to attend. She was sitting in the green room at the conference when she started a conversation with the other speakers. It was then that she realized a strange similarity among them all.
Nelson Mandela
Each of the members remembered South African President Nelson Mandela dying in prison in the ’80s. They also remembered the coverage of his funeral after. The only problem was that Mandela was released from prison in 1990, and he lived for 23 years. He died in 2013. The members of the panel believed that it was just a coincidence that they all remembered things this way. They figured that they had fallen victim to the misinformation that was circulating at the time. Fiona didn’t believe that it was a coincidence at all.
The Mandela Effect
Fiona’s editors suggested that she create a website dedicated to this strange phenomenon, and she called it the “Mandela Effect.” Almost immediately, people were logging on to her site to share their thoughts. When the site was first launched, the conversation was light. People were comparing the Mandela Effect with works of science fiction. It wasn’t long before people were coming forward with their own accounts, and their memories of Mandela’s death were identical to Fiona’s.
False Memories
The more people heard about the site; the more people were posting. Many had identical memories of things that never existed or never happened. Some even had an alternate historical timeline. When people realized that many of them thought that the Berenstein Bears was actually spelled Berenstain, the Mandela Effect became a viral sensation.
More Examples
Discussions have been popping up all over the world about the Mandela Effect. Rather than saying, “Mirror, mirror on the wall,” the Wicked Queen in Snow White actually says, “Magic mirror on the wall.” The most shocking scene from Star Wars was when Darth Vader says, “Luke, I am your father.” He actually doesn’t mention Luke by name. The Mandela Effect can also affect the way that words are spelled. Is it Febreeze or Febreze? Fruit Loops or Froot Loops? Sketchers or Skechers? In each case, the second spelling is the right one.
Puzzling
The phenomenon puzzles the online community, and many wonder if there is any real basis for it. Fiona believes that she can explain the phenomenon, and her explanation is pretty bizarre. She believes that it occurs when someone has a clear memory of something that never happened in this reality. She believes that alternative realities can overlap, taking us for the ride. We can be taken into a world that is just slightly different than ours, so we don’t even realize it.
Real Or Just Misinformation
Fiona believes that there are multiple parallel universes out there. Others think that the Mandela Effect is merely feeding into misremembered information. If people have misinformation and they spread that information, it can spread quickly from person to person. Now with the internet and the fake news going around, it is hard to take anything at face value.
A Warning
There is no proof that the Mandela Effect is proof of a parallel universe; however, it does serve as a warning. Memories can be dangerously flawed. Over time, we can remember a false memory, and convince ourselves that it really happened. Just because you remember something one way, it doesn’t mean that it really happened, or it is really true. If you hear misinformation, again and again, you will start to believe that the information is accurate. This could be the Mandela Effect or the parallel universe that Fiona is sure exists, is real. We may never know.
