Mandela Effect

Have you been absolutely sure about something, but then realize that you have it the wrong way? You’re not the only one. It’s called the mandela effect. When a majority of people have a false assumption about something, or remember events or sayings or images different than how they actually are, it is called the mandela effect. So yeah, it’s pretty much a thing. And guess where the name came from? Here’s a hint, his first name is Nelson. A no brainer, right? A large group of people were pretty certain that Nelson Mandela, the Former President of South Africa had died in the 1980s when he actually died in 2013. And that is how this effect or this theory was named after Nelson Mandela. Conspiracy theories believe this is proof of an alternate universe, while many doctors use it as an illustration of how imperfect memories can be.

In fact, I actually had a mandela effect moment recently. My cousin forwarded this video in our group. A guy had discovered that in “Kabhi Khushi, Kabhi Gham” Kareena Kapoor did not actually say “ Koun hai yeh jisne Pooh ko mudke ken nahi dekha?” as we all remember but she says “Koun hai yeh jisne mujhe mudke keh nahi dekha?” Needless to say, life has not been the same since.

But that is not my only Mandela effect moment. I was so sure that the popular cartoon series was spelled “Looney Toons” but it is actually spelled “Looney Tunes”. When I looked it up online, a number of people were claiming their surprise. And how about how most of us were so sure that KitKat has a hyphen in between? Nope, no hypen there.

But it is fascinating how a large number of people can claim to have misconceptions about the same thing in the same way. I wonder how that can be; how that works and I wonder how many other moments are going to make me go “oh my God!”