The Mandela effect: Theory or reality

Mr.Sangram Keshari Samal,
Asst.Prof.
Department of Biotechnology, Kalinga University

The Mandela effect which currently raised eyebrows of a group of people in the world and directing toward the theories on time glitches, time travel and the phenomenon of presence of multiverse (Multiple Universe). According to the scientific community, The Mandela effect refers to the presence of false memory in an individual, who believes in an event occurred that didn’t happen in real world. In their opinion the presence of false memory in an individual or a small group of individuals can be justifiable, but the beliefs of millions of people towards a false event direct us to analyse the reality of this theory. Whether this is only a theory, a false memory of individuals or a big conspiracy present behind it. The term ‘Mandela effect’ was initially proposed in the year of 2009 by Fiona Broome on her website and conferences where she stated that, she believed that the great philosopher Nelson Mandela died in 1980s – 90s in prison while participating in people’s movement. After her statement millions of people around the globe also claimed the same and even stated that they witnessed and watched the last rites of him along with the speech of his wife after his demise, but he actually died in 2013. Along with this some events around the globe as well as in India which is not actually happened, believed by people is true and strength their belief towards multiverse, time travel and time glitches.
2. Notable examples of Mandela Effect: The story of demise of Nelson Mandela not the only example of Mandela effect, the concept grew along with time and other false memories has been emerged which strengthen the existence of Mandela Effect.
‘Luke, I am your father’: As per the fans of the movie “Star Wars: Episode V” , the previous line was highly famous during that period and peoples habituated to use this dialogue during their normal conversation. But, right now if the dialogue searched in any social platform like YouTube, the line was ‘No, I am your father’.
‘Mirror, Mirror on the Wall’: According to some of the fans of the show “Snow, white and seven dwarfs”, they remembered a famous dialogue of the show “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all” which is actually not present in the show. Instead of this dialogue the actual dialogue is “Magic mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all”.
Presence of New Zealand: According to geographical location of the country New Zealand, it is situated southeast of Australia, but some peoples believe that New Zealand was situated in northeast instead of southeast.
Dialogue of Amitabh Bachchan: The most famous dialogue of legendary actor Amitabh Bachchan in the Hindi movie ‘Sehenshah’ was remembered by millions of Indians as “Ristey me toh hum tumhare baap lagtey hein”, but the dialogue which is present in movie CDs as well as in social platform YouTube is “Ristey me toh hum tumhare baap hote hein”. This change in dialogue create a bit confusion among individuals as in current time also people use to search the dialogue in YouTube as well as in Google as the prior one.
Kerala or Kerela: Kerala is one of the states of India whose name believed to be Kerela by thousands of people.
Location of Sri Lanka: Some peoples believe that previously Sri-Lanka use to present in south of India but currently it is situated at the southeast position of India.
3. Scientific explanation of Mandela effect:
False memory: False memory is a falsified recollection of certain memories which feel real by a person which is not actually happened. As the brain only can remember and store memories in the process of the complex network of neurons and connections, unlike the memory of computer which store the information in the form of data. Sometimes the brain can also create false memories by various influence like false information, suggestions or by brains natural tendency to fill the gaps present in a memory. According to some scientific investigations it is identified that ‘hippocampus’, a region of the brain which helps in retrieving memory can merge different memories. Along with this, the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for decision making and assessing truth of memory can mismatch it.
Misinformation: Misinformation regarding some events, shows, dialogues, logos of the company can also give rise to believe the false events.
Prior expectations: Prior expectations to an event and critical thinking about a matter by which peoples can develop a belief in some dialogues or events which is not preset in the real world.
Effect of time travel, multiverse movies: Movies and shows based on time travel and presence of multiple universes in an imaginary dimension force to believe in it.
4. Theories of the peoples who believe in Mandela effect: The group of peoples who believes in Mandela effect as real events, also believes in some conspiracy theories. They are:
Time glitch: It is a mysterious phenomenon and not believed by scientific community, but some peoples around the world believe in it and according to them due to some reason or alterations in cosmic energy, the actual time of our earth glitched by which either time lapsed, time loosed or gained and these alterations can observed.
Time travel: Some peoples believe in time travel which means traveling between two different points of time by an individual, which might also be a reason of Mandela effect.
Presence of multidimension and multiverse: Some ancient sculptures of Hinduism and old civilisations reported the presence of multiple universes in a multiple dimension which is not visible by normal humans. Along with old sculptures, some modern scientists like Stephen Hawking also believes in presence of multiple universes, multiple earths and multiple solar systems which has their own low of physics, dimension and constants. According to his no boundary proposal theory, multiple universes might have some connections and they can connect with some cosmic energy and existence of these theories also solidify the believes of time alterations.
5. Conclusion: The Mandela effect explains the existence of false memories of the individual which encourage in believing false memories. Peoples on the globe are grouped in two categories, where one group describe this as false memory and other group believes in alterations in time. Even if it can be believed that this is only a false memory, the question arises when millions of people experience the same around the globe. Is this only a false memory created by the brain or a big conspiracy present behind it? Is anyone changing the past? However, there are no solutions to these questions.
References:
Goethals, G.R. (2023). Mandela Effect and Heroic Perceptions. In: Encyclopedia of Heroism Studies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17125-3_484-1
Seland, D. (2023). The Mandela Effect. Quality, 62(9), 6-6.
Maithufi, S. (2018). Nelson Mandela: the ripple effect. Third World Quarterly, 39(9), 1848–1859. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2018.1438183