Conspiracy Theories #1: The Mandela Effect

            This article is only intended to be a fun read. I am in no way trying to discredit anyone or have anyone perceive these articles as fact. Let your imagination run free!

            Let’s start off by explaining when this theory came into play. Nelson Mandela, the person from which the theory is derived from, was a South African civil rights activist. In 1964, Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment for sabotage, which he plead guilty to. But there’s a catch, one that affects his entire existence.

            Some people recall Nelson Mandela dying during his prison sentence, yet others recall him dying in 2013. How can this be? Many brush this off as a false memory, but what if it’s something more? Conspiracy theorists believe The Mandela Effect happened due to an interference with a separate timeline or alternate reality.

            The majority of people that recall his death in prison also recall riots in South Africa and mourning, as well as the funeral. How is it possible that so many people’s brains have made this mistake? There are so many questions that cannot be answered. After The Mandela Effect became a conversational topic, many other theories popped up in relations to this one. One other famous one is the “Berenstain”/”Berenstein” effect.

            In this theory, children and adults recall reading “The Berenstein Bears” books and watching the show, but as of now, the franchise is spelled “Berenstain”. How do you remember it? Don’t believe me? Look into it. It’s absolutely mind-blowing to see all of these potentially “false” memories. Could you imagine if all of these incidents are actually because of a parallel universe?

            There are many of these occurrences to compare to. For example, there's “Oscar Mayer” vs. ”Oscar Meyer”, “Sex in the City” vs. ”Sex and the City”, the fact that Pikachu’s tail isn’t actually black on the end, or that Curious George doesn’t even have a tail. What is that? He’s a monkey! There are so many frustrating existences of Mandela Effects that I personally remember, which seems crazy because of how many people remember the same things in different ways. Did you hear that Darth Vader didn’t say, “Luke, I am your father.” Or would you believe that the Queen from Snow White didn’t say, “Mirror, mirror on the wall.” She actually said, “Magic mirror on the wall.”

            Did you know that Jiffy peanut butter doesn’t exist? It never did and probably never will. It's always been Jif, but not Jiffy. Have you listened to “We are the Champions” by Queen lately? Personally, the end makes me so uncomfortable. Listen to it until the very end and you’ll understand what I’m saying. It feels like it's missing something. How about “Looney Tunes”, wait…or is it “Looney Toons”? Toons just makes more sense because they're cartoons, but in fact, it's tunes.

            All of these Mandela Effects have a simpler explanation than breaking time itself. Our brains could potentially be having “false” memories, or it could be the fact that our brain just doesn’t pick up on the tinier details of everyday things. We read “Berenstain Bears” and immediately pronounce it like “Berenstein”, making us think that it’s spelled differently. Also, when there’s a large number of people saying, “Hey, that’s wrong!”, you’re probably going to believe that the detail is wrong too and jump on the bandwagon. Although, it’s fun to think of explanations, like alternate universes or timelines.