Page 48 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - Febrary/March 2020 Edition
P. 48
48 The Mandela Effect - Fact or Fiction
The like this incorrectly – something for which people weren’t even able to admit it (on the
there’s incontrovertible proof that they were internet) that their brains had remembered
Mandela Effect wrong – the create such a deep feeling of the name wrong, insisting that they actually
confusion and mental dissonance that they start were the Berenstein Bears back in the 1970s
to look for explanations. Some such or ‘80s and that the world split into an
BACKGROUND “explanations” include conspiracy theories, alternate universe where it’s spell
cover-ups, and even “split/alternative differently. Some even provided proof in the
In 2009 a writer and researcher named universes.” But it’s not caused by any of those – form of Berenstein Bears merchandise such
Fiona Broome attended DragonCon, a science it’s a flaw in the human brain. Here are some as stuffed animals, labeled “Berenstein.”
fiction and fantasy fan convention in Atlanta. other examples of the Mandela effect. (There you go! Artifacts from the other
She was talking with friends when somebody universe!)
brought up Nelson Mandela, the south African • Mandela Effect: In 2016 hundreds of • Reality: So many people’s brains
civil rights leader who died in a prison in the people on the Internet claimed to have remembered it as “Berenstein” and not
1980s. Several other people in the group remembered watching a family movie in the ”Berenstain” because names that end in
expressed similar feelings – the dismay they’d mid-1990s called Shazam. A comedy “stein” are much more common than “stain”,
felt when they learned of Nelson Mandela’s adventure about a sassy genie, the film- and memories are distorted by “filling in the
death. Broome, however, was confused: starred stand-up comedian Sinbad as the title blanks” or associations. (As for those stuffed
Mandela didn’t die in his cell in the 1980s – he character. One problem: This movie doesn’t animals, apparently toy manufacturers can
was released in the early 1990s and it became exist. There are no tapes, posters, or records suffer from confabulation, too.)
the president of South Africa. So how your of it ever being released or airing on TV.
friends have got it so wrong? To get answers, • Reality: There was a widely released movie (Continued on Page 49)
Broome started a website to discuss this about an African American genie that hit
phenomenon, which she called the “Mandela movie theatres in 1996, but it wasn’t Shazam
effect.” She received hundreds of more counts starring Sinbad, - it was the similarly titled
from people who were convinced that Mandela Kazaam starring professional basketball
died in prison in the 1980s. In fact, the player Shaquille O’Neal. When a reporter
remember hearing about it all the news; some asked about the Shazam/Kazaam
even remembered seeing the funeral on TV. phenomenon in 2016, Sinbad quipped, “It
Psychologists refer to this as was Shaq, but we all [meaning all African
confabulation – if a memory that results from Americans] look alike,”
the misinterpreted, flawed, or overlapping
memories, or simply absorbed and processed • Mandela Effect: For more than 30 years,
this misinformation. The reason for the false kids have grown up with the Berenstein
memories about Mandela: likely a combination Bears; the book series has provided
of other publicly televised the funerals and the important life lessons via stories about a
footage but Mandela’s release, all family of bears. Oh, except they aren’t called
misremembered by people who were very young Berenstein Bears – they’re the Berenstain
and very impressionable when the events Bears, after authors Stan and Jan Berenstain.
occurred. When millions of millennials realized they’d
When someone realize is that they, along gotten that vowel wrong for their entire lives
with thousands of others, remember to an event it became an internet phenomenon. Some
