Patricia Grisafi
When I was a kid, I remember distinctly reading The Berenstein Bears and seeing advertisements for Shazaam starring Sinbad.
I’m not alone, but apparently everyone who is adamant about seeing the title of these books and movies is either wrong or misremembering the actual truth: the book series was called The Berenstain Bears and Shazaam never existed.
This misremembering phenomenon has a title:
The Mandela Effect, named after one of the most commonly misremembered events—the never-happened death of South African President Nelson Mandela in prison—is a phenomenon in which many people misremember the same thing.
Some people think this is proof of an alternate timeline or universe, while others use it to highlight the fallibility of our memory.
There are many more examples of The Mandela Effect, and on Reddit, people are sharing some of the ways they’ve experienced this phenomenon.
Have you experienced The Mandela Effect?
1.
“My cousin died in a car accident in 1994. His high school band recorded the song ‘Time of Your Life’ by Green Day to have it played at his funeral. My entire family, including his brothers and his parents, remember that song being played because it was his favorite song, and Green Day his favorite band. They even remember having a family discussion before the funeral about whether to let it be played because of its actual name (‘Good Riddance’). That song came out in 1997, there is no way it could be the same song.” — chogram
2.
“I live in New Zealand. I have very vivid memories of walking into the lounge in the morning that 9/11 happened and watching it unfold on TV before I went to school. It was in the 2nd or 3rd house we lived in after my mum and dad broke up. I’ve always had this vivid memory of being in that house when it happened and watching it unfold. A few years ago I realised that I was 7 in 2001 when it happened and my parents hadn’t broken up them meaning we were still living in our first family home that my parents owned. I asked my mum what house we were living in when 9/11 happened, she said the same house that I have the memories of but it can’t have been that house.” — shitty_undies786
3.
“‘Luke I am your father’ as opposed to ‘No, I am your father.'” — Big-G_2099
4.
“Oh, and the oceans. I was taught in school that there’s 4 major oceans. Atlantic, Pacific, Indian and Arctic. Where the f**k did this 5th ocean suddenly appear from? I never heard of the Southern Ocean in my life until a handful of years ago.” — TheJudge00
5.
“The Evil Queen from Snow White never says, ‘Mirror Mirror on the Wall…’ She says ‘Magic Mirror on the wall…’ As a kid, I could’ve sworn she said the first line.” — mjohnsimon
6.
“I remember it being ‘Febreeze’ not ‘Febreze'” — confusedpsychgirl
7.
“The Berenstein Bears. Always was, always will be…” — showerdrinking
8.
“There was a cornucopia in the Fruit of the Loom logo. Well there wasn’t actually, ever. S**t’s weird.” — Excalib1rd
9.
“This is pretty obscure but. There’s a pretty popular song from Donkey Kong Country 2 called Stickerbrush Symphony that everyone loves. Except it’s called Stickerbush Symphony and not Stickerbrush. Not only that but if you search ‘Stickerbush’ on youtube it will autocorrect it to Stickerbrush, despite being wrong. I spent my entire life thinking the name was called something else, and apparently so did everyone else.” — LegacyLemur
10.
“Looney Toons as opposed to Looney Tunes. This one is still bothering me.” — Duneval
