# Have you experienced the Mandela Effect? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 19, 2018, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-experienced-the-mandela-effect/818190 "2018-07-19T10:52:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b2d939/32.png) [@Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_Arachnid_Laser_1)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2018, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-experienced-the-mandela-effect/818190/41 "2018-07-21T16:58:11Z")
I’ve said it before. All the Mandela Effect stories are easily explainable nonsense except one. It was called “Interview with A vampire”, damn it. The name has changed even in Spanish. It was “Entrevista con un vampiro”, never “Entrevista con EL vampiro” as google claims it to be. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2018, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-experienced-the-mandela-effect/818190/42 "2018-07-21T20:04:06Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > I haven’t seen the movie in years, and don’t remember what I originally saw. But reviewing that scene in the link, it seems to me that the scene would have been much better if the girl did have braces. It would have been funny that way. As it stands, it’s just kind of bizarre and puzzling why she and Jaws connected like that. Looking at it close up on a full screen I can see that one brief shot where it’s clear she’s not wearing braces. The shot before that it looks like she could be. I doubt I could tell that watching the movie on an old TV as I mentioned before. I think you have stated the reason for most of these occurrences, we remember things in the way they should have been. The girl wearing braces would have made much more sense in the movie. Interview with **the** Vampire should have been name Interview with **a** Vampire, it just sounds like what a title would be (I assume there’s more meaning to the title for fans of the Rice’s vampire stories but for most people they just recall the name of the movie). Berenstain bears is just mis-remembering the spelling of an uncommon name. I never noticed that C3PO had a silver leg, and I doubt many people have. Even the ending to Big is easy to confuse because another movie had the alternate ending people recall, it’s just confusing the endings of movies not some major event in a person’s life. And I’ve never heard of anyone thinking Nelson Mandela died in the 1980s. Even if you had such a memory in the 80s you’d have to be pretty ignorant of world events following that until his death decades later. These are just minor issues of memory about unimportant trivial matters, nothing at all like recalling events that never happened or getting significant details wrong in a person’s life experience. Eidetic memory doesn’t exist, we remember most things as a collection of generic information, lots of details get lost and filled along the way, we should expect that, the effect should be called ‘Fuzzy on the details’. It would be more interesting to look into false memories that can’t be explained as an incorrect detail. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2018, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-experienced-the-mandela-effect/818190/43 "2018-07-21T20:41:20Z")
> [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](#): > > False memory is literally the name of the phenomenon. That’s the name of the wiki. It’s just that there are some things that people share the false memory about. I think there’s a significant difference between a faulty memory and a false memory, although in the case of Berenstain/Berenstein it might be tricky to draw the line. Some people might think it’s Berenstein just because their brains never absorbed the Berenstain spelling in the first place and just assume that that the spelling must be Berenstein because that’s how -stein names are generally spelled. That’s quite diffeeent from a false memory—that is, having a memory of something that you never actually experienced or something that never happened. There’s a difference I think between having a memory that gets some details wrong as opposed to a memory that is fundamentally false, in that you are convinced that something happened to you that you factually didn’t experience. ---
**Author:** ![Cumberdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@Cumberdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cumberdale)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2018, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-experienced-the-mandela-effect/818190/44 "2018-07-21T22:23:25Z")
> [@Cumberdale](#): > > Moonraker. I definitely recall the scene where Jaws smiles at the girl and she smiles back and has braces which brought them together. A few years ago I re-watched all the Bond films and when I got to Moonraker, the girl didn’t have braces. I was like WTF. My sincerest apologies for not saying that the girl smiled and had _adult_ braces. Missing such an obvious reference is frankly inexcusable. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2018, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-experienced-the-mandela-effect/818190/45 "2018-07-22T00:06:15Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > That actually happened — [https://youtu.be/4XM5hbS7GlU](https://youtu.be/4XM5hbS7GlU) > [@Czarcasm](#): > > It may have been taped, but there is no evidence that the tape ever aired until that special was made. Even with the _beep_ I don’t see how the censors would ever have allowed it through. Not only that, but that incident was taped in 1977. The story predates that by at least two years - I first heard it in the fall of 1975, and I grew up in a small enough town that it usually took awhile for stories like this to arrive. Not only that, but the specific line in the legend was “That’d be the butt, Bob”. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2018, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-experienced-the-mandela-effect/818190/46 "2018-07-23T02:58:21Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > I think there’s a significant difference between a faulty memory and a false memory, although in the case of Berenstain/Berenstein it might be tricky to draw the line. > > Some people might think it’s Berenstein just because their brains never absorbed the Berenstain spelling in the first place and just assume that that the spelling must be Berenstein because that’s how -stein names are generally spelled. > > That’s quite diffeeent from a false memory—that is, having a memory of something that you never actually experienced or something that never happened. > > There’s a difference I think between having a memory that gets some details wrong as opposed to a memory that is fundamentally false, in that you are convinced that something happened to you that you factually didn’t experience. Thank you. That was the point I was making about the Berenstain Bears - that, “-stain” being an unusual spelling, people’s memory has clearly “corrected” it. ---
**Author:** ![Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heffalump_and_roo/32/7691_2.png) [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heffalump_and_Roo)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2018, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-experienced-the-mandela-effect/818190/47 "2018-07-23T12:23:57Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > Thank you. That was the point I was making about the Berenstain Bears - that, “-stain” being an unusual spelling, people’s memory has clearly “corrected” it. I’m not seeing the point of the distinction in this case, but if you do, that’s fine by me. To me, a false memory is just a memory that doesn’t match reality. The Mandela Effect is just the idea that some of the false memories are shared by more than one person. In my mind, a faulty memory is giving a possible reason why there may be a false memory. The reason I equated them in writing to you was because faulty memories create false memories, so they lead to the same thing. My point in writing that post was that it seemed to me that some people were making the “phenomenon” more complicated than it is. It’s merely a memory that doesn’t match reality, often shared by more than one person. There’s not that much mystery around it. The mystery is more around why it happens, which you gave a possible reason for - a faulty memory. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2018, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-experienced-the-mandela-effect/818190/48 "2018-07-30T12:54:51Z")
I woke up this morning to see that Chipper Jones was inducted into the baseball hall of fame yesterday. I swear I remember that having happened already two or three years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Ashtura](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ashtura/32/2963_2.png) [@Ashtura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashtura)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2018, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-experienced-the-mandela-effect/818190/49 "2018-07-30T14:53:34Z")
I do the Moonraker joke would definitely have been better if she had had braces, which makes it harder to accept that she didn’t. Wishful thinking. I think the height difference and her being nerdy with glasses was the ‘joke’ here. They were two kind of opposite misfits. By now it’s been extremely ingrained that nerdy is associated with braces, as evidenced by[Andy’s Sister](https://uproxx.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/stacey-poehler.png?w=650&h=390) (played by a young Amy Pohler 20 years ago). Then that get’s conflated with “two nerds with braces falling in love” which has been done a lot, most recently in Katy Perry’s[TGIF](https://youtu.be/KlyXNRrsk4A?t=113)). ---
**Author:** ![Ashtura](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ashtura/32/2963_2.png) [@Ashtura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashtura)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2018, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-experienced-the-mandela-effect/818190/50 "2018-07-30T16:54:40Z")
BTW, some genius did some VFX work to get the braces “back in.” Works a lot better. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/rCFLgDsqh6Q/maxresdefault.jpg "Moonraker Original Braces Smile Scene (Mandela FX)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCFLgDsqh6Q) ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2018, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-experienced-the-mandela-effect/818190/51 "2018-07-30T17:27:20Z")
It used to be called the Mandala Effect. When did people start calling it the Mandela Effect? ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2018, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-experienced-the-mandela-effect/818190/52 "2018-07-30T21:05:19Z")
The ending -stein I have only ever heard pronounced “styne” or “steen.” Never “stain.” But teachers always pronounced is “Berenstain,” and Occam’s razor suggests that it’s easier to forget the spelling than the spoken pronunciation. > [@CookingWithGas](#): > > There’s another thread around here where people claim to have seen an alternate ending to “Big” (which I’m sure is what you’re alluding to) when in fact the “alternate ending” was from an altogether different movie. That’s one of the most-bumped SDMB threads, but I’m not up to date on the research - what is the other movie? > [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > And what the hell kind of a monkey has no tail? How much more hilarity would ensue if George had a tail to swing by? I can’t imagine what the creator was thinking. Mandrills have a little stubby one. But he is, most definitely, not a mandrill. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2018, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-experienced-the-mandela-effect/818190/53 "2018-07-31T00:47:27Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > That’s one of the most-bumped SDMB threads, but I’m not up to date on the research - what is the other movie? “14 Going on 30”. Ending linked in earlier post: > [@CookingWithGas](#): > > Please see the ending to the movie “14 Going on 30” to see if that matches your memory. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6783tkwbZw0](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6783tkwbZw0) ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2018, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-experienced-the-mandela-effect/818190/54 "2018-07-31T01:10:09Z")
> [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](#): > > After looking around for this topic, I saw this [Reddit post](https://www.reddit.com/r/MandelaEffect/comments/8zxxeb/to_celebrate_nelson_mandelas_birthday/) on the Mandela Effect for Mandela’s birthday also. There’s an entire [subReddit on the Mandela Effect.](https://www.reddit.com/r/MandelaEffect/) > > Some examples in that post include: (He listed these as personal to him). If we’re also including false memories personal to us, I have a very clear memory of being on a school bus, on the way back from a field trip my senior year of high school, and hearing for the first time the revised “Candle in the Wind” by Elton John that was released shortly after Princess Di’s death. I even remember the road we were driving on when the song. My friend Heather was sitting beside me, and it bummed her out too. The problem is that Princess Di died just before I started my junior year of college, and I hadn’t been on a school bus for more than two years at that point, and I hadn’t seen Heather in about a year. ---
**Author:** ![Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heffalump_and_roo/32/7691_2.png) [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heffalump_and_Roo)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2018, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-experienced-the-mandela-effect/818190/55 "2018-07-31T20:25:56Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > It used to be called the Mandala Effect. When did people start calling it the Mandela Effect? I can’t tell if you’re joking. Is this a whoosh about the Mandela Effect of remembering the term Mandala Effect? Except not many people do remember that from what I can tell. I did a search on the Mandala Effect and got almost no hits except for people joking or mistyping. In case you weren’t joking, the term was coined in 2010 and is based on the shared memory about Nelson Mandela. From the wiki on False memory linked earlier in the thread. > [@](#): > > In 2010 the phenomenon of collective false memory was dubbed the “Mandela effect” by self-described “paranormal consultant” Fiona Broome, in reference to a false memory she reports, of the death of South African leader Nelson Mandela in the 1980s (when he was in fact still alive), which she claims is shared by “perhaps thousands” of other people.[35] Broome has speculated about alternate realities as an explanation, but most commentators suggest that these are instead examples of false memories shaped by similar factors affecting multiple people,[36][37][30][38][33][39][40] such as social reinforcement of incorrect memories,[41][42] or false news reports and misleading photographs influencing the formation of memories based on them. ---
**Author:** ![Nauplius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nauplius/32/51_2.png) [@Nauplius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nauplius)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2018, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-experienced-the-mandela-effect/818190/56 "2018-07-31T20:32:03Z")
Are you guys talking about the Mengele Effect? ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2018, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-experienced-the-mandela-effect/818190/57 "2018-07-31T20:39:21Z")
> [@Nauplius](#): > > Are you guys talking about the Mengele Effect? Wikipedia says he drowned, but I distinctly remember him attempting to breed child Hitlers and then being eaten by dogs. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2018, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-experienced-the-mandela-effect/818190/58 "2018-07-31T21:04:31Z")
I thought it was the Mandola Effect. I could have sworn Bill Monroe used to play a lower pitched instrument. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2018, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-experienced-the-mandela-effect/818190/59 "2018-07-31T22:04:45Z")
I’m think it’s the Mandarin Effect. Like when you remember a city called Canton but then find out it’s called Guangzhou. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2018, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-experienced-the-mandela-effect/818190/60 "2018-07-31T23:26:26Z")
I previously posted this in the “Obvious things about creative works” thread in CS: > [@](#): > > Earlier today, I was about to compare someone who was game for anything with Mikey from the Life cereal commercials. As I remembered it in my head, “he’ll eat anything”. > > Then I thought, “That can’t be right. Why would Mikey’s brothers have been so incredulous that he liked Life cereal if the kid was a human garbage dump?” But I could have sworn that was the line. > > So I looked it up online and, sure enough, it’s “He hates everything” – the diametric opposite of how I remembered it. But, funny thing is, if you Google the line “he’ll eat anything”, it’s all about people remembering Mikey from the Life cereal commercials. Either people (mis)quoting the line or a few columns where someone realizes that they remembered the line wrong. A zillion people all thinking that Mikey was the kid who “he’ll eat anything”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-experienced-the-mandela-effect/818190.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-experienced-the-mandela-effect/818190.md?page=4)