Living the Mandela Effect

A few years ago the local weatherman came on the TV and stated that it has never snowed on the Fourth of July in the Reno/Sparks area of Northern Nevada. I remember thinking, “Oh, yes it has! 1986, in fact.”

However, a check of meteorological records bears out that the forecaster was correct and I — like so many others were wrong. I recall the event like it were yesterday – but it never happened.

Recently, I learned that this is the ‘Mandela Effect,’ named so after Nelson Mandela, when researchers discovered that a great many people had the false memory of his death in the 1991, when he actually passed away in 2013. So why do so many people believe that they watched, read or heard of his earlier funeral, when it never happened?

Granted, I’m no expert on this subject and I’m certain there is more to it than this simple, but brief overview I’m going to attempt: according to some researchers, there is more than one time-line and they move closely, side-by-side through space, and every once in a while they touch or cross and the lines become distorted and mixed up. This is how, according to these same researchers, memories become confused.

While reading an online article about an upcoming movie release called, ‘Shazam,’ I learned that actor and comedian Sinbad had been battling the Internet over reports that he had made a movie about a Genie that befriends to kids, a brother and sister, helping them find a love interest for their father.

Much to my surprise — and my misremembering – Sinbad never played the part of a Genie in any such movie. I was so gobsmacked that I even posted the question on Facebook: “Am I the only person on Earth that recalls Sinbad playing a genie in a 1990’s movie?”

That’s how I learned of the ‘Mandela Effect.’

Stranger still is that earlier in the evening, my wife and I were discussing singer/songwriter Harry Chapin (Cats in the Cradle, Taxi, W-O-L-D.) Neither of us could remember exactly what year he had died, but we were both certain that it was (also) in 1991.

Separately, we looked his bio up online and found we were both seriously wrong about his year of death. We were dumbstruck to realize he died as far back as 1981.

What in the hell? Did we simply misremember or were we subjected to the ‘Mandela Effect,’ whereby Harry Chapin lives and we each, independent of the other, recalled his passing different from the actual historical timeline we are living?

And are we the only ones to have made this mistake? I know — a lot of unanswered questions.

The idea of time lines crossing or touching is a very interesting subject and one I find worth investigating further. Have you ever misremembered something you were certain happened only to discover you were wrong?

I’d love to hear your stories!