It is when many people share a false memory.
Nelson Mandela died on December 5, 2013 due to the effects of a respiratory infection. The death of the first president of color of South Africa and one of the main icons of the fight against apartheid occurred in his home after a prolonged period of agony at ninety-five years of age, being picked up by most mainstream media Communication.
However, there is a large number of people who were surprised by this fact, stating that they remember that the South African president died in prison and even declaring that he remembers scenes of his funeral. It is not an isolated case, but On other occasions a similar phenomenon has been reported in which some people remember things that in principle have not happened. Although there are numerous cases prior to the death of the South African leader, this phenomenon has been called the Mandela effect.
The Mandela effect was named after Fiona Broome, a researcher and passionate about the paranormal, who would receive with great surprise the news of the death of Nelson Mandela. The reason for the surprise is that Broome vividly remembered his death and its consequences, as well as his funeral, many years before the actual death. And not only her, but other people said to remember the same. Subsequently the debate would move to the Internet, where many people would share similar experiences.
Thus, Mandela effect refers to situations in which multiple people seem to remember, in a similar way or even identical to each other, phenomena that have not occurred or that do not coincide with real historical data. For these people their memory is real and true, as is the fact that in the present they are receiving information that contradicts this memory and it seems to be true
The attempt to explain this phenomenon has provoked an ample debate, arising several attempts of explanation from diverse theories and perspectives.
Some people have relied on the theory of multiple universes to try to explain the Mandela effect, proposing that the reason for this can be found in the overlap of time lines of different alternative realities. In this way, what happened in this reality would be combined with that of another, appearing in the memory of the people an event that in our reality would not have happened yet or that under certain circumstances could have occurred.
In addition, some start from the quantum theory to consider that this effect is due to the possible displacement of our consciousness by these alternate universes. When facing the real fact of the current universe, confusion appears due to the dissociation between what is remembered and what is being reported, being for the subject both totally credible memories.
Within this stream, other people seem to consider that the Mandela effect is the product of the opening of portals between parallel universes due to collisions between particles that occur in CERN. Both perspectives are based only on speculation, and are rejected by the vast majority of researchers in psychology and neurosciences.
Another current of thought seems to indicate that the causes of the Mandela effect can be found in an attempt of control and mental manipulation on the part of governmental organisms, introducing false information with uncertain intentions.
Finally, another explanation offered by some people is based on the fact that we live in a programmed reality, in which modifications are made from time to time that alter our internal programming and leave traces of our previous state.
Although the multiple theories in this regard can be of great interest, this phenomenon is explicable from the psychology. Specifically, the origin of the Mandela effect can be found in a series of mental processes related to a malfunction or distortion of memory.
The presence of a Mandela effect is not indicative of the person lying about what he or she remembers. For this the memory is very real, remembering as such. However, the origen This effect can be found in the interference of other information or the creation of memory fragments with which the memory of the events is filled.
The reason for the generation of these memories can be found in the memory is largely constructive, remembering the main elements that were part of a scene and then reconstruct them mentally when we need to recover the memory. From this, it is easy that the introduction of new elements a posteriori or interference other thoughts, memories or beliefs can cause a false memory.
Some of the mental phenomena that can explain the Mandela effect are the following. Although they may be present as symptoms of various medical or mental problems, it is not uncommon for them to appear in the non-clinical population. In other words, it does not have to be indicative of a mental disorder.
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One of the main elements that could explain the existence of the Mandela effect is the confabulation, the phenomenon by which human beings fill the different holes present in our memory with fabricated memories, unconsciously. This problem can be observed among others in cases of amnesia and dementia, but its appearance in people without clinical problems is not strange. This type of confabulations are also frequent in people who have suffered a severe trauma, such as sexual abuse in childhood, sometimes generating false mind memories to protect the individual from psychic pain and suffering caused.
Thus, based on a real memory, the individual elaborates and creates different spaces and fragments of memory. In most cases the generation of such fragments is not done with the intention of deceiving others, but the individual believes that his memory is such.
The fact that multiple people coincide in the same memory may be due to the fact that it is not impossible to induce a false memory in other people. In fact, it has been shown that hypnotic or suggestion-based processes can induce them with some ease. Through the language and according to what type of questions are made regarding a specific situation, the person analyzed can modify their internal perception of the events recalled, as demonstrated by the psychologist Elizabeth Loftus.
That is why when hypnosis is used to recover memories, extreme precautions must be taken in order to avoid the generation of false memories. In fact, there is evidence that the use of hypnosis in cases of hysteria during the time of the Salpétriêre schools produced in some cases the false memory of having received abuse.
Linked to the previous point we can find the phenomenon called cryptomnesia, which allows a memory to be experienced as something lived for the first time due to the presence of confusion about its origin. Consider as your own an idea or information that we have read, seen or heard, so that we can identify as a memory something that has come to us through others by confusing the memory of what we have thought or perceived with the actual memory of the events.
With this, a person can identify the belief of another as their own elaboration, so that the expansion of the same idea is possible without it being considered as coming from others.
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The mind usually tries to adapt your memories to the things you believe in, so the more you are interested in the Mandela effect, the more you will have these kinds of experiences.
If there is a fact that you do not remember well or do not know in depth, but someone tells you about it, you can end up storing this information as part of your memories and later consider it true even if it is not.
The mind is never willing to accept as true, new facts that we previously took for granted, so even if an event has not happened, you may have heard the wrong version so many times, that when you hear the real you are surprised and deny it.
If a given information goes against your strongest beliefs then you are in an episode of denial of reality, trying to merge your memories with your beliefs.
Post-traumatic stress causes the brain to adapt memories to more acceptable events to improve the feeling of life.
Memories of the death of Nelson Mandela are not the only ones in which the Mandela effect has appeared. Other historical phenomena have caused the same effect.
According to recent research has determined that people who have this feeling of memories that have never occurred are usually those who were born since 1955 and until 1980. There have been very few cases where people born from the year In 1981, you have these memory distortions, because, as is logical, your memories of past events never existed differently from what you have known in history books.
Tell me what do you think about this phenomenon? Has something similar happened to you? I'm sure you will not read Nelson Mandela's biography in the same way, since you'll be very aware of whether you're in the correct universe. The idea of this is that you can open your mind and understand that the mysteries and enigmas of the universe are so gigantic that sometimes they are incomprehensible to us.
