The Mandela Effect is certainly an interesting topic for me personally. I find that I've been taking in lots of information on this subject as well as Simulation Theory. When I say that, I will also point out that I haven't come to any concrete conclusions, nor do I expect to. I'm looking at these topics to find out what theories makes sense and what theories don't. It's a strange world we live in, and I think it's just getting stranger.
The question I have is when did the Mandela Effect start? I don't know that what I write here will offer a concrete answer, but it will offer a theory. First of all, I think the Mandela Effect as a name for this the phenomenon is not a good one.
It was named this way because the person who coined the term had learned that Nelson Mandela recently died, but they always thought he died in prison. Problem with that is many of us remember him getting out of prison, becoming president and going on to do great things for his country.
What would be a good name for the phenomenon where we vividly remember certain things being different than most of the people around us?
I do remember in the late 1980s and into the 1990s hearing about somebody dying. The thought would occur to me that I remembered hearing about this person dying a few years earlier. I found it strange, but not strange enough to dwell on it.
Maybe it was a faulty memory? These days, we don't do that. At least those of us who are researching into the Mandela effect. When did it start?
If you saw something unusual in the 1980s, such as a lyric in a song, a line in a movie or book, a quote from a politician or whatever, where were you going to put the word out to others? Where would you find out if others remembered the same thing you did?
You could get on a CB radio, but you would only get so far with that. You could go to your newspaper with a letter to the editor, but likely they would laugh you out of the room. There was no platform in the 1980s to discuss this.
In the late-1980s, the internet was becoming more available to the public. By the mid-1990s, most households were on the internet. Granted, the people were usually going to places like America Online, where the chat rooms and message boards were closely monitored.
At that point, most people had VCRs and video tapes. People were just getting into DVDs. You could now watch those movies, television shows and music videos over and over again and would surely catch the changes if they were noticeable to you.
As we moved into the 2000s, people had quicker internet and more options on where to browse. There were hubs tailored more specifically to your interests, and there were places to go to share videos. Anybody wanting music could now just download it rather than buying it at the store. People could get reacquainted with songs from the past.
However, was there much discussion going on out there in the first decade of the 2000s regarding what we now know to be the Mandela Effect? I don't recall that being the case.
I've been thinking lately that something changed in this world in the last decade. Maybe it was 2012? Some theorists are speculating that the Earth really did end on December 21st, 2012. I'm not going that far, just saying something changed in the world, and we've gone down a bit different path.
I also say that this is when the Mandela Effect had been coined as a term. This is when people began popping up and saying they remembered something differently.
My theory right now, and you can call it an opinion, is that this started in the last decade. Surely, there are people going to places like Reddit and talking about Mandela Effects that ring true to them. These people have been on the internet for over a decade before then. However, they didn't start coming out with these theories until this time.
My belief is that if people were experiencing this phenomenon a decade before, let's say 2002 or 2001, you'd see the internet filled with this sort of thing. That's simply not the case.
I didn't want to write this column to discuss specific Mandela Effects, though there are lyrics in a couple of songs that I have discovered have changed. These would be two of the latest that ring true to me, but I'd ask you what you remember about Joan Jett singing I Love Rock and Roll and The Rolling Stones singing Paint It Black?
What I have discovered in the research I've been doing is that too many people jump on something that they remember differently and consider it automatically to be a Mandela Effect. They don't even bother to go out and do some research to discover that there's an explanation for the name change of the movie or the logo change for the corporation.
When you do that sort of lazy reporting, you hurt the legitimate effort out there. I can assure you that anybody coming at this with an open mind and a little bit of time can discover Mandela Effects that ring true to them.
I see a Mandela Effect group out there. There are people who are now holding conventions to discuss the matter. It's a good and a bad thing. It's good because effort is being put into making sense of this stuff. It's bad because what happens with these groups generally is they come to a consensus of what the "official" explanations should be.
In addition to belittling the people who say it's all bunk, these "gate keepers" attack people who have a different theory and some evidence to back it up. You can see good examples of this type of thinking by looking into the UFO community or the 9/11 truth community.
I don't know what the truth is regarding the Mandela Effect, and I don't lose sleep over it. It's strange indeed, especially when you notice Bible verses have changed. What it all means, I don't know. How or why this is happening, I don't know. This won't stop me from trying to find answers and coming up with my own theories and opinions.
By no means does this suggest that I have the answers or expect to have the answers, but I will always look for the truth. Keep an open mind, but not so open that your brains fall out of your head. The truth is out there. If possible, it could be way out there. Who knows?
