Do you know what the Mandela Effect is?
Well, if not, let me fill you in.
It’s when people remember something that actually didn’t happen and it’s super weird!
Check out these stories from folks on AskReddit about their own Mandela Effect stories.
1. No one believes me.
“I grew up with these sweet old people down the street, they were instrumental in helping us when I was a kid.
They both came to my wedding, we thought of them as family. She d**d ten years ago, he d**d three years ago.
Mom and I were talking last night, and she said something about the old man and how his daughters still visit him. I’m like… But Charlie d**d though. You and dad went to his funeral in 18.
I swear, I grieved this man d**ng already. No one believes me.”
2. Incorrect memories.
“I had a best friend who I went to kindergarten with. He had an older brother the same age as my older brother, and they would get into fights all the time.
Their family lived a couple houses away from ours. For reasons unknown, they abruptly moved away halfway through the school year and we never saw or heard from them again. Take note that I had a specific nickname at this time in my life.
About 14 years later, I was at a friend’s apartment one night, hanging out with a few people. Some friends of theirs came over to join us, and this guy walked in who looked really familiar. I thought it could be my long-lost friend, but I didn’t say anything. Turns out his name was the same. I still didn’t say anything. Take note that no one in the room knew my nickname from way back when.
After a while, he points at me and asks if my name is (said nickname.) It had to be him! I said yes and asked if he used to go to the aforementioned school. He said no.
No?
I asked him if he had an older brother. He said no.
No…..?
We had a long, strange conversation weeding out facts from non-facts that we remembered about each other. He remembered me, but I had a ton of (apparently) incorrect memories about him. But he was the same kid.
The next day, I interrogated my whole family about everything they remembered about his family and all our information was the same across the board. The school, the town we lived in, the brother, etc.
Years later, my husband catches me off guard with the fruit of the loom Mandela effect (I definitely remember the horned basket!) and this is how I was introduced to this phenomenon. I told him about my former friend, and he told me that’s probably my Mandela effect experience.”
3. Strange…
“Britney Spears, ‘Oops I Did it Again’ she isn’t wearing a headset. Toys and costumes with the red outfit always have a headset.
In the video you can clearly see her adjust a headset that doesn’t exist.
Or in ‘Baby One More Time’ she was wearing a plaid skirt… I guess it’s solid black?”
4. Changes.
“S**t in my town changing. Small stuff, but infuriating.
For example, near one of the shops where me and my brother would go for walks were these weird pillars, the small kind you’d put up to prevent cars from driving through.
Well there’d be days where they’re not there and no one I ask remembers them being there. Then there are days when they’re there and when I ask about them I get the whole “they’ve always been there.”
It’s one of the few MEs I’ve experienced in this town.”
5. What happened?
“Peter Pan.
I clearly remember in my childhood, a scene at the end when the lost children go home and fall asleep by the front door, against the window frame … Now watching it with my daughter it’s like the scene never existed.
Actually it’s like it never existed no matter where I find the animated movie from.
AND IT DRIVES ME NUTS !!!”
6. The logo.
“Converse sneakers.
I distinctly remember the converse logo being on the outer side of the shoe, the side that are shown to other people. I read in a thread that the logo was always on the inside when that didn’t make sense.
I looked at my own pair and saw the logo on the inside. That was creepy considering I’ve always worn converse since I was a young teen. And I thought the logo being on the inside was dumb because we wanted to show off the logo in middle/high school.”
7. You sure?
“The Gremlin with the white Mohawk is called Stripe, not Spike.
What gets me it’s, the only reason I knew him as Spike is because I saw the original puppet in a Planet Hollywood restaurant as a kid and it said Spike on the label.”
8. Messing with you.
“Zero from Nightmare Before Christmas having an orange pumpkin nose.
I SPECIFICALLY remember him having a RED nose like Rudolph. I even remember toys having him have it too but apparently it’s always been an orange pumpkin nose.
One theory for this is because of HD, 4K and the like enhancements, we can see the pumpkin now where as on VHS and DVD you can’t due to quality.
I don’t know. It still messes with me.”
9. Wow.
“I watched the space shuttle Challenger explode in Mrs. Henderson’s 7th grade science class.
I then went to Mrs. Arn’s English class and she hadn’t heard about it and didn’t believe the students who just saw it in Science.
In the timeline we are now in, Challenger blew up in 1986, when I was a freshman in high school, which is not even in the same building as my middle school where I’m positive I saw it.”
10. True crime mystery.
“That the Lindbergh baby was found… I would bet everything I had, bc I swear as a historian, that baby was never found.
Now poof! All the sudden they found the body. Nope.”
11. Legend.
“Recently, Sidney Poitier passing away.
I could have sworn it happened about 10 years ago.
I know I’m probably thinking of someone else but i can’t think of who.”
12. Movie lore.
“Seeing the movie Moonraker, I distinctly remember watching it with some family members and us all laughing how Jaws met a girl with braces.
So I wasn’t alone.
Then years later, she doesn’t have braces. I was stunned. Even the whole scene seems to be setup for a big reveal that she has braces.”
Do you have any stories like this?
Share some good ones with us in the comments.
Thanks a lot!
