Are Our Minds Playing Tricks On Us?

Take out a pen and write down the name of your favorite fast food chicken place that isn’t open on Sundays. Now, take out your smartphone and try to type it into the body of a text message. How is it spelled? Is the auto-correct version on your phone the same as what you wrote down?

Assuming you chose Chick-fil-A (since it is the only one I know of that fits the earlier description), it brings about an interesting concept that routinely occurs for people. Apparently, research has found the majority of people think the store is or at one time was spelled “Chic-fil-A or Chik-fil-A.” In reality, is has always been spelled Chick-fil-A.

This phenomenon is one of many false memories that fall under something called “The Mandela Effect,” which was named for a reoccurrence of people wrongly having a recollection of watching Nelson Mandela’s funeral on television after he died in prison. Mandela, in reality, was in prison during the 1980’s and didn’t die until 2013. It had been decades since he was in prison, however.

I was listening to a national sports talk radio host this past week – Bill Reiter from CBS Sports, for those who are interested – and he brought up the psychological phenomenon as part of a discussion on the song, “We Are the Champions,” by Queen. Many people who sing the song typically croon a phrase at the end of the song – “of the world” – that actually doesn’t exist. The song ends with the phrase, “We are the champions.” That’s it.

Other “incidents” that fall under this include people consistently confusing the spelling of the Berenstain Bears (not Berenstein), Froot Loops (not Fruit Loops) and Oscar Mayer weiners (not Oscar Meyer). Even Star Wars fans get some attention as this phenomenon includes the often repeated phrase, “Luke, I am your father,” which was never actually said (Darth Vader said, “No, I am your father” instead). Common recollections of C-3PO are of a droid that is all gold or gold-plated, but in reality the character has a silver right leg. Look it up.

In looking up more about these common happenings, it turns out there is a website (www.mandelaeffect.com) that actually talks about a possibility of a link between the recent Las Vegas shooting, the Steve Harvey mistaken announcement during a beauty pageant and the explosion of a Russian spaceship in outer space.

It’s focused on a series of unique happenings that definitely makes you think. I’m not one to lean toward conspiracy theories or even common events being linked, but it was intriguing to learn about.

Some of the other examples included whether or not Curious George had a tail (he didn’t), if Pikachu had a black mark on its tail (no) or if the Monopoly guy had a monocle (he didn’t). People commonly remember it one way but reality insists it is something completely different.

As part of the theories, some have gone so far as to believe there could be some mirror universe that we experience at the same time, causing us to have jumbled up memories. There are definitely some out there wearing the tin foil hats that are more than eager to believe there is an alternative universe that exists.

I’m not sure I’m buying it, but it is definitely something worth reading more about. And who knows, maybe one day we will have a better explanation as to why we think Hannibal Lecter of “Silence of the Lambs” said “Hello, Clarice” when he simply said “Good morning.” Strange, huh?