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Shout-out to SquareSpace for sponsoring!

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[80s computer intro sounds]

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In the early 90s I was attending Cromer\h
Junior School. Here it is on Google Maps,\h\h

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it was converted into housing the year after I\h
left, but as you can see, it’s an old school…\h\h

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school. Cromer is a seaside town located\h
in Norfolk, on the east coast of England.\h\h

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It’s not a huge town, but it has a good tourist\h
location, and importantly a beach. A beach meant\h\h

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swimming. It also meant that teaching swimming was\h
high on the agenda of the local school. For us,\h\h

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that meant a short trip to Cromer High school\h
every other week, in order to use their,\h\h

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fairly dilapidated swimming pool. This pool was\h
shared by various schools in the region, with all\h\h

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lessons taught by one man; Mr. Brooklander.\h
For years we frequented these lessons,\h\h

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all taught by this noble lone man until one day\h
the lessons stopped, and a letter was sent home.

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Brooklander was dead, seemingly\h
from natural causes. From that point\h\h

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onwards we had a different swimming\h
teacher. I can’t even recall their\h\h

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name. Ms. Swimtastic or something. That is\h
until High School started, who of course,\h\h

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used the same pool. A few weeks in, I went\h
into a swimming lesson and there he was,\h\h

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Brooklander, apparently alive and well, noble\h
as ever and eager to teach us how to swim.

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How the actual f*ck did this occur? No one\h
knows, but what I do know is that my best friend,\h\h

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Michael, who had also moved up from Cromer\h
Junior school, experienced the same thing.\h\h

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We got a letter home. Brooklander was dead. A year\h
later, he was teaching us. Weirdly, he then died a\h\h

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year or two later, again apparently, and we got a\h
letter home. SAYING THE SAME THING AS LAST TIME.

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It’s easy to write this off as tricks of the mind.\h
But, it happened. I experienced the whole process.\h\h

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This isn’t something I made up years later. I was\h
as shocked to see him then, as I am talking about\h\h

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it now. I talked about it at the time. I talked\h
to my parents about it. Michael remembers it,\h\h

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even though we were in different year groups,\h
but everyone else seemed to shrug it off.

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What gives? Did my friend and I split\h
onto an alternative parallel universe\h\h

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somehow. Are we all just weaving in and out\h
of slightly different timelines. Convening,\h\h

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parting, reconvening…. or were Michael\h
and I just utterly trippin’ ballz.

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This localised phenomenon we experienced now\h
has a name. It’s called The Mandela Effect,\h\h

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and it’s called that because a huge swathe of\h
people seem to remember Nelson Mandela dying\h\h

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in prison sometime in the 80s. He of course\h
didn’t. He was released from prison in 1990,\h\h

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becoming the first president of South Africa\h
from 1994 to 1999 and then dying in 2013.\h\h

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It was paranormal researcher Fiona Broome\h
who coined the term after sharing her clear\h\h

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memory of Mandela having died during the 80s,\h
and since then, it’s been used to describe\h\h

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hundreds of instances where collective\h
memories seem to differ from reality.

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So what gives? Is there something we’re\h
missing? Was something misconstrued? Or\h\h

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is something a whole lot weirder going\h
on? Well I’ll come back to that later.

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Usually the Mandela Effect applies to things\h
we don’t really pay full attention to,\h\h

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or where we presume something\h
without looking into all the facts.

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Let’s take some well known examples;

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In 1851 textile mill owners Robert and Benjamin\h
Knight founded the BB and R Knight Corporation\h\h

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in Rhode Island, United States. 5 years later\h
they established the brand “Fruit of the Loom”\h\h

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whilst producing muslin cloths. A friend, Rufus\h
Skeel sold produce from the mill, with Skeel’s\h\h

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daughter painting images of fruit on the various\h
cloth bolts. These images would quickly form the\h\h

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basis of the logo for the new brand, featuring\h
a medley of fruits in front of a cornucopia.\h\h

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The cornucopia itself a horn shaped container\h
often used to symbolise abundance and plenty.

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BUT THE CORNUCOPIA WAS NEVER PART\h
OF THE LOGO…. EVER. It was just a\h\h

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simple collection of fruits, even\h
as far back as this 1921 advert.

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"How did I make it big?? I know how!\h
To play the game I buy real estate!"

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Now we all know The Monopoly Man, or Mr. Monopoly,\h\h

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to state his official name. Although Parker\h
Bros got hold of the Monopoly rights in 1935,\h\h

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the character actually evolved over a\h
decade later. Depicted as a sophisticated,\h\h

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older gentleman from the early 20th century, he\h
was originally taken from the 1946 Parker Bros\h\h

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game Rich Uncle. Now, you might expect that Rich\h
Uncle Pennybags would wear a monocle, after all,\h\h

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it fits with his image, and indeed, most of\h
us remember that do be the case. However,\h\h

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he never did. Never has. This memory seems\h
to be so strong that even newspapers would\h\h

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reference the character’s monocle well before\h
we delved down this Mandela Effect rabbit hole.

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Let’s move onto Disney. Now from\h
the release of Return to Oz in 1985,\h\h

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Disney consistently started using an intro\h
depicting Cinderella’s Castle at Walt Disney\h\h

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World in Florida. There are variations, but\h
the main core depiction is this flat castle,\h\h

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with the blue background. But, a LOT of people\h
seem to remember a version of this, including me,\h\h

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where Tinkerbell flies around the castle, writes\h
out the Disney logo and then dots the *I*,\h\h

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before flying off again. The thing\h
is, this intro doesn’t seem to exist.

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How about Looney Toons? A product of Warner Bros,\h
designed to rival Disney and their Mickey Mouse\h\h

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character, this whole escapade started way back\h
in 1930 with the short animation “Sinkin’ in\h\h

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the Bathtub”. The series then spawned a huge\h
wave of associated characters and animations.\h\h

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We all remember watching Looney Toons on a\h
Sunday morning right? Well, wrong. It is,\h\h

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and apparently always was, Looney TUNES.\h
That doesn’t make sense right? We’re\h\h

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watching a cartoon, not a symphony,\h
so it must have been “Looney Toons”?

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The one thing most of the famous Mandela\h
Effects have, is that they’re mascots, branding,\h\h

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title screens, logos; things we see so often. That\h
may indeed be the reason they’re so famous. But\h\h

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it could also indicate that maybe we’re just not\h
paying attention to the details. We’re skimming\h\h

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over it. After all, we’ve seen it a million\h
times, it’s already engrained in our brain, right?

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Ok, so maybe we should look\h
past the title screens,\h\h

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and into the content itself. As we’re\h
on cartoons, let’s stick with that.

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Well let’s go back to Mickey Mouse. Now\h
this one hit me hard. It was actually\h\h

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whilst I was researching this video, and\h
I saw a thread mentioning Mickey Mouse’s\h\h

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suspenders. Immediately, my brain envisaged\h
a scene from the 1928 animation Steam Boat\h\h

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Willie where Mickey Mouse is standing,\h
whistling, swaying back and forth,\h\h

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and he snaps his suspenders. Now this memory\h
was clear as day in my mind, yet it’s not in\h\h

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the animation at all. Mickey doesn’t even snap\h
some pretend suspenders as some have suggested.

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There's no suspenders, or any\h
sign of suspenders whatsoever!

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Ok, how about the 1969 Hanna-Barbera cartoon,\h\h

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Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying\h
Machines. A spin off of the Wacky Races\h\h

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series, depicting our duo attempting to catch\h
a messenger pigeon named Yankee Doddle PIgeon.

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Ok, now remember the “Catch the Pigeon”\h
intro scene? Sure you do, “Catch the\h\h

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Pigeon, Catch the Pigeon”. IT’S NOT CATCH\h
THE PIGEON, it’s “Stop the Pigeon”… Yes,\h\h

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even the comments on YouTube are in bewilderment.

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Some people claim there must\h
have been a "UK only dub",\h\h

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but this isn't like a Teenage Mutant\h
Hero Turtles situation. There is no dub.

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It just keeps happening.

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So maybe we should turn to video games. After all,\h
they’re consistent, especially older releases that\h\h

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lack DLC and updates. But more importantly,\h
we spent a lot of time playing these games.\h\h

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We scrutinised every damn pixel. Looked for every\h
hidden room. Every cheat code. Every little cool\h\h

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animation. So to that end, surely, we’d\h
be experts on everything there is to know?

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But from Overwatch signs appearing out of the\h
blue, to imagined multiplayer experiences in Halo,\h\h

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to the playable Red Robin character in Mortal\h
Kombat II, there are many, many, MANY instances\h\h

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of reported false memories in our games as\h
well, and they don’t seem to have a single\h\h

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point of origin. No, these are shared\h
memories, consistent around the globe.

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One of the most well known is from\h
Super Mario Bros. on the NES. Released\h\h

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in November 1985, this is a game that has had\h
countless play time around the globe. For many,\h\h

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it’s their first gaming experience,\h\h

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from the first jump to their first encounter\h
with that Piranha Plant… on World 1-1. Right?

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No. Turns out there is no Piranha\h
Plant in level one of Super Mario Bros.

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Most players seem to remember there being a plant\h
on the 3rd pipe. They seem to recall entering the\h\h

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pipe, going through the bonus screen and exiting\h
at the end of stage 1. But no matter which version\h\h

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you play, it doesn’t exist. The plants don’t\h
appear until the second level, underground.

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This is a memory that’s shared so far and wide,\h\h

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that people re-create the Piranha in Super\h
Mario Maker. There are countless Reddit threads,\h\h

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forum posts and comments of people gob-smacked\h
that they can’t find this gobbling plant.

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Ok, so in 1996 Pokemon Red and Green\h
were released for the Nintendo Game\h\h

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Boy introducing us to Pikachu, designed by\h
Atsuko Nishida. Witnessing his popularity,\h\h

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the third game released worldwide, Pokemon\h
Yellow, features Pikachu on the box art,\h\h

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although the tip of his tail is cut off.\h
The black tip of his tail. Right? Wrong.

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Pikachu doesn’t have a black tip on his\h
tail, he never did. On his ears, sure,\h\h

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but never the tail. Despite this you’ll\h
find a shed load of fan art depicting\h\h

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Pikachu with a black tip on his tail.
Even AI is getting in on the action!

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Another Nintendo false memory is on Mario\h
Kart 64, released in December 1996 and\h\h

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offering a gigantic step up in graphical\h
finesse over the Super Nintendo iteration.

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But like the Super Nintendo version, we\h
were graced with a Rainbow Road level;\h\h

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notorious for being one of\h
the most difficult tracks\h\h

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throughout the series. Mainly because\h
if you slide too far, you’re a goner.

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Players from around the world can be found on\h
forums and posts, furious with the difficulty\h\h

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of the N64’s rainbow road, constantly\h
having to be saved by Fishin’ Lakitu,\h\h

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and usually ranking in the\h
bottom half of proceedings.

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However, despite so many memories attesting this,\h\h

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N64 Rainbow road had guard rails along the\h
sides of the entire track. Meaning that,\h\h

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unless you hopped around like a nut case, it was\h
pretty darn hard to actually fall off the track.

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There are people in Reddit posts claiming\h
that they MUST have been privy to an early\h\h

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version of the game, and at some point,\h
Nintendo CLEARELY released a better,\h\h

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bug-fixed version. But we know very\h
well that this wouldn’t happen. If a\h\h

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game was ready to be shipped, it was\h
shipped, and that’s how it stayed.

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Perhaps it could be explained by people\h
associating early preview screen shots\h\h

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with their playing experience. I’ve definitely\h
done that before. But no matter where you look,\h\h

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and which pre-release build, all versions of Mario\h
Kart 64 had the rails in place on Rainbow road.

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So what gives?

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There are countless theories on what’s\h
occurring. Some of the chief ones are\h\h

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based around Quantum Mechanics and\h
the multi-verse theory where we’re\h\h

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indeed flitting from one reality\h
to the next, with our memories from\h\h

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the previous universe still intact. It’s\h
been discussed on documentaries, podcasts,\h\h

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and countless times in the media. But I’d like\h
something a bit more scientific than…. this.

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In 2022 Deepasri Prasad and Wilma\h
A. Bainbridge from the department\h\h

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of psychology at the University of\h
Chicago produced a paper titled “The\h\h

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Visual Mandela Effect as Evidence for Shared\h
and Specific False Memories Across People”,\h\h

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and after having a chat with Wilma Bainbridge,\h
I found myself knee deep in a world where we\h\h

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look at The Mandela effect as a psychological\h
phenomenon, with potential cause and effect.

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Let’s disseminate it. In this study, four\h
different tests were performed. The first was\h\h

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to present a range of graphics to 100 participants\h
to determine whether they could identify the\h\h

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canonical versions correctly. This included 22\h
characters, 16 brand logos and two symbols. Of\h\h

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these a manipulated version was introduced, with a\h
well known Visual Mandela Effect (VME) alteration,\h\h

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alongside an alternative manipulation, offering a\h
subtle difference, but not one known to be a VME.\h\h

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Participants were then asked to gauge their\h
confidence in selecting the correct option,\h\h

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their familiarity with the graphic, and how many\h
times they believe they had seen the logo before.

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In this test’s results;

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Every manipulation was selected at least once,\h
however the VMEs for C-3PO, Fruit of the Loom,\h\h

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Curious George, Pikachu, Monopoly Man,\h
Volkswagen and Where’s Waldo (or Wally\h\h

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for us Brits) was much more significant than\h
the others. These being, famously, common\h\h

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Mandela Effect memories. Interestingly,\h
Tom from Tom and Jerry was also quite high.\h\h

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The difference in shade seemingly another common\h
false memory, however it doesn’t rank high enough\h\h

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to fall outside of chance. But all of the core\h
VMEs were identified with a high familiarity and\h\h

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confidence. Mistakes made on the other graphic\h
identifications were of a lower confidence.

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So, this indicates that people who\h
identified the VME logos were very\h\h

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confident of their accuracy, compared\h
to your average misidentification.

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Experiment two was to take a second group\h
and present participants with a canonical\h\h

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graphic as a blurred image for 250ms\h
and then give them a mouse controllable\h\h

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aperture to view the image for at least 5\h
seconds; designed to mimic eye movement.\h\h

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They were then asked to select whether they saw\h
a manipulated version or the canonical version.

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Participants who were shown the Monopoly\h
man, C3PO, Fruit of the Loom, Curious George,\h\h

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Pikachu, Waldo and the Volkswagen logo were\h
far less likely to choose the correct image,\h\h

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at 52% compared with 82.4% for non-VME images.

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Of those who selected the correct version,\h
they tended to note a specific feature\h\h

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in identifying the graphic, such as they\h
“only saw the fruit, not the cornucopia”,\h\h

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however of those who selected the\h
VME, they did the same “I’m pretty\h\h

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sure it had a basket”. In fact, those who\h
gave the incorrect match were more likely\h\h

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to attribute it to the memory of a feature\h
that wasn’t present in the original (66.5%).

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To search for bias, participants were also\h
asked what they thought the study was about,\h\h

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with only 8.6% mentioning “The\h
Mandela Effect” or “False Memory”.

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A third experiment was then conducted to\h
determine if prior exposure to altered\h\h

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VME images in real-world contexts could\h
have influenced memory errors. To do this\h\h

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result sets were scraped from Google to\h
analyse the prevalence of canonical vs.\h\h

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VME versions. The result was that most icons were\h
predominantly represented in their canonical form,\h\h

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apart from C-3PO and Waldo who had\h
a higher occurrence of VME versions,\h\h

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which COULD explain errors due to prior\h
exposure. For Fruit of the Loom, VME errors\h\h

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preceded widespread exposure to the manipulated\h
version, suggesting other factors at play.

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The final experiment was to test whether\h
VME errors would occur during free recall\h\h

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of images. To do this participants were first\h
gauged as to whether they were familiar with\h\h

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a logo or not. If they were then, they\h
were given an unlimited amount of time\h\h

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to draw the graphic from memory. If\h
they were not, then they were shown\h\h

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the canon graphic for 5 seconds, and then\h
asked to draw it from short term memory.

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The outcome of this was that almost half\h
of long-term memory drawings, of the 7\h\h

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subset, included VME errors. However,\h
for those unfamiliar with the imagery,\h\h

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drawing from short term memory, still in fact led\h
over 20% of participants to re-create VME errors\h\h

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in their drawing. This increased\h
dramatically to 100% for C-3PO,\h\h

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with all drawings depicting that he\h
had 2 gold legs, rather than one.

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For control images outside of this subset,\h
there were only 7% of drawing errors overall.\h\h

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Suggesting that VME-apparent images for\h
some reason, uniquely elicit consistent\h\h

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false memories, whether the participant\h
has just been exposed to them or not.

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The paper concludes that VME is a genuine\h
psychological phenomenon with shared, consistent\h\h

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memory errors across people in both short-term\h
and long-term memory, but is far more apparent\h\h

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with particular depictions, suggesting that\h
one reason is due to schema-driven perception.

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Schema theory suggests that people\h
use pre-existing knowledge structures\h\h

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(schemas) to fill in gaps in memory. This\h
process often results in scheme-consistent\h\h

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errors, where details aligning with\h
expectations are falsely remembered.

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This can alone explain many of the current Visual\h
Mandela Effects. Take Rich Uncle Pennybags.\h\h

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Our brains associate this rich top hat wearing\h
character with the likes of Mr. Peanut, Charles\h\h

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Coborn, and other such stereotypical wealthy\h
portrayals, who all happen to have a monocle, and\h\h

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so we tend to assume that Pennybags has one too.\h
If we take a character like The Fat Controller,\h\h

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or Sir Toppem Hat, if you prefer from Thomas the\h
Tank engine, the same is true. There are forums,\h\h

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Reddit posts and even polls asking where\h
his monocle is, with respondents weirdly\h\h

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giving accuracy at about the same percentage\h
as the second test of the Research paper.

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Of course, he doesn’t have one, but he does have\h
the Top hat and tails we associate with one.

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We can also use this to explain the “Looney\h
Toons” problem. If you look back at the 90s,\h\h

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even newspapers would write entire articles\h
referencing “Looney Toons” instead of “Tunes”,\h\h

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because that made the most sense; it fit the\h
Cartoon schema better than “Tunes” ever would, and\h\h

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of course, Loon rhymes with Toon. But if we\h
replace that schema with the actual backstory that\h\h

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in the 1920s Disney originally created short films\h
set to music called “Silly Symphonies”. Warner\h\h

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Bros wanted a piece of this action, so created\h
two of their own short film sets called “Merrie\h\h

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Meolodies” and “Looney Tunes”, and this stuck,\h
even when the music became less of the show. Then\h\h

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we can update that schema with something which\h
makes sense. Without it our brain just has to hear\h\h

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the homophone of “Looney Toons” and *click*, our\h
memory is set to what follows the cartoon schema.

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Let’s also not forget that Tune\h
in America is actually pronounced\h\h

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Toon. You can see why this is\h
such a common false memory.

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In the same way “catching a pigeon” makes\h
far more sense than “stopping a pigeon”,\h\h

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and this could easily be an instance where we’re\h
recalling something that fits the situation,\h\h

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over something that doesn’t. Almost as if\h
our minds are correcting the discrepancies.

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To a lesser degree, this can\h
also explain the Pikachu VME.\h\h

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Although Pikachu’s tale never had a\h
black tip, his ears definitely do,\h\h

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so it’ fair to assume this pattern carries\h
through to the tale, especially when squinting\h\h

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at a low resolution Game Boy screen where\h
it’s difficult to tell one way or another.

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A 2015 Research paper by Deboarah Scearce-Miles of\h
Fielding Graduate University came up with similar\h\h

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problems whilst exploring whether experiences\h
in virtual environments, such as video games,\h\h

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can lead to false memories; where individuals\h
confuse virtual memories with real life\h\h

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experiences. Although the results of this study\h
were inconclusive, it found that participants\h\h

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were remembering items they expected to be in\h
each virtual or real setting, depending on the\h\h

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environment. For example, in mocked up offices,\h
participants recalled there being notebooks and\h\h

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pens, when in fact, there weren’t any. This is\h
again, schema-consistent where “gaps in their\h\h

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memory” were filled with objects they\h
expected, but did not necessarily see.

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However, this isn’t the only explanation.\h
Prasad and Bainbridge also conclude that\h\h

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there are other causes at play, some of\h
which entangle, distorting our memories\h\h

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somewhat. We call this Source Confusion,\h
and it means that we interchange certain\h\h

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memories or associate certain memories with\h
material other than the original source. Even\h\h

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when participants had extensive exposure\h
to canonical versions of the graphics,\h\h

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occasional encounters with altered versions\h
caused interference with accurate recall.

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We can also apply this to Looney Tunes, simply\h
because a spin-off made by Warner Bros in the 90s,\h\h

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Tiny Toon Adventures, did actually use\h
the word Toon, with very similar styling\h\h

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to the original series. Which could\h
easily cause confusion between the two.

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We can also apply this to Rainbow\h
Road on the N64. Sure it has rails,\h\h

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but Rainbow Road on other versions,\h
including the Super Nintendo,\h\h

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doesn’t. The fact that you can still fall off\h
the track by flying over the rails could cause\h\h

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some memory entanglement. This is enhanced\h
even more if you’ve played the Mario Kart 8\h\h

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version of N64 Rainbow Road, because a lot\h
of it does not in fact have those rails.

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It’s the same for Super Mario. The first level\h
doesn’t have the Piranha, but World 2-1 does,\h\h

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as does Super Mario Bros 3, World 1-1. They’re\h
not on the third pipe. they’re on the first. But,\h\h

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this could easily be an example\h
of a memory bleeding into another.

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We can also apply this to C-3PO. Although the film\h
version of the character has one silver leg. Most\h\h

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depictions outside of that, including the original\h
toys, feature two golden legs. It makes perfect\h\h

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sense then, that we’d expect the same in the\h
film. Plus most of us watched this on VHS. With\h\h

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that kind of quality we never stood a chance,\h
and it’s safe to assume his gold body is gold.

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If we take Steam Boat Willie, although\h
Micky Mouse doesn’t wear braces,\h\h

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there is a parody in season 4 of the\h
Simpsons called “Steamboat Itchy” where\h\h

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Scratchy appears wearing braces whilst rocking\h
back and forth whilst whistling. He however,\h\h

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doesn’t snap his braces as I, and others remember.\h
There are however, various instances in the media,\h\h

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toys and even Disney animations where Micky does\h
wear suspenders, including the 1937 animation,\h\h

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Clock Cleaners. Suggesting maybe this\h
memory originates from somewhere else.

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Which itself is another problem. Over the years,\h
we have lost a lot of media. The number of\h\h

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promotional trailers that appeared on certain TV\h
channels, but which no longer exist are numerous.\h\h

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This could in part explain the Disney Tinkerbell\h
introduction. Certainly there is no sign of it\h\h

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in the standard Disney introductions. However, we\h
do get inklings of it in certain special intros.

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Various Wonderful World of Disney Intros do\h
actually depict something pretty similar,\h\h

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as does the 1997 video, The Magic Behind the\h
Masterpiece, a film about the making of Bambi.

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But no matter how hard we look, it is entirely\h
possible that some media is just lost to time,\h\h

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leading us and others to continually\h
gaslight ourselves about its existence.

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Of course, there are countless other famous\h
Mandela effects. Most of which can be explained\h\h

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away with these principles, and quite often,\h
a combination of them. Lots of people seem to\h\h

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remember seeing the full alien’s face at the\h
end of Men in Black, but imagination can be a\h\h

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powerful thing, and if something isn’t complete,\h
we’ll fill in the blanks, especially kids.

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However there will always, always be people who\h
swear blind about what they saw or heard, and\h\h

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maybe they did. No one is privy to the experience\h
of anyone else, at least not on a mental level,\h\h

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00:26:37,440 --> 00:26:42,520
so who are we to correct someone’s reality,\h
when we’ve never experienced it ourselves.

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Our experiences and therefore our memories,\h\h

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00:26:45,000 --> 00:26:49,600
even of the same incident vary hugely.\h
Things worth memorising for one person,\h\h

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00:26:49,600 --> 00:26:55,000
might simply be worthless to another. Take\h
Brooklander. That was clearly a powerful and\h\h

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00:26:55,000 --> 00:27:00,560
important memory for me and Michael, but\h
to others, it wasn’t even worth noting.

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00:27:00,560 --> 00:27:05,240
But it is worth noting that the human mind\h
is incredible susceptible to manipulation.\h\h

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00:27:05,240 --> 00:27:09,800
We all like to assume we’re reasonable and\h
rational, but, hearing your friend Doug sing\h\h

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the incorrect version of a cartoon theme tune, or\h
create some fan art that doesn’t quite match the\h\h

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00:27:14,520 --> 00:27:21,400
original will all compound seeds of doubt that can\h
very quickly become canonical in our own minds.

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So what about the most famous of them all, the\h
reason why it’s even called the Mandela effect\h\h

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in the first place? Well, I took it upon myself\h
to do a deep dive into this and discover why,\h\h

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00:27:32,040 --> 00:27:38,380
if any reason, people believed that Nelson\h
Mandela did actually die in prison in the 1980s.

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This isn’t just a notion put forward by Fiona\h
Broome. Thousands of people share this memory,\h\h

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00:27:43,480 --> 00:27:48,400
and like most other “Mandela Effects” there\h
are countless forum posts, Reddit threads\h\h

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and videos attesting to this. Some claim to\h
have heard it on the news, whilst others like\h\h

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00:28:07,480 --> 00:28:12,480
Black-Cat11 claim they heard it through school,\h
with the class spending the remainder of the\h\h

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00:28:12,480 --> 00:28:18,600
day talking about his life. Another commenter\h
SweetCommunication51 claims to have also heard\h\h

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00:28:18,600 --> 00:28:26,680
it in 1985 during school... and that's surely\h
significant, that's something you'd remember.

304
00:28:26,680 --> 00:28:30,920
Of course, here is the video footage\h
captured by various news outlets\h\h

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00:28:30,920 --> 00:28:37,240
showing him being released from prison on\h
11th February 1990 at 16:14 local time,\h\h

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so clearly these memories are problematic.\h
Well, no. Maybe, it’s not the memory that’s\h\h

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00:28:45,680 --> 00:28:50,720
problematic. Maybe it’s the information\h
we originally received that’s problematic.

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I’ve done a lot of digging into this, and it\h
seems that during 1985, in various newspapers,\h\h

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there were stories running that actually\h
claim Nelson Mandela had, in fact died.

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00:29:04,520 --> 00:29:07,480
It seems that various groups\h
were trying to spread rumours\h\h

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00:29:07,480 --> 00:29:15,000
that Mandela had died during 1985, and\h
this clearly got back to us in the West.

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In fact throughout this period, even taking\h
the rumours being spread out of the equation,\h\h

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00:29:17,640 --> 00:29:22,400
stories were appearing on a regular basis about\h
Mandela’s health, and the fact that if he wasn’t\h\h

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00:29:22,400 --> 00:29:27,800
already dead, he could be dead very soon. There\h
was a whole world of media seemingly designed\h\h

315
00:29:27,800 --> 00:29:30,003
to shock us. The New York Times reported on August\h
17 1988 about Mandela being hospitalised with life\h\h

316
00:29:30,003 --> 00:29:32,400
threatening complications; something\h
that could be taken out of context.\h\h

317
00:29:32,400 --> 00:29:34,040
In April 1986, various newspapers reported\h
on the death of Chief Sabata Dalindyebo, a\h\h

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00:29:34,040 --> 00:29:36,207
first cousin of Nelson Mandela.\h
However, given the way it was written,\h\h

319
00:29:36,207 --> 00:29:36,280
it could easily be interpreted that\h
it was actually Mandela who had died.

320
00:29:36,280 --> 00:29:38,400
And this is really, another\h
very important explanation\h\h

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00:29:38,400 --> 00:29:42,080
for the Mandela Effect and any false memories.

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00:29:42,080 --> 00:29:47,480
Sometimes, as humans, we get things wrong. We take\h
things out of context, something is misconstrued,\h\h

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exaggerated, misunderstood or we just lie,\h
and that sh*t can stay with the recipient\h\h

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00:29:53,240 --> 00:30:00,240
of that information for a long time. It can\h
form a memory, and that memory can take on\h\h

325
00:30:00,240 --> 00:30:06,080
a life of it’s own. The longer it stays with\h
us, the more true it must be, and sometimes,\h\h

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00:30:06,080 --> 00:30:12,360
it can be very difficult to question what\h
we remember -it's not very nice to doubt\h\h

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00:30:12,360 --> 00:30:18,960
ourselves - especially when what we actually\h
remember wasn’t the problem in the first place.

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00:30:18,960 --> 00:30:31,720
For me, that’s where Mandela lies, and that’s\h
also where the Brooklander situation lies.

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Whether I’m right or not, only history knows.

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00:30:35,760 --> 00:30:39,360
Until next time, I’ve been\h
Nostalgia Nerd. Toodleoo.