Trust me, if you’ve ever thought you were insane because one day you woke up to your favorite cereal being spelled wrong, you’re not. You always thought the fruit flavored, doughnut-shaped, frosted bits of love were called Fruit Loops, but then you walk down the same cereal aisle as you have every grocery trip only to find your world flipped upside down. Fruit Loops is now Froot Loops.

The Mandela Effect is most popularly known in context of its examples such as the year Nelson Mandela died as well as whether the television show was the Berenstein Bears or Berenstain Bears. The effect can be explained as a large collective disremembering of a normal event or fact. A scientific explanation for this phenomenon is confabulation. Confabulation takes place because of a misunderstanding of an event or place, the human brain forms this “memory” so extensively that we believe it to be truth and will confidently defend our memory, even if it is actually false. This occurrence has been dubbed the name the

Mandela Effect by theorist and by the common population because of the worldwide confabulation of when the civil activist died. One of the leading “paranormal consultants” of this theory is Fiona Broome, a leading supporter of the Mandela Effect theories and keeps an extensive journal on the many occurrences. For instance, everyone remembers the classic childhood movie Snow White and the iconic saying “mirror mirror on the wall.” Well, the saying actually goes “magic mirror on the wall.” Another popular movie experiences with the effect as well, in Star Wars Darth Vader has the infamous line of “Luke, I am your father” however if you watch the movie now it will say “no, I am you father.” Broome conceived the slang name after uncovering the commonly false memory of Nelson Mandela dying in the 1980s whilst in jail.  The renowned activist actually died in 2013, so how did such a large number of people disremember this large event? That is the question theorists have tried to tackle, with both rational explanations and those out of this world. Literally.

Many of the most unorthodox theories are based on the presence of multiple realities and dimensions. An especially popular theory has a foundation of quantum physics, stating that people who undergo the incident of the effect have slid into another parallel universe. Meaning a person may one day be living in a world where a cereal is named Fruit Loops and the next is called Froot Loops, and so on and so forth. Physiological explanations say that memory is a constructive instrument, it is pieced together by actual recollection of an events facts along with bits of information from various other factors of life. For example, the reason why many people thought Nelson Mandela died in the 1980s could be because he was in jail for such a long time that people associated his jail time with death. Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years, this lends plenty of opportunity for him to slip out of people’s minds. From being a heavily circulated activist icon to hearing nothing of their name could be make people associate the silence with death.

Whether one of the many conspiracy theorists or one of the more rational scientists is correct the Mandela Effect has people puzzled and curious. This paranormal or extremely normal occurrence is one that will always be a point of controversy between people. There is no agreed or accepted reason for this event promoting ideas of all kinds, on earth or alike.