What is the Mandela-effect?

There’s an unexplained phenomenon that you’ve probably experienced without knowing what it’s called, and it’s garnering more and more attention lately. "The Mandela effect" is what the internet is calling those curious instances in which many of us are certain we remember something a particular way, but it turns out we’re incorrect.

The name of the theory comes from many people feeling certain they could remember Nelson Mandela dying while he was still in prison back in the ’80s. Contrary to what many thought, Mandela’s actual death was on Dec. 5, 2013, despite some people claiming to remember seeing clips of his funeral on TV.

These false memories have some people thinking their memory sucks, but some wonder if they’ve gone to a parallel universe, or if time travelers have gone to the past and slightly affected our present, or if they’re simply losing their freakin’ minds. Whichever it is, what’s most interesting about the Mandela effect is that so many individuals share the same false memories.