@TomC9696 Thanks for asking. The Mandela effect is an extreme example of the combination of the fragmentary content of weak episodic memories, and our tendency to conflate those memories. So when you remember something from childhood it is likely alterered by every subsequent retrieval. This is because you ‘fill in’ between fragments using ‘auto association’ or what functions as ‘prediction’. So, when you explain some event you ‘fill in’ the story. When you rememer some image or event, you fill in the story. Some people fill in a lot of story. Some people fill in just a little. I suppose I could explain that some people are magical thinkers and fill in more, and some people are not and fill in less. And I bet you can think of people in your life who are storytellers vs fact-sayers and that storytellers make shit up that they think they’re remembering. π The extreme version is people who fill in what they want to believe. And those people give me the creeps.