Snow White, Magic Mirror

Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall

Actually: It’s both “Mirror, mirror, on the wall…” AND “Magic mirror, on the wall..”

In the 1937 Disney classic, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs the Evil Queen utters the famous line “Magic mirror, on the wall – who is the fairest one of all?”.

It has not been changed or edited since its original release. There is no credible evidence to support that it has. The mirror’s persona in the Disney adaption is named, “Slave in the Magic Mirror”, hence why the Evil Queen refers to it as the “magic mirror”.

That being said, like many Mandela Effects, this common misconception and misquoted line has perpetuated itself deep within our culture. There’s even a movie 2012 entitled “Mirror Mirror” staring Julia Roberts. How can this be? Well, before we dive into the possible explanations, you can save yourself the trouble and understand that in the original Brothers Grimm story (translated into English), it is indeed:

Mirror, mirror, on the wall,
Who in this land is fairest of all?

Hundreds of sources of “Mirror, mirror” exist in our culture today because of the original story/translation. Disney simply made their own version of it. They took creative liberty on a lot of things in the movie, least of which involves the dialog. The original story is very short and Disney heavily expanded on everything. The “Magic Mirror” itself is also referred to as “Slave in the Magic Mirror” or “Spirit of the Magic Mirror” in their version of the lore/story.

My Experience

I, like many others also believed “mirror, mirror” to be correct. It’s the version of the phrase that I always said when referencing it. This Mandela Effect is unique in a way because in this case, it’s actually correct or incorrect, depending on the context. Both “magic mirror” and “mirror, mirror” are correct depending on the source.

My first introduction to this being related to the Mandela Effect was through the Subreddit in this post titled “Mirror, mirror on the wall …“.

Possible Explanations

As mentioned above, this one is pretty shut and close; unfortunately that doesn’t stop people from continuing to insist that the Disney movie was also “mirror, mirror”. It’s just not the case. It’s verifiable, it’s proven, it’s FACT. Memory is none of those three things.

So, in closing, the most logical explanation is the following:

The original story contains “mirror, mirror”, which hundreds of other sources draw from, where as, the Disney movie uses their own spin on it with “magic mirror”. Even if your only notable exposure to this line is the Disney film, the overwhelming amount of other examples, sources and pervasiveness within our culture all point to “mirror, mirror”.

It leads me to believe that this Mandela Effect is simply a combination of several different factors including (but not limited to): misinformation effect, confirmation bias, misattribution of memory and simply, misconception. It could almost match every general common explanation for Mandela Effects.

The age and sound quality of the Disney film is also questionable; if you were told it was “mirror, mirror” before watching the Queen’s mirror scene, you could almost hear it as “mirror, mirror” instead of “magic mirror”. It’s quite hard to make out, even on the best quality versions of the movie.

Additional References

Many have been quick to cite several other Disney-branded effects with “Mirror, mirror, on the wall” mentioned. There have also been some spotted with the Disney known, “Magic mirror”. Not limited to, but including the following:

Disney licensed Burger King cup with "Mirror, mirror" circa 1993.
Disney licensed Burger King cup with “Mirror, mirror” circa 1993.
1973 Disney book showing "Mirror, mirror".
1973 Disney book showing “Mirror, mirror”.
1948 Disney book showing "Magic mirror".
1948 Disney book showing “Magic mirror”.

Unfortunately these objects muddy the waters even further, but leads to some possible correlations to Disney staff throughout the years since the original film. Why is it significant that the 1948 book (citing the original 1937 date) has the film’s version of the text in it? Because it’s possible some of the original writing staff helped to produce some of the early merchandise for the movie. They would know the source the best.

Note how the 1973 book shows the text like:

Mirror, mirror, on the wall,
Who is the fairest of us all?

This is exactly how it was formatted in the original Brothers Grimm story (although text is slightly different from that source). It’s possible they used the original as a source, rather than the movie. This is possible, because, in the movie, it is also:

Magic mirror, on the wall,
Who is the fairest one of all?

They got both lines wrong!

Unfortunately again, this is all speculation as no information has been ever released been on why Disney made the original text change, or who worked on any of these products shown.

Basically, it’s proof of nothing except for different people, either making mistakes, or intentional changes. Nothing can be assumed.

Additional Links

Additional Sources

158 thoughts on “Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall”

  1. The mirrors actual Disney character name is “Slave to the Magic Mirror” so when the queen wants to call him she has to say Magic Mirror on the wall. If you want further proof listen to the Fantasmic soundtrack. I worked at Disneyland on Fantasmic and heard it every night for ten years.

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      • You clearly don’t understand the Mandela effect. ..not effected and can’t. ..debunk…why bother? Do something useful with your time. . And leave us alone

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        • Can you explain how I don’t understand the Mandela Effect? I am affected (If you have read the website). Leave you alone? This is my website… Wat.

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        • Amen girl, I have no idea why this person tried to debunk something,that some of us CLEARLY know different!
          And also,why would all the remakes,and spoofs say mirror mirror??..

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    • I have a Disney book right in front of me it’s called “Walt Disney’s Classic Movie Treasury” *10 favorite stories* A Golden Book
      Published by western publishing co inc. 1991, 1971
      On page 16. It says “Mirror, mirror on the wall,
      Who is the fairest one of all?”

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      • Hahaha right…

        I actually have the 1973 Walt Disney book in front of me and it says “MIRROR, MIRROR on the wall. Who is the fairest ONE OF ALL?” Not “OF US ALL”
        So this person posting this whole thing got that info wrong

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    • Also I would like to note a book called “Sophie’s World – A novel About the HIstory of Philosophy” on pg. 143 it says “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?”
      Published in Norwegian in 1991. Translated in english in 1994.

      It’s interesting that even in this old book they recall it as “Mirror mirror” instead of “Magic mirror”

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  2. That’s the thing. I remember the cartoon movie saying mirror, mirror. I never read the book. Why would I remember it saying Mirror mirror?

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  3. It was always mirror mirror on the wall period. Something has happened. I’m not a conspiracy theorist but me and numerous friends agree. Idk what happened or the explanation for it but it’s mirror mirror not magic mirror and nothing anyone says will convince me otherwise. I’m starting to believe the Mandela effect is a real thing. And possibly there are multiple realitys or universes but don’t understand how we could travel between them and doesn’t make sense to me at all. It sounds stupid honestly but what else could explain some of these things. Some people have theories that the world did end in 2012 or our old reality at least and we somehow traveled to this similar but slightly different one. Which does hold some merit to me. Because there sure have been some strange differences to me since then. Oscer meyer/ vs mayor fruit loops vs front loops , jc penny vs jc Penney, jiffy peanut butter is jif ,kit Kat has no dash, dark Vader never says luke i am your father , and hanbal lecter necer says hello calarice weird shit…and i mean Trump became president, all these slight changes in names and movies. Many it was cern idk. I know some people think I’m stupid or crazy but I’m not I’m just open minded and can’t say something isn’t right nor normal and am looking for the explanation.

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    • Hello there…

      Which do you think is more likely ?
      1.) That we magically ‘move’ to another universe which is *exactly* like this one ( and millions are all the same) and we ‘land’ in *exactly* the same place that we left our own,not even a few feet to the right or left or infront or behind- what a wobble that would cause if we landed 3 feet to the right or left- and how very surprising to ourselves and others to transport sideways in a flash! And what if we ‘landed’ half a mile to the right or left ??!! It would surely cause a stir ! And what if we landed a few seconds or minutes or hours or even days before or after our time so that there were two of myself- oand none of myself where I just left ?? What a stir it would make- what a wobble in those realities and what a wobble in this reality !! It’s hard enough to synchronise swimming or dance routines and after minutes someone always makes a mistake… so which is harder, to ‘land’ perfectly in another exactly synchronised reality which only has minor spelling differences

      OR

      that maybe there ARE other explanations why we remember different things and why different things are presented to people here ?

      Which is more LIKELY ? If you think the first things is morelikely then you need to explain WHY there would be millions of almost exactly similar universes, considering how very difficult it is to synchronise even the smallest of dance moves? And then WHO/what would be governing this … and HOW ? But also WHY ??

      I was taken in at first with a few mandele effects but when I decided to REALLY look into it I discovered that there were in fact simple and mundane and logical explanations which did not need ludicrous outlandish explanations to explain why different people remember different things…. I’ll give a few of my examples….

      I remember Mirror Mirror that becaue we read the book as children where it said mirror mirror. Other people saw the movie which said magic mirror- both memories are real and valid and people just remember a different source…

      People say they remember Nelson mandela dying and they remember his funeral then they say he is suddenly alive again which is obviously strange. Others say they don’t remember he ever died…
      Explanation 1.) says we have different universes but explanation 2.) is more mundane which is that STEVE BIKO who was similar to mandela in many ways is the one who died. He was a black, south african guy who fought for freedom same time as Mandela and was imprisoned. He campaigned in same way at the same time and was a black voice for the poor. He actually DIED and had a very public televised funeral which was unusual for that time and becaseu it was all tied upwith the mandela movement some people could easily have remembered ”top, black south african freedom-fighter dies in prison fighting for black people’s lives against apartheid dies” could quite easily be confused with mandela as very little was said about mandela after that as he was in prison for decades….the explanation is not as ”exciting” as that people get transported to other universes…but its more plausible ( believable) becasue its hard to work our how we would ”land” in exactly the right place both physically and time-wise in the other reality….

      Some say the Ford Logo changed from having little dots on it to not ( or vice versa) BUT small details are actually VERY hard to notice… there is a poster from the 1920’s or 1930’s which shows a busy street with TWO ford adverts… one of them has the little dots.. the other one does NOT… which shows that right from the start that some people saw and copied the dots in and some failed to notice that small detail…. human error and inability to notice all details is the simple explanation…..

      some people say that ”beam me up scotty” was changed because it turns out it was not said that much and so it ”changed”… but a simpler explnation is that when they wanted to transport different phrases were used but that was the one that got remembered most becasue there was a sticker made in the 1970’s to go in car windows which said ”beam me up scottty” and the phrase stuck even though it wasn’t the exact phrase used…but like all memes it stuck… but it does not mean that it changed….

      when we look into all of these things it turns out that people just remember different things differently ! We don’t remember everything – just the bits that catch our attention. Ive looked into scores of these and apart from a couple I found that every one can be explained- a lot of it is becaseu we are sawayed by what other people say and believe.. sometimes we are just wrong.. and another terrible thing is that sometimes people ( trolls included) just lie on the internet or just misremember things.. there is an interesting thing called confabulation where we can confuse two memories which are similar and then blurr the reality w=from which they came and other people emphasising one aspect of something can convince us that something is correct… it is worth researching things thoroughly in order to find out the truth of each of these things…

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  4. If alot of people and I mean alot of guys who wear not all that in to snowwhite from16 to 67 years old and did not read the book or for that matter even know of any other versions all remember it the same way.what doea this prove.it has to be an example of aome kind of phenomenon.

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    • Go to youtube u simple fk and look it up there is 2 two versions and one of which says mirror mirror now that is debunking the mandella effect….boom drops the mic

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  5. The FACT that you state, “It’s verifiable, it’s proven, it’s FACT.” indicates that you don’t truly comprehend the Mandela Effect.

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    • ‘You must be either stupid or a gover(n)ment agent.’ I want so desperately to believe in something that I’ll even throw a ludicrous accusation about a shadowy, government conspiracy.

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  6. In the movie Shrek they say “mirror mirror on the Wall” if the original movie said “magic mirror on the wall” why would they say “mirror mirror on the wall”.

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  7. I remember it as a kid and so do my children as mirror mirror on the wall who’s the fairest of them all, I have also checked with my friends and they say the same thing as me

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  8. I remember magic mirror and I remember life was like a box of chocolates but the life is like a box of chocolates (said by sally field not tom hanks)becoming more popular over time and i remember thinking in the ealy 2000s how annoying it was everyone who was a fan of sex and the city calling it sex in the city bc i disliked the show and fans disnt even call it the correct title. I DO believe in science and the chance of alternate times and quantum time and maybe even time travelers but I think mandela effect isn’t proof of it…

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  9. https://youtu.be/nrzheX9wRRI – at 2:00 mark the ‘Evil Queen’ Regina Mills talks to the mirror calling it ‘mirror mirror on the wall’

    Once Upon a Time is owned by ABC which is under the Disney ABC Television Group, so its kinda classified as Disney – but more modern and if they were real people?

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  10. “Its fact its proven…” Yet he does not prove anything does not even provide a screenshot of a script or a statement from a 90plus years old editor he just says it ‘fact’ in bold letters – and affirmatively states embellished american history like we are 6th graders learning about manifest destiny and friendly pilgrims lmfao…

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  11. Its mirror mirror period fact proven. Americans change wrote alot of “facts” that were later revealed to be for a profitable purpose. Nothing new, this guys is just a slave who believes in magic..and i hope you do youll always have a friend wearing big orange shoes.

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  12. Guys, I have the answer to all your questions and the FINAL SOLUTION for this:
    The famous Brothers Grimm’s books in original are all written in German language. In the official first book it’s till today written “Spieglein, Spieglein an der Wand, wer ist die schönste im ganzen Land?” which translates directly (without rhyming) into “Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who is the prettiest in the whole country?”.
    That’s what I always heard since I was a kid and it still says that in the German version of ALL Snow White (“Schneewittchen”) storys, books, movies, comics etc.!!! Yes, even the Walt Disney version!
    I’m surprised that so far not a single German person ever mentioned that!?
    So your English translation has a lot of mistakes and what shocked me most was that she says “fairest” instead of pretty! The whole story is about beauty and prettiness. It makes zero sense to me why they talking about fairness in the English version?? °-°

    Everything clear so far, or does somebody have open questions?

    Check here the Wikipedia page with all references (German):
    https://de.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Sneewittchen_(1857)
    (If you change to English language, it makes a strange translation)

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  13. Your translation thing really doesn’t have anything to do with how it changed!
    It would have to do with the original Disney version,and most of us remember,and have seen remakes,spoofs,whatever else you want to add to that, and they all say mirror mirror.
    Sorry you all that are trying to debunk it..FAIL

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  14. This is an old thread but felt like updating here.
    I can tell you this. Space shuttle challenger exploded on Jan 28 or 26 of 1986. Problem this is not a case of a simple word changing.
    This is reality changing.
    I know exactly where I was when watching the explosion. I know what teachers class I was in what grade I was in what class room I was sitting in and who was with me.

    Problem is if it actually exploded in 1986 like history shows right now reality has changed for me because I was in a totally different school when 1986 came around. My memory has it exactly in 1984 and my wife has the same problem. If it were in 1986 she too would have been in an entirely different school.

    I just read a mans report as well online. He remembers exactly watching it all day and all night in TV with his wife at that time. Problem is he was legally divorced from that very same wife in 1985 and in 1986 was not working. He remembers seeing it live at work and coming home to his wife to see it on tv all night long.

    Sorry hate to burst your bubble here but they whoever they are have gone back and changed our timelines.

    Some people don’t have these issues but many of us know for a fact this is real.

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    • I’m not sure about you guys, but I’ve always known it as ‘mirror mirror on the wall’ not because of the 1937 Snow White (because I’ve never seen it), but because of Shrek. In that movie Lord Farquad says ‘mirror mirror on the wall, is this not the most perfect kingdom of them all?’ In my opinion this is why people have been getting confused over this.

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  15. If you don’t believe the Mandela effect is real, you’ve been in this reality all along so you don’t see anything wrong. That’s the whole point: some of us (probably half) come from a different past and the rest might find us eccentric so they dismiss anything we say.

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    • Hi all. First, the mandela effect is real. In fact it’s realer than reality, because it had made this reality (This original timeline + all your differential patches, btw, I know what I’m talking ’bout; I’m A programmer, IYKWIM) but Yeah, this whole thing suffers from the “private club syndrome” I mean, Your belief is against mine, well prove it. *presents proof. Well haha, that means you’re from this timeline and you don’t understand.
      Am I the only one here drawing a (theoretical) line between this behaviour and the typical adolescent behaviour of (you don’t understand)? We, growing up, never really remember what makes us think that(or maybe it is because we lost our conscious memory,but not our real memory when we were switched from the baby tank to the adult tank) but that whole ME sounds to me like just another way to avoid your own flaws. Oh also, that whole speech I just wrote down, this is not how I remember how it was in my timeline. Because, feelings. And also, the bible is different. Slash ess. Love ya vaughn

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  16. Not an argument, but that line was a very significant part of the movie. It might be the most significant line in the movie that’s why it’s very iconic. I still remember the feeling attached to it, watching it as a kid. Now that it says Magic Mirror, it’s not as significant anymore. And the complete line was, Mirror, mirror on the wall. Who’s the fairest of them all. Now, apparently, it says, Magic mirror on the wall. Who’s the fairest one of all. Not an argument. Just an experience from someone who watched every Disney film at least 30 times as a kid. We only had VHS so we had no other options. So we kept rewatching the same movies over and over again.

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  17. I think what’s funny is this whole thing is dragged up every few decades. I had a early issue of the Star Wars Insider. It jokingly talks about ‘famous misremembered lines’ when it talks about “Luke, I am your father” and tries to argue that it was now the most famous misremembered line in history. (also with ‘I bet you didn’t know!’ factoids like, ‘kids who only grew up on VHS may not know that one of 3P0’s legs is actually silver!’)
    Others listed were, “Mirror Mirror” and, yes, talked about the media that uses the Fairy-Tale phrase. (I have 5 or 6 various Snow White films, all but the Disney one go ‘Mirror, Mirror’) as well as ‘Play it again, Sam.’ Seriously, dig through old magazines with anecdotal things in them. People drag up this stuff and that article even dragged up articles from the 60s and 70s about ‘famous lines no one ever spoke.’

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    • I have 1995 Disney Snow White movie that’s never been played before. The booklet inside clearly says mirror, mirror

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  18. I have a copy of the Complete Brothers Grimm fairy tales published by the International Collectors Library. I bought it new 50-51 years ago. In it the queen says, “Looking-glass upon the wall, Who is fairest of us all?” It’s in English.

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  19. Here’s something interesting. In the book “Best Loved Fairy Tales” published by Parents’ Magazine 1974 Edition have a version I’ve never heard before in Snow White.
    It actually has two versions that slightly differ from each other. “Looking-glass upon the wall, Who is fairest of us all?”
    “Looking-glass against the wall, Who is fairest of us all?”
    I guess one mirror was hanging on the wall and the other was leaning against it.
    Either way completely different from mirror mirror and magic mirror.
    In the beginning of the story it did say that the King’s second wife had a magic looking glass.

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  20. That’s the point , we are trying to find the explanation to the Mandela effect … it’s a phenomenally chases shot from the past with out any clear reason . Scientist are saying it’s not real it’s just false memory , but we keep finding examples over and over again where things change ..

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  21. There’s a big mistake being made here, in that people are taking Walt Disney movies as actual script taken from a mythical woman in a long-standing fairy tale. Fairy tales are probably about 8000 years old, transmitted *verbally* without error, until the Brothers Grimm came along and started writing them down. There’s probably some kind of symbolism behind the words spoken. The wicked Queen could be seen as a Baba Yaga figure.
    Disney is NOT an authority on fairy tales, and never will be. Joseph Campbell was, and so is Clarissa Pinkola Estes, in Women who Run With the Wolves. Many other people are authorities on fairy tales. Somewhere in Denmark I believe

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  22. PS: Open and “closed”, past tense, or past participle. “Close” is a verb or an adjective, whereas “closed” is a done, finished action.

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  23. Mandela Effect is very much real. I being a scientist dealing with high power ultrafast moving magnetic fields and the electrodynamic effects of radiant energy as discovered by Nikola Tesla; can confirm that this effect exists. And it was noticed after late 90s or late 2000s or even after that. The physics involved behind that is still beyond our comprehension. When you generate an impulse by quenching the stored energy in an inductor, the displacement currents are also generated. If the magnitude of impulse is above a certain threshold it has weird effects just like a lightening during thunderstorm. Recently scientists have discovered that small wormholes are created for a short span of time when there is strong lightening. This phenomenon is noticeable at small scale when we generated impulses above 100,000 volts. The filed which is formed disturbs the space time matrix around the inductor and copper plates. Some scientists like Floyd in early 80s noticed sudden drop in temperature and found layer of thin frozen vapour on his apparatus (VTA). In short, what exactly our scientists in the world have done and this Mandela Effect was generated? Frankly not all people know. But one can notice Mirror mirror and Magic mirror test. I am from that group which still remember that it was mirror mirror and not magic mirror. Plus there are so many other memories which are now totally different when we search those places on internet and found phots of them from the past showing entirely different surroundings. I have met so many people who have seen in mid 70s the containers in some places where they accidently entered and saw a lab environment with people just like us but in different advanced suits and working on laptops and flat screens of this modern time. So the things are getting weird. The time and space distortion is very much taking place on the surface and atmosphere of our planet and even in magnetosphere as well. (Read Electron Diffusion Regions and X-Points portals research by NASA). Well the most probable answer could be the side effect of CERN’s experiments of LHC. Merging of two parallel worlds is possible in quantum entanglement scenario.

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  24. In the 1960’s series “Route 66” – “Between Hello and Goodbye” they use the quote and say it as “Mirror, Mirror on the wall” …this episode was shot in1962 and apparently they got it wrong then as well?
    Weird

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  25. Did forest Gump say( life is like a box of chocolates)? Is it Sally Fields or Sally Field? Does the monopoly guy have an eye piece? Remember the Movie Shazam, with Sinbad?

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  26. I’m the one who took the picture of the mirror mirror cup. I originally posted it on Godlikeproductions.com. The Mandela effect by is very nature is bizarre because it’s non-falsifiable. You can’t disprove someone’s subjective experience. The big paradox is in the curiosity that so many people have correlating subjective experiences. Since you cannot experience even one of someone’s else’s perception, it’s impossible to debunk a group of experiences as a whole. The subjective part is what everyone misses and it’s the whole point.

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