See For Yourself

Look! Off in the distance. I don't believe it. It's Elvis. He's coming towards me. I'm sure of it. But they say he died years ago. I think it was 1977. I didn't believe it then and I don't believe it now. Certainly not since that time several years ago when I saw him from the train I was on. It was going fairly quickly but I'm sure I saw him through a restaurant window. He was eating with Amelia Earhart and Judge Crater. There was no doubt about it, however the next stop was in a city many miles from where I had seen him, so there was no going back. This time, though, he's coming toward me so I'll meet him and have a chance to speak to him. What an opportunity.

He's coming closer. I still can't make out the details. He's carrying something. Must be his guitar. This is great. And today's his birthday. I knew the King didn't die.

He's closer now. And a little clearer. That thing in his hand is probably a shopping bag rather than a guitar case, but there's no question in my mind that it's Elvis.

It's not Elvis. He's much closer now and I can see his build and his face. And his bald head. It's Harry Perkanovich from down the block. Must have been sent out shopping by his wife. From up close he doesn't look at all like Elvis. And I can tell you from the time my wife and I visited his house that he's not musical. He tried playing a song for us when we were there, but the comb and the tissue paper sounded awful. Almost as bad as his voice. His only talent is for making us suffer. (Of course we complimented him.) But from a distance I could have sworn he was my favorite singer. I was certain it was Elvis. I used to be a big fan of his.

You see what you want to see. And if some information is lacking, you fill it in. Most of us deal better with certainty than doubt. And seeing someone or something from a distance provides the opportunity. I suspect that the phenomenon is common. We see what we want to see and what we're prepared to see. Or, often, what we expect to see or what we're told we'll see. Any lawyer knows that an “eye witness” is only reliable if his testimony supports the case. Otherwise there are numerous explanations for his obvious error.

And the same is true of hearing. Hear a snippet of a conversation and you can recreate the whole thing. Whether that's what was said or not. Even if you mis-hear something, what you think you heard becomes fact. Have you ever played “Telephone?”

We can't trust our memories either – consider déjà vu for example. The problem becomes obvious when we compare recollections with those of someone else who shared an experience but remembers it very differently from the way that we do. One of us is wrong. (Or maybe both of us.) Yet when we're not comparing notes there won't be any doubt in either of our minds that we remember exactly what happened. For some, the precision and the detail of the memory become more clear with each retelling of the event.

And for some, any later documentation – a photograph, or the report of someone else – is likely to be added to the memory and reported subsequently as something that is remembered clearly as a first-hand observation. It's not a lie, but a trick of the mind. And it's another potential source of misinformation that may bedevil a legal proceeding. Even if witnesses and jury members are cautioned against the consideration of any information they may have heard or seen about the events at issue, the possibility exists that material of just that sort will be incorporated into the witness's memory or into the juror's knowledge base and affect the outcome of the trial.

Another example of implanted memory is the result of hypnosis, especially “past life regression” and “recovered-memory therapy,” where what is brought up as an unshakable memory may result from suggestion or from incidental unrelated knowledge the subject may have.

What it all boils down to is that our senses, minds, and our memories are less than perfect. Yet we don't doubt them. We often rely on them to the exclusion of “reality.” That's usually a mistake, but not always. Fortunately there are times when we're right and “reality” is nothing more than what the majority incorrectly remember. Perhaps this time it was Perkanovich rather than Presley, but I know that Elvis is still alive.

Happy Birthday.