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.

The Greater Of One Elvis

                                                                          

Several months ago I saw Elvis coming out of a music store. A guitar was slung over his shoulder, perhaps one he had just bought. The carrying case looked new. It was snowing out, but extending downward from his leather jacket and into the milky powder, I could see what looked like a white jump suit – with something that glittered embedded in the fabric, possibly sequins. He was headed in the direction of a drug store, but I lost sight of him before he entered.

He looked older than I remembered. But I know I looked older too. After all, it was over thirty-five years since he had left the public spotlight. As a matter of fact it was his seventy-eighth birthday, January 8, 2013.

Elvis never died.

Such is the power of belief. Although most people associate belief with religion, that is only one of numerous sources of belief. And some of the others have a stronger hold on the faithful than any religious tenet. Tell a child there is no Tooth Fairy, especially one who has just found money under his pillow, and there will only be expressions of disbelief – you might as well claim there is no Easter Bunny; confide to an adherent of homeopathy that he's wasting his money on water, and be prepared to be berated as a tool of the medical establishment; maintain that there are no UFOs, and someone who believes he was abducted by aliens will expound on your blindness and ignorance; and if you suggest that the Warren Commission got it right, that a lone gunman shot President Kennedy – if you question the idea that there were co-conspirators on a grassy knoll – you're likely to be considered as in denial of the obvious truth, the truth that “they” are withholding from you. And if you suggest to a militant atheist that there is a G-d, you had better be prepared for a diatribe on the evils of religion.

Virginia O'Hanlon knew there was a Santa Claus, even if she needed Francis Church and the New York Sun to confirm that obvious fact. Elwood Dowd, a friendly creature described by Mary Coyle Chase, had no doubt that he was accompanied by a six foot, three and a half inches tall rabbit, though some others (but not all) thought him crazy.ⁱ We're all familiar with the story that George Washington chopped down a cherry tree and was quick to fess up to his transgression. While we may not accept Parson Weems's story as gospel, few question the Truth behind the story, and our first President is held in reverence by almost all Americans.

Every nation has its sagas; every civilization its heroes. Where would we all be if we lacked a faith in our heritage? And if some of that heritage, questionable as it may be in fact, turns into our “history,” all the better. The same is true for both verifiable facts and for beliefs. And those who accept as fact some things that we doubt, deserve our respect and appreciation. After all, maybe they're right. It is easy to dismiss what they say with the view that they live by the maxim “I believe because it is absurd”ⁱⁱ – the leap of faithⁱⁱⁱ – but there are many things that seem absurd but are true. For example, you can turn lead into gold, and you don't require a Philosopher's Stone, only radiation. At present it may not be worthwhile financially, but it is possible. And there are many other ideas of science^iv that seemed bizarre at the time and were rejected, but are now recognized to be basic facts.^v

The principal rule is that it is unwise to be too quick to condemn the ideas of another – however you may question them.^vi Belief is a powerful force, both personally and internationally. It's the basis for most of the world's contention, whether the beliefs are religious or political.^vii And the ideas you condemn may be true.

After all, Elvis is still alive, even if you choose^viii not to believe it.

Next episode: “Bette And Beyond” – The Davis philosophy.

i      Dowd, that is. All children have imaginary friends. Fortunately we don't all grow up and cast off those we love.

ii     “Credo quia absurdum” – Tertullian, from De Carne Christi

Crucifixus est Die Filius, non pudet, quia pudendum est;

et mortuus est Dei Filius, porsus credibile est, quia ineptum est;

et sepultus resurrexit, certum est; quia impossibile.

                                                                   De Carne Christi V, 4 ( cited by Wikipedia)

It's interesting that the quotation is, itself, a paraphrase of the text, and doesn't actually appear in the wording cited. Nonetheless, the idea that a belief is, by definition, irrational cannot be faulted. Were it provable it would become fact rather than belief. And some beliefs are, indeed, likely to be factual, even if not yet proved.

iii     Attributed to Kierkegaard although he apparently never used the term.

iv     And science fiction.

v      Of course there were also basic and accepted scientific concepts in the past that were later found to be nonsense. Science is often seen as the rationalist's answer to religion but in many respects it's just another religion, even if it claims otherwise.

vi     Some of the are, to be sure, nonsense, but that can be established without your help.

vii    Despite the claim of atheists, religion is not the cause of most deaths in war, nor are religious people. Hitler and Stalin caused far more deaths than occurred during the Crusades or in other religious wars. And tyrants who are hungry for power or wealth have no regard for others – especially when they have no belief in any kind of punishment for their actions.

viii   Wrongly.