Observation, Interpretation, and Imagination¶

In describing conscious experience, we can mark distinctions between observation, interpretation, and imagination.

Observation¶

We observe thoughts and sensations. Observation starts with the sensations we directly experience. We see, hear, touch, taste, smell, and so on. We also experience pain, temperature, proprioception, and other bodily sensations.

Interpretation¶

Interpretation is a process in which we emphasize some features of observations over others and do other mental structuring such as adding labels.

Observation vs imagination¶

We observe our thoughts as mental images. Some are memories of past observations, and some are more fantastic or abstract. Generally, we call something imagination when we accept that the contents of a mental image are significantly different from anything we directly experienced as sensations.

We can imagine a tiny purple elephant. When we do so, we observe having the mental image. So, we can talk of observing a thought but say that we imagine whatever images the thought generates.

Describing observations¶

Pure observation is ineffable. Any communicating about observations involves interpretation. One practice for mindful presence is to aim for awareness of observations without adding any interpretation, avoiding all words or labels or even relational patterns.

To talk about observation and keep it as separate as we can from interpretation and imagination, we can state the distinctions. We can highlight our senses such as saying, "I see [description of what we see]" or just "seeing [description of sights]". To highlight the interpretation process mindfully, we can say, "my (or an) interpretation of what I see is [description]". We also can describe thoughts by marking them explicitly as in, "I notice this thought…" or "a thought:"

Imagination¶

Some people associate the word "imagination" mainly with creative fantasizing like envisioning dragons or interstellar travel or simply fictional people having conversations in realistic scenarios.

In CL, we understand "imagination" to cover even likely real-world things that we do not directly observe. A family member goes shopping and comes back with groceries, and we can imagine them going to a specific store, putting groceries into their bag, and so on. Our imagination might nearly match direct observation from the past, but we still have only imagined and not observed what happened this time.

When we make predictions, we might simply observe things like a probability calculation. However, most of us do prediction by imagining probable scenarios.

Imagination is usually the closest we can get to seeing someone else's perspectives. We observe someone's face, and we directly experience our own reactions (which may include empathetic feelings and even the matching of others' expressions). We do not actually observe their feelings. We only imagine what their subjective experience might be. We observe and interpret frowns and cries; we imagine someone's sadness.

Describing memories¶

Many mental images are memories of observations. Even though memories are a form of thought and aren't raw sensory observations, calling them "imagination" would be confusing.

When we care to be extra clear and distinguish immediate observations from memories, we can say "memory of observing…". Often, the distinction is implied enough. We can say "they cried", and everyone knows this past-tense is a memory. But distinctions can help us hold memories more loosely. We can say, "I remember seeing them cry" (explicit stating of a memory of observation). If we say, "I remember they were sad", we are interpreting without noting it. So, we might distinguish observation, interpretation, and imagination by saying, "I remember them crying, and I imagined how sad they must be feeling."

Practical rather than dogmatic distinctions¶

We could not think and communicate effectively if we constantly marked everything as observation, interpretation, or imagination. In practice, we can mark the distinctions where it seems helpful. We can consider whether it might avoid misunderstandings or help with maintaining humble curiosity and avoiding overconfidence. We can try noting the distinctions and then review to determine when it was or was not worthwhile. Over time, we can aim to build the healthiest habits for when to make explicit distinctions.