Eye-Mindedness and Ear-Mindedness - Joseph Jastrow - Bog

We see with all that we have seen; we hear with all that we have heard; we learn with all that we have learned, and so on. In a country walk at night, an imaginative person constantly sees a ghost in what his more prosaic companion recognizes as a whitewashed tree. At a spiritualistic séance, it is well known that enthusiastic believers see whatever they are anxious to see. The general formula which sums up all these illustrations is that "We see with all that we have seen; we hear with all that we have heard; we learn with all that we have learned, and so on." Every acquisition and every action, however trivial, leaves a mark on our organization and becomes a causal link in the rest of our lives; it is in this way that experience leaves its deposit in character...