How To Be a Fair Witness

A notary public is a person with the legal authority to witness signatures, certify documents as valid, and take depositions.

In his book, Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein takes this a step further with the character of Anne. Anne is a fair witness, an objective observer with the legal authority to testify in court about any factual aspect of a matter she is hired to observe. If you wanted an unbiased witness to something, you hire a fair witness. They are trained to have a photographic memory and to relate only what they experience without interpreting their experience in any way.

To be happy we all need to be fair witnesses. No, I don’t mean we need to spend the whole of our waking hours just perceiving. I mean we need to take the time to perceive before we judge our experience. How often do you talk to someone and even before they finish their sentence you are judging what they say, or assuming they are talking about one thing when they are really talking about something else? Have you ever planned an outing, then on the day of the outing it rains? Did you get upset because your plans were ruined?

Stop! Take time to be a fair witness. Experience what is happening without interpreting it. Don’t personalize it. Don’t rush to judgement. Don’t assume. Don’t pre-filter the experience through your beliefs. Just experience what is happening. You’ll have a clearer view of the world, and you will enjoy life a lot more.

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