Experiencing Mode

Steven Hayes / Acceptance Commitment Therapy

The Observing Self is a transcendent sense of self, not as a concept but in context (i.e. “self-as-context”) a consistent perspective from all changing experiences are observed and accepted. It is a process, not a thing: an awareness of awareness itself: ‘pure awareness’

Daniel Kahneman

The Experiencing Self and the remembering self. In Part Five: Two Selves, Kahneman describes the experiencing self as an example of the fast, intuitive, unconscious mode of thinking that operates in the present moment, focusing on the quality of our experience IN our life – living life rather than thinking about it. The remembering self is an example of the slow, rational, conscious mode of thinking that tells the story of our experience, how we think ABOUT our experience. Kahneman says each moment of the experiencing self lasts about 3 seconds, most of them vanishing without a trace. What gets remembered by the remembering self are changes in the story, significant (intense) moments in the story, and the ending. I.e., our brain tends to color the entire story with the intensity of the ending of it.