I live inside a tiny bubble of experience. Within this sphere are all the things that I can actually see, hear, touch, and otherwise sense. Beyond my personal experience are the stories that I can learn from others. Without being there with them, I have to imagine what they tell me about things beyond my horizon. I have no direct knowledge of what they tell me, but if I can trust them, and trust my imagination, I can learn many wonderful things from them.
If necessary I can go see for myself, bringing the event witnessed by another into my personal experience. I can look at any evidence that the person may have collected from the event he/she witnessed. Lacking objective evidence, I can also check what is reported to me from beyond my bubble with what I have experienced, and maybe verify it (make it "true") for myself. Perhaps more than one trusted person reports the phenomenon. The least favorable way of verifying some claim is to compare what I imagine it to be with some other imagined thing.
It is hard to live inside such a small bubble of experience. There are a lot of things that I just don't know... but a lot that I imagine.
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