Experimental phenomenology requires that educators acknowledge the experiences of the learner. Today, many of those experiences are images that come from television. In a behaviorist or humanist tradition, learning takes place through experience, and learners comprehend, make decisions, and analyze their behavior through reflection. Meaning is ascribed to past experience and television contributes to this passive, reflective stance. In fact, television processes images which are not directly experienced. Separating the programmed television image from the directly experienced image has become more difficult. However, phenomenologists maintain that ongoing or future experiences may be just as valuable as past experiences in terms of bringing meaning to our lives. Visual literacy provides training for understanding future experiences through visual thinking. The emphasis in visual literacy should be that it is a means to visual thinking and not just an understanding and creation of visual language. Through visualization, mental imagery, visual mapping, and introspection, the study of how man thinks, rather than how he behaves, becomes the fulcrum of investigation. Thus, an emphasis on future or projected reflection brings a fresh and new perspective to the power of visual literacy training in terms of decision-making, evaluation, self-image, and teaching strategy. An extensive bibliography is attached. (Author/MER)