Everyone is looking for the lost key under the lamppost…  The Streetlight Effect ((The streetlight effect is a type of observational bias where people only look for whatever they are searching by looking where it is easiest.[1][2][3][4] The search itself may be referred to as a drunkard’s search.

Taken from an old joke about a drunkard who is searching for something he has lost, the parable is told several ways but typically includes the following details:

A policeman sees a drunk man searching for something under a streetlight and asks what the drunk has lost. He says he lost his keys and they both look under the streetlight together. After a few minutes the policeman asks if he is sure he lost them here, and the drunk replies, no, and that he lost them in the park. The policeman asks why he is searching here, and the drunk replies, “this is where the light is.”

David H. Freedman apparently coined the phrase “streetlight effect,” but the story and concept were used in the social sciences since at least 1964, by Abraham Kaplan, where he refers to this as “the principle of the drunkard’s search”))

Science is divided. There are the Creationists who say that god created the universe, designed everything and all we can do is go with it.

And then there are the scientists who say: man is a machine, life is an accident, and their inquiry and methods are consistent with this context.

As you may notice, I am not going to support or argue either of them: both of them are theories from the limited perspective of the human mind. They all look under the streetlight.

What I am intending to talk about is what both miss.

The difference between the two camps is most visible, to me, when they talk about intrinsic motivation.

That small part, or aspect of a human that isn’t connected to the mind, isn’t connected to anything physical.

Call it the spirit, the spark, the divine part of a human. It shines through the eyes of a child, and then dims in most people…

That part that knows that you are, on some level, imbued with something that doesn’t come from the survival game of the genes, of the horizontal plane of dog eat dog world.

But it is also not part of the “positive thinking”, pious, all mind stuff. It is NOT mind. It is not even brain. It is not thinking. It is what can be called Consciousness.

It is what can be called Self.

It is timeless, and non-physical.

You can’t observe it in others… or if you can, it makes no sense. It is outside of what the mind can perceive: What sense is is all the stuff the mind can perceive and integrate into its knowledge base. The mind’s picture of reality. But…

There is a you that is physical, and there is a YOU that is non-physical.

I am not concerned with what happens to the non-pyisical YOU after you die. I am not even concerned whether there is a personal non-physical YOU… From your point of view there is, and that is going to be what’s important, because unless it is personal, unless it feels personal, you won’t interact with it properly and personally.

So, for the sake of your functioning as a whole person, an Expanding Human Being, we are going to view you as someone who has to selves, the worldly self… and the divine Self, or intrinsic Self.

And the job is to start creating a coherent whole… instead of remaining separate, and praying to the divine Self… as if it were some benevolent stranger, like a god.

I am not a philosopher… I am an empath.

One of the jobs of an empath is to create a bridge between observation, feeling and words… so you can start paying attention, so you can start looking for what you are seeking where it is, instead of out there, or out here.

But like anything alive, when it is cut from its source, it starts wilting immediately.

The intrinsic Self is part of the Beyond (Beyond what the mind can conceive and see, beyond the five senses world, the horizontal plane). So when I put it into words, it is still alive, but when your mind gets the words, it is wilting, or is instantly dead…

So whatever you are getting is like the cut flowers in a bouquet… they have no shelf life… and they look good, but it’s an illusion.

So what is there to do?

You see, the job of the activators, the job of the energies in the activators is this: to help you connect to that divine aspect of yourself, and not its shadow, not its mirage, not its mental image… to it, not the reflection of it.

As a teenager I was always in love with some illusion, some idea of a man… But didn’t know what to do with flesh and blood boys. I watch people pray to sculptures or paintings… it is the same.

I guess that is the idea behind Judaism’s prohibition to worship idols… you need to deal with the real thing… But to deal with it, you have to find it.

But the mind is incapable. The mind is a wholly horizontal plane phenomenon, while the Beyond, the divine part of you is in the vertical… no access from the horizontal.

So what is there to do?

The Indians started out right: you need to go within.

But show me an Indian, or anyone who actually does. They don’t… within is terrifying. There is nothing there… literally no thing.

And that feels like you are nothing… and that feels like death. And it is, in a way. It is the absence of the illusion that you are, the you that you perceive… perception… go it?

So people, pretending to meditate, escape into thought, or feeling, or itching, or fidgeting, or unconsciousness… as I have observed some students that meditated with me.

What can go beyond that abyss… that nothingness, is an aspect that is not connected to the horizontal, and yet it’s there. It is what I call attention/awareness. It is energy you have access to direct, to ramp up, to withdraw.

It is yours to operate, as if you had a car parking in front of your house. You have the key in your pocket… But you don’t know the car is yours.

And unless you do, the car will rust… unused.

I have asked Source if I could give you an activator to activate your awareness and your knowing of your tool: your awareness/attention.

The answer is NO. You have to find it…

That is the first step, and the crucial step of connecting to the inner divine you, the vertical plane.

It’s not an accident that everyone teaches that it is the mind that is doing it.

Knowing that you have that tool, that connector to the divine, and actually connect renders you not controllable, not sheep.

And the world prefers you to be sheep.

A sheep controlled and suppressed by sheep.

Yes, the sheep that controls you is still sheep.

They would stop if they found the key… within. But they are terrified just like you are terrified.

Is the Hundredth Monkey a true story? No, it was made up. Is it somewhat true?

In theory. Maybe.

But as long as all the “monkeys” are waiting for other monkeys to take the leap, it will never happen.

Because, my hunch is, it is hard work to remove all the crust, and b.s. the world has placed upon you. that you placed upon you, trying to survive in a world that isn’t friendly to you.

It’s much easier to practice “positive thinking”… and pretend that you are good.

Read the original article: Look for it where it is, not where the light is on