Our unique quality as a species is the ability to view reality, perceive it as it related to us, and then make a quick determination and judgement of that reality based on what is not there. I called it “the not.” There are some existential philosophies that outline that understanding what is not here is a key ingredient to the formulation of many human traits including the use of tools, symbols, language and communication systems. Our constant desire to create hierarchy is directly tied to the fact that we can rank things by what they do NOT have. In fact, our kinship to a belief in God is also directly associated with this concept. We identify an external being, an idealistic representation and that becomes the definition by which we judge all that is NOT.
There is no other living species that we know of that has the ability to do this. A young baby, very early on in development learns to play peek a boo and by so doing learns the concept of object permanence and recognizes when something is here or not here. That seems rudimentary, but the fact that we think that is simple, just demonstrates how advanced that concept really is. What we do not realize is just how powerful this concept is in our own lives.
We should never accept just the reality in front of us, we must always consider the NOT. That is our secret super power. You innately do it all the time, but it is definitely something to get better at, to focus on and to help create a better more ideal reality by becoming tuned to what is NOT correct, or not right.
Guy
