The most significant feature of Location 1 is the experience of a fundamental okayness beneath all other experience. In Location 1, this sense is usually in the background, and can be covered over by more surface levels of thought and emotion. The fundamental okayness may only be noticeable when a Finder pauses to feel if it is there deep down, but it is absolutely there.

It’s possible for people to miss their transition to Location 1. If a Finder’s transition is gradual or gentle enough (such as from a state of ongoing wellbeing that is already very high), the person may not initially realize the change has happened. Some Location 1 Finders believe that because they still experience a mix of positive and negative emotions they must not be in Fundamental Wellbeing. Often this comes from a prior belief in what Fundamental Wellbeing should be like.

This typically includes having fundamental okayness, a deep sense of peace, a completely quiet mind, or some other expectation in the foreground all the time, they haven’t made it yet. This is also incorrect. As long as there is a sense that things are fundamentally okay when someone stops to look deep down for it, under their more surface layers of thoughts and emotions, the person is in at least Location 1.

This fundamental sense of okayness feels deeper, and more real or true than anything the person has previously experienced, and seems to just always be there – thoughts come and go, emotions come and go, experiences come and go, but no matter what happens, this is always there when they look deep down. Naturally, this also brings with it a deeper sense of trust in how things are.

In Location 1 there is still have a mix of positive and negative emotions, existing psychological conditioning can still get triggered, but negative emotions tend to fall off more rapidly than before. Location 1 Finders often still experience more ups and downs than they would like to, or believe that they should. This usually relates to psychological deconditioning cycles that are set in motion after a transition to Fundamental Wellbeing, and that take time to work their way out. On average there are 2, 3, and 7 year cycles that relate to this, though individual variation is common. These can be accellerated with certain practices.

The initial 2 year cycle that begins after the initial transition to Fundamental Wellbeing is especially important. In a very real way, it governs who someone will become long-term as a Finder. It is an especially intense period of psychological deconditioning and reconditioning in the brain, where old patterns that were once supported by a formerly strong egoic sense of self are rewritten with a new foundation from within Fundamental Wellbeing. At the extreme, this can lead to dramatic changes in relationships, career, and even goals and motivation as we discuss a bit later.

Location 1 Finders also experience a reduction in self-referential thoughts – thoughts about themselves. These types of thoughts may arise less frequently, affect a person less when they do, or both. It may also be experienced as having more distance or space from these thoughts, despite familiar patterns of thinking still arising.

The reduction in self-referential thinking also results in Finders placing less importance on, and having less interest in, the story of themselves. Their personal story, and narrative-driven stories of any kind, simply aren’t as compelling as they once were. Being less caught up in stories, Finders experience a greater sense of presence or being in the moment than they did before transitioning. This experience can be subtle or seem intermittent in Location 1, but deepens as the deconditioning cycles progress (or if someone goes to a later location where these experiences becomes increasingly dominant and in the foreground).

Finders experience a deeper sense of contentment, wholeness, and completeness. They are less inclined to feel the need to add things to themselves or their life. This starts showing up in Location 1, usually subtly, and deepens over time as a person’s existing psychological conditioning unwinds and realigns with their new way of experiencing the world (or if they go to a later location).

Location 1 Finders will often describe a having an expanded sense of self. This may feel like what they are is not as restricted or limited as they once felt or believed. Some people even describe experiences that feel like they somehow extend beyond their physical body.

Tendencies of Location 1

The changes described here are often accompanied by changes in goals and motivation, since prior to Fundamental Wellbeing, a person’s goals are driven by the sense of incompleteness, inadequacy, discontentment, anxiety, and so on, that underlies most people’s internal experience. When that goes away with Fundamental Wellbeing, it can bring changes to their motivation and goals, because many of these may no longer seem relevant. Because of this, many Finders, experience a drop in motivation. This typically frees up resources that eventually allow for their intrinsic motivation (sometimes referred to life calling or life purpose) to emerge, and it is common for Finders to change life tracks and pursue this.

• The mind usually remains a dominant internal experience in Location 1, so of all the locations, it most resembles the way of experiencing life before Fundamental Wellbeing.
• Because it is usually still strongly based in the mind, Finders in Location 1 can still feel pulled this way and that by thoughts and emotions more than they’d like, especially before the first deconditioning cycle is complete.
• For the same reason, however, the challenges with functionality in the world associated with some later locations are less relevant here.
• Because it is closer to what someone is like prior to becoming a Finder, this is a better location to do things like run a business in (Location 2 is also fine).