If negativity was against our divine purpose and our desires, why does it take alot of trial/error to understand the positivity mindset over long periods of time?

Actually, the question you might want to consider is why does it take several years of conditioning and programming to instill a negativity-based mindset into a human? :)

Newborn babies and young children are not negativity-based. I've never met one, not one ever, who wasn't naturally happy.

Yes, babies and young children get angry from time to time when they don't get what they want (anger is a self-protection mechanism) but they don't get stuck there.

As societal conditioning kicks in over several years, we gradually program negative attitudes into these youngsters by forcing them to conform and behave in certain ways that society deems is appropriate. They are programmed out of trusting their feelings (inner guidance) and instead told to trust in external systems of behavior distributed via, for example, state authorities, mainstream religion, mindless dumbing-down television, schools (the dis-educational system).

The idea that "Good Feels Good" is carefully removed from their mindsets, and once that idea has been eradicated then, basically, they are lost...drifting helplessly through life like a small boat cast upon the ocean waves without a motor or sails.

And then - and this is the crucial thing - they are also just like everyone else, and so they fit in perfectly :)

Of course, the occasional person manages to by-pass the societal systems and codes of behavior and does what they want to do anyway. For the ones who don't manage to amass wealth and/or power before society catches up with them, they tend to find themselves locked up in prison cells or drugged-up in mental institutions.

The remaining few (the ones with wealth and/or power) are labelled as "mavericks" or "hell-raisers", if society disapproves of what they do, or "geniuses" or "visionaries", if society approves.

So the answer to your question about why negativity/lower consciousness is so prevalent is just that society has been set up that way in order to encourage this behavior.

Some people, like David Icke, claim those systems have been set up that way for purposes of deliberate manipulation. Others claim it's part of a game of limitation we have deliberately imposed on ourselves in order to gain greater insights.

But it all basically comes down to this...

When you want to control the masses, it's simply too difficult to control individuals...it's much easier to control the norms of society and then let the individuals control each other :)

People find it easy to stay in their dominant negative vibration because that is their habitual vibration.

Like Satori has pointed out above, if we do start to do the vibrational work and start to feel better, then having negative emotions will no longer be habitual and this will no longer be second nature.

I think many people are comfortable in their set vibration until they deliberately start to raise it. This is when as Abraham say, all hell breaks loose:)

Then by the law of resonance all the lower vibrations in that persons energy field get activated along with the higher ones. This resistance is not only from this lifetime but the culmination of many lifetimes of resistance. 

It does get easier though. Every time you raise your vibration you automatically integrate some of that resistance. Eventually you will reach a tipping point and you will find yourself in the higher vibrations for the majority of the time:)

I am currently reading Ken MacLean's Vibrational Universe (thanks for turning me onto MacLean, Stingray), and finding it brilliant. I had just read the following passage last night, and was surprised to find this corresponding question posted this morning. Synchronicity? Whatever the case, here's the passage from the book:

“If the default is a feeling of well–being,” you might say, “then why are so many people miserable?” The answer to that question is different for each individual, but if you examine the religions and philosophies mankind has developed, most of them are negative:

• Souls are born with original sin (or karma). [tainted before you ever begin]

• You have to struggle and work hard for everything you get. [the universe is lined up against you]

• Challenge builds character. [only by overcoming the negative can you reach the positive]

• You’ll get your reward in heaven. [you can’t really find joy while on earth, so shut up and get to work]

• Human nature is animalistic and primitive; therefore, human beings need to be controlled and disciplined. [you can’t know what’s best for you, because your instincts are inherently flawed]

• If you don’t behave you should be punished. [thus reinforcing negative behavior]

• Things never go as smoothly as you plan them [obstacles are inevitable]

• And finally, the formula that succinctly expresses mankind’s worldview: All good things must come to an end. [But the bad stuff, that can last forever].

With belief systems like that, is it any wonder so many of us have difficulties? We have been taught to deny ourselves and disconnect from our divine nature. It’s sad, but it doesn’t have to be that way!

It all come down to beliefs and motivation. For everyone of us move in a direction of what what we belief represents relief or more pleasure and move away form things that bring pain, the reason than why we do not move in better feeling state is that we beliefe moving up to the higher states might bring more suffering than staying in this miserable state of mind. That is the work of every belief (ego) - it will alwyas try to protect us.
When You listen to Your little-brother-ego more carefully You can hear him saying - "You are not good enough, You will hit the wall hard if You try, You do not posses all the tools necessary", ....see, this discussion is happening all the time unless You choose to acknowledge beliefe for what it is - it tries to protect You.
You gave him this power by telling him what is true and possible and anyting that is beyond it is putting Your litle brother in danger. So You are doing it and this part of You always will! Once You acknowledge the work of Your protectionistic mechanism of beliefs, You can choose to follow where You feel You want to be. Bold action from the fearful state of mind but pretty natural way of living once You change Your state of mind for what represent the realms You prefere to experience.

Lets take it back to when you were a baby and you cried to get attention. Getting upset and crying is our primal way of getting what we want, and for all intents and purposes it works. We have to teach our children to say thank you. Peace

I think that the human race has gone through different stages developmentally, similar to a human goes through in his/her lifetime. As a race, our behavior was infantile, prelingual, etc... then as a race we went through toddlerhood, childhood, adolescent, teenage, young adult and now we are maturing into adulthood. As this happens, more and more of us begin to 'wake up.'

I know for myself, I was very powerfull as a child. However, I learned some lies over the years. For example, I learned not to claim things outloud that support what I wanted, so I would claim the opposite while believing what I want. For example, the first time I was to be batter in a baseball game, instead of saying that I would hit the ball out of the field, I said that I wouldn't be able to hit the ball if the bat was a mile wide. I went up to bat and hit the ball out of the field, over the fence. This worked at first, but then I started believing what I was saying instead of the opposite. I then began attracting unwanted experiences and lost track of what I wanted.

I have come back around and remember that I am powerful. The more I learn and grow and 'wake up,' the more I contribute toward the whole of humanity growing and 'waking up.' That goes for each one of us individually growing and waking up and contributing to the whole of humanity growing and waking up.

((21 Sep 2012: I edited my first link)

If you are looking for some explanation, I guess any explanation will do.

Remember the scene in the matrix where Morpheus tells neo that the human being is a battery?

Well do you want to wonder if that idea is true?

Here is your red pill / blue pill moment.

If you want to know, click on the two links below

http://leschroniquesdaragonne.wordpress.com/2012/06/12/the-predator-mind-by-carlos-castaneda/

http://www.realitysandwich.com/Alex_Grey_Mind_Parasites

Are they correct?

I don't know! Does it matter?

It satisfies the question doesn't it?

Unfortunately, you have to deal with this knowledge and wonder if it is true or not.

Nevertheless, now there is something you can blame it on and move on with your spiritual quest.