I've always been an outsider. I grew up in an isolated house surrounded by three moats. There was no money. I left school early. It was a world of its own. I became fascinated by consciousness because there was nothing much to do except mooch about and think. I had the occasional mystical experience. I studied consciousness, reading all the books I could get.
A physicist looks for causes; that does not necessarily imply that there are causes everywhere. A man may look for gold without assuming that there is gold everywhere; if he finds gold, well and good, if he doesn't he's had bad luck. The same is true when the physicists look for causes.