Talking trash and other stuff

Why do people - a few, anyway - talk about (and think about) this kind of stuff: religion, philosophy, psychology, enlightenment, consciousness, waking up, nirvana, etc., etc.? (Besides the obvious fact, that they can't help it.)

Because doing so affects a small, albeit very minor, alteration in their nervous system, especially at the highest ends of the cerebral cortex wherein such non-ordinary thinking takes place.

The only "problem" (and it most definitely IS a problem, of the highest order, for those who've discovered it as such for themselves), is that this kind of talking and thinking is way too random, erratic, and without known purpose, EVEN IF (especially when) the person tries to convince himself and others, otherwise.

He might SAY he thinks and talks about this stuff so that he will wake up, become enlightened, reach nirvana, and other things like that, but in fact, he does so simply because it's enjoyable to do so (and he can't help it). That is, the brain gets a small, rather insignificant HIT of special neuropeptides which affect certain locations in the pleasure centers of the brain.

He might as well be thinking about last night's basketball playoff game, or next weekend's rock group concert, for all the "benefit" such thinking produces in him. Does the phrase, "mental masturbation" mean anything to you, because that's what going on, whether or not you own up to it yet.

All thinking and talking about what other people first thought and talked about (trying to "analyze" what they "meant" when they wrote/said it first) - and, getting your little "contact hit" thereby - is like trying to get high by walking by a person smoking some dynamite pot, while abstaining yourself, and not actually taking the bowl and doing the deed.

If you >>really<< want to "get high" (a euphemism, and a pun), come up with something you've NEVER thought about, NEVER heard about, NEVER read about, and then THINK about it in a way that is uncharacteristic for you. You will then discover what "uncharacteristic" might actually mean in that sentence, and how it "solves" that little "problem" referred to earlier.