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I don't think it's anything human specific, any caged animal needs something to occupy its attention and stimulate the senses otherwise it will suffer the huge
by ivanhoe 6y ago
I don't think it's anything human specific, any caged animal needs something to occupy its attention and stimulate the senses otherwise it will suffer the huge stress and with time start developing health issues - whether it's a mammal or bird or even a fish. It seems much more like an underlying neurological limitation of some kind, than just some high-level philosophical/existentialistic issue specific to us humans.
- Aeolun 6y agoMaybe it’s more that we think that because humans have a higher layer of thought, we should be able to deal with it?
- ivanhoe 6y agoTrue, and with enough training we can, that's what meditation is basically - just like we can learn to control our instincts like hunger or sex drive, but still it's not the normal state, it requires a focused mental effort. On the basic level we're social animals and we're probably hard-wired to need the presence of others, and also to seek places that stimulate our senses, as that is where the food is. Being strongly driven to sit in some deserted cave with nothing to eat or do in it wouldn't be a good evolutionary adaptation to any organism - so we surely have an instinct to avoid it - just think of horror movies, how they imagine really scary places? Dark, empty, deserted - low stimulus and it scares the hell of us.