Hey Cado, cool thread.
I write a lot about finding truth on my site
Long story short, I did go through a MASSIVE mental masturbation stage. I alchemy'd that f*cker out of the water.
In
Finding the truth in a world of lies, I detail 4 truth finding "protocols" - believe what others tell you based on your evalutation of the trustworthiness of the source, believe the belief system tied to something that works for you, believe experience, and use intution.
I think part of the problem is taking truth too seriously (which comes from tying it to your identity as you put in the OP. Also ideas are tied to collective egos like the church and Science/modern school. We are taught that what we memorise in school is very important and is what makes us worthy of getting a decent job or not). But there IS no absolute truth. So what's left is just to play with ideas.
By the way, I started the darkworker/lightworker masculinity/femininity thread with that in mind... just because it was fun. I didn't believe in it and didn't care much either way.
Andrew