>>213001156 (OP)
The movie is about being asleep vs being awake, and what that even means.
Andre is a guy desperate to be awake at whatever cost. He doesn't really show it beyond the mania behind his extensive monologues, but he perhaps is implied to be near a nervous breakdown (it was noted that he was seen crying by a friend of Wally in the beginning). This is why he is flying all over across the world doing insane shit. Yet, it seems to not really be working for him. When he is talking about people castrating themselves just to feel something, he is using a hyperbolic example to talk about himself and his dissatisfaction.
Andre mentions differing attempts by different groups trying to find ways to stay awake. Andre notes that Roc, a mathematician friend, tries to be awake by fighting habits. (Opening the door with a different hand for example). The Findhorn community and the art group in Poland are more examples of engaging in wild behavior, which is contrasted the "concentration camp" that is New York.
Wally rightly points out that one shouldn't have to fly to Mount Everest just to feel alive. One needs to find ways to appreciate the little things in their own life. (They both conclude that spending time with loved ones is a path towards achieving this) Wally serves to anchor down Andre, who is seek the right thing, but in the wrong way. Yet, Wally himself seems to be a person that has fallen into habit. He is willing to fight to the death for his electric blanket, because life is hard enough without his creature comforts. While I think there is some acknowledgement that stripping creature comforts away isn't the right approach, the film also sympathizes with the idea that in a way you are shutting yourself off to a whole bunch of things by drowning yourself in it.
