[alisson_dover]

Many psychedelic-era personas expressed this sentiment as well: you don't need psychedelic drugs to reach that state, you could also spend 10 years practicing meditation daily.

This view ignores the major application of these substances. Ketamine-induced self-therapy is accessible instantly and acts as a major reset. When you are experiencing long-term depression and/or anxiety, the advice to "just meditate" or do deep introspection is wildly counter-productive. Depressive state is very frequently accompanied by an unhealthy focus on the internal voice and on over-analyzing own life/motivations/purpose/etc. Having an "introspection session" in this state is a borderline dangerous advice.

[omginternets]

I just want to endorse this comment. Psychadelic drugs have a miraculous property: they elicit transcendent states reliably. Eat the mushroom and you will experience it.

There are corresponding risks to this, of course, but that's the flip side of their utility as a (sharp) tool.

[justatdotin]

these tools allow exploration of not just introspection but also states that otherwise belong safely behind a closed door.

Yes I might actually enjoy having countless shards of the universe's ideas slicing through my ego for a few hours at night over the weekend; no I never want that to experience that during a workday.

[theGnuMe]

Meditation is really about changing your life. It’s a daily practice like exercising. It’s taking action and doing the work. So it probably offers longer relief from depression since it is a life change.

[vlunkr]

Meditation/introspection and a depressive state are not the same thing. Calling that dangerous is an overreaction IMO.