Yes, you're right - I was being more than a bit facetious with some of my comments. Fair play.
I'm not trying to undermine the ability of substances such as psilocybin and mescaline to have life changing effects (although I would like to see the effects after 1 year, or 5). However, in the context that they are used in the modern world I think my statements still stand - based purely on my own experiences of such scenes.
I was just responding to the rant with my own rant in kind
My point about the levers wasn't so much about daily dosing or other such addictive behaviour, which is why I posited it as a lever of the 'spiritual kind'. I do tend to find that those who have come to spiritual insight through the use of psychedelics have a great deal of difficulty achieving the same ecstatic or insightful states without them. Many of these people are also just as materialistic and ego-based as anybody else, with more than a fair bit of elitism added into the mix because they have 'seen the light'. That these states of being can also be achieved without such substances is very well documented and undeniable, and maybe we should be promoting more of the latter rather than just the fast-track method that psychedelics can offer.
Psychedelic drugs can be used as a tool, particularly by those already well versed in exploring such things through other means. But there are way too many pitfalls - of a spiritual kind - and these substances are just not treated with the reverance or expertise needed. Most revelations gained on psychedelics are actually very basic language transcendence revelations, which was my point about anthropology and philosophy being just as powerful when understood properly. There are also a lot of revelations and insights that are actually purely based in language, it's just that at the time you don't realise that you aren't transcending anything but are instead just caught up in a temporarily fabricated system of meaning equal to any other.
I think that looking at psychedelics as a way to 'open the doors of perception' is, for the most part, a romanticised ideal. It's not impossible, given highly controlled circumstances, to achieve great insight through their use; but it is far more common for this insight to be self-serving and aggrandising rather than leading to true spiritual progression.
I don't want to get too off-topic (and I do agree with you calling me out on this, because I was generalising way too much). My point was that the original rant was condescending and self-serving and that the psychedelic scenes are often just as ego-based and hedonistic as any other.
