Wow, this thread goes all over the place, which I guess is normal because we members are all over the map - figuratively and geographically. My experience goes back over the last 50 years - since I was 14 beginning with yoga and then meditation well before drugs.
I took it very seriously.
It is better if you do not take things seriously as that kind of attachment is a hindrance to any progress in anything, besides looking foolish.
when I was 14 and studying yoga I got a touch stone from Lobsang Rampa who was a fake tibetan monk selling knick knacks - the stone was actually plastic but I used it and actually got a strong sensation from it which I later identified as yogic or meditative jhana (
refered to earlier in this thread by someone). Eventually I gave the trinket away to someone, but it really worked for me.
prior to 15 years of age I learned yoga breathing and postures from a book. I got good at it but did not keep it up so now I really am not very good at the postures any more.
my first exposure to meditation was mail order instructions for a hindu meditation scheme (sent to me free by the self realization foundation - followers of paramahansa yogananda) on the medulla oblongata (chackra) and it was both visualization and visionary.
By 16 I found a tibetan buddhist teacher (westerner who was ordained to rinpoche status) well prior to Trunpa getting big in America who taught me several methods of meditation including some visualizations, and with this guy I learned more about jhana, but the emphasis was more mandalic, experiencing everything as a totality, centered, expansive, connected.
This western Tibetan teacher also taught about symbolism, thankas, tarot, yoga, dance, and many other explorations (1967-1971) including batik art, and in one session of batik art making he produced a piece with 4 circles on it progressing from left to right, and between each circle was a curved link:
he described this illustration as consciousness, a series of mind moments with links. - I puzzled over this for years, and it is still core to my understanding of mind.
My cousin went to Thailand around this time to be a Buddhist monk, and came back 3 years later while I was going to university, so I continued meditating with him, as his grasp of the whole thing was very strong.
Eventually I was only doing a simplified version of Burmese style vipassana, which I highly recommend. It is not really oriented towards jhana states, but is very good for not taking things too seriously and for getting better in touch with what is really happening, while sometimes the jhanas do come into it as well.
I still do simple breathing meditation today which to me is the best connection to the moment.
I think there is a connection between psychedelic states and meditative states of mind because of the feedback, resonance and phenomena that arise when layering of persisting moments set in.