Most of the most amazing and important experiences of my life, the ones that I would choose if I were forced to say which were the ones that made life worth living, fall into that category.
There is nothing magic about it, and lots of drugs make you think you're smarter than you really are.
Since psychedelics would mostly be used for treating psych disorders, I hardly see a difference.
I honestly preferred the predictable nature of opiates/meth or the other prescription medication I was on. Drugs in these class are pretty honest about what they're offering.
In any case, you're right about the "lots of drugs make you think you're smarter than you really are" bit.
That's not to say the experience isn't worth having though. At the very least, it shows how fickle our brains and our perception of the world around us is. Also, I've never laughed so hard in my life, so that's good.
The explanation that a drugged man loses his ability to think critically is waaay more simplistic, than an explanation, that the drug somehow gives useful thoughts, that change lives to the better, but for some reason can't be put to words.
The first option is additionally supported by people who after an experience fully regained control over their sanity, and claim, that there were no enlightening thoughts at all, they just thought there were. The second theory can't explain that without further complication.
My most profound realization, and the one I can most easily put into words is that we don’t experience reality as it is, but only inhabit an imperfect simulation created by our minds based on incomplete information from our senses.
Which is not anything particularly new or insightful or useful for me to say at all for anyone who hasn’t used psychedelics — but that thought wasn’t generated by the lsd, it was generated by the direct experience of my reality and consciousness shattering. I can put the realization derived after the fact or during the experience into words to an extent, but the experience itself is so far beyond words that I can only make the barest sketch of it. At the same time, there’s no amount of reading about the mind and philosophy that can convince you of the fundamentally unreal and imperfect nature of your subjective experience the way that one lsd trip can.
It’s not my interpretation of my subjective experience that I found worth while. I’m not a particularly insightful thinker, and lsd doesn’t make you one. It was the experience itself. Just like any other experience one can have in life that enriches it.
When I'm high on weed, I've learned the hard way, to not share those ideas with the world of the sober until I myself have sobered up. Those ideas are typically the product of profound feelings. Sometimes they're deep or novel... but it's rare.
I've been much more judicious about my LSD use. I use it when I'm in a rough spot emotionally. The thoughts and feelings can be similar to a rollercoaster ride -- I'm often all over the place from introspective to giggly. I see my problem from many perspectives and emotional states. Often times, something will click. And that's something I can bring back up with me because what I was looking for was resolution of an emotional knot. Am I finding profound truths about the universe? No. Am I making profound discoveries about my inner truth? Yes, and the discoveries result in enduring solutions to problems -- often, problems which have plagued me for month.