[soundwave106]

All recreational chemicals have people waxing evangelical notions of them. Heck, even that humble cup of coffee was originally associated with Sufi mystics (http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-22190802).

LSD is nothing more than a serotonin receptor agonist (although LSD has a bit more dopaminergic response than other serotonergic psychedelics). It produces certain effects in the body. That's it.

The evidence of long-term harm for careful use seems low to me. (There may be a potential risk of schizophrenia / paranoia disorders and similar, though from what I can Google there is nothing conclusive yet. So if anything, that's what you monitor for. Even in the worst case, I would doubt that a single use would trigger this.)

That certain kinds of psychedelics (serotongerics in particular, but also NMDA receptor agonists, such as the naturally occurring ibogaine... and maybe a few others) seem really prone to produce this sort of almost spiritual response actually fascinates me, for exactly that reason alone. I wouldn't call this "spiritual nonsense" "fake" per se. Maybe these molecules in reality are clues to the actual mechanism behind the emotion, right?

[soineuh]

Yeah, and a bullet through the brain is just a little bit of metal, right?

[soundwave106]

Although there are a lot of unknowns (and I'd fully respect that sort of opinion), comparing a primarily-5HT2A agonist to a bullet in the brain seems wildly exaggerated given the current evidence I know. If you have scientific oriented links that say otherwise, feel free to share them. From what I know, I find this route of thinking rather hyperbolic.

To give another example, ketamine's another recreational hallucinogen; if it also was thought of as akin to a "bullet in the brain" and nothing more, scientists might not have recognized the potential anti-depressive nature of glutamatergic chemicals (as has happened in the last decade or so).