I think it's a bit more than that. It makes your mind wander in different directions, in a way that lends itself to things like writing original jokes or coming up with a different angle on problems or ideas that can be solved with more 'out of the box' solutions. It does something to the associative memory in which it makes associations which you wouldn't normally assert (Which is where I think a lot of people who don't enjoy it end up paranoid - a healthy dose of critical thought and reasoning going into these experiences may be helpful, along with keeping the dose relatively low).

That said since it does have a thought-scattering thing going for it that if you don't bother to try and focus on getting those scattered thoughts on to something which records them, it's kind of a waste of time if we're talking about using it for purely utilitarian reasons.