> the goal is to study how consciousness works

I’m not advocating for or against the use of mind-altering substances. But a scientist with two microscopes is going to have an edge over one who dogmatically subscribes to their one and only favourite. Even something as simple as observing the sky turns on knowledge of the failure of our neuro-optical pathways qua optical illusions.

The scientist whose second microscope has fun-house wonky lenses may only have an edge when it comes to discovering canals on Mars, researching N-rays (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N_ray), and similar.

Don't both of those things indirectly tell us a lot about our inherent biases? Seems to be _exactly_ the kind of insight that psychedelics offer

You are right if you believe there is an absolute answer that is true for everyone.

If you are looking for an answer that makes sense in relation to your specific context, your life, your consciousness, then drugs might be useful.

Does having a greater variety of life experience broaden one’s horizon? I hear travel can expand the mind. Reading books by diverse authors on varied subjects is believed to be valuable even if those books aren’t on metaphysics. Why wouldn’t psychedelic experiences be similar to travel or reading or joining the army or falling in love or any other of the many experiences we can know?

To say nothing of the quality of the answers, altered minds certainly spend more time asking that kind of question than sober ones.