I just want to endorse this comment. Psychadelic drugs have a miraculous property: they elicit transcendent states reliably. Eat the mushroom and you will experience it.

There are corresponding risks to this, of course, but that just the flip side of their utility as a (sharp) tool.

these tools allow exploration of not just introspection but also states that otherwise belong safely behind a closed door.

Yes I might actually enjoy having countless shards of the universe's ideas slicing through my ego for a few hours at night over the weekend; no I never want that to experience that during a workday.

Working is overrated and may be part of the problem of having depression in the first place. Maybe we are solving the wrong problem after all. Depression is a signal, it’s evolution whispering that life sucks in some major way. Throwing SSRI at problem silences this voice. But maybe it does and psychodelics fix that, instead of suppressing alerts indefinitely.

> Working is overrated and may be part of the problem of having depression in the first place.

Not just overrated, but most likely the core of the problem. It displaces so much and returns so little.

I mean, you don't have to do everything all the time. I certainly don't feel any transcendence right now.

I'm not sure what your point is, beyond perhaps "don't do drugs all the time?" If that's it, I don't think anyone here would object.

Meditation/introspection and a depressive state are not the same thing. Calling that dangerous is an overreaction IMO.

Meditation is really about changing your life. It’s a daily practice like exercising. It’s taking action and doing the work. So it probably offers longer relief from depression since it is a life change.