The article makes a lot of good points. I'm a lover of psychedelics, I've apparently managed to be wired in a way that has made every single experience one that I don't regret (whether joyous, superficial, or intricate, unexpected), but I would never make the mistake of assuming my experience directly translates to other people's. Hype, cultists and people thinking in absolute only do a disservice to what we could extract from those experiences.
Serious research with people who are detached from the drugs is something we should all want, especially because we've only had a short time for detailed records of psychedelics experiences to exist at all and most experiences to this day aren't really observed scientifically at all. I believe that science is the best thing we've got to approach the unknown, psychedelics aren't a "godly exception".
I also remain aware that science doesn't always offer answers right away and we just keep on going anyway. It's been true for most technologies, for a lot of what goes in our food every day, for how we've structured society, etc. We accept that there's unknown risks, we try to mitigate what comes our way and prepare for what we can estimate, and we learn to live through what we didn't see. But we still eat the food, use the technologies, try social systems, and so on.
I think that attitude is also one to have with psychedelic experiences. That happens through testing what you have, guided experiences if and when there's a need or uncertainty, "set & setting" and discussing them beforehand, being gentle with dosage, making a sincere attempt at an inventory of the self before deciding on taking the psychs, and so on and so forth. And some people try some of it, some people don't, and that's OK as long as everyone strives to have an experience they can handle with what they know. Just like with everything else.
Is it true what they say about psychedelics helping people to come to terms with their own mortality and death?
Occasionally I'll get crippling anxiety when I think about how one day I'm going to stop existing and there's absolutely nothing I can do to stop that.
I've heard people say that [some drug] has shown them how to no longer fear death and always wondered about that.
I don't think it's possible to make a broad statement like that about psychedelics. You'll always just hear one take from a person with their experience and the experience of the people they might have tried it with or even guided, but the spectrum of experiences is too vast to qualify and quantify it without the actual research.
My personal standpoint is fairly different from yours because my anxiety is permanent and a measure of the "agitation" of my existence, to which death is almost a relief really. From that standpoint I've never quite had to confront much of anything about mortality or death. In fact I've almost always felt more alive during trips, at peace with whatever flowing model of the self and existence experienced in the moment. Psychedelic effects can make our senses feel more 'salient' too (for me musical experiences can be very profound), which I've used to contemplate extremes (like noise-cancellation silence after a roaring musical piece).
The main regularly noticeable thing I experience after just about every trip (of various kinds of psychedelics) is severe depression being alleviated for anywhere between a couple days to a few weeks.
Ultimately though, most of what I would say is just likely to be whatever personal theory I've built up this unique stream of experiences. That's why we really need people to get in there and do the difficult work.
edit: also the "some drug" in question is most likely DMT, and I've had extensive experiences with it (on its own or not) and absolutely appreciate that others would have religious experiences, near-death experiences, etc.. but I don't think anybody with any experience of DMT that goes beyond a one-shot would testify to the reliability of trips of such nature. It can be a very volatile experience, as well as being much less predictable from person to person than the more mild stuff like low doses of mushrooms etc. Again, science might eventually come to the rescue :)
Serious research with people who are detached from the drugs is something we should all want, especially because we've only had a short time for detailed records of psychedelics experiences to exist at all and most experiences to this day aren't really observed scientifically at all. I believe that science is the best thing we've got to approach the unknown, psychedelics aren't a "godly exception".
I also remain aware that science doesn't always offer answers right away and we just keep on going anyway. It's been true for most technologies, for a lot of what goes in our food every day, for how we've structured society, etc. We accept that there's unknown risks, we try to mitigate what comes our way and prepare for what we can estimate, and we learn to live through what we didn't see. But we still eat the food, use the technologies, try social systems, and so on.
I think that attitude is also one to have with psychedelic experiences. That happens through testing what you have, guided experiences if and when there's a need or uncertainty, "set & setting" and discussing them beforehand, being gentle with dosage, making a sincere attempt at an inventory of the self before deciding on taking the psychs, and so on and so forth. And some people try some of it, some people don't, and that's OK as long as everyone strives to have an experience they can handle with what they know. Just like with everything else.