...has also been troubling.

Huston Smith, who was one of the people that participated in the infamous Good Friday experiments (When Leary and Walter Pahnke gave divinity school students psilocybin during a Good Friday service in an attempt to produce a mystical experience) went on to do some important work on the relationship between psychedelics and mysticism. He described the psychedelic culture as creating a "religion of religious experiences." While these kinds of experiences can be powerful and transformative, they often don't lead someone towards a moral or ethical religious life. Having a religious experience does not make someone religious, and I have seen (and experienced) a kind of compulsion to be in the altered state over and over again, without then forming a religious attitude that is strong enough to withstand the world without the drugs. This is not to say that these drugs are not efficacious. I believe they have also helped many people for the good. Nevertheless, Huston Smith also quotes Alan Watts who said, "When you get the message, hang up the phone."