yay, Red. You are so right on!! And sometimes the epiphanies from the night before evaporate in the light of day if we were under the influence when we had them. If we take our own steps towards understanding, deliberately and consciously, it is more like a fruition than a short cut.

I think sometimes we are not ready to see or understand what is shown to us by drugs, either. I'm to this day amused what I wrote after my first acid trip as a teenager: "I figured out the meaning of life, but now I can't remember what it was exactly."

I'm not sure about this. Part of me thinks drugs are a no cut -- not even short. Like figuring out the meaning of life, and forgetting it. That's a no cut. I think that's what happens a lot when drugs are used recreationally. The mind/spirit are protected from seeing or remembering too much about what happens while under the influence. On the other hand, I'm not entirely convinced that sacred use of drugs is a shortcut. I feel like there might be categories of drug use. I think there might be (possibly and for some people) a way of using drugs that is genuinely useful. I'm not advocating drug use, and I'm not saying anyone who feels susceptible to drug abuse should decide they are engaging in "sacred" drug use, when they really are just getting messed up. But I think there may be a reason for all these substances being in the world. I'm sure the reason isn't so that college freshman can wonder if they really exist...

i use other things than drugs to mind alter: bdsm, sex and music being my faves! i don't know if they count as "short cuts" too, but drugs are just our drive-thru-mentality-as-a-culture's idea of a good time (like allopathic medicine's idea to treat the symptom and not the cause of the disease). the fact that abusers, of any form of mind altering substance including sex or music, etc., often can't remember the event, just proves abuse, not the goodness or badness of the substance, even drugs.

my cents-worth of an opinion....