I'm glad alcohol helped you, but have you ever tried psychedelics such as LSD, psilocybin, or MDMA? The effects are fundamentally different. Psychedelics have a much higher chance of triggering profound and transformative experiences.
Sam Harris, who I hope most people on HN can accept as someone with a slightly above average intelligence, seems to agree with you. He wrote a very interesting article on his experience with LSD: http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/drugs-and-the-meaning-of-...
I am aware that different drugs have wildly different effects. I was just trying to point out that even alcohol - something considered "mundane" by most - should technically be considered a transformative, mind-altering drug.
Ate a tiny piece of space cake once and ended up jumping out of a window. Years I did MDMA once and did not notice much effects (and it wasn't a dud - I shared it with a friend and they definitely noticed its effects). Another anecdote suggesting that the effects of these drugs on people greatly depend on your state of mind when you take them. It's precisely there where we have little hard data on how the drugs work, I think.
