Nothing has improved my mental well being as quickly as hallucinogens did. I'm sure I would have gotten where I was going with time, introspection and maybe a few years on the couch but drugs like shrooms got the ball rolling with their first application.

It was a hard night realizing that I was a petty, aggressive, jealous, judgemental person who was deeply unhappy with my life. The drugs didn't tell me how to act so as not to live in this deeply unhappy state but they showed me my house was in disorder and helped me start rearranging the furniture.

Steve, the most likely outcome of people taking mushrooms is that they will realize that we are all much more alike than we are different. They might realize that we are all part of an interconnected web of life and that by caring for others we care for ourselves and that by caring for our selves and the impact of our actions we care for others. Or they might just watch Def Comedy Jam from the 80's all night and laugh until their stomachs hurt for the next three days.

There aren't a ton of downsides. There are a few but that's true for most things.