Psychedelics are powerful drugs. It's hard to know if someone can help themselves out of a bad trip or if they will spiral further. It's hard to know how much the people around them can help if things become difficult. They don't always change your perspective in a positive way. I am not saying the drugs are the reason for anything bad, but they do amplify what is already there.

I think you would agree that there are some people who shouldn't take psychedelics at a certain moment. Mindset in my opinion is much much more important than setting.

Psychedelics can easily become an escape and a way to avoid your real life and responsibilities. That's my main concern and why I am against recommending them generally to a reader of HN I don't know personally. Especially when it's someone questioning motivation and not something more existential.

I can expect an average reader of HN to do research. But I doubt most people find the answer to their lethargy in psychedelics. I don't think it should be anywhere closer to an initial response to what the author is describing.

I would argue psychedelics are most mentally expanding when the user doesn't feel a strong need to take them.

Your argument boils down to "psychs can be dangerous, therefore some people shouldn't do them", which is a non statement, because this applies to so many other things, including certain vitamins for people with certain conditions.

Furthermore, when you talk about ambiguous terms like "can", you have to talk about some general sense of numeric probabilities of risk to be consistent with how you make decisions in day to day life. You definitely CAN get into a massive life destroying accident when you drive you car, but you chose to still drive because the benefit of efficient location change is worth it to you.

So for psychedelics solely based on research studies, here is what he currently know as far as benefits (im not going to link the papers, they are pretty easy to find though)

- Majority of people report positive effects in general.

- Majority of adults in studies who micro dose report anti-anxiety and anti-depression effects, and at those dosages, there is absolutely no reality altering experience

- In certain studies, a single dose can have lasting anti-anxiety/anti-depression effects for years, as well as evidence of breaking habits for other drugs like smoking/alcohol.

- Physiologically, the drugs are anti-addictive. Frequent use has exponentially diminishing effects. Furthermore, large dissociative trips aren't exactly a positive experience, they are mentally challenging and exhausting, so people are unlikely to use it as an escape mechanism.

- Physiologically, the drugs are very safe, no long term physical side effects. Of course there is a danger present if you buy synthesized LSD that is contaminated/cut with something, but for psilocybin, you grow the mushrooms yourself, and if you are buying them from somewhere, they really can't be cut with anything since they are not synthesized.

As far as dangers go

- Very rare cases of HPPD, usually associated with heavy repeated use

- Generally just a bad time for the duration of the trip (even on high dosages), no long lasting effects. Bad trips end being just bad experiences.

- Secondary derivative dangers from behavior resulting in disassociation due to large dosages, such as tripping/falling, e.t.c.

And thats pretty much it. Even for people with psychosis/schitzophrenia, the general recommendation is to avoid them, because there isn't enough data.

So if you look at all of that in terms of reward/risk, and do the same reward/risk for coffee, psychedelics are even better for you. With coffee, you can drink too much and become jittery and have a bad time, and it can be dangerous for people with heart problems, but for the average person, the benefits are generally positive (except caffeine is chemically addictive, unlike psychedelics)

Nobody is saying that you should do large doses off the bat either, its completely fine to do micro or mini doses, where you can feel the effects but still very much conscious and aware of reality.

So yes, I agree that some people shouldn't take psychedelics. I also agree that some people shouldn't drink coffee. For the majority of the population though, I absolutely believe that everyone who isn't psychotic/schizophrenic should try them, in whatever dose they feel comfortable doing. Not because of my personal experience, but because of the high statistical chance of a good experience, with downsides being very low risk.