B-Man-
In the 1960 era I used acid until my physiology began to rebel from too many trips, too much distortion and too much stress, leading to stomach upsets. However, it seems to have been benign overall. 

The experiences led me through roughly two thirds good trips and one third horrifications to the point that I definitely knew I was involved with something beyond myself.  My intent was to unravel my mind to get rid of some deeply buried hangups, which I eventually did.  Then I got to a level at which I had to face my own immanent mortality, and whether I wanted to continue here or check out, and I decided to stop.

Later I sort of got a message from the Big Eye in the Sky that looks down on acid heads,  that if I had a "good reason" it was OK do do more, but otherwise, I was to leave psychedelics alone. A brief experiment convinced me that this was indeed good advice, whether it had been an hallucination or a communication from the collective consciousness notwithstanding. The "good reasons" include (1) rehab - like an aspirin for a headache (2) religion - meditation with peyote or sacramental incenses and wine (3) research - legitimate investigations. The idea of "recreation" seems to fit into the same category as masturbation of the psyche, and I've avoided it ever since that Big Eye looked down on me and a "voice" sort of asked me, "OK, you're stoned again. Now, what is it that was so important that you had to get my attention?"

There are a few options that are acceptable adjuncts to meditation, but Bruce's remarks about "magic potions" apply. If you learn to meditate, or to synthesize meditation by learning self-hypnosis, you can get the same benefits without the nuisance value of an 8 hour trip to hell (Thanks Doc - I've been there) . This isn't the place to discuss such things, but I'd be glad to make suggestions privately.

Now that the subject has come up, I worked through Bruce's Book 5, and it seemed to be effective for me, although not exactly what I would have expected. I was thinking of doing a "Learn Self Hypnosis in 2 hours" DVD, since this is a sort of "intermediate" approach between chemicals and purely self-directed mindfulness. Would that be useful to anyone? If so, maybe I could persuade Bruce and his publisher to handle it as an adjunct to his books and simply donate it to the cause.

d
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I've tried to meditate, but I don't seem to have the stick-to-itiveness for any real progress to be made. I quickly end up on some weird train of thought...
AND, I'm not an "organization man." My style of living is kind of haphazard, I don't stick to schedules very well (and find trying to do so stressful that the schedule eventually gets dumped - sort of like how I manage to do my 3-times a week weight routine (most of the time) but I have to FIGHT with myself and KICK myself (and snarl things at myself like, "you lazy f**king a$$hole!" and  "you weak-willed, wanna-be-a-fat-bag-of-pus heap of loser-sh!t!!!" to motivate myself to exercise..!)
In other words, my mental discipline SUCKS. But how else do I DEVELOP mental discipline, without meditation or something like it? (Sort of like how you NEED money, to MAKE money...)
Fact is, I can't stop my brain from going off on a tangent for very long. So much for meditation... at least at this point in my life.
I agree, acid gives me the willies - but there's got to be something (relatively) safe that might "loosen me up" a bit, and then maybe I could try learning to meditate.  (Hell, even chugging cough syrup is said to do it for some folks...)

B-man