I suppose my personal distaste stems from the following. These are from your OP
This makes it sound like people are dubiously conned into adopting certain beliefs via the shady mechanisms of love, peace or awe, and yet while I think you may have accurately noted a correlation of such emotions being present in DMT experiences, it remains just that - a correlation. If people experience these emotions on DMT, I think it has less to do with groupthink and more to do with commonalities and tendencies of the DMT experience.
I would disagree that there is this sense of organized religion. It becomes borderline insulting when you insinuate that DMT users (aka pretty much everyone responding to this thread) have formulated their beliefs not on their own accord of personal evidence, but rather by lazily being influenced by the public behavior of others. If people vehemently disagree with what you're saying, it doesn't have to be on the basis of 'that's what happens in religions' or an intolerance for some belief set, but simply people will be vocal about their disagreements when it runs contrary to their personal experiences.
What I find distasteful are sweeping overgeneralizations. It's as if to say that everyone who has a spiritual experience with DMT has done so only because they are aware of its spiritual potential. Because DMT is actually relatively unknown in the public eye compared to other substances, it should be noted that there are many Nexians (and Nexians in potential) that are completely unaware of some of DMT's more profound effects, only to be smacked in the face with them during an initial experience. Take the Ganesha phenomenon for example. In this case a variety of newbies encountered the same deity whom they might not necessarily have known to existed, much less in the contextually appropriate manner of being an initiator, and yet they share this commonality. I find it unlikely that group mentality has played into this specific phenomenon, and the same can be extrapolated to "spirituality" or other commonalities.
I would agree with you that there are no doubt some who do fit the description as you outline it - in other words: of course there are going to be some attracted to DMT based on its spiritual merit, and yes their experiences and interpretations can and are informed at times by others; however, that would be to discount all of the instances where this is not true. It seems as though you are trying to fit DMT into this rigid box of "organized religion" if for no other reason than to legitimize its use under Freedom of Religion, and while many of us would like to see it legalized and legitimized, that framing the situation as it stands, as an emergent religion simply comes across as "loose" and inaccurate in my opinion.
Lastly this is a minor point, but
The Shroomery and psilocybin/psilocin
This makes it sound like people are dubiously conned into adopting certain beliefs via the shady mechanisms of love, peace or awe, and yet while I think you may have accurately noted a correlation of such emotions being present in DMT experiences, it remains just that - a correlation. If people experience these emotions on DMT, I think it has less to do with groupthink and more to do with commonalities and tendencies of the DMT experience.
I would disagree that there is this sense of organized religion. It becomes borderline insulting when you insinuate that DMT users (aka pretty much everyone responding to this thread) have formulated their beliefs not on their own accord of personal evidence, but rather by lazily being influenced by the public behavior of others. If people vehemently disagree with what you're saying, it doesn't have to be on the basis of 'that's what happens in religions' or an intolerance for some belief set, but simply people will be vocal about their disagreements when it runs contrary to their personal experiences.
What I find distasteful are sweeping overgeneralizations. It's as if to say that everyone who has a spiritual experience with DMT has done so only because they are aware of its spiritual potential. Because DMT is actually relatively unknown in the public eye compared to other substances, it should be noted that there are many Nexians (and Nexians in potential) that are completely unaware of some of DMT's more profound effects, only to be smacked in the face with them during an initial experience. Take the Ganesha phenomenon for example. In this case a variety of newbies encountered the same deity whom they might not necessarily have known to existed, much less in the contextually appropriate manner of being an initiator, and yet they share this commonality. I find it unlikely that group mentality has played into this specific phenomenon, and the same can be extrapolated to "spirituality" or other commonalities.
I would agree with you that there are no doubt some who do fit the description as you outline it - in other words: of course there are going to be some attracted to DMT based on its spiritual merit, and yes their experiences and interpretations can and are informed at times by others; however, that would be to discount all of the instances where this is not true. It seems as though you are trying to fit DMT into this rigid box of "organized religion" if for no other reason than to legitimize its use under Freedom of Religion, and while many of us would like to see it legalized and legitimized, that framing the situation as it stands, as an emergent religion simply comes across as "loose" and inaccurate in my opinion.
Lastly this is a minor point, but
The Shroomery and psilocybin/psilocin
