The morning after I took LSD, I remember looking in my pocket, and the more I looked into it, the more I could see little things moving down there, and the more I looked at them, the more I realised they were little shrimps looking at me, and the water and the rocks became apparent... At that point I decided to stop looking in my pocket

After all, the shrimps weren't menacing, and I had seen enough

Both. It just depends where your head is at before you trip. I've been down every hallucinogenic hole I could get myself into. Most were amazing some were freighting. My personal relationship with my creator began while I was tripping. No regerts.

Both....depending on many variables. Strength and quality of the substance. Set and Setting. Your inner landscape. How meticulous you plan, and whether or not luck is with you. If you do everything right...gateway to enlightenment. A couple mistakes and gateway to Hell. Interesting enough, sometimes you learn as much from the latter, if you maintain some semblance of control.

They are a gateway for sure. But you have to want to go through. Party people take them to see the fun stuff that appears as well as the door. If you take a small dose, with the intention of self discovery, and the willingness to see stuff that isn't there, the experience is different than taking drugs to get high.

Oh it can go either way. Think "Jacob's Ladder" or what I can only describe as heaven.

It probably depends, like just about everything else in life, on the user?