Brain researcher Jill Bolte Taylor studied her own stroke as it happened.
I grew up in a New York, intellectual, atheistic environment. We were so identified with our logical, sequential, talking brain that the unconscious and subconscious were considered to be The Enemy. Then, in the mid-60s, I went to a weekend seminar on psychedelic substances at Stanford University. The speakers were well respected professionals, delivering brilliantly insightful talks. Many of them were also loaded with psychedelics. Wilson Van Dusen, the chief psychologist at Mendocino State Hospital, spoke excitedly, waving his  hands. Suddenly he stopped. "Look at this hand, this beautiful creation," he said. Tears streamed down his cheeks.

I thought to myself, "This stuff makes you crazy. I will never go near it."

Then, for the rest of the week, I could not stop reliving that incident. Van Dusen was stuck in my craw. He had a successful professional life PLUS full freedom of expression. He did not have to shrink himself - to saw off his own ankles - in order to to fit a Procrustean bed of professionalism. I realized I wanted that fullness - that freedom - in my life. Seeing all those capable people who had ventured into the unknown without losing their driver's licenses suddenly seemed reassuring rather than frightening.
slave_to_reason Taking science further has a opaque cost/benefit analysis..