It's always interesting to hear someone's view on a topic, and especially if it's about experiencing one's own mind, so thanks a lot! I have never consumed "classical" psychedelics, though I would argue, that there are many plants we use that do have a certain effect on our state of mind, like ginkgo or valerian or mint. Also, I have thrown away concepts or labels of states of mind already some time ago. Sure, there are interesting people who have written or said interesting things, but I observed on myself that I tried to put too many of these labels onto everything, that I tried to "make things fit" to a concept - and that this wasn't good.

To me, it all comes back to knowing who you are, perceiving yourself and also the world you are in. Which is not necessarily limited to what you can perceive with your five senses. Perception is limited, you said, which is absolutely true, and it is also sometimes necessary, of course. As someone who has always been over-perceptive, I wish I could just switch off the perception sometimes, and I find it really interesting to ask myself "How did I get there, why do I perceive all these things that most other people don't?" Certain feelings, connections between people, moods, and much more. Maybe I'll post something about it in the future, depicting a few of these scenes, some tragic, but some also quite funny.

I've always found it not only interesting, but also helpful to ask myself "Why am I who I am in this specific moment? Why am I doing this and feeling like this?", and the same in regard to other people. And interestingly, I have sometimes continued this in my dreams.

I have always been processing a lot in my dreams, and the dreams that have left the most impression were those in which I had a strong feeling of any kind. I'm pretty sure many can relate here.
A couple of months ago something weird happened: I experienced a short dream sequence with a very strong feeling - not positive at all, I couldn't even name it, it was a mixture of many strong feelings - that has altered my state of mind in a certain regard completely, literally from one moment to the next. And even weirder to me (because this feeling I've had wasn't positive, and I still woke up with its echo), this alteration was, for me and my inner peace, for the best. I seriously doubt that I would have ever achieved this alteration by "consciously trying".
Maybe I will elaborate on this some day, it must sound quite confusing without telling what it specifically was and what was "before" and what came "after".

I don't know where exactly it came from, but I do think that both my over-perceptiveness and the way I keep thinking about what makes me me, what makes you you, really contributed to what seems to be some sort of self-healing process of my mind. I say "self healing" because I do come from what I would call a psychological extremely difficult background. I would still say my mind is damaged, but maybe a little less now. And over the years I have learned how to live with my mind. I guess that's also one of the main reasons I don't want to alter my mind in any way that I couldn't predict, it just doesn't feel right. It's good the way it is.