He taught me how to link imagination and science. Shulgin, Wasson, etc. So it was a good trade-off. I owe to one or the other. No, I don't really think they work on that level.
Genetic evolution is a slow process, much outstripped by cultural evolution.
I'm not speaking in any mystical sense here, I'm talking biochemistry. You really have to view these compounds in the larger context. Psychedelics, the natural ones anyway, are plant secondary compounds. A good deal of human history is shaped by human interactions with plant secondary compounds. I didn't know the man well, but basically, I admired him.