Altered states of consciousness induced by breathwork accompanied by music

This is not a surprise to anyone that has engaged in prolonged meditation, especially across more than one day. It makes shortcuts like psychedelics look foolish. During a ten day Vipassana retreat time slowed down to such a great extent it changed my entire perception of time thereafter. The space provided by the mental quiet created by Anapana is so profound.

TLDR Anapana: Sit comfortably and monitor the sensation of the breath exiting the nose and return to it as your thoughts wander. Don't get mad when you wander, it's part of the process. Just return and try to maintain equanimity, to not react. If you get frustrated at first, you can increase your exhale slighlty to make it more noticeable.

That's about all there is to it. After you do this for a while your thoughts become less and less frequent and... you only have important, creative thoughts :) It turns out conscious thought is just a refection of a deeper process and most of it is garbage: worries, self doubt, fears.

I have just inspired myself to take up daily Anapana by writing this...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anapanasati

Hmm, I didn’t have time slowing down that much. But I definitely was in an altered state of consciousness

I think many different states can arise. In deep meditation you’re epistemically open and experientially vulnerable. You're softening your priors so much that both your way of knowing and your way of experiencing can manifest in manifold ways.

Psychedelics arent foolish, not everybody can or wants to arrange their lives around yet another (albeit important) item in semi-endless list of items of our lives, tripple that when having various responsibilities adults tend to have.

I've done similar techniques, maybe not long enough, the only thing they achieved is lowering my heart rate so dramatically I become cold. I do a lot of sports so my heart rate is already low in calm environment. I can clean my head fully in 1s and keep it that way, so this aspect of meditations is not interesting to me.

Overall, there are use cases and room for psychedelics, as there is also for various meditations and breathing. No reason they can't coexist, there is no good / bad side.

Here's a trick I've used: After I breathe in I don't breathe out intentionally, I just observe and enjoy the breath going out on its own. It is an enjoyable sensation not unlike what you experience diving under water and coming back to surface to breathe again. Same after I breathe out, I feel the natural desire to breathe in again and I just let it happen.

Not really pausing between changing the direciton of breath, but just observing how it feels good to breath in and out naturally, automatically. This means I am actually being aware that I enjoy breathing. And when you enjoy something, you don't need to think too much. Just enjoy it. It is also a great realization that I can enjoy life as long as I'm not in pain and I can breathe, and have enough time that I can focus on and experience that.

I'm afraid I'd fall asleep if I were to try something like this.

Which... I also think is fine? Sleep is a daily change of consciousness allowing for rest, recovery, reorganizing, etc.

Sleepiness is a very common challenge. A common mitigation is to find a way to sit comfortably without a chair back, forcing you to stay upright. I find it uncomfortable to sit cross legged for long stretches so I usually kneel with a large cushion under me like, kinda like a saddle.

Try stuff, see what works for you. Once you find a relaxed but upright position you may find you can sit for quite a while without dozing off.