I think the right way to think of it is as an _experience_. It doesn't make you smarter or more creative, any more than going on a backpacking trip or reading a good book -- it just gives you a new way of seeing the world and your place in it temporarily. What you do with that experience is going to be highly personal.
I know that people can become out-right messianic after an LSD trip, but people can be similarly evangelical about travel or books or, obviously, religious experiences.
later edit: I actually do think it's more to it than that, for two reasons -- one is that while you're on acid, your brain tends to make wild connections between things that you wouldn't ordinarily do, but I don't think that's good or bad, necessarily -- it's like running an LLM on a very high temperature, it can be funny and interesting, but it's very hit and miss. The second is that I think it triggers a lot of self-reflection (to say the least) and can help you recognize and break out of negative personal patterns -- but that also tends to be what people think of as "bad trips".
I would add that it's not necessarily just self-reflection, but also reflection on other people around you, and on the world in general. This kind of stuff can also go places that, while more accurate than one's original perception, are not necessarily what one might like. And unlike negative personal patterns, this might not be something you can do anything about (the world stuff in particular). I still consider that valuable experience in its own right, but then I was never a proponent of "the less you know, the more soundly you sleep". Others may have a different subjective preference on that.
As far as "messianic" stuff, I think it comes mostly from heightened empathy, which appears to be a fairly universal thing during a trip (even if it doesn't necessarily stick after).
> it's like running an LLM on a very high temperature
I can second this, specifically. For me, LSD often triggers thoughts that can't be put into words - upon trying, out come sentences like this:
"can have a haves and take a three sixteenth quarters. can have a what's very much like. can have an um somethings or others .... mmm much of somethings or others.... can havings a taken umpteenth very good time ...."
Those are real sentences I typed up while on LSD, knowing that they were complete gibberish, but it's what came out of my brain when I tried to put the thoughts into words. The thoughts had some sort of meaning, but not in words, just indescribable concepts. Whatever part of my brain translates thoughts and concepts into words had never been trained on those types of thoughts before, so it came out as gibberish.
I know that people can become out-right messianic after an LSD trip, but people can be similarly evangelical about travel or books or, obviously, religious experiences.
later edit: I actually do think it's more to it than that, for two reasons -- one is that while you're on acid, your brain tends to make wild connections between things that you wouldn't ordinarily do, but I don't think that's good or bad, necessarily -- it's like running an LLM on a very high temperature, it can be funny and interesting, but it's very hit and miss. The second is that I think it triggers a lot of self-reflection (to say the least) and can help you recognize and break out of negative personal patterns -- but that also tends to be what people think of as "bad trips".