Currently i believe that meditation and listening to other experienced teachers is by far the most effective way to gain progress/insights if compared to psychedelics, lucid dreaming, studying western "more mainstream" psychology or (only) using your rationality and some kind of philosophy. + anything else there is

Psychedelics/DMT, tho i admittingly have had no experiences myself and so im theorizing, seem to usually be just great distractions (according to my interpretations of videos on youtube/peoples descriptions of the experience). Many experienced meditation practioners also have this view and many have experienced both. During a trip people seem to get so much information thrown at them in the form of visuals and thoughts that they end up just becoming confused, but at the same time they become so awestruck at the complexity and thus (understandably) become very emotional -> less rational and then they end up feeling like they got something from the experience?? They dont seem to get "concrete" results from them, like a specific realization of themselves and if they do come up with something, they often state something "general" like I should show more love towards others or everything is interconnected. On the other hand, maybe the value of these realizations is not that much in themselves, but in how deeply they understand them and how well they now incorperate them into their daily lives.. But i still think it shouldnt require such extreme measures to come to the same conclusions. The drugs probably do have value as a "kickstart" for people who are narrow minded and want to quickly become open, motivated & interested in meditation or other practices/experimentations concerning the mind, but they can definately also be great distractions, as mentioned. I also think there are barriers to what you can learn, so that their only useful for a few times. So many people do DMT, but for the sole/main reason of becoming entertained and even if they do try to gain insights, the seemingly enormous amounts of sensory input can so easily distract you.

So, what are your thoughts on whats the best alternative(s), all of them probably have their uses and some kind of mixture of of them would be ideal. ^_^