[Citation needed]
If all these various drugs are doing is re-wiring the brain, then sure, your surroundings make no difference and medical supervision is probably useful if you happen to choke on your vomit.
But if the user’s mental state is a factor, then their ability to have a good/meaningful/lasting trip may well depend on their surroundings, and the atmosphere under which they took the drug.
In the psilocybin studies, the therapists were all trained, in part, in how to allow for a “good trip.” They were just sticking the subjects in a cold, bright lab and surrounding them with people holding clipboards. Why? Because the atmosphere probably has a strong effect on the result.
Further, if LSD and psilocybin hadn’t been used by stoners and people talking about “woo and spiritual fluff,” what are the actual chances any lab would have cared enough to study them? And specifically to study them on “spiritual” questions, such as helping terminal patients accept their own mortality?
(…Besides, nowhere above did I advocate that cultural appropriation was ok here, I just said that making fun of the folks using it allows us to dismiss it, which blinds us to the very real positives this drug might have, after real study.)
