Well absolutely, I wouldn't recommend going on that voyage of the mind more than a handful of times per year. I know some people take it to extremes and will eat these kinds of vision givers many many times in a year, but I think that is by and large pretty uncommon. These things are not given to that kind of consumption due to legality, availability and the loss of self-control involved with them.
And I'm sure strictly speaking magic mushrooms are biochemically damaging, but not in the order of alcohol, due its availability, quantity typically imbibed and social acceptance.
I'll have to disagree with blanket statements like all mind altering substances being a crutch. They can be, like anything else, but they certainly aren't always. It is an excellent way to shift your perspective or possibly open yourself up to new worlds and ideas. I have never in my life used mushrooms more than 3 times per year. A crutch is something you need a regular basis as an enabler. Your clothing, your non essential foods (foods you eat strictly for pleasure and which are not healthgiving), friends and family are far more of a crutch than something like mushrooms.
Have you ever had a high dose, ego loss? Because I've never experienced as much with alcohol. Black outs, maybe a couple times in my self-destructive youth, but that did not bring a profound and lasting paradigm shift like a level 5, near death, ego loss trip the first time I ate mushrooms (which taught me a ton of respect for them!!).
The only thing I've learned from alcohol is to stay far away from it. Except perhaps for the occasional unpasteurized microbrew or glass of wine once in a very blue moon.
