Shamans are more like tour guides. Walking you through your own experience.
It is good to remember though that these approaches exist, and to let them be practiced safely and openly. As well as researched without interrupting it.
A tour guide does specific things. We could know what makes for a good or bad one.
Is a person who fakes the practice as good as a native life long taught shaman? Which kind of shaman is best? Is tailoring the experience needed and in what way? Etc.
That said, maybe it's more important to look at how these have been dealt with in the past than the data we have in the present.
The spike can just as well be caused by bad environment we made for ourselves, ecologically and psychologically.
The problem is, we really do not know what we're doing when dealing with mental issues. Typical western approach is only slightly better than dosing people with random psychedelic substances of mostly unknown effects. The science done in field of psychotherapy is low to non-existent quality. Methodologies are in their infancy.
Of course something barely effective will fail.
While I don't doubt there is some human component to this, what I worry about are interactions with standard prescriptions and OTC medicines.
Those risks are always weighted against benefits.
