You Better Believe it

"True enlightenment is dispensed by a pharmacist, not a guru."
One of the things The Chemical Buddha didn't like about the guru's path to enlightenment was how vague it was. They couldn't tell you when your consciousness would be altered. All they could say was how it would happen. And that usually meant practice over a long period of time. A pharmacist, on the other hand, had a very specific prescription measured out to achieve the desired effect. If it didn't work, he could always make tweaks to get you to where you wanted to be. TCB saw it as the classic religion/spirituality versus science debate. He laughed until tears rolled down his face thinking about how two different paths (that oftentimes fought with each other) could end up in the same place. To him, this spoke to the limited range of the human experience and the craziness of anyone saying this was all there was based on their own limited range.
Do you follow the rules or fly by the seat of your pants? Which way do you think works better?
Do you think only you understand your experiences? Or do you think other people can relate to what you're going through?