we gotta understand that life and death are two aspects of only one real thing.
it is only our language which separates them into seemingly contrasting opposites. language is not reality, it merely has the ability to mirror reality.
the difference between "life" and "death" is greater (many would even argue significantly greater) than the difference between "different" and "two aspects of".
I insist, both life and death refer to the same real underlying phenomenon of existence along time. the words are not the meaning.
but I suppose I have also wound up believing that "everything" and "nothing" are more similar than one would initially guess. though not as similar as life and death.
hallucinogens in general indeed forcefully show one things like this.
but it's really about realizing and acknowledging a separation between what we are, our language, and the way in which the elements of language (symbols-vocabulary) are representations distinct from what they represent, with this, one can realize that life and death, while distinct concepts within language, are in fact aspects of a whole which cannot be logically fitted into languages such as ours.
it is only our language which separates them into seemingly contrasting opposites. language is not reality, it merely has the ability to mirror reality.