Hello, I found this thread through a random google search of "Tolkien's Elves and psychedelics"....Well met.
I first read LoTR and the Hobbit 16 years ago as a 14 year old....I have also been interested in shamanism since that time, and altered states of consciousness.
I don't have much time to read the previous posts right now, my apologies, but want to say that I totally relate to your first post, Sardy. Tolkien's words are magnificent, but even what is between them is, too. A man would not have the drive, creativity and inspiration to bother creating Middle Earth if he were not truly interested in contemplating the unlocked human potential...much of which I think he embodies in the Elves....telepathy, awareness of nature's mind, of the inter-connectedness. Reading Tolkien's books are, at best, a psychedelic experience in themselves...(well, everything that has an effect on the mind and soul is a psychedelic experience!....although the word has been given bad press in our modern culture.)
In this video below, at 1:06:13.....that is totally along the vein of Tolkien's Elves! After all, Tolkien was a linguist....a scholar of the meaning of words....in some sense, a shaman in that he had a fascination with the meanings attached to words.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dD72W57wEJc
I hope to revive this discussion! thanks for starting it, and I look forward to sharing with you.