The world is full of escapists. The majority of cultures have had their various ways to achieve altered state of mind, be it with substances, meditation, passionate prayer, yoga, etc.
There's basically a part of the brain that separates what one is from what one isn't. It basically is what helps people realize that their body belongs to them and is not the table, the wall, or the computer on which they are typing. Meditation, deep prayer, yoga, and drugs have all been able to lower its activity, and in turn it creates this effect in people in which they feel they have understood more or all, and feel connected with everything and enlightened.
Pretty much every religion has a ritual meant to achieve this. Christians, Muslims, and Jews have prayer. Buddhists have meditation, various tribes in South America have psychoactive drugs, and the Sadhus in India have weed.