The Buddhist middle way is in between 1.) Extreme Action/Karma Yoga of Vedic Hinduism and 2.) Extreme self-renunciation of Jainism. The middle in between these two ancient Indian ways is the "Middle Way". Gurdjieff suggested a fourth way (fourth means being outside the way of fakir, monk, yogi, all of them are actually are the ways towards the same goal) but that fourth way cannot be other than the 3rd or middle way of Buddhism. Because there is no fourth way other than the middle way.

Mathematically when you collect a large groups of data you will see most of the data will tend to aggregate around a central mean. Outliers are only few and far in between. The tendency of the individual data points to go towards and merge with the middle, i.e. the average line has long been recognized by the statisticians and the scientists. This is the Juggernaut of "Regression Line". The average or the middle is the Grand Regression Line, acting just like the dark energy. You cannot see it but you can see its effects all the time and it will make everything conform to it. The middle way is the "The Way" because it conforms to the regression line of Grand forces of the nature, instead of fighting against it. The middle have the essence of both extremes. Middle is the perfect representation of the overwhelming majority. The middle is most common, like the data of normal distribution curve that have a central (middle) tendency. Middle is normal and normal is the norm or the standard. Normal is normal because they occurs more often, because they survive more, because there are the fittest, because they have the best functions. They are the perfect epitome of balance. They display the best of the both extreme worlds and hence best functionality. They are the representative ones because they are common, have the best of both worlds and they function the best, like ambidextrous craftsman.

The dream and the psychedelic induced conscious states are the examples of the opposite extremes. In your dream, the logical structures breaks down, time becomes asynchronous, and things becomes cloudy. The meaning itself mostly ceases to exist. No wonder, why we do not remember those dreams for long time. Because most of the dreams are self-inconsistent, logically contradictory and jumbled. Human brain cannot handle the meaningless, patternless, jumbled events for long time. The magical number is seven, plus or minus two for the number of independent data you can consider simultaneously, even consciously. During dream, it become even worse for sure. So, if you cannot understand and remember what is happening in the dream then who care about the meaning of and interpretations of dreams? If you base your life by the dream analysis (Freudian or Jungian psychoanalysis) it will not take you anyway until the end of time. Additionally you are awake more times than you are sleeping. So forget about dreams and pay more attention to what is happening here and now while you are awake during the day. In sharp contrast, if you try to artificially enhance your alertness with psychedelic/stimulant drugs, it will in fact work against you. You will never be sure what is real and what is unreal. You will mix up dream, hallucination with your real life experiences. At the end, you will stay confused, except few moments of ecstasy under the direct effects of those drugs. It will cost you in long run. The drug free intervals (which will be the most of your time, if you want to be functional) will be the living hell. The bottom line is the fact that the normal day-to-day, unadulterated/non-retarded/non-steroid boosted consciousness, reason or intellect is the best representative of both worlds.

After traveling all of those you are still stuck with old, ordinary, powerless you. The only tool you have against all those odds are your reason and intellectual power if it is unadulterated. You already have everything that you will ever need. So what are you waiting for? Jump in and explore the world to find the meaning of all these. You do not need any special power or revelator to guide you. You already have your best guide, which is your-Self. Do not pollute your thinking and reason by believing other peoples (including scientist's) claim without examination it independently, especially if that this is important to you and needs your attention. What are the things you ought to examine carefully? Don't worry, you will know. Just be honest with yourself and keep preparing yourself. When the student is ready, teacher will always appear and this teacher had always been sleeping inside you all these years because you never called him for assistance. Do not try to ask help while you have distorted your intellects either by sedative/hypnotics drugs or by CNS stimulants/psychedelics. If you do, they will teach you distorted truths. Use your usual day-to-day reason, observation, intellect, logic and intuition "normally" to start seeing things "as they are". This is "the middle way". There is no need to a fourth or fifth or any other way. Trust your middle self. Truth is not only the body, not only the mind but the Truth is your middle self. This is the only way, in the middle, you will ever need. And the good news is, you already have it. So, use it, wisely.