"Death? Is the end of me but not the end.. something along those lines, righty?"

Of course. I just love bad dad jokes ;)

"Software development ? Living the dream eh? Nah all cool - you gotta pay the bills!"

Nope, most of the jobs that pay are disgusting (banking sector and the like). So I bailed out and currently I live thanks to my more or less loving family.

"Probably doing cool stuff there!"

This bit is true. I've managed to pull of some stuff I'm pretty satisfied with. But those were all projects not burdened with profitability (see above).

"Is it possible to play like that without doing lsd?"

I'd say yes. But the immersion and the feeling while playing are definitely different (I'm not talking lsd but hemp here though).