In order to minimize problems and get the most out of the experience, it takes a lot of serious preparation in order to be ready for an LSD trip. It is very foolish to just pop an LSD pill into one's mouth and then just wait and see what happens. The person may luck out and get away with it but if they don't, they have some serious trouble if the other people present don't understand what is happening and how to help. If the others don't know what to do, they will make things worse for the person that needs help and one should never do it when they are all alone, not only if it is for the first trip, but no matter how experienced the person is with LSD. You'll never know if this is the time that something different will happen, where it will be coming on too much, too strong, too fast, unlike any of the other times. If this should happen, even the experienced person will want someone, anyone. If no one else is there, then the person tripping is on their own. This happened to me once. Somehow, I was able to get through the rough spot and then it became a real good trip, like all the others. If that had been my first trip and I was all alone, it's hard to say how it would have turned out.

If someone is interested in trying LSD, then what kind of preparation is necessary? It begins with why the person wants to do it in the first place. To try it just to see what it's like means that there is no preparation. The key question is what the person is looking for, what they want to happen, what they want to get out of it. With LSD, a person can learn something. It can be very meaningful and significant.

In preparing for a first LSD trip, the person has to know as best they can what to expect. If it's you, the most important thing to realize is that you are going into the unknown. You will experience things that you not only have never experienced before, but things you never even imagined, things you never dreamed were possible. It is intense, dramatic and emotional. You are going to be overwhelmed in an overwhelming way and that doesn't even begin to tell you how overwhelmingly overwhelming it will be.

No matter how well prepared you are for that first LSD trip, you still will not believe it. You will still be amazed, startled, shocked and say that you were prepared, but didn't know that it would be THIS! You'll then know what it means when it is said that it's impossible to communicate the experience with words. You'll also know what it means when it is said that unless someone has taken LSD, they cannot possibly know what it's like.

Preparing means more than just having an idea of what to expect. LSD involves other things that most people are unaware of. If you take an aspirin, it doesn't matter where you are or who you are with. You just take the aspirin, it will work and that's it. With LSD, where you are and who you are with is of vital importance. That may sound odd, but that's the way it is. You must plan out where you will be and it should be a private, protected place where there is no possibility of having to deal with an unexpected surprise situation. You should consider whether you want a day trip or night trip, indoors or outside. You may want to eat some food or listen to music and these kind of things should be planned out and made available to you.

It is important what your concept of reality is, your religious and philosophical views, how you feel, what your psychological makeup is, what you are expecting or looking for, etc. Probably the most important determinant in how the trip goes is who the people with you are, what they know about LSD, how they behave and how you feel about them. Those other people with you can make or break it for you and you should never do it if all of the other people around are strangers.