Thanks for the very thoughtful reply. To digress, it was on a heavy trip that things were very challenging and I confronted my fear of death and suddenly poof, all gone. But up to that point the fear was visceral.

Regardless, I think what you mentioned below is very good safety advice, I think familiarizing oneself with whatever they're taking and dosing lightly for a few times first until they're ready to take a deeper dive is the best practice.