Don't let perfection be the enemy of good enough with meditation. Even if I have a "bad" meditation it's a habit and muscle I'm practicing, whether it's 5 mins or 25mins. You don't need the perfect seat, guidance, quiet room, experience or anything. As someone with, I believe, a very reactive anxiety response to things it helps more than anything I've tried in the past.

I do walking meditation and meditation throughout the day a lot more often now just accepting that noises or imperfections around me that might interrupt it or make it less "perfect" are challenges that help me improve my capabilities.

With that said, lsd is a different world completely. I've had some major ups and downs with psychadelics, that's something you have to practice. The first time I tripped I had a horrible experience. I completely trusted the thoughts in my head at that point (I was a kid, had no idea about CBT/etc).

Then I waited 15 years and did it again as a grown adult and it was eye opening. I didn't do it once, I had a bout a month of experiences on vacation and got to be really comfortable with Lucy through her ups and downs. I've found that it's like a steroid injection into my CBT practice that I neglect way too much. You have to learn to really interpret your thoughts and decide whether that's a thread you want your mind to go down, whether there is any veracity to it or if it's something completely made up; because sometimes when you go down that route you might get suck in a loop that you have to find you way out of. If you don't find you way out of it and you ruminate on something super negative that's often how people have their bad experiences.

Tripping is strapping your brain to a rocket ship and not really knowing how much fuel is in the tank. Depending on what and how much you took you might have some control over its navigation through the depths of your feelings (good and bad) or you might not (my experience with shrooms vs lsd) and just have to strap in and tell yourself that everything you might perceive as scary or confusing is temporary and a result of the chemicals and that you'll be fine once the rocket ship lands and the trips over regardless of where your thoughts went.

I think CBT, meditation and pyschs are hugely complimentary to one another. With that said, I'm not sure I'd go so far as to say that everyone should try psychs whereas yes to the others. If everyone had a shaman or mediator to help them on their first few attempts I think, sure. But you'll still have people that have a horrible trip because they take those wrong threads and don't find a positive way out. I have some friends that I'd love to experience psychs but I just can't get over worrying that they'll not handle it well. People stuck in their heads that I think need practice with more abstract thinking (eg; not believing everything their mind comes up with is true).

Bad trips can affect your pysche for months or years. They can seed the strangest, most negative thoughts of yourself that you've never even considered and you might begin to believe they're true.

edit: With this all said, 80%+ of my time tripping is me sitting outside playing guitar or at my computer listening to music and watching youtube (artists or musicians mostly) and just being in the best mood imaginable for a few hours. Sometimes I just grab my Ipad and draw nonstop, I never do that sober. It just feels so good to draw and make cool things.

When I did it again after that long break I went "I can't believe this is illegal. I'm just sitting here playing Witcher 3 and enjoying the visuals."