1. Entirely up to personal preference. Physiologically I know of no reason the time of day should matter, especially since not everyone is on the same sleep schedule. Since LSD lasts a long time and can make sleeping difficult, it may be advisable to dose within a few hours of waking up, at least for a first time, to avoid being kept awake longer than necessary/desired.
2. This is also very personal. Myself, I usually prefer to trip alone, although my first couple times were with friends. I know others who hate tripping alone because they find it too hard to avoid negative thought loops without distractions and/or just really love interacting with other trippers while tripping. I recommend against being the only one tripping in a group of relatively sober people, or being in public with people who are not close friends who know you are tripping, again at least for your first time. IMO the ideal group for a group trip is somewhere around 4-6 close friends, with one person on lighter drugs like pot for the day to keep an eye on the trippers. Most people I know have never personally needed a 'sitter' like this to intervene on any of their trips, although in rare cases people are tripping so hard they lose sight of the real world around them and are at risk of hurting themselves if they don't know well enough to keep pretty still while this is going on for them; the main reason sitters come in handy, in my experience, is to deal with minor interruptions like a phone call or knock at the door, or to help tripping people with otherwise simple tasks like working a remote control or computer to change the show/music/etc., getting food and drinks for people who are incapable of doing it themselves, etc. I wouldn't go as far as some and tell you not to even consider tripping alone until you're experienced, but I would recommend a sitter.
3. It's a balancing act. Fast too much and the hunger may annoy/bother you and reduce the quality of your trip since you're preoccupied, but eat a big meal right before/during/after dosing and it can slow down your come up dramatically - that acid ain't gonna make you trip till it gets metabolised, at least the portion that doesn't make its way into your bloodstream directly (see 4). I would usually eat a moderate to light meal - nothing heavy or super filling, usually a sandwich or even just a big bowl of soup - and dose maybe 2 hours or so after finishing my meal. Sometimes, although I know it's not healthy in general, I would fill up shortly before sleeping (weed usually helped encourage this plan ; ), then dose shortly after waking. Some people don't mind a day of fasting and fast several hours before the trip and wait till after the peak or even the next day to eat. While tripping, I usually try to stick to easy to eat and digest snacks - nuts, fruits, etc. - although sometimes I find a full meal quite satisfying after the peak. My personal favorite food to combine with most orally consumed drugs that I don't like taking on a full stomach is fruit smoothies. I have taken many different psychoactive drugs and been in many different mental states, and there are few things more universally appealing, nourishing without being bloating, and all around ideal for the job than a good smoothie. When have you ever had a real fruit smoothie and not felt at least a bit better/healthier? Mmm, I want one now, might have to head to Jamba Juice after this post and I'm not even tripping today
4. Most people I've met never bother with any methods besides oral and sublingual. As far as I know, IM, IV and insufflation are all options, but I certainly wouldn't recommend busting out a rig for someone's first LSD trip! Tabs and liquid work best for sublingual. With liquid, I usually drop the solution under my tongue (be sure to dilute it if it's a nearly pure ethanol based solution, made that mistake once with another synthetic psychedelic and it burned like hell ; ), hold it for a few minutes then have a drink and swallow a bunch to get anything left over into my stomach. With tabs depending on size and number I either hold them under my tongue as well or just swish 'em around in my mouth, sometimes both, then swallow. You can just swallow them outright, but it will slow the onset usually. LSD doses are so impossible to verify and the effects themselves so unpredictable and inconsistent in intensity that I couldn't tell you anything beyond what I could find by looking up bioavailability stats in terms of effect on intensity.
5. Again, rather personal. See above about eating and my snack suggestions, but you can fill in your favorite easy-to-eat forms of nourishment (I looooove peanuts for this - if you're really hungry, but don't wanna eat, a handful of roasted peanuts will keep ya going). Whatever music you want to listen to, have it available of course. Some people like music, tv and/or video games while tripping; to others, anything but a walk out in nature or a quiet room for meditation might sound like a 'waste of a trip'. For a first time, I say have as many options open as possible, maybe avoid the outdoor walks in public places though. It'll take personal experience to decide which trip activities you like best. I found quite quickly that I am not suddenly magically interested in making art or poetry while tripping; others find it to be their creative muse of sorts. Listening to music is almost universally popular but genres vary and a lot of people don't like some or all of their normal music while tripping. Rock and rap tend not to fare as well. Electronic music and psychedelics seem to go hand in hand for many, although some strongly prefer classical/baroque/other orchestral type compositions. Complex, abstract music like this is in general preferable to 'radio friendly' music that uses lyrics in more traditional ways (telling a story or whining about a failed romance as opposed to silly samples in electronic tracks, etc.), but I bet there are some out there who love that sort of stuff while tripping, too. Visual stimuli can of course be interesting to add to the visual distortions - think rave toys. Weird lights and glowy things and the like. I had a friend who was really into circuit bending (taking talking children's toys like Speak-N-Spells and modifying the electronics to produce weird, distorted sounds - he would add all sorts of extra switches, buttons, etc. to further distort the output. He found them to be awesome trip toys. In general, things that can be played with without requiring too much focus or attention work best. Games can be fun but it's often hard or simply uninteresting to follow the rules of the game and play to win - more "childlike" toys that produce novels sights, sounds, etc. are usually best, IMO.
6. The main physical symptom most people share is INability to sleep. It's virtually impossible to fall asleep while tripping and slowly becomes easier over several hours after you're mostly back to baseline. Some people take sleep aids like diphenhydramine at the end of a trip to sleep. Personally, sleep aids make me more tired but they don't make it *super* easy to fall asleep (I have severe chronic insomnia), and a couple times I've taken them too early and found myself still unable to sleep but even more tired, to the point where it goes from being mildly annoying to actively unpleasant. Now I typically just wait it out and plan ahead for the likely disruption to my sleep schedule. The only advice I can offer here for a first timer is to have at least 48 hours from when you dose to when you will have to be at work/school/etc. again, in case you end up awake till 1pm the next day or something. More is even better, but that should be enough time to get back on a tolerable sleep schedule again. As with pretty much all my advice here, nothing I can tell you is half as valuable as a trip or two first hand.
MDMA is an entirely different drug with only a few passing surface similarities to LSD. You'd be best off asking on the Ecstasy forum there. I made the LSD answers longer than intended (hard to shut up about psychedelics for a psychedelic fan ; ), so I've got a bit of forum fatigue here, but some quick answers about MDMA (assuming the 'E' is pure MDMA and not one of the countless other drugs it could be - no FAQ can tell you what drugs you were sold, of course):
1. Since MDMA only lasts a few hours, it matters even less than with LSD. I usually take it in the evening because that's when young people go out and do stuff and MDMA is a very social drug for me. Plus, I find it's easier to avoid a hangover or post-comedown negative feelings in general if you don't try to stay up for a full evening after coming down but instead can transition from 'coming down' to 'asleep'. While it's stimulating when active, MDMA doesn't seem to make it any harder to sleep that night, maybe even easier as it tires me out.
2. Most people much prefer MDMA with friends. It will make you euphoric, chatty, 'loved up' especially toward people you already like to begin with and it is often called an "empathogen" because of the profound sense of empathy it produces in most people. You won't just _want_ to interact with people - talking to them, not only sharing with them but listening to what they have to say, will be a profoundly satisfying experience in a way that is hard to describe until you've felt it. It's plenty fun alone as well and that can be a useful way to use it more for introspection, but it really shines in a group and I wouldn't recommend a solo roll for your first time. Unlike LSD, I am a lot less bothered by being around sober friends while rolling, although of course it's always best to avoid people you can't tell you're on drugs since that adds an unnecessary element of anxiety. The more opportunities for social interaction, the better, IMO. MDMA is one of the few illegal substances I can really enjoy while blitzed in public.
3. Orally it will kick in faster on an empty-ish stomach. Other than that I don't think it makes a big difference, but since it doesn't take that long to kick in on a fairly empty stomach and I have no problems eating while on it, I usually try to take it with a similar amount of food in my belly as with LSD. However, if it doesn't work out that way I can't imagine choosing to delay a planned roll solely over my eating schedule for the day.
4. Again, I steer clear of needles and don't know a lot about using MDMA that way. I've always taken it either orally or via insufflation. I would only recommend insufflation with pure MDMA powder or "molly" as there's no telling *what* you're snorting with a pressed pill. Most clean pills are probably fine to rail, too, but I don't think it's worth the risk. As with most drugs, compared to oral ingestion, insufflation kicks in faster, has a more intense peak but also doesn't last as long. I think I actually prefer oral for this reason - a proper oral dose of MDMA if it's been long enough since my last roll to let my brain recover will be plenty intense enough and my biggest concern with dosing and ROA is making it last as long as possible, since redosing doesn't work that well and using it repeatedly in a short time frame is a big no-no, both for health reasons and because you just won't get a very good roll out of it.
5. I usually prep for a roll by making plans for the night to go out and/or chill with some close friends. Unlike the 5HT2a psychedelics like LSD, shrooms, etc., I don't find that MDMA changes how enjoyable I find most things in general aside from dramatically increasing the enjoyability of any social interaction. So long as I'm with people I enjoy spending time with, I could be listening to music or playing video games at someone's place, out at a party, concert or rave, or doing just about anything I might otherwise do and it'll be a blast. It probably makes me less focused on the competitive aspect of games, but that focus translates to more attention paid to the social aspects of the experience as opposed to the boredom I might feel if I get stuck playing xbox on acid or something.
6. Some people get nasty hangovers, even temporary depression after rolling. Personally, I usually feel exhausted but happy - most drugs give me an afterglow like this, although MDMA also seems physically exhausting - I don't hurt the next day, but I'm pretty sure I would if I tried to go run a marathon or something. As with acid, plan to have a recovery day after your first roll with no major obligations like work or school.
7. This isn't an answer to anything you asked and I already alluded to it above, but my #1 piece of advice to anyone who uses this lovely compound is to PLEASE read up on the safety issues with MDMA use, particularly regarding staying hydrated and repeated use over the short term and also its contraindications with various other drugs. MDMA is one of the compounds I'm most grateful for having experienced, but if you abuse it you can not only permanently ruin your ability to experience a roll, but cause severe brain damage or even death in very extreme cases. No joke, despite 0 health consequences that I know of to date, I consider the handful of times I have violated the "two week rule" with MDMA to be some of the dumbest things I have ever done. Please don't push your luck - treat this one with the respect it deserves.
