I personally think people put DMT on a pedestal too much. I used to be guilty of that.
After several extractions and experiences (im talking upwards of 200 experiences), I have learned that DMT is here simply as a way for us to enjoy life.
This is my own personal belief, and ymmv, but from my experiences, when I used to think of DMT as this all powerful, mystical, living thing, I would sometimes have experiences that I would consider difficult, not quite bad trips, but very difficult trips.
After I had an experience that taught me that DMT is a tool here for us to notice happiness, things changed drastically.
I now can smoke DMT in almost any set and setting without negative effects.
Instead of going into the experience as a shaman prepared for a cross world mission, I go into the experience extremely casually ... I simply ask myself this "Do I want to have a few minutes of beautiful experience?" if I answer sincerely "yes" then I smoke and have a lovely time, if I answer "no" then I dont smoke it.
Since employing this outlook on the drug (that it is merely a means of beautiful entertainment, not some ridiculously invaluable spiritual tool, only for those on a serious spiritual endeavor) I have had the most lighthearted fun experiences on DMT, and only that.
Im not saying that DMT can not be a spiritual tool for those on deep serious spiritual endeavors, thats the way I started using it, but later , through many doses, and many experiences found that for me, its best used for lighthearted fun, casually....
basically, its all about your intentions, and how you choose to relate to DMT.
now to answer all your questions.... (sorry for the lack of formatting im at work talking on the phone while I type this and its hard to do both at the same time while aslo thinking about formatting posts ... sorry)
but for your first time, I would recomend to be prepared for the worst case scenario, meaning, aware that it could be a negative experience, have a sitter near by incase for some reason you actually need one, in the optimal set and setting, a light bulb vape will work fine, light bulb vapes suck for two reasons, they break fairly easy, not extremely easy, but fairly easy, and they are not good for multiple sessions in a row, once the bulb heats up to a certain heat, the dmt stops staying in one spot, and starts running around the bulb, spreading out evenly, making it difficult to vape more of it without burning it, its tough to explain, but im sure someone else hear understands and can explain it better... HOLD YOUR HITS AS LONG AS POSSIBLE, AND TAKE AS MANY HITS AS YOU CAN, SSRIs slightly decrease the efffects of DMT, make sure your smoking DMT, not changa though, because maoi +ssri cant be a good thing , DMT would be a wonderful first time psychedelic, as long as you are ready for your first time psychedelic experience, and only you can know that.