I have a friend who has expressed a genuine and sustained interest in undertaking a "journey". My dilemma about which route to take resides in the fact that:
a/ this person has never smoked anything before and I can't imagine the lungs will be able to hold in that vapour long enough.
b/ with the aya route I could participate, whereas with smoked I'd definitely remain a sober sitter, though I am troubled by the possibility of a lengthy "freak out" which could potentially land me in the soup.

Essentially my question is, how best to introduce a newbie to this , ensuring a memoriable first time experience?

I might add that this person is definitely looking for a meaningful spiritual type experience rather than a "stoner-trippy" one.

Any suggestions are very welcome.

Thanks

I always advise newcomers (in person, not online) that freebase is the best introduction, but it can be tricky, especially for someone who's never really smoked anything.

In your friends case, I'd say a full aya journey may be a bit much, but a great middle ground would be to ingest an MAOI, caapi, rue, take your pick, and vape on top of that. That way they wouldn't have to take such power hits and could sort of ease their way In. With the plant synergy, it would certainly be meaningful, as I'm sure you know, and the possibility of an "aya misfire" would be virtually eliminated.

thanks tetra, that makes sense to me too.

One possibility is having them try to vape a low dose to see how their lungs handle it, then going from there. The lungs do not protest for long, and can usually be "beaten into submission". Cannabis users can attest to this.