Trebor, I really appreciate your valuable and sound contributions to this forum. You rock!

Mr. M., sounds to me you're in good shape.

FYI: one of my friends who was diagnosed with an occasional irregular heartbeat was advised not to partake in any recreational substances which may affect his metabolism and consequently also his heart rate. This included MDMA. He did play sports (tennis) though. Pop the question anyways, just to be sure. You may also want to ask whether say a large dose of caffeine or ephedra or, depending on what kind of relationship you have with your doctor, other more illicit substances put you at greater risk than the average non-artificial-valve sporting Joe ;-)

I can concur that no-one I've ever met who partook in the spice has ever looked back with any sense of regret (not that I know of anyways). Quite the contrary. But I believe that you must be somewhat prepared when you enter this realm. Nothing can really prepare you, but just don't make this your first altered states experience. Work your way up through the ranks sort of speak as this is all about walking "the final frontier" ;-)

I have encountered folks who are somewhat afraid (or overly cautious) to go there though, particularly after hearing/reading certain witness accounts. It is too surreal, too abstract to describe accurately, so the message sometimes gets lost in translation. Once you do go through with it and take that step into the unknown, you realise you had to do it, that you had it coming even; the all too common "it found me" epiphany. In retrospect, most reflect upon their hyperspace "dive" as an integral part of their personal evolution. I say most as I cannot speak for everyone, but I have yet to meet an initiate who refutes this ;-)

The most useful piece of advice I can give anyone is to calmly enter with an open mind, with love and respect and to completely surrender to the experience. Relinquish all sense of control. This is very important. Fighting it = fighting yourself. Let go... Set and setting are huge in this regard (this includes having an experienced sitter) as it is imperative that you feel at ease. During takeoff, your ego may make one last ditch effort to hold on, which if anything is the difficult/struggling part. Remember, this is "new" and will take a moment to adjust. But once you detach (and you will), it's just you and the entire time-less/spaceless all_that_is. There is nothing more beautiful than this, and you are all over it ;-)