yeah, that's the problem with those ceremonies... very hard to find in the us... by creating your own sort of ceremony, and "officializing" the trip though, ie: setting candles and dimming the lights and picking some very good chill music to listen to, making a tea with the substance or some food out of it(mushroom) etc. versus just sitting down and eating a handful of mushrooms and then going about your way, things like that can do ALOT in making the trip more special and very probably more comfortable. a good idea would be imagining what it'd be like to bring a baby home from the hospital for the first time, and so make your place of tripping comforting in that sense.
personally, i see no hierarchy as far as psychedelics go, but i would recommend you start with something simple, and the easiest thing as far as gauging your dose is probably going to be mushrooms. with things like acid, it is impossible to tell how hard you are going to trip because there is nothing to gauge what amount you took other than some shit the guy who sold it to you told you. with mushrooms, you can look in your hand, say 'this is x number of grams' and then you have a reference point for future trips as well as for when you describe the experience later to others. 2 hits of acid can be any amount from 50ug, all the way to 400ug(not likely, but damn sure possible).
with other substances, like peyote, or mimosa hostilis (part of whats used in aya) there is ALOT of variation in the actual amount of psychoactive chemical to plant matter ratio. in other words, you could need 60 grams of cactus one time for a moderately strong trip or you could be blasted on a mere 20. now i dont know dosages with things like cacti, that's probably an exaggeration, as i have yet to try it personally, but i do know that to be true, as i've read more than my fair share of disappointed kids trying to make ayauasca, or poor souls who've been fed misinformation and are now emotionally unstable due to the sensory overload.
although it may sound like a fairly simple procedure(preparing aya), your best bet in NOT scaring yourself away from the world of psychedelics, would be to take a small dose of mushrooms. maybe a gram or two. after that, double it, if you still want more, keep going. just dont get in the habit (for your own sake, no one elses) of being a pussy and only taking the tiniest amount all the time just for a cool body buzz. consequently, that doesn't mean just pick a high dose one time cause you are trying to prove something(you know what i mean, not literally) to whoever. there's nobody to impress when your mind is stuck in a thought loop for five hours and each minute that passes literally feels like an hour. each trip is different. feel it out.
take it slow, ease into it, then go where the flow takes you. good luck
