Everyone experiences psychadelics somewhat differently. For me and the people I have tripped with, LSD is generally a drug that leads to deep introspection, a feeling of “shattering of self”, being stripped away from mental blocks and inhibitions, and allowing us to access ourselves - and others - on a much deeper, more intimate level.
You should prepare yourself mentally for feeling like you are not really “you” - at high enough doses, people call this complete “ego death” where the voice in your head goes away and you are pure essence. I have never taken a dose this high (and have no interest in doing so in the near future), but just keep in mind that this is the direction LSD takes you in.
Even at lower doses, your personality - and the personality of anyone else you are tripping with - may shift in ways that make you feel either uncomfortable or empowered - there is no way to predict this. Just keep in mind that this is not “revealing your true self”, but rather exploring different selves - just because you or someone you are tripping with is acting a certain way does not mean they “are” that way. But allowing ourselves to explore and “be” different things is one of the beautiful parts of psychadelics.
In my experience, the first high is the most intense, but future highs are more meaningful - because we know what to expect, so we are able to lean into the experience better.
More details of the “phases” of the high below
You will generally leave a high with more questions than answers. Things you realise while high are probably - but not necessarily - true, so doing everything you can to record the experience and the insights you have can help the high feel more meaningful, as it gives you the opportunity to rediscover the insights while sober, and to decide whether they are helpful insights to integrate into your day-to-day life.
Either way, part of the trip does stay with us after the high, and makes recurring dosing a great way to supplement any self-development/self-discovery you are doing day-to-day. I recommend tripping every 3-6 months, especially when you are going through periods of growth or change.
The first thing I point to when someone asks me how LSD changed my life is that the mental blocks that made me doubt my artistic abilities and stop drawing creatively and writing poetry fell away over time. This happened because I “saw what I could do”, and because I built up the “muscle memory” of my artistic style during the hours I spent drawing/writing while tripping. This felt like “training wheels” that I could eventually take off and use in my sober life, unassisted.
Regardless of dose, the high itself is a ~16-18 hour experience; i.e. if I pop at 8am, I don’t sleep until past midnight. You aren’t “balls-to-the-wall tripping” for the vast majority of this time (see below); but you also aren’t sober. And you cannot sleep while high.
To get the most out of your high, you need to make plans across 3 days:
day 1: prep: do everything you can on the day before the high (see below), including setting norms with your trip-partner(s), if you have ‘em
day 2: pop: do this as early as humanly possible - this will not only let you actually sleep the following night, but also means that when you are sober enough to go out, things will still be open and sometimes you will even be able to watch the sunset
day 3: recovery: don’t plan anything strenuous or lock yourself down to plans. have ideas for flexible, enjoyable things you can do to recover your equilibrium. ideally, plan for some time to reflect on your experience and go over anything you created and any realisations you had while high - especially if you got high with someone else