Oomis,
My brother (the smart one, the one who DOES learn from Kabbalah seforim – and is below 40) pointed out to me that many Torah Greats applied themselves to these works and did not live past 40, the AriZal for one.
Rebbe Akiva started his GENERAL Torah career at 40 (according to most), this sublime endeavor / undertaking was sometime afterwards.
But as I wrote earlier, someone who has not a lot of knowledge under his belt will come out with nothing. There are no quick-fix, DIY, crash-course self-studies in these works. It will not even come into the danger of being ???? ??????? as Acher did. It is only fooling oneself into being able to monkey and parrot phrases and terms.
The dangerous caution needed is for one who DOES have Torah under his belt who has been ???? ????? ?”? ???????, for such a person he need be told how to properly apply himself towards these studies, lest he come to err. This is where Acher and later (as they say) Shabbsi Tzvi went wrong. They DID have Torah knowledge, however they didn’t apply themselves to these works properly, with the utmost Kedusha and Taharah. So with their learning these works they were ???? ???????, destroyed themselves and much as well…
And PAA, that may well be, the words themselves have an inherent Kedusha, are holy, cherished words of Torah, however one must not think he understands a ???? ?? ??? of it. Just holy words of Torah for its own sake. Not the “limud of Kabalah”