David Luke

University of Greenwich · Department of Psychology & Counselling

● Includes contributions from the late Ralph Metzner, Chris Bache, Whitley Strieber, Jeffrey Kripal, Angela Voss, Bill Richards, Chris Timmerman, Michael Winkelman, Luis Eduardo Luna, Anton Bilton, Bernard Carr, Daniel Pinchbeck, Dennis McKenna, Ede Frecska & David Luke ● Explores DMT beings, encounter experiences, alien abduction, plant sentience...

Introduction: N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is an endogenous serotonergic psychedelic capable of producing radical shifts in conscious experience. Increasing trends in its use, as well as new trials administering DMT to patients, indicate the growing importance of a thorough elucidation of the qualitative content, over and above structure, which the...

Spontaneous Spiritual Awakenings (SSAs) are subjective experiences characterised by a sudden sense of direct contact, union, or complete nondual merging (experience of oneness) with a perceived ultimate reality, the universe, “God,” or the divine. These profound transformative experiences have scarcely been researched, despite extensive anecdotal e...

This article explores the nature of psychedelically induced anomalous experiences for what they reveal regarding the nature of “expanded consciousness” and its implications for humanistic and transpersonal psychology, parapsychology, and the psychology and underlying neuroscience of such experiences. Taking a multidisciplinary approach, this essay...

Rationale Previous research demonstrating that lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) produces alterations in time perception has implications for its impact on conscious states and a range of psychological functions that necessitate precise interval timing. However, interpretation of this research is hindered by methodological limitations and an inabili...

Psychedelic drugs show promising therapeutic potential; however, some users experience extended difficulties following their use. This study investigated the prevalence, severity, duration, and associated coping strategies of post-psychedelic difficulties. We conducted an online survey of 159 participants, all of whom reported experiencing difficul...

Background and Aims This naturalistic mixed methods field study, aimed to assess the potential of a psilocybin induced experience, to help Emergency Medical Service Workers (EMSW) to address psychological and stress related symptoms stemming from a challenging working environment, known to contribute to occupational burnout (OB). Methods This expl...

Introduction A growing body of literature is investigating the difficulties that some individuals encounter after psychedelic experiences. Existing research has explored the nature and predictors of these difficulties; however, a research gap exists in understanding how individuals endeavour to cope with such difficulties. Methods The current stud...

Psychedelic induced mystical experiences have been largely assumed to drive the therapeutic effects of these substances, which may in part be mediated by changes in metaphysical beliefs. However, there is growing evidence that psychedelic experiences can also trigger long lasting distress and studies of persisting difficulties suggest a high preval...

Long-term adverse experiences following psychedelic use can persist for weeks, months, or even years, and are relatively unexplored in psychedelic research. Our convergent mixed-method study gained quantitative and qualitative data from 608 participants who reported extended difficulties following psychedelic experiences. Data was gathered on the c...

Introduction Much research has focused on the modeling of the near-death experience (NDE) by classical and atypical psychedelics; however, to date, no study has reported on the relationship between the NDE and the experience induced by the highly potent, endogenous psychedelic drug 5-Methoxy-DMT (5MeO-DMT). This article presents a case study of an...

Objective: To explore the perceived influence of psychedelic experiences on participants' relationship with the natural world. Method: A total of 272 participants reporting previous use of psychedelics completed free-text response requests via an online survey. Thematic analysis was used to explore group participant responses. Results: Participants...

Recent theoretical work embedded within the predictive processing framework has proposed that the neurocognitive and therapeutic effects of psychedelics are driven by the modulation of priors (Carhart-Harris & Friston, 2019). We conducted pre-registered re-analyses of previous research (Yanakieva et al., 2019) to examine whether microdoses of lyser...

Introduction N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is an endogenous serotonergic psychedelic capable of producing radical shifts in an experience that have significant implications for consciousness and its neural correlates, especially given the “disconnected consciousness” suggested by the “breakthrough” DMT state. Its increasing usage and clinical trial...

Background: Past research reports a positive relationship between experience with classic serotonergic psychedelics and nature relatedness (NR). However, these studies typically do not distinguish between different psychedelic compounds, which have a unique psychopharmacology and may be used in specific contexts and with different intentions. Like...

Abstract Background: Past research reports a positive relationship between experience with classic serotonergic psychedelics and nature relatedness (NR). However, these studies typically do not distinguish between different psychedelic compounds, which have a unique psychopharmacology and may be used in specific contexts and with different intent...

Background and Aims Little is known about individual differences in Hallucinogen Persisting Perceptual Disorder (HPPD). This study investigated visual processing style and personality across two HPPD types (HPPD I and HPPD II) and a Non-HPPD group. Methods An online survey was delivered to participants sourced from online HPPD and psychedelic user...

Creativity, that is the creation of ideas or objects considered both novel and valuable, is among the most important and highly valued of human traits, and a fundamental aspect of the sciences. Dreams and hypnagogic states have been highly influential in promoting scientific creativity and insight, contributing to some important scientific breakthr...

Background Classic psychedelics hold promise as therapeutics for psychiatric disorders, but require scalable intervention protocols. This proof-of-concept study evaluated the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and subjective effects of 50, 75, and 100 µg lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) in healthy adults within a novel intervention paradigm....

Background Classic psychedelics show promise in the treatment of mental health conditions; however, more scalable intervention protocols are needed to maximize access to these novel therapeutics. In this proof-of-concept study, perceptions of safety, subjective effects, and beliefs about the clinical utility of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) were...

Objective: Preliminary research suggests that experiences resembling synaesthesia are frequently reported under the influence of a diverse range of chemical substances although the incidence, chemical specificity, and characteristics of these effects are poorly understood. Methods: Here we surveyed recreational drug users and self-reported devel...

Objective Preliminary research suggests that experiences resembling synaesthesia are frequently reported under the influence of a diverse range of chemical substances although the incidence, chemical specificity, and characteristics of these effects are poorly understood. Methods Here we surveyed recreational drug users and self-reported developmen...

Introduction: N, N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is an endogenous serotonergic psychedelic capable of producing radical shifts in conscious experience. Increasing trends in its use, as well as new trials administering DMT to patients, indicate the growing importance of a thorough elucidation of the phenomenology the drug may occasion. This is particular...

Spontaneous Spiritual Awakenings (SSAs) are subjective experiences characterised by a sud- den sense of direct contact, union or merging with a perceived ultimate reality, the universe, or the divine. These profound transformative experiences have scarcely been researched, de- spite extensive anecdotal evidence suggesting their potential to catalys...

Therapeutic psychedelic administration and contact with nature have been associated with the same psychological mechanisms: decreased rumination and negative affect, enhanced psychological connectedness and mindfulness-related capacities, and heightened states of awe and transcendent experiences, all processes linked to improvements in mental healt...

The manufacturer of the drug product was Onyx Scientific Limited UK, to cGMP standards.

This paper has been accepted for publication in Transpersonal Psychology Review This paper explores both transpersonal psychology and ecopsychology individually and in conjunction, followed by an inspection of their relationship with mystical experiences and the impact of these within a transpersonal ecopsychological context. Specifically, nature...

This paper explores both transpersonal psychology and ecopsychology individually and in conjunction, followed by an inspection of their relationship with mystical experiences and the impact of these within a transpersonal ecopsychological context. Specifically, nature as a trigger for such experiences is examined, alongside an analysis of the effec...

A wealth of data suggests that psychedelic drugs elicit spontaneous perceptual states that resemble synaesthesia although it is unclear whether these different forms of synaesthesia share overlapping neural mechanisms. Multiple studies have shown that developmental and trained synaesthesia is characterized by selective hyperexcitability in primary...

Another 22 essays from the cutting edge of psychedelic research, based on talks given by their authors at Breaking Convention 2017. The largest symposium of its kind, Breaking Convention features more than 120 academic presentations biennially, and is widely regarded as the foremost global platform for serious research into psychedelic science and...

Exploring the connection between feminine consciousness and altered states, the contributors investigate the feminine qualities of the psychedelic self. They explore the female roots of shamanism, goddess consciousness, how altered states tap into the female archetype, feminist psychedelic activism, and embodied paths to ecstasy. Includes contribut...

Psychedelic drugs reliably trigger experiences that closely resemble synaesthesia (Luke and Terhune 2013), a condition in which inducer stimuli will reliably and automatically elicit atypical concurrent experiences (Ward 2013). These transient episodes are considered controversial because they do not meet behavioural diagnostic criteria for develop...

In a recent article in this journal, Dos Santos et al. (2018) report a case of ayahuasca use by a man with aphantasia. This account is the first such report of the use of a psychedelic agent by someone with aphantasia. Surprisingly, the case, SE, reported an improvement in their visual imagery following one particular instance of ayahuasca use. In...

Rationale Previous research demonstrating that lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) produces alterations in time perception has implications for its impact on conscious states and a range of psychological functions that necessitate precise interval timing. However, interpretation of this research is hindered by methodological limitations and an inabili...

Multiple psychedelic drugs, particularly those targeting the serotonin system can elicit experiences, resembling those of developmental synesthesia. Although controversial, drug induced synesthesia can consequentially counter some of the existing theories of synesthesia. The study presents the case of LW who is a 29-year-old-man, experiencing multi...

Encounters with apparently sentient beings are reported by half of all first time users of the naturally occurring psychedelic DMT, yet the question of DMT beings and plant sentience, interspecies communication, discarnate consciousness, and perhaps even dialoguing with the divine has never been systematically explored. Offering cutting-edge insig...

Otherworlds: A psychonautic scientific trip to the weirdest outposts of the psychedelic terrain, inhaling anything and everything relevant from psychology, psychiatry, parapsychology, anthropology, neuroscience, ethnobotany, ethnopharmacology, biochemistry, religious studies, cultural history, shamanism and the occult along the way. Staring the st...

An interdisciplinary selection of twenty-five essays first delivered at Breaking Convention 2015, the third conference on psychedelic consciousness, culture, and clinical research, held at the University of Greenwich, London. Breaking Convention is the largest symposium of its kind, featuring more than 120 academic presentations biennially. Widely...

Luke, D. (2015). Psychedelics and mental health. Invited lecture for the Czech Psychedelic Society, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic, 5th June. Only during the last decade has this research gradually been resumed to the point where we might now even speak of a renaissance of research into psychedelic medicines. The talk will explore the...

Luke, D. (2015). Psychedelics and mental health. Invited lecture for the Czech Psychedelic Society, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic, 4th June. Only during the last decade has this research gradually been resumed to the point where we might now even speak of a renaissance of research into psychedelic medicines. The talk will explore the m...

Luke, D. (2015, May). Wixaritari: Last of the peyote guardians. Invited lecture for the Birmingham Psychedelics Society, 21st May. View on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/839321526116039

Luke, D. (2015, April). Psychedelics: Tools for spiritual wealth and mental health? Invited lecture for Mental Fight Club, at the Dragon Cafe, St George the Martyr Church, Borough, London, 27th April. http://dragoncafe.co.uk/programme-2/#.VT7Iy1xAu9B

Luke, D. (2015, March). Tripping out to stay sane: Psychedelics and mental health. Invited talk for Transcendental Café, Whitstable, Essex, 28th March. https://www.facebook.com/events/1416762975287677/ Prior to the reactionary media hysteria and the subsequent government backlash at the end of the 1960s, a wealth of serious scientific research was...

Luke, D. (2015, March). Psychedelic substances and their potential for mind-body enhancement. Invited lecture for the Body Enhancement exhibition, Science Museum, London, 25th March. http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/visitmuseum/plan_your_visit/lates.aspx A new renaissance is currently underway in scientific research into psychedelic substances for...

Luke, D. (2015, March). Artificial paradises? Anomalistic psychology and the psychedelic experience. Invited lecture for the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit Invited Speaker Series, Goldsmiths College, London, 24th March. The traditional use of psychoactive plants as sacramentals in spiritual and shamanic rituals has continued for thousands o...

Luke, D. (2015, March). Human performance, psychedelics and psychology. Invited lecture for the Sports Psychology Invited Lecture Series, UCFB College of Football Business, Wembley Stadium, London, 11th March.

Luke, D. (2015, March). Cymatic entoptic clairvoyant multidimensional synaesthesia: The art and science of psychedelic perception. Invited lecture for the University of Kent, Canterbury Psychedelics Society, 3rd March. Why is the world’s oldest artwork thought to be psychedelically inspired? What does sound look like on mescaline? What do blind pe...

Luke, D. (2015, February). The last peyote guardians: The Huicholes. Invited talk for the Cambridge University Native Spirit Society, Centre of Latin American Studies, University of Cambridge, 18th February.

Luke, D. (2015, February). Fragments of an anarchist psychology: Post-materialist ontologies in mind. Invited lecture for the Anarchism Research Group seminar series, Department of Politics, History and International Relations, University of Loughborough, 4th February. http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/phir/news-events/seminar-fragments-of-an-anar...

Luke, D. (2015, February). Slouching towards Chapel Perilous: Journeying from paranoia, through metanoia into pronoia. Invited talk for the Sun at Night, Saint Leonard’s Church, Shoreditch, London. https://www.facebook.com/events/1561748054064857/

Luke, D. (2015, January). Exploring DMT entities: How to keep your elf… and sanity. Invited talk for the Explorers Club, St Leonards, East Sussex, 30th January. The highly psychoactive molecule N,N -dimethyltryptamine (or simply DMT), is found naturally occurring in the brains of humans, mammals, and some other animals, as well as in a broad rang...

Luke, D. (2015, January). Blue deer prayer: Quests and challenges of the world’s oldest psychedelic tribe. Invited talk for Club Imaginal, Marwoods Café, Brighton, 28th January. The Wixaritari (Huichol) are a prehispanic shamanic tribe from Mexico who resisted conquest and outside incursion for 500 years and have continued their magical pagan tra...

Luke, D. (2015, January). Wixaritari: The world’s oldest psychedelic tribe and their fight to save their spiritual ecology. Invited talk and film screening for Cinematters film series, Passing Clouds, Hackney, London, 18th January. The Wixaritari (Huichol) are a prehispanic shamanic tribe from Mexico who resisted conquest and outside incursion fo...

The UK's largest conference on psychedelic consciousness, Breaking Convention, debuted at the University of Kent in 2011 to an audience of 500 delegates. The three-day event hosted eighty talks, in addition to workshops, music and psychedelic cinema. Breaking Convention returned two years later at the University of Greenwich with twice the number o...

From a representative sample of a suitably psychedelic crowd, you’d be hard pressed to find someone who couldn’t tell you all about Albert Hofmann’s enchanted bicycle ride after wallowing what turned out to be a massive dose of LSD. The world’s first acid trip (Hofmann, 1980) has since become a cherished piece of psychedelic folklore. Far fewer, ho...

Luke, D. (2014, November). Reality, illusion, perception and consciousness. Invited talk for the Magic and Mindfulness salon, Open Meditation Centre, Aldgate, London, 27th November.

Luke, D. (2014, November). Psychedelics, synchronicity and the rocky road to Chapel Perilous. Invited talk for the Cosmic Trigger Find the Others Conferestival, Liverpool, 23rd November. http://cosmictriggerplay.com/the-festival/speakers-corner/#david-luke

Luke, D. (2014, November). The science of psychedelic experience. Invited lecture for the Hastings Explorers Club, Hastings, 21st November. The traditional use of psychedelic plants in spiritual and shamanic rituals has continued for thousands of years, while the use of psychedelics in the developed world has also grown steadily in the last centu...

Luke, D. (2013, November). The neurochemistry of altered states of consciousness and its relationship with mediumship. Invited address for the IVth Congress on Medicine and Spirituality, London, 9-10th November. See video of the talk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSg5sintOWU

Luke, D. (2014, October). Psilocybin, telepathy & religious experience. Invited lecture for National Fungus Day, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London, 12th October. From the CIA’s secret project to find fungi for psychic espionage to the attempted induction of genuine mystical experiences with mushrooms by doctors and theologians, mycology has play...

Shamans the world over use mediumistic techniques and commune with the spirits of the dead, and many use psychedelic plants, but strangely rare is it that anyone ever uses psychedelics and spirit possession together. Based on field research, ethnography and a review of the literature, this paper will explore why psychedelics and possession are trad...

Luke, D. (2014, September). Mediumship and shamanism: Convergence and divergence. Invited lecture for a joint meeting of the Sir William Crookes Spiritist Society and the British Union of Spiritist Societies, Lost Theatre, London, 6th September. Video of talk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibGcs1WRggs

Many people have turned to see someone behind them due to a ‘sense’ they were being watched. Others have ‘inexplicably’ become aware of a conversation involving them, despite it being inaudible. There are many possible explanations for such events, one of which is that such abilities are theorised to be evolutionary assets that may have developed d...

There is evidence that psychic experiences are related to geomagnetic activity (GMA). However, sometimes these are related with higher, and sometimes with lower, GMA. This anomaly may be clarified by studying local GMA. In order to explore this, a 4-year investigation was conducted. Unfortunately, solar activity and GMA were at their lowest for 100...

Stanford's psi-mediated instrumental response (PMIR) model proposes that psi is an evo-lutionarily adaptive function that largely works in the service of the organism but which operates at an almost completely unconscious level. A series of successful experiments conducted by Luke and associates have explored the PMIR model with an automated nonint...

Luke, D. (2014, August). Talking with the spirits: Ethnographies from between the worlds. Invited talk for Liminal Village, Boom Festival, Portugal, 9th August. Watch it on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMt1H-0GaPM

Luke, D. (2014, June). Psychedelic consciousness: Exceptional and transpersonal experience. Invited lecture for the BPS Consciousness and Experiential Psychology Section 2nd symposium on Altered States of Consciousness: Drug States, London, 21st June.

Camplin, B., Cussans, J, & Luke, D. (2014, June). The military industrial complex: Discussion on consensus reality. Presentation for the Anxiety Arts Festival at the South London Gallery, 13th June.

Voudon: Art, uprising and gnosis: Chaired symposium. The Ecology, Cosmos and Consciousness Salon, Institute of Ecotechnics, London, 5th July, 2014.

Luke, D. (2014, July). Psychedelic possession: The growing incorporation of incorporation into ayahuasca use. Invited talk for the Ecology, Cosmos and Consciousness Salon, October Gallery, London.

Luke, D. (2014, May). Fragments of an anarchist psychology. Invited paper for the Hallucinatory Theatres, Art Research Symposium, Goldsmiths College, London, 12th-14th May.

Luke, D. (2014, April). Psychedelic plants and psychic people: ESP drug research. Invited address for Treadwell’s Bookshop, Bloomsbury, London, 28th April.

Luke, D. (2014, April). Psi-chedelic science: An overview of the research. Society of Psychical Research Study Day, 26th April.

Luke, D. (2014, April). Experiencing the future: Precognition and consciousness; altered or otherwise. Invited lecture for the Scientific and Medical Network’s 37th Mystics and Scientists conference, University of Warwick, 4-6 April

Views of how the world works and how it is expected to behave vary across cultures and over time, as well as during the life course of an individual. We are shaped by our culture, including language, religion and ideology, our intellectual environment, direct experience and reflection upon it. Western academic culture is a child of the Enlightenmen...

Talking With the Spirits is a cross-cultural survey of contemporary spirit mediumship. The diverse contributions to this volume cover a wide-range of ethnographic contexts, from Spiritualist séances in the United Kingdom to self-mortification rituals in Singapore and Taiwan, from psychedelic spirit incorporation in the Amazonian rainforest, to psyc...

Stanford's 'psi-mediated instrumental response' (PMIR) model proposes that psi is a largely unconscious process and is 'need serving', such that it is driven by rewards or punishments for the organism utilising it, usually in an evolutionarily adaptive manner. A series of successful experiments conducted by Luke and associates have explored the PMI...

Research and theory suggests that the chemicals made in the pineal gland (e.g., melatonin, pinoline, and possibly DMT) follow a circadian rhythm and are important in the processes of sleeping, and possibly dreaming too. These nocturnal chemicals may also be important in the mediation of spontaneous mystical and visionary states and in the mediation...

From ecodelic triplit, the peyoteros’ sense of place, interspecies communication and animistic healing to ecocentric entheogenic rituals, psychedelic bioregionalism, biogenetic structuralist ecopsychology and transpersonal ecosophy – this special issue of the EJE explores the verdant intersection between neurobiology and botany, shamanism and animi...

The traditional use of psychoactive plants as sacramentals in spiritual and magical rituals has continued for thousands of years, most likely. The use of these powerful psychoactive substances has long been reported to induce altered states of consciousness conducive to ostensibly paranormal phenomena, such as clairvoyance, telepathy and precogniti...

Despite the general consensus that synaesthesia emerges at an early developmental stage and is only rarely acquired during adulthood, the transient induction of synaesthesia with chemical agents has been frequently reported in research on different psychoactive substances. Nevertheless, these effects remain poorly understood and have not been syste...

Luke, D. (2013, September). Psychedelic sound and perception. Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia, Blade Factory, Liverpool, 27-28th September.

Despite the abundance of theories surrounding Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) after more than a century of research, there is still no overriding, undisputed explanation of these apparently anomalous voices captured in electronic audio recordings. Whilst EVP is often claimed to be extra-terrestrial or spiritual in origin, alternative explanations...

Research consistently shows a strong relationship between paranormal belief and spontaneous paranormal experiences on self reports (for a review see Irwin, 2009), nevertheless, the processes underlying this association remain under-researched. While some research indicates that expectation and suggestibility may play a part in subjective paranormal...

For the past three decades, research in parapsychology has found evidence that psychic experiences are related to fluctuations in the Earth’s magnetic field; these fluctuations are termed geomagnetic activity (GMA). This research, however, exhibits an anomaly: in some studies psi is related to higher GMA and in some with lower GMA. Most research ha...

This presentation discusses the relationship between psychoactive substances and psi, although focusing mainly on so-called extrasensory perception (ESP)—telepathy, precognition, and clairvoyance—rather than psychokinesis (PK), because this latter phenomenon suffers from a paucity of research in relation to psychopharmacological agents. The review...