Key details
Professor David Luke
Professor of Exceptional Experience
David Luke joined the Department of Psychology and Counselling at the University of Greenwich in October 2008. He completed his PhD in psychology at the University of Northampton in 2007, and his BSc Psychology at the University of Westminster in 1997.
Prof Luke is currently the lead of Psychedelic and Exceptional Experience Lab (PEEL) within the Centre for Mental Health and he is also a Perrott-Warrick Senior Researcher, via Trinity College, Cambridge and directs the Lucid Dream Precognition Project. Currently focusing on research, he began and then led the Psychology of Exceptional Human Experience module between 2009-2025, and also taught on various other modules including Introduction to Psychology, and Criminology and Forensic Psychology, and was Link Tutor on the BSc Psychology at NYC Athens for 5 years.
Prof Luke also currently supervises PhD students both at UoG and via Liverpool John Moores University for Alef Trust, where he was until recently a lecturer on the MSc Consciousness, Spirituality and Transpersonal Psychology and led the module on Psychedelics and Entheogens. He was President of the Parapsychological Association between 2009-2011, and received both an Early Career Research Excellence Award (2011) and the Faculty's first Inspirational Teaching Award (2016) from the University of Greenwich.
In 2010 he cofounded Breaking Convention: International Conference on Psychedelic Consciousness, which continues as a registered educational charity that he codirected until 2022, when he became a trustee. He is an Associate Fellow and Media Spokesperson for the British Psychological Society.
Posts held previously:
- 2019-2023, Honorary Senior Lecturer, Centre for Psychedelic Research, Imperial College
- 2017-2025, Guest Lecturer in Psychology, Buckingham New University
- 2017-2018, Guest Lecturer, Schumacher College, Devon – MA Ecology & Spirituality
- 2008-2009, Visiting Lecturer in Psychology, University of East London
- 2007-2009, Research Associate, The Beckley Foundation, Oxford
- 2004-2016, Guest Lecturer in Psychology, University of Northampton
- 2003-2004, Visiting Lecturer in Psychology, University of Greenwich
- 2000-2001, Assistant Lecturer in Psychology, University of Northampton
- 1997-2004, Visiting Lecturer in Psychology, University of Westminster
Responsibilities within the university
- Lead of the Psychedelic and Exceptional Experience Lab (PEEL)
- Perrott-Warrick Senior Researcher on the Lucid Dream Precognition Project
- PhD supervisor
Recognition
- Fellow of the Higher Education Authority (FHEA)
- Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society (AFBPsS)
- Chartered Psychologist (CPsychol)
- Member, Departmental Research Ethics Committee (Psychology and Counselling)
- Director (& Co-founder), Breaking Convention: Psychedelic Research Foundation, 2010-2022
- Honorary Member, Institute of Psychedelic Therapy
- Scientific Committee Member, Medical Psychedelics Working Group at Drug Science
- Core Faculty Member, International Jungian Psychedelic Association
- Expert Witness Psychologist at Old Bailey Crown Court and Bristol Crown Court
- International grant reviewer for Dutch Research Council; Poland National Science Centre; Austrian Science Fund; Chile National Commission for Scientific & Technological Investigation
- Editorial Board Member: Consciousness, Spirituality and Transpersonal Psychology
- Review Board Member: Paranthropology: Journal of Anthropological Approaches to the Paranormal
- Editorial Committee: European Journal of Ecopsychology
- Editorial Board Member: Journal of Psychedelic Studies
- Review Board Member: Journal of Exceptional Experiences in Psychology
- Review Board Member: Journal of Parapsychology
Journal Reviewer
- Frontiers in Psychiatry 2021-present
- Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 2020-present
- Frontiers in Pharmacology 2020-present
- Brain Sciences 2020-present
- Spirituality in Clinical Practice 2020-present
- Sustainability 2020-present
- Consciousness, Spirituality and Transpersonal Psychology 2020-present
- Drug Science, Policy and Law 2019-present
- Journal of Psychopharmacology 2019-present
- Perspectives on Psychological Science 2019-present
- International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology 2019-present
- International Journal of Clinical Psychiatry and Mental Health 2019-present
- Journal of Exceptional Experiences and Psychology 2018-present
- Explore: Journal of Science and Healing 2017-present
- Threshold: Journal of Interdisciplinary Consciousness Studies 2017-present
- Consciousness and Cognition 2017-present
- Journal of Psychedelic Studies 2017-present
- Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research and Practice 2016-present
- Time and Mind: Journal of Archaeology, Consciousness and Culture, 2015-present
- Psychedelic Press UK Journal, 2014-present
- Explore: Journal of Science and Healing, 2014-present
- Journal of Complementary and Integrative Medicine, 2013-present
- Anthropology of Consciousness, 2013-present
- Frontiers in Psychology, 2013-present
- Journal of Scientific Exploration, 2012-present
- Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 2012-present
- Journal of Parapsychology, 2012-present
- Paranthropology, 2011-present
- European Journal of Ecopsychology, 2010-present
- Drugs and Alcohol Today, 2007-present
- Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 2006-present
- Personality and Individual Differences, 2006-present
Research / Scholarly interests
David's particular interest is in transpersonal psychology, exceptional experiences and altered states of consciousness, especially via psychedelics, having published over 100 academic papers in this field, including thirteen books, making him one of the leading researchers in this specialist area. He is very much interested in the intersection between traditional indigenous and ecological epistemologies and ontologies, especially those termed shamanic, and ‘Global North’ science and how this exchange may be utilised for better mental health and a more decolonised and nature connected world.
Key funded projects
- Perrott-Warrick Fund grant: Experimental lucid dream precognition research, 2025
- Bial Foundation grant: Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and epileptic-like activity as contributors to the near-death experience, 2019
- Tyringham Institute grant: Experimental and phenomenological field research into DMT and exceptional experience, 2018
- Bial Foundation grant: Individual differences in psychosocial and neurological predictors of surveillance detection via extrasensory means, 2014
- University of Greenwich Research and Enterprise grant: Survey exploring the neurochemical taxonomy of induced synaesthesia, 2011
- University of Greenwich Research and Enterprise grant: Melatonin and dream psi research, 2010
- Perrott-Warwick Fund (administered by Trinity College, Cambridge) grant: Dream psi research, 2009
- Parapsychological Association Research Endowment grant: The effects of mescaline on precognition performance, 2008