Throughout history, human experience has not been limited to what we can easily explain or measure. Encounters with a sense of interconnectedness, contact with the “other,” and experiences that feel beyond the boundaries of the ordinary mind have appeared across cultures, spiritual traditions, and altered states of consciousness.
In psychedelic states, these experiences can become especially vivid, raising important questions about the nature of reality, perception, and the limits of human understanding.
In this Intimacy Lab free online conversation, psychedelic-assisted therapist Sarah Tilley is joined by Dr David Luke, Professor of Exceptional Experience at the University of Greenwich and leading researcher in altered states and anomalous phenomena.
David’s work explores transpersonal experiences, psi phenomena, and the ways psychedelics can open access to perception and meaning that challenge conventional understanding and scientific frameworks. With over 100 academic publications and extensive research, his perspective brings rigour and openness to some of the most complex, extraordinary and controversial aspects of human experience.
Together, this conversation will explore how psychedelic states may amplify or reveal exceptional human experiences, and what these encounters can teach us about consciousness, interconnectedness, and the nature of the “other.”
Together, we will explore:
• What is meant by “exceptional human experience” and why it appears across cultures and altered states
• How psychedelics can intensify experiences of interconnectedness, presence, and perceived contact with the “other”
• The relationship between transpersonal experiences, psi phenomena, and expanded states of consciousness
• How these experiences challenge conventional scientific and psychological models of reality
• The role of context, belief, and interpretation in shaping what is experienced and remembered
• How to approach and integrate these experiences in a grounded and psychologically informed way
This session offers a thoughtful and open exploration of experiences that often sit at the edges of science and language, approached with curiosity, critical thinking, and care.
The conversation will be recorded, with a live audience Q&A at the end.
About Dr David Luke
David Luke is Professor of Exceptional Experience at the University of Greenwich, UK, where he leads the new Psychedelic and Exceptional Experience Lab. He is also a current Perrott-Warrick Senior Researcher (via Trinity College, Cambridge) researching altered states and psi.
His research focuses on transpersonal experiences, anomalous phenomena and altered states of consciousness, especially via psychedelics, having published more than 100 academic papers in this area, including thirteen books, such as Otherworlds: Psychedelics and Exceptional Human Experience.
When he is not running clinical drug trials with LSD, studying lucid dream precognition, or exploring apparent weather control with Mexican shamans he manages a small ancient woodland and is a cofounder and trustee of Breaking Convention: International Conference on Psychedelic Consciousness. He lives life on the edge, of Sussex, England.