Ecodelia and the lost art of lichenthropy - On becoming fungus on acid and on being publicly ridiculed by grass on Salvia My latest Substack exploring the psychedelic experiences leading folk to connect & communicate with, or transform into other species substack.com/@davidluke54...

New podcast interview with Haley Dourron at Furthure on ‘Exceptional Experiences with Psychedelics and Beyond’ for all the latest on the far out and freaky end of the spectrum psychedelic experiences.. open.spotify.com/episode/1Kng...

Pleased to be joining counselling psychologist Dr Crystyn Scott & team at the Afterlight psilocybin retreat in Jamaica next month to offer guidance & support. Afterlight are committed to helping islanders recover following Hurricane Melissa. A few spaces left www.afterlightretreats.com/experience

Putting the psi back into psilocybin - On psychedelomancy & exceptional psychedelic experiences Latest Substack, exploring the paranormal experiences of the original pioneers of psychedelic science in the 50s & 60s on their initial altered excursions! tinyurl.com/2mvw7w7d

There's been a lot of discussion recently about a non-psilocybin 'magic mushroom' from China that induces encounters with small armies of little people. I took a longer look under the tablecloth to see what all the fuss was about.. davidluke543044.substack.com/p/so-long-as...

'Dream yoga on the high seas - On pirate utopias and intellectual and psychic piracy.' My latest post on Substack, exploring the very body, mind and soul of pirates, and, well, everyone really. davidluke543044.substack.com/p/dream-yoga...

You've undoubtedly heard of apparently precognitive dreams, or possibly had one. You may've even heard of the 'law of large numbers' as an explanation. But have you heard of the 'law of at large slumbers'? New substack about my Popular Mechanics interview substack.com/profile/1969...

My latest post on Substack, where I whine about Wikipedia, fail to coin a new psychological term, find myself sceptical about organised skepticism, but end up very much admiring some abstract art.. in.. The Battle of Portmanteau davidluke543044.substack.com/p/the-battle...

Following on from my interview with @matthabusby.bsky.social for DoubleBlind last week I've further extended some of those insights into the highly speculative psychedelic origins of (or contributions to) language evolution into a new Substack post - davidluke543044.substack.com/p/reawakenin...

Excited that Breaking Convention, the UK's largest & oldest (& arguably best) psychedelic research conference, is returning to SE London in 2026 at the next door wich to Greenwich. Woolwich. I guess any old wich will do so long as you know which wich is which. See you there? breakingconvention.co.uk

Some suggestion from this interesting new research that 'couples who trip together, stick together' - www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Had a great day listening to Max Cooper's incredible music through the 360 multilayered immersive sound installation at the University of Greenwich Immersive Lab with Max & a fantastic crew of fellow audionauts as part of my PhD student Viviana Caros project into audio ASCs & spiritual experience.

The serpent's tale of the original medical staff - Hippocrates and the therapeutēs On altered states, visionary experience and healing in ancient Greece, the Amazon and my back garden My latest substack: davidluke543044.substack.com/p/the-serpen...

An auto-eulogising round up of my the lost/last year.. Chasing academic chimeras in the pursuit of exceptional experiences: 2025 as the year of dream temples, salamanders, psychedelics and sawing children in half.. davidluke543044.substack.com/p/chasing-ac...

Props to the CPEP research team tinyurl.com/ywa6jbe8 especially lead author @eirini-k-a.bsky.social, our paper on post-psychedelic ontological shock got selected by PLOS One editors from among 1000s as a stand out paper in medicine in 2025. everyone.plos.org/2025/12/16/e... doi.org/10.1371/jour...

A third-eye peeping exploration by Webb Wright of that particular 'dimethyltrypta-meme' that the pineal gland is the seat of the soul and neurochemical factory of the spirit molecule DMT, for which I chimed in with a few (interdimensional) observations.. newsletter.doubleblindmag.com/p/why-the-pi...

Great article by @matthabusby.bsky.social on the origin story of psychonaut scientist Bruce Damer & the origin story of life on earth, and Bruce's MINDS project exploring the use of psychedelic for scientific creative problem solving nautil.us/the-psychede... see also doi.org/10.1177/2050...

Great piece by Tamlin Magee for BBC celebrates the many unsung contributions of Erowid.org to drug policy, culture and science & interviewing psychedelic nerds like myself, Erik Davis, Rick Doblin, Leor Roseman, & Nicolas Langlitz

A fascinating @drugscience.bsky.social podcast interview by David Nutt with 3 SAS paramedics, echoing the findings of our naturalistic pilot study of 5 paramedics who took psilocybin to deal with work place stress, with reductions in burnout, stress & compassion fatigue.. tinyurl.com/ycujmvw7

Really excited to be returning to Dublin for Samhain for the 2nd IMBAS Psychedelic Research Conference organised by Irish Doctors for Psychedelic Assisted Therapy @IdPat7 & the Psychedelic Research Group, Trinity College Dublin. I'll be talking Ecodelia & the Art of Lichenthropy www.idpat.ie/events

Will be giving a short talk tonight for Numinous Ways on Entity Encounters in Psychedelic Experience.. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/dr-david-l...

Encouraging to see this recent UK Gov's Natural England commissioned report on the importance of nature connection, and also that it mentions our research on the enhanced wellbeing & connection to nature derived from psychedelic experiences tinyurl.com/265z58wn

Finally I am giving a talk in a venue that matches my end-of-the-pier 'standard' of humour - The Gaiety, Portsmouth, next Monday 6th October, for The Science of Psychedelics.. "I'm here all week!" www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-scienc...

This new collaborative paper from 17 @drugscience.bsky.social professionals (myself included) in the field presents a new standardized terminology for psychedelic research and treatment to guide clinical development, dosing, safety monitoring, and regulatory classification. doi.org/10.1177/2050...

Kudos to @matthabusby.bsky.social for writing this much needed piece about challenging psychedelic experiences (& the CPE project - challengingpsychedelicexperiences.com) and their potential for extended difficulties. Including a quote from my good s'elf. statesofmind.com/psychedelic-...

Looking forward to give the first @SeedTalks event on parapsychology. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-phenom...

Off to The Electric Picnic festival in Ireland with SeedTalks to find some craic and rant about #psychedelics .. see you there? www.electricpicnic.ie/artists/#/ev...

NEW TEN-PART AUDIO SERIES about #PSYCHEDELICS Out now on BBC Sounds - and other podcast spaces. Co-written & presented by the beautifully curious @timhayward.bsky.social Production, sound design and mix by me. It's been a fascinating and challenging process to get here... I do hope you'll listen.

Really enjoying listening to the extraordinary insights, perfect prose, witty banter, & stellar scholarship of Andrew Gallimore's audio version of his latest book, "Death by Astonishment" on the alien worlds of DMT. Hard copies launch Monday. Look after yer 'elf! www.amazon.co.uk/Death-Astoni...

Interesting new paper found among psychedelic researchers most (86%) agree #psychedelic experiences have exceptional potential in treating psychiatric conditions, but only 28% agreed they could be used to help solve the ecological crisis.. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Myself & co-author Pascal Michael interviewed by William Hunter in the Daily Mail exploring the similarities & important differences between #psychedelic experiences with DMT & near-death experiences, from our recent article www.frontiersin.org/journals/psy... www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/...

It seems I will feature in a few of the forthcoming episodes of the new 12-part BBC Radio 4 documentary about #psychedelics called "The Trip", which runs across two weeks starting next Monday, at 13:45 daily, Mon-Fri. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Big move in EU psychedelic therapy heralds new direction. Psilocybin therapy is now available in Germany for the first time for compassionate use.. www.ovid-clinics.de/en/news

Will be exploring my 30 yrs of research & the last 140 yrs of #parapsychology as a formal field of study for SeedTalks' first event on the subject, at their London venue in Brixton (also live streamed), on 23rd Sept. Come peek into the otherworld with me.. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-phenom...

Another new study on HPPD showing various prior health predictors of HPPD, especially prior anxiety diagnosis, as we also previously found - www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-6... doi.org/10.1556/2054...

"Luis Zambrano, a biologist at the Autonomous National University of Mexico, said that if the axolotl’s population and habitat can be restored in a city of more than 20 million people, “I feel that we have hope for humanity.”" news.mongabay.com/short-articl...

Thanks Glastonbury and chums, that was fun. Was really happy to return after years and give a talk on "Lichenthropy for beginners: Becoming fungi with psychedelics"

New article in 'Salon' by Elizabeth Hlavinka about the bad & the good sides of 'bad trips', interviewing Eirini Argyri & myself about our work on the Challenging #Psychedelic Experiences Project exploring recovery & growth after post-psychedelic extended difficulties www.salon.com/2025/06/06/b...

Happy to have been interviewed by Mattha Busby for his latest fine article for Wired, illuminating some of the more obscure dimensions of darkness retreats.

Nice deep dive on psychedelic-induced ontological shock by Sam Woolfe, exploring our recent qualitative research study on the subject - doi.org/10.1371/jour...

Co-author Dr Oliver Robinson interviewed by PsyPost about our recent paper on the different ways in which people cope with different symptoms of extended psychological difficulties following a psychedelic experience. Paper here: doi.org/10.1556/2054... www.psypost.org/new-study-sh...

Our latest paper on DMT phenomenology, led by Pascal Michael, exploring the mis/matches with near-death experiences, showing that while 95% on DMT had at least one NDE feature, many classic NDE features were absent & only a very few had NDE-like trips in any way. doi.org/10.3389/fpsy...

Will be speaking alongside Jess Jorgensen and Adi Staempfli for the South London Mushroom Club on 15th May on "Fungal Ecodelia and the Art of Lichenthropy: Magic Mushrooms and Nature Relatedness"... www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/south-lond...

Our latest CPEP, led by @eirini-k-a.bsky.social exploring ontological shock & existential challenge as extended difficulties following a psychedelic experience - highlighting that grounding practices, integration support, & time were critical in helping participants cope. doi.org/10.1371/jour...

Nice new paper that supports our previous finding that trait absorption predicts benign HPPD symptoms. doi.org/10.1556/2054... - They didn't alternatively find anxiety to be related to distressing HPPD symptoms, but then they only had 2 such people in their sample. tinyurl.com/27ed56cd

The 7th major Breaking Convention psychedelic conference at Exeter Uni this last weekend did not disappoint. After 14 years it is amazing to see this epic TAZ of psychedelic pilgrimage continue & grow. Massive kudos to all the crew, contributors & congregation for making it happen Photo: James Wills

Meanwhile...

New paper indicates that music & access to nature are the most commonly reported factors for a positive psychedelic experience in clinical drug trials. "Most participants.. would take the study substances again, preferably in a setting in nature with friends." www.researchgate.net/publication/...

Another epic lineup has just been announced for Breaking Convention psychedelic research conference, 17-19th April, University of Exeter. If you haven't already, get your tickets now and join us for another gaze down the rabbit hole. breakingconvention.substack.com/p/100-speake...

Good to see darkness experiences coming into the light. We studied the experience of 49 volunteers in an anechoic dark room chamber for 2hrs as an altered state. Using psychometric measures, even this short period is akin to a mild psychedelic experience. www.academia.edu/40142080/The...