About Me

David has a BSc in Psychology (1st class – University of Westminster, UK), a TESOL certificate (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages - University of Westminster, UK), a Diploma in Parapsychology (Institute of Parapsychology, Rhine Research Centre, NC, USA), a PhD in psychology (University of Northampton, UK), and a PGCertHE (teaching qualification - University of Greenwich). His doctoral thesis was entitled “The psychology and parapsychology of beliefs about luck and their relation to beliefs about psi and psi performance”.

David has lectured in psychology (research methods, psychopharmacology, parapsychology, cognitive psychology, forensic psychology, introduction to psychology, consciousness and transpersonsal psychology) at the Universities of Westminster (1997-1998, 2001-2004), Northampton (2000-2001, 2008-2013), Greenwich (2003, 2008-2013), East London (2008) and the London Metropolitan University (2008). He has also taught English as a second language in Zimbabwe (1996), London (1998), and Mexico (1998-1999), and has travelled widely exploring cross-cultural approaches to magic. He occasionally also works as a Research Associate at the Beckley Foundation, Oxford, which initiates and oversees research into the neuroscience of consciousness and its altered states, primarily through psychedelics.

In 2004 he co-organised the “Exploring consciousness: With what intent?” international academic conference on psychedelics, paganism, parapsychology and astrology, in conjunction with Bath Spa University. In 2007, he co-curated an exhibition at the Northampton Museum called “Unlucky for some?”, exploring the psychology and parapsychology of superstition. In 2011 and 2013 he co-organised the Breaking Convention: A Multidsciplinary Meeting on Psychedelic Consciousness at the Univeristy of Kent, and the University of Greenwich, respectively.

He has also co-organised a number of festivals, art exhibtions and other public events, often with shamanic/magical/paranormal themes, such as the 'Day of the Dead' festival in London in 2008, and 'Vigil' at the Royal Academy of Art in London in 2010, and the 'Psychic Lysurgery' talk tent at the Sunrise Festival. Since 2008 he has been Director of the Ecology, Cosmos and Consciousness lecture series at the October Gallery in Bloomsbury, London.

He is currently an editorial board member of the European Journal for Ecopsychology, and of Paranthropology: Journal of Anthropological Approaches to the Paranormal, and is a referee for Frontiers in Psychology, Anthropology of Consciousness, Personality and Individual Differences, Journal of Scientific Exploration, Drugs and Alcohol Today, the Journal of Parapsychology, the European Journal of Parapsychology (not currently in press), the Journal of Alternatve and Complementary Medicine, and the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research.

His research and writing often explores the overlap between research into parapsychology, psychopharmacology, anthropology and magical beliefs, such as shamanism, or more generally the junction of anomalous experiences and altered states fo consciousnes. He has published nearly 100 scholarly books and articles that have appeared as chapters in several scholarly books and in periodicals such as the Frontiers in Psychology, Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, the Journal of Parapsychology, the Paranormal Review, Mindfield: Bulletin of the Parapsychologcal Association, Paranthropology: Journal of Anthropological Approaches to the Paranormal, Time & Mind: The Journal of Archaeology, Consciousness & Culture, Fortean Times, Dark Lore, The Cauldron: Witchcraft, Paganism and Folklore, International Jornal of Transpersonal Studies, NeuroQuantology, Seeing and Perceiving, PsyPressUK, Journal for the Academic Study of Magic, Silver Star: A Journal of New Magick, Bulletin of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, Entheogen Review: Journal of Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs, Drugs and Alcohol Today, and Strange Attractor Journal.

His first book, Anomalistic Psychology (Palgrave, 2012), a text book for A level and undergraduate students, is co-authored with Nicola Holt, Chistine Simmonds-Moore and Chris French. He is also a co-editor of the anthology Breaking Convention: Essays on Psychedelic Consciousness (Strange Attractor, 2013) and Talking with the spirits: Ethnographies from between the worlds (Daily Grail, 2014). 

Between 2009-2011 he was elected President of the Parapsychological Association and was co-opted to the Council of the Society for Psychical Research in 2009. Currently he is Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Greenwich, London, where he was given the Early Career Research Excellence Award in 2011. 

For further details and publications see:

https://gre.academia.edu/DavidLuke

http://www2.gre.ac.uk/about/schools/health/about/departments/psycoun/staff/dr-david-luke