Otherworlds: Psychedelics and Exceptional Human Experience

by David Luke

What is the evidence that psi experiences are experienced more frequently in non-ordinary states of consciousness? David Luke addresses this question, which is beyond the scope of materialist science, with a synthesis of scientific research on anomalous experiences occurring under the influence of psychedelics from the perspective of neuroscience, psychology, parapsychology, anthropology, and transpersonal studies. This is a comprehensive exploration of chemically mediated extra ordinary human experiences, including synesthesia, extra-dimensional percepts, out-of-body-experiences, near-death experiences, entity encounter experiences, sleep paralysis, mediumship, clairvoyance, telepathy, and precognition. The author explores the implications for our understanding of consciousness and areas for further research.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Drugs, Psychology

298 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2014

About the author

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

Reviews

[Josh Raymond · Rating 5 out of 5]

When you smoke DMT, you see weird things. What nobody tells you, though, is that somebody from a different culture on the other side of the world, also smoking DMT, is likely to be seeing things that are rather similar. Neither of you had any prior knowledge of the drug's effects, nor had ever seen or thought of anything like these weird things before, and they also turn out to be extremely similar to weird things depicted in old religious books, which by the way neither of you has ever read. David Luke's expertise covers psi-phenomena, mystical experience, religious iconography and of course psychedelic ("mind-manifesting") substances. He combines a rigorously empirical approach with an extremely open mind, and the result is a series of questions about the nature of reality as we conventionally understand it. It is, as a scientific book, heavy on references, but amid the unsubstantiated claims and general flimmery that can be found in the psychedelic community, this is welcome. Otherworlds is worth reading for scientists and psychonauts alike, and especially for the happily growing band of people who feel able to come out and say that they are both.

[StevenF · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book on Altered States Of Consciousness that should be read with, " DMT Dialogues: Encounters with The Spirit Molecule",also edited by David Luke. Excellent writing. Interesting speculation of the highest order. Itsa TRIP! Wonder-Full !

[Bogi Takács]

Found this on the new acquisitions shelf of my university library, and I wanted to read some interesting nonfiction to relax. I love reading about altered states of consciousness, so this was basically it. I actually read two of the chapters as standalone papers previously.

I'm not planning on having a detailed review of this book, but if you think it will be interesting to you based on the summary, you're probably right. Some of the research it reviews is rather terrible though (as the author himself remarks). In the first few chapters there are a few exoticizing comments that didn't sit well with me - ironic hipster racism is still racism - but overall this is a book surprisingly respectful of its topic.

Source of the book: KU Watson Library

[Joseph Hirsch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Press your thumb to your eye, leave it there for a moment, then release. See that "snow"? It's what they call an "entoptic phenomenon," meaning a visual effect which occurs within the eye itself, instead of outside of the eye and out there somewhere in the world. And yet, the only tool we have for perceiving the outside world is that same tricky organ, the eye, with stimulus and feedback carried upon an informational relay of neurons to our brains. So technically everything you've ever "seen" is a mere visual representation for whatever is actually out there in front of you.

It's a disconcerting thought, but also one that provides a lot of inspiration for further and even deeper musings. For instance, if what we're seeing is a representation, then is a drug-induced hallucination a false reality or merely an alternative means of apprehending whatever is actually out there?

Talk to people who've taken DMT and you'll hear with striking consistency that what they're seeing under the influence of ayahuasca is some kind of genuine superstructure that undergirds a reality more fundamental than the one we take for granted every day. Could DMT (or LSD or Ketamine) potentially unlock access to other states of consciousness more permanent and meaningful than mere transitory trips? Could they free us from our overreliance on the inadequate organ of the eye, and mind as a most ruthless filter (to paraphrase early psychonaut Aldous Huxley)?

It's an interesting question, one which Dr. David Luke does yeoman's spadework to answer. "Otherworlds" is very much a mixed bag in terms of the essays on offer, which range from recycled pieces from academic symposia (yes, writing about psychedelics can be as dry and tedious as any other academic subject) to more informal and autobiographical (yet somehow more compelling) chapters.

Almost all of the studies cited in "Otherworlds" are very much of the pilot variety, suffering from very small sample sizes and subjects who, for obvious reasons, have a hard time concentrating on scientific tasks or filling out questionnaires. It's hard to answer a doctor's question when a fifty-eyed pinecone with multiple tentacles is floating around the ceiling and the walls are made of melting fire.

That said, it's quite possible that in the coming years "Otherworlds" may be regarded as an early respectable attempt to probe the psionic potential of plants and their derivatives long rumored to possess such powers. Or, if incontrovertible proof somehow does emerge that it's all bunk, then it will still make an interesting addition to any collection of pseudoscientific tomes. Phrenology might be a sham, but those little model heads with their various labeled regions like "amor" and "caution" are not entirely without their charms.

Time will tell.

[Ville Salmensuu · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is a collection of previously published articles with some additional commentary by the author who is a psychedelic and psychology researcher, lecturer at Greenwich university and a psychonaut, i.e. himself user of psychedelic drugs. A wealth of references, but the readability could be improved and there is some repetition. Many articles are literature surveys of various psychedelics and their traditional use around the world, or on their effects. The author seems to be most interested in connections to the supernatural and he describes one parapsychology/psi/clairvoyance experiment he ran on himself while under influence. As he admits, the research is very much exploratory in nature, and not very surprisingly there is little repeatable evidence and indeed inherent difficulties as the research subjects often find the required tasks rather boring. In recent years, the psychedelic research seems to be going through a renaissance with promising results in treatment-resistant depression and anxiety in terminal cancer, etc.

The previous publications listed by the author, which appear to be included in the book:
Chapter 1: Notes on getting cactus lodged in your reducing valve: San Pedro and psychic abilities. In R. Heaven (Ed). Cactus of mystery: The shamanic powers of the Peruvian San Pedro cactus
Chapter 2: Psychedelic possession: The growing incorporation of incorporation into ayahuasca use. In J. Hunter and D. Luke (Eds). Talking with the spirits: Ethnographies from between the worlds.
Chapter 3: The induction of synaesthesia with chemical agents: A systematic review. Frontiers in Psychology.
Chapter 4: Rock art or Rorschach: Is there more to entoptics than meets the eye? Time & Mind: The Journal of Archaeology, Consciousness & Culture
Chapter 5: Discarnate entities and dimethyltryptamine (DMT): Psychopharmacology, phenomenology and ontology. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research.
Chapter 6: Disembodied eyes revisited. An investigation into the ontology of entheogenic entity encounters. Entheogen Review: The Journal of Unauthorized Research on Visionary Plants and Drugs
Chapter 7: Psychedelics and species connectedness. Bulletin of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies.
Also: Ecopsychology and the psychedelic experience. European Journal of Ecopsychology.
Chapters 8-14: Psychoactive substances and paranormal phenomena: A comprehensive review. International Journal of Transpersonal Studies. Also: Drugs and psi phenomena. In E. Cardena, J. Palmer, and D. Marcusson-Clavertz (Eds), Parapsychology: A handbook for the 21st century.