Michiel van Elk is an associate professor at the unit of Cognitive Psychology of the Institute of Psychology. Michiel completed his PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience at the Donders Institute in Nijmegen. In 2010, he worked as a researcher at the University of California Santa Barbara and then as a postdoctoral fellow in Switzerland. Michiel’s research focuses on religious and spiritual experiences.
Colloquium Presentation: 03 December 2021
Putting Psychedelics in Perspective
Abstract
In this talk I will present new research plans for the NWO funded VIDI project ‘Putting Psychedelics in Perspective’. The last decade we have witnessed a psychedelic revival, reflected in an increased societal interest, a flurry of clinical applications and a boost of scientific research. At the same time, both the popular and the scientific debates about psychedelics are highly polarized. Proponents argue that psychedelics, such as LSD and psilocybin, can induce mystical experiences with a profound impact on people’s lives and a strong therapeutic potential for biomedical disorders. Skeptics point out the potential dangers of recreational and semi-therapeutic psychedelic drug use – especially in light of the absence of clear guidelines and best practices. Currently there is a lack of integration between these two perspectives. The aim of this project is to fill this gap, by setting up a research program to study the psychological and neurocognitive mechanisms underlying psychedelically induced mystical experiences. I present the research proposal for four different inter-related quantitative high-powered studies, which will focus on (1) neurocognitive and bodily effects of psychedelics, (2) how prior expectations (i.e., often referred to as ‘set’) shape psychedelic experiences, and (3) the efficacy of psychedelics compared to other techniques to induce mystical experiences. An integral part of the project is to replicate key findings from the scientific literature through the use of Open Science Practices and Bayesian statistics.