Daniel Meling is a cognitive scientist and experience researcher at the University of Zurich and University of Freiburg. He obtained a joint master’s degree in cognitive science (University of Vienna and University of Ljubljana) and specialized in enactive cognitive science and empirical phenomenological methods, including micro-phenomenology and neurophenomenology. His current PhD work focuses on the phenomenology of transformative experiences induced through meditation and psychedelics.
Rebecca Ehrenkranz is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research. She received her Ph.D. in epidemiology from the University of Pittsburgh's School of Public Health, completed a graduate training program at the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, and her MPH from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Sandeep Nayak is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University. He completed his MD at Brown University and his psychiatry residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He also works as a psychiatrist at the Addiction Treatment Services (ATS) and The Center for Addiction and Pregnancy (CAP) at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. He primarily focuses on investigating psychedelics as treatments for psychiatric conditions, particularly substance use disorders and mood disorders.
Helena Dorothea Aicher is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Zurich. Her main academic background is in psychology. During her time as a clinical psychologist at the University Hospital of Psychiatry Zurich, she joined the Department of Neuropsychopharmacology and Brain Imaging to study the effects of psychedelics and meditation. For her Ph.D., she investigated the effects of ayahuasca and its analogs on peoples' relationship to themselves and others, psychotherapy-relevant processes, underlying mechanisms, and contextual modulators with trans-disciplinary and multimethod approaches. She is currently involved in several trials applying DMT/harmine and 5MeO-DMT formulations in group and retreat settings. She is also working as a psychotherapist practicing with a limited medical use of psychedelics, and an active member of the SÄPT, involved in the training of therapists.
Michiel Van Elk is now an Associate Professor at Leiden University, where he heads the Psychedelic, Religious, Spiritual, and Mystical (PRSM) Experiences lab. He has obtained degrees in philosophy, biological psychology, and the psychology of religion. He pursued his Ph.D. in Cognitive Neuroscience at the Donders Institute in Nijmegen, followed by post-doc positions at the UCSB in CA, (USA) and the EPFL in Switzerland. He has been a Lecturer and Fulbright scholar at Stanford University and a Research Fellow at The Netherlands Institute of Advanced Studies. He studies altered states of consciousness using a variety of different methods including field research, phenomenology, psychophysical tools, and neuroimaging techniques.
Prisca Bauer is a clinician scientist at the Department for Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy at the University of Freiburg (Germany). She has a background in medicine and neuroscience. After her Ph.D. training in clinical neurophysiology and epileptology at University College London (UK), she conducted neuroimaging research on meditation and hypnosis at the Lyon Neuroscience Research Centre (France) and started training in phenomenology. Her main research interests are neurophenomenology and the mind–body problem, especially in neurological and psychiatric conditions.
Milan Scheidegger has a multidisciplinary background in medicine (MD), neuroscience (PhD), philosophy (MA), psychiatry and psychotherapy (FMH). As a Senior Physician he is currently leading the Psychedelic Research & Therapy Development group at the Department of Adult Psychiatry and Psychotherapy (Psychiatric University Clinic Zurich and the University of Zurich). Besides innovations in the field of psychedelic drug development, he co-founded Reconnect Labs AG and the non-profit organization Reconnect Foundation. His contributions to the field of consciousness research were acknowledged by a Young Investigators Award from the Swiss Society of Biological Psychiatry (2013), the Inger Salling Prize for Psychiatry (2019), and the European Varela Award (2021). He is engaged in public discourse and education around psychedelic therapy and has given talks to both academic and non-academic audiences.
David Bryce Yaden received his master’s degree and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 2012 and 2020, respectively. He is an Assistant Professor at the School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University. His research interests mainly focus on the psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and psychopharmacology of spiritual, self-transcendent, and positively transformative experiences triggered by psychedelic substances and other means.
