Dr. Pascal Michael

Dr. Pascal Michael received a BSc Hons (University of Aberdeen) in Neuroscience, where he helped show the neurotrophic capacity of the Omega-3 fatty-acid EPA, and an MSc (University College London) in Clinical Mental Health Sciences, exploring the post-acute effects on well being of DMT. He completed his PhD in Psychology at the University of Greenwich in 2023 on a comparative analysis of the neurophenomenology of DMT (and analogous psychedelics) and the near-death experience (NDE), involving the first conceived field study of DMT use. He has been a lecturer there since, teaching and researching on his interests broadly encompassed by ‘exceptional human experiences’ and their potential unification. This involves the neurophenomenological resonances between the psychical research programme of ‘survival’ (near-death experiences, mediumship), thanatology including experiences of grief, parapsychological phenomena (e.g.precognition), ufological investigation (including alien abduction experience), and lucid dreams. His central angle of inquiry is how such experiences may be evinced by or simulated with psychedelics, and their meaning-making, self-transcendent potential.

Pascal has presented at the largest European conference on psychedelics, Breaking Conventions, and has been invited to give talks for private symposia like the Tyringham Initiative, which aimed to understand the entity encounter, and give keynotes such as for the Institute of Psychedelic Therapy. He has also published multiple journal articles, including some of the most read articles in Frontiers in Psychology. He is the program lead of the professional certificate in Psychedelics, Altered States and Transpersonal Psychology, and research supervisor at the Alef Trust. He is an advisor for both Noonautics and the Tyringham Initiative, and was the 2020 recipient of the Parapsychological Association’s Schmeidler Outstanding Student award. In 2024, he was listed as one of the top 25 emerging psychedelic researchers and thinkers by Webdelics.com.