David B. Yaden and Arielle Saiber: The Varieties of Spiritual Experience

David B. Yaden's The Varieties of Spiritual Experience has been, for us at The Ivy, one of those books that expands our understanding of the work that is happening in Baltimore, and the ways that ripples out into the world at large. This is a cutting-edge guide to the psychology and neuroscience of spiritual experiences written by two renowned scientists in the field. It invites readers into contemporary psychology and neuroscience laboratories around the world to learn about these elusive yet profound inner events.

Join author Dr. David B. Yaden at Bird in Hand with Dr. Arielle Saber, who researches altered states of consciousness in medieval and Renaissance Italian literature, for a conversation on this exciting topic.

Order THE VARIETIES OF SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE here.

David B. Yaden, PhD, is an Associate Professor and the Roland Griffiths Professor of Psychedelic Research at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research. Since his doctoral work in Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, his research focus has been on the psychology and neuroscience of psychedelic and psychedelic-like mental states. Specifically, David seeks to understand how brief experiences can occasionally result in long-term changes to well-being. He also aims to characterize, quantify, and communicate the risks of such experiences and make progress on the relevant ethical issues. He is the recipient of NIH funding for a psychedelic clinical trial and is conducting several other psychedelic drug administration studies in his lab, The Yaden Lab. He is the founder of The Psychedelic Archive Project, which aims to be the world’s largest repository of accounts of psychedelic and psychedelic-like states across history and culture. He is the co-founder and Associate Director of The Hub at Oxford for Psychedelic Ethics (HOPE) and is a Research Associate at the Uehiro Oxford Institute at the University of Oxford.

Arielle Saiber is Charles S. Singleton Professor of Italian Studies in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures. Saiber's books include Images of Quattrocento Florence: Writings on Literature, History and Art co-edited with Stefano U. Baldassarri; Giordano Bruno and the Geometry of Language ; and Measured Words: Computation and Writing in Renaissance Italy. Saiber publishes primarily on Dante, on the intersections between premodern Italian literature and mathematics/science, and visual interpretations of Dante’s Commedia. She has also published on early print history, science fiction, and experimental electronic music. Her current research is on altered states of consciousness in medieval and Renaissance Italian literature.

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