Michiel van Elk completed his PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience at the Donders Institute in Nijmegen (cum laude). He worked as a visiting researcher at the University of California Santa Barbara (2010), as a Marie Curie post-dotoral fellow at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland (2010-2012), as a Fulbright Scholar at Stanford University (2017), as a Research Fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies (NIAS) in Amsterdam (2019-2010) and as Assistant Professor at the University of Amsterdam (2013-2020). Since 2020 Michiel is affiliated as Associate Professor to the University of Leiden and as an affiliate researcher at VU University. Supported by grants from the Templeton Foundation, NWO and the BIAL Foundation he supervises the PRSM Lab, which focuses on the study of Psychedelic, Religious, Spiritual and Mystical Experiences.  By using a variety of different techniques, including self-report measures, interviews, expectancy manipulations, neuroimaging tools, psychophysiological techniques and pharmacological challenges the aim of the lab is to understand how PRSM experiences come about, the effects they have on our behavior and well-being and the philosophical implications of PRSM experiences for our views on the self and reality.