Pascal Michael, PhD

Lecturer

Email: pascal.michael@aleftrust.org

Biography

Pascal received a BSc Hons (University of Aberdeen) in Neuroscience, where he identified 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 wellbeing of DMT. He completed a PhD at the University of Greenwich with Dr. David Luke, where his research encompassed nuanced qualitative analyses of mystical-type human experiences, both neuropharmacological and spontaneous. Specifically, comparing the DMT experience, based on the first conceived field study of DMT use, with the near-death experience (NDE). He is presently a lecturer in Psychology there, teaching and researching on psychedelics; psychical research focussing on survival, ufology and entity encounters; neuroscience and clinical psychology.

Pascal has presented at conferences such as Breaking Conventions, has been invited to give talks such as with the Psychedelic Society UK and the Tyringham Initiative (a private symposium on the entity encounter), and his articles have appeared in journals such as Frontiers. He is the co-lead for the ALEF Trust’s certificate in Psychedelics, Altered States and Transpersonal Psychology, and is the 2020 recipient of the Parapsychology Association’s Schmeidler Outstanding Student Award.

When he’s not researching academically, he relishes spending time writing blog articles or poetry pieces, about the synaptic junction (like in Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam) lying at the nexus between the naturalistic and supernatural, especially around film. He is also an amateur actor and drum player.

Research interests

Pascal’s research interests are broadly encompassed by ‘exceptional human experiences’, the characteristic of which is finding unification between ostensibly disparate anomalous experiences. This would include, but is not limited to, resonances between the psychical research programme of ‘survival’ (near-death experiences, mediumship, reincarnation), parapsychological phenomena (e.g. precognition), and ufological investigation (including alien abduction experience) and other entity encounters. His methodological approaches are qualitative, and lens is non-reductively neuroscientific, where his central angle of inquiry is how such experiences may be evinced by or intersect with psychedelics.

Key publications

Michael, P., Luke, D., & Robinson, O. (2023). This is your brain on death: A comparative analysis of a near-death experience and subsequent 5-Methoxy-DMT experience. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1083361. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1083361

Michael, P., Luke, D., & Robinson, O. (2023). An encounter with the self: a thematic and content analysis of DMT experiences from a naturalistic field study. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1083356, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1083356

Michael, P., Luke, D., & Robinson, O. (2021). An encounter with the other: a thematic and content analysis of DMT experiences from a naturalistic field study. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 720717. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.720717

Michael, P. (2021). Commentary on After: A doctor explores what near-death experiences mean for life and beyond. Journal of Near-Death Studies, 39(3), 161-183. https://doi.org/10.17514/JNDS-2021-39-3-p161-183.