About me
I am a psychologist and academic researcher. I am particularly interested in the study of the social and cognitive foundations of religious and spiritual experiences. My work also explores the implications of religion and spirituality for mental health. In this website, you will know more about my work and that of my research colleagues on the psychology of religious experience and related topics.
My CV
I am a professor at the Post-Graduate Program on Religious Studies of the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, Brazil. I was a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Oxford (SCIO – Scholarship and Christianity in Oxford), and Coventry University (Brain, Belief, and Behaviour Lab). I received my doctoral degree in Social Psychology from the Institute of Psychology of the University of São Paulo, Brazil, where I also carried out postdoc research. I am currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Parapsychological Association (USA).
Research
My research interests include topics such as:
Experiences deemed Religious, Mystical or Anomalous, their socio-cultural aspects, neurophysiological basis and relations with Altered States of Consciousness;
Spirituality, Religion and Health;
Dissociation and Dissociative Disorders;
Trance and Dissociation in Religious contexts;
Cross-Cultural Research;
Historical Approaches to Psychological and Psychiatric Studies on Religion
The Psychology of Atheism
Research Group on Religious Experience and Altered States of Consciousness
The Research Group on Religious Experience and Altered States of Consciousness is an interdisciplinary team of students and researchers devoted to the study of the complex interrelationship between religious, spiritual or mystical experiences and diverse phenomena of alterations in consciousness, such as dissociation, trance and ecstatic states.
