David Yaden, PhD

Associate Professor

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. He is the author of The Varieties of Spiritual Experiences: 21st Century Research and Perspectives for Oxford University Press and over 100 peer-reviewed scientific articles. His scientific and scholarly work has been covered by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, New York Magazine, CNN, BBC, and NPR.