I am interested in unusual individual experiences, commonly described as religious, spiritual, mystical, psychedelic, etc. I study evolutionary mechanisms of human cognition, allowing us to have religious experiences, and how these mechanisms intertwine with cultural learning and socialization processes. Furthermore, I am asking about the evolutionary purpose of the human ability to experience religious and other related experiences. My research's main theoretical framework is predictive processing theory, the cognitive-computational theory of human consciousness and perception. The primary research method I am using is an experiment. However, to better understand religious experiences' social and cultural context, I am also working on field research of alternative-spiritual practices.

Feel free to contact me at jnenadalova@mail.muni.cz.