Psychedelic Use, Law, and Spiritual Experience (PULSE) Affiliated Researcher

Gruss Visiting Professor, Harvard Law School (Spring 2025)

Rabbi Dr. Jay Michaelson is a field scholar at the Emory Center for Psychedelics and Spirituality, and will be the Gruss Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School in Spring, 2025. He holds a Ph.D. in Jewish Thought from Hebrew University, a J.D. from Yale Law School, and nondenominational rabbinic ordination. Dr. Michaelson’s scholarly work focuses on mysticism, eros, and contemplative practice; his work on psychedelics includes the seminal 2008 article “Ayahuasca and Kabbalah,” participation in the first-ever Jewish Psychedelic Summit, and a recent Harvard Divinity School panel on “Are Psychedelics Theologically Significant for Judaism?” He is also the author of ten books, including God vs. Gay? The Religious Case for Equality; a Lambda Literary Award finalist; and The Heresy of Jacob Frank: From Jewish Messianism to Esoteric Myth, which won the 2023 National Jewish Book Award for scholarship. Outside the academy, Dr. Michaelson works as a journalist, teacher, and rabbi.  He is a frequent commentator on CNN and a contributor to Rolling Stone, The Forward, and other publication. Jay is a longtime teacher of meditation and spirituality, and is authorized to teach in a Theravadan Buddhist lineage.