Areas of specialization: Jewish and comparative mysticism, Abrahamic contemplative traditions, spirituality and clinical practice, and the cognitive science of religion.
Nathan Fisher is currently a PhD Candidate in Religious Studies, with a concentration in Cognitive Science, at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He graduated from Vanderbilt University with a B.A. in Religious Studies (Honors) in 2011. He then joined the Clinical and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory at Brown University where he managed the “Varieties of Contemplative Experience” study from 2012-2015, for which he received a Francisco J. Varela Research Award from the Mind and Life Institute. He began his PhD program in the fall of 2015 and his dissertation explores The Dark Nights of the Soul in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Meditative Paths through the lens of complex systems-based approaches to cognitive and clinical science. His broader research interests include: Jewish and Comparative Mysticism, Abrahamic Contemplative Traditions, Differential Diagnosis at the intersection of Spirituality and Clinical Practice, and 4E Cognitive Science of Religion.