Professor Miguel Farias is the founding director of the Brain, Belief, & Behaviour lab at Coventry University where he is an Associate Professor, and the Director of Psychological Studies at SCIO, Wycliffe Hall, Oxford University. He is an expert on the science of meditation, and in the interaction between cognitive-behavioural and biological aspects of spiritual practices and experiences. He studied at the University of Lisbon, followed by a doctorate in experimental psychology at Oxford University (2000-2004), and an MA in the study of religion/religious experience at the University of Wales, Lampeter (2005). He was a postdoctoral researcher at Cambridge University and Oxford University (2005-2007) and a Lecturer in Experimental Psychology at Oxford University (2008-2013). He has been principal investigator or co-principal investigator in 14 research grants, and his work has been reported across international newspaper and magazines, radio and tv documentaries. He has written for New Scientist, Spectator, and the BBC. In 2017 he won the William Bier award, given by the American Psychological Association, Division 36, for his contributions to the psychological study of spirituality. His book The Buddha Pill: Can Meditation Change You?, with Catherine Wikholm, has been translated into various languages.