Kurt Stocker is a senior researcher (Privatdozent) of psychology at the University of Zurich and a project leader for consciousness studies at the ETH Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich. He investigates how the mind works. His initial contributions on the workings of the mind focused on ordinary states of consciousness and involved theoretical work (cognitive semantics) as well as empirical work (psychological experiments). Over the last years, his research focus has shifted from how the mind works in ordinary states of consciousness to how it works in altered states of consciousness. In collaboration with specialists from fields such as clinical pharmacology and psychiatry, he currently investigates the phenomenology of psychedelic experiences with a special focus on experiences that match traditional religious and contemplative experiences. For this he uses his own qualitative and quantitative psychometric tools, which are constantly further developed