Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies Releases Winning Essays from Afterlife Contest

The Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies (BICS) has released the winning essays from its $1.8 million afterlife evidence contest, which focused on entries capable of providing “in the best way the best evidence for establishing that the other side is real.”

All 29 essays may be found for free here.

According to the BICS, none of the essays have been previously published and represent a "completely novel body of work that were written specifically for the BICS essay contest."

The BICS acknowledged that there might be some disagreement in the placement of those essays selected as winners, but said in a statement that "These discussions are expected and very healthy, because they indicate the substantial number of exceptional essays that were submitted to BICS."

In a further attempt to stave off any controversy and focus on the essays’ content, the BICS also stated that the six judges responsible for picking the winners were free from any outside influence, including that of Robert Bigelow or Colm Kelleher.

Billionaire Robert Bigelow, the entrepreneur behind Budget Suites of America and Bigelow Aerospace, founded the BICS in June of 2020, and Colm Kelleher is the institute’s scientific administrator and biochemist, well-known in the paranormal community for his work investigating anomalous phenomena at Utah’s infamous Skinwalker Ranch.

Regardless of any opinions on who should have won what, in reference to the essays themselves, the BICS stated that "it will become apparent that there is a great variety of approaches that prove the case for survival of human consciousness after bodily death beyond a reasonable doubt."

The contest's top prize went to Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD for his presentation entitled Beyond the Brain: The Survival of Human Consciousness after Permanent Bodily Death. Mishlove’s evidence included "video snippets and testimonies regarding near-death experiences, reincarnation cases documented by memories of past lives, and seven other types of evidence that consciousness survives physical death," according to a report from Mystery Wire.

Mishlove received his PhD in parapsychology from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1980—the only doctoral diploma in parapsychology ever awarded by an accredited university—and currently teaches the subject at the Holmes Institute for ministers in training with the Centers for Spiritual Living.

Second prize was awarded to Dr. Pim van Lommel for The Continuity of Consciousness: A Concept Based on Scientific Research on Near-Death Experiences During Cardiac Arrest, which related the efforts of "a major study of near-death experiences as reported by patients who died of heart attacks, then were resuscitated and returned with vivid memories of what they encountered on the other side.'"

Van Lommel is a Dutch author and researcher in the field of near-death studies who studied medicine at Utrecht University, specializing in cardiology.

And third prize went to Leo Ruickbie, PhD for The Ghost in the Time Machine.

Ruickbie is a British historian and sociologist of religion, specializing in paranormal beliefs, magic, witchcraft and Wicca.

He published Witchcraft Out of the Shadows: A Complete History in 2004, and today is the editor of the Magazine of the Society for Psychical Research and a visiting fellow in Psychology at the University of Northampton, where, along with fellow prize winners Chris Roe and Cal Cooper, he’s involved with the Extraordinary Experiences and Consciousness Studies group.

Ruickbie is also currently working on a two-volume book project for the Society for Psychical Research on the theme of life after death.

The BICS stated previously that, along with the publication of the winning essays to their website, the institute intends to publish the essays in a set of five to six volumes which will then be distributed free of charge to university libraries, hospices, and to some religious institutions. The intent, they said, "is to make available this group of 29 essays to as large a group of people as possible."

So far, no plans have been made public for a similar contest in 2022.

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