Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies Announces Winners of Afterlife Evidence Contest

Updated 11/11/21

The Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies (BICS) announced the winners of its afterlife evidence contest this week, awarding $1.8 million to the top 29 essays capable of providing “in the best way the best evidence for establishing that the other side is real.”

Billionaire Robert Bigelow, the entrepreneur behind Budget Suites of America and Bigelow Aerospace, founded the institute in June of 2020 to "support research into both the survival of human consciousness after physical death and, based on data from such studies, the nature of the afterlife."

The top prize of $500,000 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, $300,000, 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, $150,000, 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.

BICS released a statement along with the list of winners which said all 29 essays would be published to their website in the next two weeks, and that the institute intends to publish the essays in a set of five to six volumes comprising all 29 winning essays. BICS will reportedly distribute these books 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.

To report your own encounter with the impossible, reach out to us directly at the Singular Fortean Society through our contact page.

If you enjoyed this article and would like to support the Singular Fortean Society, please consider becoming an official member by signing up through our Patreon page—membership includes a ton of extra content and behind-the-scenes access to the Society’s inner workings.