The Case for Postmortem Survival from the Winners of the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies Essay Contest: A Level of Evidence Analysis

Tressoldi, Patrizio; Rock, Adam J.; Pederzoli, Luciano

doi:10.31234/osf.io/pr364

Cited by 2 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 13 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Tressoldi et al (2022) to substantiate this assessment. 3 The "Ranking the Survival Evidence" section was more than twice as long as the next largest section, "What Does the Total Available Relevant Evidence Tell Us?"…”

mentioning

confidence: 77%

Final Reply: When Will Survival Researchers Move Past Defending the Indefensible?

Augustine¹

2022

JSE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The failure of five psychical researchers to confront my critique of Bigelow Institute contest-winning essays with counterpoints or concessions responsive to its novel criticisms is disappointing. Their defensive and scattershot reply lost sight of whether the critiqued essays met their directive to provide “hard evidence ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’” of the survival of human consciousness. Those who claim that science should expand its metaphysically conservative picture to include things otherwise not known to exist assume the burden of showing what they claim. My interlocutors’ almost exclusively testimonial evidence does not adhere to the long-standing scientific principles required by the scientific community. For the kind of evidence that could be publicly confirmed is simply not the kind that survival researchers have been able to provide, just as we would expect of a hodgepodge of deception, embellishment, malobservation, misreporting, self-deception, and so on; but which would be surprising on the hypothesis that discarnate personal survival occurs. The survival evidence does not even survive elementary scrutiny, let alone outweigh our everyday experience of the biological fragility of our own minds. The totality of the evidence renders discarnate personal survival highly unlikely. Attempts to reinterpret this evidence away through various analogies fail because a hypothesis that makes false predictions, like that of the independence of individual consciousness from a functioning brain, will continue to make them no matter what analogy one uses to illustrate it.

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 77%

Final Reply: When Will Survival Researchers Move Past Defending the Indefensible?

Augustine¹

2022

JSE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Therefore, BICS will accept evidence and eyewitness testimony supporting the legal requirement that establishes proof beyond a reasonable doubt." This phrase "proof beyond a reasonable doubt" was included in an attempt to encourage essay applicants to cite additional evidence in their essays that lay beyond the traditional scientific standardized levels of evidence (see, for example Tressoldi et al, 2022). In doing so, BICS was placing a value on eyewitness testimony and personal anomalous experiences as potential supporting evidence for submitting a 25,000word essay on the SOHC.…”

Section: What Is Bics?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In doing so, BICS was placing a value on eyewitness testimony and personal anomalous experiences as potential supporting evidence for submitting a 25,000word essay on the SOHC. In addition to scientific evidence hierarchy (Tressoldi et al, 2022) that included reviews of experimental studies, BICS was also interested in the potential inclusion of ethnographic and participant observer research in essays.…”

Section: What Is Bics?mentioning

confidence: 99%

The 2021 Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies (BICS) Essay Contest

Kelleher¹,

Bigelow²

2022

JSE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BICS was founded in 2020 to communicate, facilitate, educate, and organize scientific research and exploration into the survival of human consciousness (SOHC) after permanent bodily death. In early 2021 BICS announced an essay contest on the best evidence for survival of human consciousness with $950,000 in prizes. Essay contestants were tasked to present evidence for SOHC after death beyond a reasonable doubt. “Beyond a reasonable doubt” is the most demanding and rigorous burden of proof in the criminal justice legal system and BICS challenged essay contestants to achieve this very high bar in order to maximize the focus on presentation of evidence from as many directions and sources as possible. By December 2020, seven respected judges from the research and academic communities were recruited. BICS received 1300 applications from all continents and invited 264 authors and groups of authors to submit essays. 204 essays were received from 38 countries. Following an intensive five-month judging process, a large group of essays was down-selected. So high was the standard among the dozens of essays that the judges had difficulty in choosing three essays for the top prizes. After several more rounds, eventually 29 essays were chosen and the prize money was increased from $950,000 to $1,800,000. Prizes were awarded at a gala in Las Vegas on December 4, 2021. Following the conclusion of the BICS essay contest, the organization is preparing for another major program. On September 1, 2022, BICS will unveil “Challenge 2023,” which is a targeted grants program that is aimed at funding research proposals on SOHC with a particular focus on contact and communication with the afterlife.

show abstract

The Case for Postmortem Survival from the Winners of the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies Essay Contest: A Level of Evidence Analysis

Cited by 2 publications

References 13 publications

Final Reply: When Will Survival Researchers Move Past Defending the Indefensible?

Final Reply: When Will Survival Researchers Move Past Defending the Indefensible?

The 2021 Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies (BICS) Essay Contest

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About