Reason evidence is proof
The topic for the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies (BICS) (https://bigelowinstitute.org/) is “What is the best available evidence for the Survival of Human Consciousness after Permanent Bodily Death?”
The essays have not been posted as I write this but I have seen a few of the winners. My fear is that they will be mostly compilations of stories, and summaries of past research. If so, the essay contest will not have achieved its goal of furthering the study of survival. Instead, it will just be a grand review of parapsychology.
As I wrote my entry, (https://ethericstudies.org/case-for-the-survival-hypothesis/) I was visualizing many winning essay explaining evidence and why the evidence is considered evidential. A compilation does not provide that.
Most “evidence” for survival is either witness accounts research results that can be explained with the Super-Psi Hypothesis. In that hypothesis, mind and thought are modeled as being nonphysical. The influence of thought is referred to as Psi. It is propagated in the Psi Field, which is seen as a nonphysical. In Super-Psi, it is hypothesized that anomalous access of information (psychic or psi functioning), must be from someone's mind or residual memory in the Psi Field. None comes from discarnate personalities.
Evidence of survival cannot be based on the fact that the incarnate loved one is in a different room from the medium. This is because the Psi Field has been shown to be nonlocal, meaning that the information is everywhere. Also, we know of no way to shield from Psi. That is also why I say an EVP is enabled by the practitioner or an interested observe providing the trans-etheric conduit. The interested observer could be in the next country.
The question that I need to learn how to properly express is “Is an example evidential, and if so, why?” For instance, why is a mediumistically delivered message from a dead person evidence of survival. Why is it not evidence of Super-Psi. An explanation of proof most address that question to be evidential.
