Beyond the Brain

The Survival of Human Consciousness After Permanent Bodily Death (BICS Presentation of Survival of Consciousness Essay Contest Three Top Winners)

By: Jeffrey Mishlove

Narrated by: Frank Block

This book by Dr. Jeffrey Mishlove won the first prize winner ($500,000) in the 2021 BICS essay competition.

The best evidence in favor of an afterlife are the multiple, independent investigation approaches all pointing, in different ways, to postmortem survival. This essay includes nine categories of inquiry. Dr Mishlove examines the evidence from these nine distinct domains pointing to survival of consciousness. While each individual domain of evidence is strong, when united as a whole, they are virtually invincible.

The nine domains are: Near Death Experiences, After Death Communication, Reincarnation, Physical Mediumship, Mental Mediumship, Instrumental Trans Communication, Possession, Xenoglossy, Peak in Darien Experiences.

©2023, 2024 Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies (P)2024 Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies

Content is good, delivery is excruciating

This is a painful piece to listen to primarily because the narration is so odd. The cadence is bizarre, with pauses where no pauses should be, and frequent text segments with ending inflections where no ending inflection should be or vice versa. After having suffered through 3+ hours of this, I can only conclude that Frank Block is a brilliant narrator who has managed to nail the flat delivery and odd mechanical cadence of an AI-generated voice perfectly! If I was ElevenLabs, I would be worried.

Scholarship abounds in this essay!

After listening, I clearly see why Mishlove won first place. His essay leaves no “white crow” untouched. I have several “white crows” to add to his essay. I have no doubt that consciousness survives the death of the human body.

Mainly stories about ghost encounters

Very little went into scientific proof of life after death. This was mainly a summary of various first-hand accounts of encounters with people who who've passed away.

There was also something about the narration. I cannot put my finger on it, but there was a slight accent which made it difficult to listen to.