ABOUT US
"Science is the bridge and the gateway to understanding spirituality"

​Founded by American psychologist and consciousness researcher Charles Tart in 1979, the main goal of the Institute for the Scientific Study of Consciousness (ISSC) is the scientific exploration of human consciousness and its different manifestations. We published the first prospective study of near-death experiences, the first triple-blind study of remote viewing, and the first quantitative objective method of assessing energy healers' work.

BICS Challenge Grant Recipient

2024: ISSC Partakes in Ground-Breaking Mediumship Research
Funded by the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies

(Support our research please)
 
In 2023, ISSC President Dr. Melvin Morse became one of the winners of the BICS Challenge, a ground-breaking research program created by the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies to support research into both the survival of human consciousness after physical death and the nature of the afterlife. Together with the ISSC team of associates, which includes Dr. Jose Miguel Gaona, MD, Ph.D., Isabelle Chauffeton Saavedra, Lance Williams Beem, MA, Raymond Moody MD, and AJ Parr, Morse conducted the groundbreaking research with the participation of nineteen hand-picked, certified mediums who were asked to connect with the afterlife over a nine-month period. 
ISSC used a revolutionary approach using Spiritual Sight (Remote Viewing) and giving the following BICS questions as numbers to assure objectively that the mediums contacted the "Other Side"  (also known as the Informational Universe) and were not influenced by the questions:

WHAT ARE THE FOUR BICS QUESTIONS

  1. “Since 1857, has the Other Side failed and Mankind failed to achieve good progress in securing human spirituality? If so, are bad spirits and bad humans winning? (given to the mediums as 621055219)
2. Explain to people on Earth why the Other Side has not failed in fostering spiritual evolution.  (given to the mediums as 292846648)
3. What difference has the Other Side made in the past 166 years in influencing humans to accelerate their spiritual progress?  (given to the mediums as 879610310)
4. To what extent have earthbound spirits since 1857 impeded, sabotaged, or distorted the progress of human spiritual evolution?  (given to the mediums as 106261065

ISSC Conducted the First Studies of Children’s Near-Death Experiences

ISSC completed the first “gold standard” prospective studies of near death experiences at Seattle Children’s Hospital in conjunction with the Departments of Neurology, Psychiatry and Intensive Care Medicine. The study conclusively documented that NDEs occur at the point of death and are not caused by a lack of oxygen to the brain, drugs, or a reaction to a fear of death.
The study resulted in three papers in the AMA’s Pediatric journals.​

ISSC Developed the First Quantitative Protocol to Assess Reiki Healers

ISSC studied the efforts of six Reiki healers to raise the white count of a severely neutropenic patient. Neutropenia is a decrease in the number of white blood cells, the body's main defense against infection. Such a decrease is common after receiving chemotherapy and increases your risk for infections.
On the one hand, the successful efforts of the Reiki healers correlated with their ability to simultaneously alter the stream of electrons in a true random number generator developed by engineers at Princeton University with a grant from the McDonald Douglas Aerospace Company.
On the other, unsuccessful efforts did not affect the stream of electrons. 
​This scientific study was published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Complementary and Alternative Medicine. This can potentially revolutionize our use of Reiki Healers in the medical field.​

Pioneer Research on Spiritual Sight (Applied Remote Viewing)

Spiritual Sight is an advanced form of the Controlled Remote Viewing Protocol successfully used by the United States Intelligence Services. Our scientific mediums developed it under the guidance of legendary remote viewer Lyn Buchanan (Men Who Stare at Goats).
​It has been successfully used in various practical situations, including remote healing (only as an adjunct to conventional medical care) and as a training tool for mediums.

First Documented Case of a Medium Contacting a Comatose Patient

ISSC scientific medium Isabelle Chauffeton Saavedra published her successful efforts to communicate with a hospitalized comatose patient, whose emotional care was improved after the reading. As he conveyed his wishes to Isabelle about music to play at his bedside and other clear detailed messages, thousands of miles away from where Isabelle was meditating, his family, friends and other people familiar with the case, were able to authenticate and validate those messages, while implementing the changes that he had requested telepathically through Isabelle's reading. This was  followed up by a second ISSC medium contacting a living elderly patient with intractable atrial fibrillation, interacting and calming her. Her atrial fibrillation spontaneously resolved during this contact. Spiritual Sight practitioners always work with involved medical professionals and use quantifiable metrics to assess its impact.

ISSC Researcher: Pioneer Study of the Brain as an Antennae to the Informational Universe.

​Theoretical physicists, including John Wheeler, have long stated that the Universe consists of information embedded in the quantum field that is the basis for reality. Dr. José Miguel Gaona, who worked with Michael Persinger, inventor of the God Helmet, is arguably the world’s expert on the numerous studies documenting all aspects of the brain’s ability to import and export information from quantum reality. He greatly expands on Dr. Morse’s early work on The God Spot, the brain’s right temporal lobe, documenting that we are all hard-wired to communicate with a conscious universe.

Research on the Spirituality of Dying 

ISSC has focused part of its efforts on investigating the act of dying, both as a physical process and a spiritual one. This involves not only near-death experiences but also afterlife communications (mediumship), shared death experiences, and parting visions, as well as the scientific exploration of the various cultural and spiritual perspectives surrounding death and the various practices associated with it across different societies and belief systems throughout the world.

Remote Healing of Tomato Plants Deliberately Infected With the Tobacco Mosaic Virus


​In a triple-blind study supervised by virologists at the University of California at Davis, Spiritual Sight demonstrated its remarkable potential by successfully healing tomato plants deliberately infected with the Tobacco Mosaic Virus. Compared to the control plants, the infected plants had more fruit, grew bigger, and entered a second life cycle. This research, a beacon of hope, was peer-reviewed, published by the University of Arizona, and presented at their International Consciousness Studies Conference in 2011.

Near-Death Experience Research

The ISSC team of NDE Researchers includes Dr. Raymond Moody, who coined the term "near-death experience" in 1975, Dr. Melvin Morse, head of the the world's first prospective study of near-death experiences, as well as Col, John Alexander, Dr. Jose Miguel Gaona and AJ Parr, who have respectively carried out independent research in this field. As a team, ISSC presently continues studying this phenomenon and its potential implications for fields such as neuroscience, psychology, and spirituality.