A Scientific, Educational, and Institutional Framework
for the Study of Consciousness
Founding Framework for The Institute For Advanced Consciousness Studies (TIFACS.org)
Submitted to the University of Arizona Center for Consciousness StudiesÂ
The Institute for Advanced Consciousness Studies (TIFACS) is a proposed independent organization dedicated to advancing the scientific study of consciousness through coordinated research, education, and public policy.
Research relevant to consciousness—including neuroscience, near-death experiences, children’s reported past-life memories, remote viewing, anomalous cognition, quantum theories of consciousness, and unidentified anomalous phenomena—is currently dispersed across universities, private research organizations, government agencies, and independent investigators.
Although significant work has been conducted within many of these disciplines, no single institution exists to organize this research within a common scientific and educational framework. TIFACS is proposed to fill that gap.
Its mission is to encourage rigorous scientific investigation, establish research standards, support interdisciplinary collaboration, develop university-level educational programs, and provide policymakers with objective analyses concerning discoveries that may have broad scientific and societal implications.
The Institute is not intended to promote predetermined conclusions. Rather, it seeks to create an enduring institutional framework in which competing hypotheses can be examined openly, evidence can be evaluated objectively, and future discoveries can be investigated using established scientific methods.
The proposal outlines an initial organizational structure, a multidisciplinary Science Board, a long-term research roadmap, educational initiatives, and a series of Grand Challenges designed to guide future work in consciousness science.
It also identifies opportunities for collaboration among universities, nonprofit research organizations, government institutions, and private philanthropy.
This proposal is submitted for scholarly review and constructive criticism. Readers are encouraged to evaluate the institutional framework presented here, identify weaknesses, recommend improvements, and suggest additional avenues of research or collaboration.
Whether the hypotheses discussed in these pages are ultimately confirmed, modified, or refuted, the underlying premise remains the same: questions with potentially profound implications for science, education, public policy, and humanity’s future deserve careful, transparent, and interdisciplinary investigation.
The objective of TIFACS is to help provide the institutional foundation through which that work can responsibly proceed.
Why This Matters
- Science cannot explain these phenomena using material models
- Government and academia lack a unified framework
- Humanity is encountering both simultaneously
