Susan Blackmore

Susan Jane Blackmore (born 29 July 1951) is a British writer, lecturer, sceptic, broadcaster, and a visiting professor at the University of Plymouth. Her fields of research include memetics, parapsychology, consciousness, and she is best known for her book '' The Meme Machine''. She has written or contributed to over 40 books and 60 scholarly articles and is a contributor to ''The Guardian'' newspaper.

Career

In 1973, Susan Blackmore graduated from St Hilda's College, Oxford, with a BA (Hons) degree in psychology and physiology. She received an MSc in environmental psychology in 1974 from the University of Surrey. In 1980, she earned a PhD in parapsychology from the same university; her doctoral thesis was titled "Extrasensory Perception as a Cognitive Process." In the 1980s, Blackmore conducted psychokinesis experiments to see if her baby daughter, Emily, could influence a random number generator. The experiments were mentioned in the book to accompany the TV series '' Arthur C. Clarke's World of Strange Powers''. Blackmore taught at the University of the West of England in Bristol until 2001. After spending time in research on parapsychology and the paranormal, her attitude towards the field moved from belief to scepticism. In 1987, Blackmore wrote that she had an out-of-body experience shortly after she began running the Oxford University Society for Psychical Research (OUSPR):

Within a few weeks I had not only learned a lot about the occult and the paranormal, but I had an experience that was to have a lasting effect on me—an out-of-body experience (OBE). It happened while I was wide awake, sitting talking to friends. It lasted about three hours and included everything from a typical "astral projection," complete with a silver cord and duplicate body, to free-floating flying, and finally to a mystical experience.
It was clear to me that the doctrine of astral projection, with its astral bodies floating about on astral planes, was intellectually unsatisfactory. But to dismiss the experience as "just imagination" would be impossible without being dishonest about how it had felt at the time. It had felt quite real. Everything looked clear and vivid, and I was able to think and speak quite clearly.

In a ''New Scientist'' article in 2000, she again wrote of this:

It was just over thirty years ago that I had the dramatic out-of-body experience that convinced me of the reality of psychic phenomena and launched me on a crusade to show those closed-minded scientists that consciousness could reach beyond the body and that death was not the end. Just a few years of careful experiments changed all that. I found no psychic phenomena—only wishful thinking, self-deception, experimental error and, occasionally, fraud. I became a sceptic.

She is a Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (formerly CSICOP) and in 1991, was awarded the CSICOP Distinguished Skeptic Award.

In an article in ''The Observer'' on sleep paralysis Barbara Rowland wrote that Blackmore, "carried out a large study between 1996 and 1999 of 'paranormal' experiences, most of which clearly fell within the definition of sleep paralysis."

Blackmore has done research on memes (which she wrote about in her popular book ''The Meme Machine'') and evolutionary theory. Her book ''Consciousness: An Introduction'' (2004), is a textbook that broadly covers the field of consciousness studies. She was on the editorial board for the ''Journal of Memetics'' (an electronic journal) from 1997 to 2001, and has been a consulting editor of the '' Skeptical Inquirer'' since 1998.

She acted as one of the psychologists who was featured on the British version of the television show '' Big Brother'', speaking about the psychological state of the contestants. She is a Patron of Humanists UK.

Blackmore debated Christian apologist Alister McGrath in 2007, on the existence of God. In 2018 she debated Jordan Peterson on whether God is needed to make sense of life.

In 2017, Blackmore appeared at the 17th European Skeptics Congress (ESC) in Old Town Wrocław, Poland. This congress was organised by the Klub Sceptyków Polskich (Polish Skeptics Club) and Český klub skeptiků Sisyfos (Czech Skeptic's Club). At the congress she joined Scott Lilienfeld, Zbyněk Vybíral and Tomasz Witkowski on a panel on skeptical psychology which was chaired by Michael Heap.

Memetics and religious culture

Susan Blackmore has made contributions to the field of memetics. The term ''meme'' was coined by Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book ''The Selfish Gene''. In his foreword to Blackmore's book ''The Meme Machine'' (1999), Dawkins said, "Any theory deserves to be given its best shot, and that is what Susan Blackmore has given the theory of the meme." Other treatments of memes, that cite Blackmore, can be found in the works of Robert Aunger: ''The Electric Meme'', and Jonathan Whitty: ''A Memetic Paradigm of Project Management''.

Blackmore's treatment of memetics insists that memes are true evolutionary replicators, a second replicator that like genetics is subject to the Darwinian algorithm and undergoes evolutionary change. Her prediction on the central role played by imitation as the cultural replicator and the neural structures that must be unique to humans in order to facilitate them have recently been given further support by research on mirror neurons and the differences in extent of these structures between humans and the presumed closest branch of simian ancestors.

At the February 2008 TED conference, Blackmore introduced a special category of memes called ''temes''. Temes are memes which live in technological artifacts instead of the human mind.

Blackmore has written critically about both the flaws and redeeming qualities of religion, having said,

All kinds of infectious memes thrive in religions, in spite of being false, such as the idea of a creator god, virgin births, the subservience of women, transubstantiation, and many more. In the major religions, they are backed up by admonitions to have faith not doubt, and by untestable but ferocious rewards and punishments.

...most religions include at least two aspects which I would be sorry to lose. First is the truths that many contain in their mystical or spiritual traditions; including insights into the nature of self, time and impermanence ..The other is the rituals that we humans seem to need, marking such events as birth, death, and celebrations. Humanism provides a non-religious alternative and I have found the few such ceremonies I have attended to be a refreshing change from the Christian ones of my upbringing. I am also glad that these ceremonies allow for an eclectic mixture of songs, music and words. In spite of my lack of belief I still enjoy the ancient hymns of my childhood and I know others do too. We can and should build on our traditions rather than throwing out everything along with our childish beliefs.

In September 2010, Blackmore wrote in ''The Guardian'' that she no longer refers to religion simply as a "virus of the mind", "unless we twist the concept of a 'virus' to include something helpful and adaptive to its host as well as something harmful, it simply does not apply." Blackmore modified her position when she saw beneficial effects of religion, such as data correlating higher birth rates with the frequency of religious worship, and that "religious people can be more generous, and co-operate more in games such as the Prisoner's Dilemma, and that priming with religious concepts and belief in a 'supernatural watcher' increase the effects".

Personal life

Blackmore is an advocate of secular spirituality, an atheist, a humanist, and a practitioner of Zen, although she identifies herself as "not a Buddhist" because she is not prepared to go along with any dogma. Blackmore is a patron of Humanists UK. She is an honorary associate of the National Secular Society.

On 15 September 2010, Blackmore, along with 54 other public figures, signed an open letter published in ''The Guardian'', stating their opposition to Pope Benedict XVI's state visit to the UK.

Regarding her personal view on a scientific understanding of consciousness, she considers herself to be an illusionist; she believes phenomenal consciousness is an "illusion" and "grand delusion".

She is married to the writer Adam Hart-Davis. Blackmore endured a bout of chronic fatigue syndrome in 1995.

Publications

Books

*—; Troscianko, E. (2018). ''Consciousness: An Introduction'', (3rd ed.). London, Routledge. 2018. . . OCLC 1008770304.
*''Seeing Myself : the new science of out-of-body experiences''. 2018. ROBINSON. . OCLC 1015243143.
*''Consciousness: A Very Short Introduction''. Very Short Introductions. Oxford University Press. 2017 (2nd Ed). .
*''Consciousness: An Introduction'', (2nd Ed). New York, Oxford University Press, Feb 2011, pb
*''Zen and the Art of Consciousness'', Oxford, Oneworld Publications (2011),
*''Consciousness: An Introduction'' (2nd Ed). London, Hodder Education (2010) . .
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Selected articles

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References

External links

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Susan (Sue) Blackmore's blog
at ''The Guardian''
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** TED Talk
Susan Blackmore: Memes and "temes"
(TED2008)

Debate on the motion "belief in God is a dangerous delusion"
between Blackmore and Alister McGrath (author of ''The Dawkins Delusion'') at Bristol University on 13 November 2007.

Web of Stories
(2:12), Susan Blackmore, first of 23 parts.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blackmore, Susan
1951 births
20th-century atheists
20th-century British women scientists
20th-century British women writers
20th-century British essayists
20th-century British psychologists
21st-century atheists
21st-century British women scientists
21st-century British women writers
21st-century British essayists
21st-century British psychologists
Academics from London
Alumni of St Hilda's College, Oxford
Alumni of the University of Surrey
British atheism activists
British atheists
British humanists
British women essayists
British women non-fiction writers
British consciousness researchers and theorists
Critics of parapsychology
British critics of religions
Critics of the Catholic Church
English sceptics
English writers on paranormal topics
Environmental writers
Living people
Memetics
British parapsychologists
People with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome
Writers about religion and science