Susan Blackmore
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox person 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.<ref name="cfs book"/>
Career
[edit]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."<ref name="bha"/> 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Blackmore taught at the University of the West of England in Bristol until 2001.<ref name= "skeptical investigations"/> After spending time in research on parapsychology and the paranormal,Template:Sfn her attitude towards the field moved from belief to scepticism.<ref name="Berger1989">Template:Cite journal</ref>Template:Sfn 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):<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Carroll2011">Template:Cite book</ref>
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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Lamont2007">Template:Cite journal</ref>
She is a Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (formerly CSICOP)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and in 1991, was awarded the CSICOP Distinguished Skeptic Award.<ref name= "skeptical investigations">Template:Cite web</ref>
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."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
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.<ref name= "Saunders2003">Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref name="CV">Template:Cite web</ref>
She acted as one of the psychologists who was featured on the British version of the television show Big Brother,<ref name="IMDb">Template:IMDb name</ref> speaking about the psychological state of the contestants. She is a Patron of Humanists UK.<ref name="bha">Template:Cite web</ref>
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.<ref name="PCR_Blackmore_v_Peterson">Template:Cite web</ref>
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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Memetics and religious culture
[edit]Susan Blackmore has made contributions to the field of memetics.<ref name="Aunger2000">Template:Cite book</ref> 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."<ref>Template:Harvc</ref> Other treatments of memes, that cite Blackmore, can be found in the works of Robert Aunger: The Electric Meme,<ref name="Aunger2002">Template:Cite book</ref> and Jonathan Whitty: A Memetic Paradigm of Project Management.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
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.<ref name= "PBS Evolution">Template:Cite episode</ref> 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.<ref name= "Hurley&Chater">Template:Cite book</ref>
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.<ref name= "Wired temes">Template:Cite news</ref>
Blackmore has written critically about both the flaws and redeeming qualities of religion, having said,<ref name="Zen Science">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="bha"/>
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".<ref name="BeckerDiewald2011">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Personal life
[edit]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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="PRI Zen">Template:Cite episode</ref> Blackmore is a patron of Humanists UK.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> She is an honorary associate of the National Secular Society.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
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.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
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".<ref name="Blackmore2017">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Blackmore2016">Template:Cite journal</ref>
She is married to the writer Adam Hart-Davis.<ref name= "IMDb"/> Blackmore endured a bout of chronic fatigue syndrome in 1995.<ref name="cfs book">Template:Cite book</ref>
Publications
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Books
[edit]- —; Troscianko, E. (2018). Consciousness: An Introduction, (3rd ed.). London, Routledge. 2018. Template:ISBN. Template:ISBN. OCLC 1008770304.
- Seeing Myself : the new science of out-of-body experiences. 2018. ROBINSON. Template:ISBN. OCLC 1015243143.
- Consciousness: A Very Short Introduction. Very Short Introductions. Oxford University Press. 2017 (2nd Ed). Template:ISBN. Template:ISBN
- Consciousness: An Introduction, (2nd Ed). New York, Oxford University Press, Feb 2011, pb Template:ISBN
- Zen and the Art of Consciousness, Oxford, Oneworld Publications (2011), Template:ISBN
- Consciousness: An Introduction (2nd Ed). London, Hodder Education (2010) . Template:Doi. Template:ISBN
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Selected articles
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References
[edit]External links
[edit]Template:Commons category Template:Wikiquote
- Template:Official website
- 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.
- Pages with broken file links
- 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