Susan Blackmore

Susan Jane Blackmore (1951) is a British writer and lecturer known mainly for her book The Meme Machine (1999).

Career

In 1973, Susan Blackmore graduated from St. Hilda's College, University of Oxford, with honors in psychology. She completed a postgraduate degree in environmental psychology at the University of Surrey. In 1980, she obtained her Doctorate in Parapsychology from the same University.

She has carried out research on memetics that led her to write her popular book The Meme Machine.

Sue Blackmore is a freelance writer, lecturer and commentator, and visiting professor at the University of the West of England, Bristol. She holds a BSc in Psychology and Physiology from the University of Oxford (1973) and a PhD in Parapsychology from the University of Surrey (1980). Her research interests include memes and memetic theory, evolutionary theory, consciousness, and meditation. She practices Zen, although she declares herself “non-Buddhist.” Sue Blackmore no longer works on paranormal topics. She writes for several magazines and newspapers, and is a frequent contributor and presenter on radio and television. She is the author of more than seventy academic articles, a contributor to nearly fifty books and many literary reviews. His books include Beyond the Body (1982), Dying to Live (about near-death experiences, 1993), In Search of the Light (autobiography, 1996), and Test Your Psychic Powers (with Adam Hart-Davis, 1997 - soon in Spanish). Her book The Meme Machine (1999) has been translated into eleven languages. Her textbook Consciousness: An Introduction (2003) was shortlisted for the British Psychological Society Book Prize. Recent works of hers include: Consciousness: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2005) and Conversations on Consciousness (OUP, 2005).

Near-death experiences

Blackmore is also known for her skeptical view of near-death experiences. For Blackmore, these experiences are just the product of mental hallucinations. Her NDE hypothesis is known as the Dying Brain Hypothesis. In her books Dying to Live: Near-Death Experiences and Beyond The Body she recounts the out-of-body experience she had while experimenting with drugs.