Susan Blackmore

Susan Jane Blackmore is a British writer, lecturer, skeptic, broadcaster, and Visiting Professor at the University of Plymouth. Her research fields include memetics, parapsychology, and 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.

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 Ph.D. in parapsychology from the same university; her doctoral thesis was entitled "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 book mentioned experiments 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 researching parapsychology and the paranormal, her attitude toward the field moved from belief to skepticism.

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 fell within the definition of sleep paralysis."

Blackmore has researched memes (which she wrote about in her famous book The Meme Machine) and evolutionary theory. Her book Consciousness: An Introduction (2004) is a textbook that broadly covers 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 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 with 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 organized by the Polish Skeptics Club and Czech Skeptic's Club. At the congress, she joined Scott Lilienfeld, Zbyněk Vybíral, and Tomasz Witkowski on a panel on skeptical psychology which Michael Heap chaired.