Blackmore, Susan

Sue is a psychologist, writer and Visiting Lecturer at the University of the West of England, Bristol. Her PhD is in parapsychology from the University of Surrey, though she no longer works on the paranormal. Sue’s research interests include memes, evolutionary theory, consciousness, and meditation (she has practiced Zen for twenty years). Her books include The Meme Machine; Consciousness: An Introduction; and Conversations on Consciousness. Sue says the following about consciousness: “The more we understand about the brain the less room there is for a soul. Or even a self. There’s no room for either. Because all of the jobs that were previously given to the soul -- being conscious, causing actions, thinking, having insight, thinking up new ideas, being creative, all of those things – are being done by the brain. We are beginning to see how the brain does them. Also, there’s no middle. The concept of the soul is very much related to the idea that sensory stuff comes into me and I’m conscious of it and then I decide what to do in response. As so we imagine that there is a sort of ‘middle,’ which is the ‘me.’ But the brain isn’t organized that way. It’s massively parallel, lots and lots of different things all going on at once with no middle. So there is this huge clash between neuroscience and how it feels… The old-fashioned view is that I’m a spirit or a soul and I’m important and I might live forever. That’s the kind of starting point for all human cultures. And science is forcing us, forcing us and forcing us and forcing us, as it forced us to see that the earth is not the center of the universe, to see that we’re not a spirit, we’re not a soul, we’re not even a little self inhabiting our brains….But we haven’t explained consciousness yet. We haven’t done it. That’s what makes neuroscience so absolutely gripping and wonderful because it’s pushing us up against that most human of questions. And we will, sometime I’m sure, come to some resolution. But it won't be by getting rid of consciousness or getting rid of matter. It will be somehow seeing how they’re both the same thing. Fundamental changes are going to be needed to bring mind and matter together to see that they are the same thing. “