Invited Speaker Series 2008-2009 (NB: Revised, 23/1/09)
Abstracts and biographies

Autum term 2008

Date: 7/10/08
Speaker: Dr Susan Blackmore
Title: Is God a Dangerous Meme?
 
Abstract
God is certainly a meme; an idea (or set of loosely related ideas) that is copied from person to person, and shows a fascinating variety of survival tricks. Not only does the God meme satisfy minds that were not evolved to accurately assess the origins of the universe or the likelihood of life after death, but wraps itself up in religious memeplexes that use threats and promises to ensure their own propagation. But is it dangerous? Taking a memetic perspective we can ask how religious memes manage to infect so many people and how this infection affects individuals, societies, or indeed the whole planet.

Biography
Sue Blackmore is a freelance writer, lecturer and broadcaster, and a Visiting Lecturer at the University of the West of England, Bristol. She has a degree in psychology and physiology from Oxford University (1973) and a PhD in parapsychology from the University of Surrey (1980). Her research interests include memes, evolutionary theory, consciousness, and meditation. She practices Zen and campaigns for drug legalization. Sue Blackmore no longer works on the paranormal

Date: 21/10/08
Speaker: Dr Karen Douglas
Title: Conspiracy Beliefs: A Social Psychological Perspective
 
Abstract
Was Princess Diana murdered?  Were the American moon landings all a hoax?  Mainstream accounts of significant world events are typically accepted as the truth, but alternative accounts for such events often fall under the banner of the popular term conspiracy theories.  A conspiracy theory is defined as an attempt to explain the ultimate cause of a significant political or social event as a secret plot by a covert alliance of powerful individuals or organizations, rather than as an overt activity, accident, or natural occurrence.  Although some conspiracy theories have ultimately been shown to be true, most conspiracy theories remain as unproven and rather implausible alternative explanations to the mainstream account of events.  Nonetheless, conspiracy theories are popular and, in her research, Dr Karen Douglas has attempted to understand why this is the case.  In this talk, she will present research examining the extent to which conspiracy theories influence people’s attitudes about significant world events.  She will also present work examining the individual differences correlates of conspiracy beliefs.  Finally, she will propose a theory to explain why conspiracy theories are appealing to so many people.  

Biography
Karen Douglas was awarded her PhD in social psychology from the Australian National University in 2000.  She is currently a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Kent.  In addition to conducting work on the social psychology of conspiracy beliefs, Karen is involved in projects examining self-serving judgements of people’s suseptibility to advertising, biased language use in conversation, and hostile communication on the Internet.

Date: 11/11/08
Speaker: Kim Wade
Title: Time to Rewrite Your Autobiography? 
 
Abstract
Autobiographical memory defines us – it is the foundation on which we build our identity, so we like to believe that our memories are accurate, comprehensive and robust. But over the previous decade, memory scientists have shown that autobiographical memory can be inexact, sketchy and frail. Suggestive techniques can encourage people to generate compelling memories of wholly false events. These illusory memories are often held with great confidence, emotion, clarity and vividness – but they are not real. In this talk, Dr Kimberley Wade will review research showing that fabricated evidence – a form of suggestion – can not only alter memory, but also modify behaviour.

Biography
In 2004, Kimberley Wade completed her PhD on the development of false childhood memories at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. She worked under the guidance of Dr Maryanne Garry, and since then she has conducted research with colleagues in six different countries into why and how people come to believe in and remember events that never happened. Kimberley is particularly interested in forensic applications of memory distortions. She is currently Assistant Professor of Psychology and Deputy Director of the Centre for Memory Studies at the University of Warwick.

Date: 18/11/08
Speaker: Dr David Luke
Title: Psychoactive Plants and Psychic People: Does Psilocybin Really Cause Psi?
 
Abstract
The traditional use of psychoactive plants as sacramentals in spiritual and magical rituals has continued for thousands of years. The use of these powerful psychoactive substances has long been reported to induce ostensibly paranormal phenomena such as clairvoyance, telepathy and precognition, and they have traditionally been used expressly for these and other psychic effects the world over by the indigenous groups who use them. The question arises of whether these phenomena are genuine are not, and the evidence is reviewed here for the first time in decades. Regardless of the outcome of this review, however, the known chemistry of these plants can at least teach us something about the neurobiology of paranormal-like experiences, if not of genuine paranormal phenomena.

Biography
Dr. David Luke lectures in psychology at several London universities and is a writer and researcher with a special interest in parapsychology and altered states of consciousness. He has studied techniques of consciousness alteration from South America to India, from the perspective of scientists, shamans and Shivaites. He lives life on the edge, of Shoreditch. 

Date: 9/12/08
Speaker: Dr Christine Mohr
Title: Magical Beliefs and the Two Cerebral Hemispheres
 
Abstract
Magical thinking and/or belief is one of the productive symptoms reported from patients with schizophrenia, and is, at the same time, a common experience in the general population. In both instances, this thinking style has been related to an attenuated left hemispheric dominance for language, and a consecutive disinhibition of remote associative processing in the right hemisphere. While this right hemisphere contribution to language processing in the patient population might impinge normal conversational capacities, the same processes in the general population might facilitate creative thinking. Studies using neuropharmacological manipulations (dopamine agonistic treatment) support the view that magical belief in the general population is not simply on the continuum to psychosis, but might reflect a well-adapted personality dimension showing evolutionary advantages.

Biography
Christine Mohr did her PhD on the “neuropsychology of magical belief” at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, and has continued working in this field ever since. In 2004, she joined the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Bristol as a lecturer where she teaches Neuropsychiatry. With respect to paranormal belief, she mainly investigates and publishes on the neuropsychological correlates of these beliefs, and aims to understand why some individuals with such “bizarre” beliefs are considered by most as absolutely healthy (but spiritual), while in others it is considered pathological (psychotic). This is particularly relevant, because the dimensional, or rather quasi-dimensional view of psychosis would indicate that the healthy expression might have evolutionary advantages.

Spring term 2009

Date: 20/1/09
Speaker: Dr Rupert Sheldrake
Title: Morphic Resonance, Collective Memory and the Habits of Nature
 
Abstract
According to the hypothesis of formative causation, all self-organizing systems, including crystals, plants and animals contain an inherent memory, given by a process called morphic resonance from previous similar systems. All human beings draw upon a collective human memory, and in turn contribute to it.  Even individual memory depends on morphic resonance rather than on physical memory traces stored within the brain. This hypothesis is testable experimentally and implies that the so-called laws of nature are more like habits.

Biography
Rupert Sheldrake, Ph.D., is a biologist and author of more than 80 scientific papers and several books, including The Presence of the Past. His web site is www.sheldrake.org

Date: 3/3/09
Speaker: Dr Julian Baggini
Title: Do psychology and Philosophy Need Each Other?
 
Abstract
Traditional philosophy appears to be inadequate without psychology. It teaches logic but not all the biases of thought that are even more disruptive to good thinking than logical fallacies. Further, moral philosophy really needs to sit on a realistic psychology if it is going to work. At the same time, psychology, in as far as it makes normative claims, is inadequate without philosophy. This talk will examine some of the links between the two subjects and make some suggestions about how they should interact.

Biography
Editor of The Philosopher’s Magazine, writer and journalist.

Date: 10/3/09 (New date, postponed event of 3/02/09)
Speaker: Nick Pope
Title: The Real X Files
 
Abstract
Nick Pope will discuss the Ministry of Defence’s policy on UFOs, explain how investigations are undertaken and discuss some of the UK’s best known UFO sightings.  He’ll give some new insights into Britain’s most famous UFO incident, in Rendlesham Forest, and will discuss his investigation into a case from 1993 which involved liaison with the US Embassy and led to the Assistant Chief of the Air Staff being briefed.  Nick will also discuss the MoD’s remote viewing study and their involvement in the crop circle mystery.  Finally, Nick will talk about the Freedom of Information Act and the programme to release the MoD’s archive of UFO files, which began in May 2008.

Biography
Nick Pope used to work at the Ministry of Defence, where from 1991 to 1994 he was posted to a division where his duties included investigating UFOs. Initially sceptical, his official research and investigation convinced him that the UFO phenomenon raised important defence, national security and flight safety issues. He was particularly interested in cases where the witnesses were pilots or where UFOs were tracked on radar. Nick is now recognised as a leading authority on UFOs and the unexplained.

Date: 24/3/09
Speaker: Professor Bernard Carr
Title: Can Science Accommodate Psychic Experience?
 
Abstract
If psychic phenomena are real, it is natural to assume that they conform to natural laws rather than being supernatural, in which case they should be part of the domain of science.  In particular, since many psychic phenomena seem to involve a direct interaction between mind and the physical world, this suggests that any theoretical framework for the subject requires some sort of extension of physics. This talk discusses whether physics, in either its present or some future form, will ever be able to accommodate psi or indeed any other type of mental experience. Although some phenomena which are labelled “psychic” may turn out to be explicable in terms of current physics, Bernard Carr will argue that most are not and that these will require a different physical paradigm from the ones that currently prevail. This is not too implausible since physics regularly undergoes paradigm shifts. The new paradigm must assign a central role to consciousness and there are already indications that this is a fundamental rather than incidental feature of the Universe. He will present his own view as to what form the new paradigm might take. This entails a radical reassessment of the divide between matter and mind, famously introduced by Descartes as a way of delineating the domain of science.

Biography

Bernard Carr is Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy at Queen Mary, University of London. His professional area of research is cosmology and includes such topics as the early universe, black holes, dark matter and the anthropic principle. He has recently edited a book entitled Universe or Multiverse? His other academic interest is psychical research and he has been a member of the Society for Psychical Research for some 30 years, serving as its President in the period 2000-2004. His approach to the subject is mainly theoretical but he emphasizes its experiential as well as experimental aspects. He is particularly keen to extend physics to incorporate consciousness and associated mental and psychical.

Summer term 2009

Date: 12/5/09
Speaker: Dr Simon Singh
Title: Trick or Treatment? Alternative Medicine (and the Media) on Trial
 
Abstract
As well as discussing alternative medicine, the subject of his most recent book, Singh will also explain how it was partly inspired by a controversial TV documentary on the subject of acupuncture. TV producers have to entertain, inform and grab large audiences in an increasingly competitive media market, but how do they balance accuracy with the temptation to sensationalise? Simon Singh looks at science in the media and gives his opinion on where things went right, and where they went horribly wrong.

Biography
After completing a PhD in particle physics, Simon Singh joined the BBC and worked as a director and producer on programmes such as Tomorrow’s World and Horizon. He directed a documentary about Fermat’s Theorem, which won a BAFTA in 1997. Singh has also presented programmes on Radio 4, BBC4 and Channel 4. He is best known as the author of Fermat’s Last Theorem, The Code Book and Big Bang. His most recent book is Trick or Treatment? Alternative Medicine on Trial.