Ten Zen Questions

Use Zen meditation to unravel the mysteries of consciousness.

Using Zen meditation to unravel the mysteries of consciousness.

The calming and de-stressing benefits of Zen meditation have long been known, but scientists are now considering its huge potential to influence our ability to understand and experience consciousness – though few will say it!

Susan Blackmore is about to change all that: she’s a world expert in brain science who has also been practising Zen meditation for over twenty-five years. In this revolutionary book, she doesn’t push any religious or spiritual agenda but simply presents the methods used in Zen as an aid to help us understand consciousness and identity – concepts which have stumped scientists and philosophers – in an exciting new way. Each chapter takes as its starting point one of Zen’s - and science's - most intriguing questions such as, "Am I conscious now?" and "How does thought arise?"

Susan Blackmore is a psychologist and writer whose research on consciousness, memes, and anomalous experiences has been published in over sixty academic papers, as well as book chapters, reviews, and popular articles. She has a regular blog in the Guardian, and often appears on radio and television. Her book The Meme Machine (1999) has been translated into 12 other languages and more recent books include a textbook, Consciousness: An Introduction (2003), and Conversations on Consciousness (2005).