Susan Blackmore has an unexpected lecture experience at Oxford Royale Academy

[Jim__]

11. "... you should be open-minded enough to hear alternative views."

Really? This is what she believes?

From Blackmore's introduction to her book Conversations on Consciousness:

Secondly, I have been through all of this myself. I long ago concluded that free will must be an illusion, and so over the years I have practiced not believing in it. Eventually, with long practice, it becomes perfectly obvious that all the actions of the body are the consequences of prior events acting on a complex system; then the feeling of making free conscious decisions simply melts away. I had expected to find others who had gone through this somewhat disturbing change. Yet I was wrong. Everyone had something to say about free will, and some people had agonized about it. Dan Wegner and Pat both expressed the 'as if' option; yet, withthe possible exception of Francis, no one completely rejected the notion of free will as I do, and no one seemed to share my experience of letting it go.Indeed Susan and John did not seem to believe me that it is possible to throw it off.

... it becomes perfectly obvious that all the actions of the body are the consequences of prior events acting on a complex system; ...

Based on her claimed belief about free will and all the actions of the body, it should be perfectly obvious to her why these people got up and left - and that this action does not involve any choice. Or, maybe, things are not as perfectly obvious to her as she proclaims. And that implies she may not take being insulted at a lecture as passively as she believes she would.

Also, her proclaimed views on determinism strongly imply that her approach is wrong, but the thought never seems to cross her mind:

Walking miserably up the High Street I felt profoundly depressed at the state of the world. I could cheer myself with the thought that I’d learned something. I learned that Islam has yet another nasty meme-trick to offer – when you are offended put your hands over your ears and run away. This would be funny if it weren’t so serious. These bright, but ignorant, young people must be among the more enlightened of their contemporaries since their parents have been able and willing to send them on this course to learn something new. If even they cannot face dissent, or think for themselves, what hope is there for the rest? And what can I do?