Special Guest Speaker

Lawrence Blair

Dr. Lawrence Blair is an explorer, author and film-maker who has spent much of the last 40 years based in Indonesia. He has appeared widely on international tv and radio, discussing his field of psycho anthropology, strange creatures and tribal mysticism.

Educated in Britain, France and Mexico, Lawrence earned his doctorate at Lancaster University’s Department of Comparative Religion, England. His doctoral thesis, which explored and defined the field of psycho anthropology, was subsequently published as a widely successful book: " Rhythms of Vision - the Changing Patterns of Belief".  

Lawrence is the creator (with his late brother, Lorne) of the Emmy award-winning TV series RING OF FIRE, (PBS in the States, and BBC in the UK) which helped awaken the world to Indonesia’s existence in the 1980's and 90’s.  He is also author of the companion book RING OF FIRE, chronicling his and his brother's ten years of adventure filming in Indonesia - a book which remained for ten weeks on the top-ten, non-fiction best-seller list in the UK. 

Lawrence is also the writer and presenter of SKY TV UK's tv series MYTHS, MAGIC AND MONSTERS, which explores the stranger sides of both nature and the human mind. In addition to having been Visiting Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Southern California, Lawrence has written, produced and presented numerous adventure documentaries for international tv, including Omnimax/Eyemax feature documentaries such as "BARAKA", and "RING OF FIRE - Volcanoes of the Pacific Rim".  More recently he produced and presented the film BALI – ISLAND OF THE DOGS. Lawrence is much in demand as a public speaker for both corporations and expeditionary vessels.