Currently he is Research Director of the Christensen Foundation (Palo Alto) project on recovering the nature-based knowledge of ancient England. He is also Senior Adviser to the Ford Foundation funded project on worldwide indigenous wisdom - ‘The Council of Elders’ - working closely with tribal elders and medicine people to protect and document their knowledge. Brian was recently honoured by these elders, who designated him a ‘wizard’ in recognition of his work in reconstructing the shamanic traditions of the Anglo-Saxons.

Brian is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Brighton, Director of the Shaman Research Program at the University of Sussex (where he teaches his award-winning course in Shamanic Consciousness), and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He lectures internationally, and appears frequently on radio and television.

Born and educated in England, Brian then took degrees at the Universities of California, Berkeley, and Oregon, worked in Behavioral Sciences at Stanford Research Institute and at Cambridge University, England. Today he lives in the countryside of Sussex, in the south of England, in the midst of the landscape featured in The Way of Wyrd.