Steiger, Brad (1936-)

Popular writer on UFOs, reincarnation, and related paranormal subjects. Steiger was born Eugene E. Olson on February 19, 1936, in Bode, Iowa. He was educated at Luther College (1953-57) and the University of Iowa (1963). From 1957 to 1963 he was a high school English teacher in Clinton, Iowa, and then a literature and creative writing instructor at Luther College, Decorah, Iowa, from 1963 to 1967. In 1965 his first book, Ghosts, Ghouls and Other Peculiar People, was published. A series of paperbacks began to appear in 1966, and in 1967 Steiger became a full-time writer and lecturer on paranormal and ufological subjects.

Steiger produced a steady stream of books over the next 25 years (sometimes as many as six a year), and in their entirety they chronicle the whole range of paranormal subjects. He early turned his attention to UFOs with the 1966 Strangers from the Skies. He would go on to write more books on the subject than any other person (more than 15 titles). Three of these, Aquarian Revelations (1971), Revelation: The Divine Fire (1973), and The Fellowship (1988) remain important studies of the flying saucer contactee movement. In Gods of Aquarius: UFOs and the Transformation of Man (1976), he introduced the concept of "star people," human beings who are tied by some means, usually past lives, to extraterrestrials. Star people have reported contacts with otherworldly individuals who are preparing them for a transition through which humanity must go. Gods of Aquarius brought Steiger numerous letters from people claiming to be star people. He produced five books on the topic in the early 1980s.

Steiger had an important role in introducing Paul Twitch-ell and ECKANKAR to the American public. He wrote a chapter on Twitchell in an early book and followed it with an entire biographical treatment, In My Soul I Am Free (1968).

Throughout the 1970s Steiger manifested a strong interest in American indigenous cultures and produced important and empathetic books on the paranormal world of the Hawaiian Kahuna and of Native Americans. He also documented the careers of a number of prominent psychics, such as Olof Jonsson and Irene Hughes.

While Steiger has often presented a skeptical view of many of the claims of the people he discusses in his books, the overall result of his experience in the psychic and contactee community has been a belief that some external intelligence has been interacting with humanity in order both to learn about our species and to communicate some basic metaphysical truths.

Sources:

Clark, Jerome. UFOs in the 1980s. Vol. 1 of The UFO Encyclopedia. Detroit: Apogee Books, 1990.

Melton, J. Gordon, Jerome Clark, and Aidan A. Kelly. New Age Encyclopedia. Detroit: Gale Research, 1990.

Steiger, Brad. Animal Miracles: Inspirational and Heroic True Stories.

——. Aquarian Revelations. New York: Dell, 1971.

——. Gods of Aquarius: UFOs and the Transformation of Man. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976.

——. Guardian Angels and Spirit Guides: True Accounts of Benevolent Beings from the Other Side. New York: Signet, 1998.

——. He Walks with Me: True Encounters with Jesus. New York: Signet, 1998.

——. Revelation: The Divine Fire. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1973.

——. The Seed. New York: Berkley Books, 1983.

——. Shadow World. New York: Signet, 2000.

——. The Werewolf Book: The Encyclopedia of Shape-Shifting Beings. Detroit: Visible Ink Press, 1999.

Steiger, Brad, and Sherry H. Steiger. Mother Mary Speaks to Us. n.p.: N A L, 1997.

Steiger, Brad, and Joan Whritenour. New UFO Breakthrough. New York: Award, 1968.