Brad Steiger

Brad Steiger (February 19, 1936 – May 6, 2018) was an American writer of fiction and non-fiction works on the paranormal, spirituality, UFOs, true crime and biographies. His books sold well to the public but were widely criticized by academics and skeptics for making far-fetched claims without scientific evidence.

Biography Steiger was born as Eugene E. Olson on February 19, 1936, at the Fort Dodge Lutheran Hospital during a blizzard. He grew up on a farm in Bode, Iowa. He identified as Lutheran until the age of eleven, when a near-death experience changed his religious beliefs. His parents encouraged him to become a teacher. He graduated from Luther College (Iowa) in 1957 and the University of Iowa in 1963. He taught high school English before teaching Literature and Creative Writing at his former college from 1963 to 1967. With his wife Sherry Hansen Steiger, he was the author of Four-legged Miracles: Heartwarming Tales of Lost Dogs' Journeys Home.

Steiger appeared as a radio guest on Coast to Coast AM and the Jeff Rense Program. He also declared his book Worlds Before Our Own, that the tracks at Paluxy River to be evidence for an ancient civilization of giant humans.

He was a proponent of the ancient astronauts idea. Steiger stated that many humans descend from alien beings. He referred to these beings as "star people".

Personal life

Steiger was married to Sherry Hansen Steiger, an author and minister, from 1987 to his death in 2018. They have five children and nine grandchildren.

Reception Steiger's books on UFOs, spirituality, and the paranormal have generally sold well, but have been criticized by many academics for spurious content, lack of scientific evidence, and failure to cite sources, among other reasons.

Anthropologist Bonita Freeman-Witthoft gave Steiger's Medicine Power an entirely negative review. She noted that Steiger failed to cite scholarly sources, gave faulty documentation and his reporting of mythology was inaccurate. She concluded that "It is a disappointing work of no use to scholars and of little use to a person sincerely interested in American Indian spirituality."

Sarah Higley gave Steiger's The Werewolf Book a mixed review and concluded "with a definite penchant for the sensational at the expense of the accurate, the casual reader will find much in it informative and entertaining as well."

Skeptical investigator Joe Nickell considers Steiger an unreliable source and has noted that he "endlessly cranks out books promoting paranormal claims".

His books have also drawn criticism from Jason Colavito who has stated they are filled with pseudoscientific claims.