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Remembering Brad Steiger, a Prolific Writer of Recycled Nonsense

5/11/2018

32 Comments

 
I should probably spend a few minutes marking the passing of Brad Steiger, a longtime writer of fringe books, but to be entirely honest, it’s hard for me to say kind words about the written work of a man who steadfastly refused to learn from his mistakes for half a century. Between the 1960s and today, Steiger continued to repeat the same false claims borrowed from other writers, failed to check sources, and generally never let facts get in the way of a sensational story. That might have made him a great storyteller, but it made him a lousy researcher.
By all accounts, Steiger, who was born Eugene E. Olson in Iowa in 1936, was a beloved family man who leaves behind a wife, several children, and even more grandchildren. But his published work, which runs into the thousands of articles and nearly 200 books, is a depressing read. Steiger had an undeniable talent for spinning stories, or else he would never have maintained that level of output for most of the past five decades, but the content of his stories ranged from the speculative to the outright fake. Steiger attributed his love of the paranormal to a near-death experience he had as a child in 1947, but his lack of critical thinking and basic skepticism marked him as a full-fledged member of the New Age-adjacent fringe.
 
Steiger was an advocate for the existence of Atlantis and even old lost high civilizations. He was indifferent to ancient astronauts for most of his years, but six years ago, he explained that he believed that Star Gods came to Earth 250 million years ago and tried to make lizard-people, but, failing that, returned to induce evolution to produce humans, remembered in the Bible as the mating of the Sons of Gods and Daughters of Men.
 
In honor of Steiger, I will rerun a brief piece I wrote seven years ago about his classic compendium of shopworn fake “mysteries,” Mysteries of Time and Space.
 
The mid-1970s were a golden age of ancient astronaut silliness. Not only was Erich von Daniken putting out the first dozen or so of his ancient astronaut books, but his acolytes, including Alan Landsburg, were busy putting out their own versions of the demonstrably false thesis. Landsburg brought the story to film, producing three full-length documentaries narrated by Rod Serling: In Search of Ancient Astronauts, In Search of Ancient Mysteries, and The Outer Space Connection. Among this collection of the outrageous, we find Brad Steiger's Mysteries of Time and Space (1974), which claimed to provide "Amazing Proof That We Are Not Alone."

Let's take a look at one supposed piece of "amazing proof"...
In 1968 what appeared to be fossilized sandal prints were found in Utah. One print had a squashed trilobite in it. According to paleontology, this would indicate that someone was walking about in sandals more than 500 million years before man is supposed to have evolved. (p. 12)
Now that is one heck of a paragraph. Note how quickly Steiger moves from the apparent nature of the prints in the first sentence to a conclusive declaration in the following sentences. Then, in sentence three Steiger tries to both appropriate science (paleontology) and also cast doubt on the theory of evolution, adopting the awe and wonder of 500 million years but tempering it with an adjective ("supposed") indicating that science knows much less than Brad Steiger.

And all that doesn't even take into consideration the fact that these sandal prints, known in alternative science circles as the "Meister tracks," is nothing more than wishful thinking, credulous minds projecting their imagination onto ambiguous natural phenomena. As Glen J. Kuban writes:
The overall shape is seen to consist of a spall pattern in a concretion-like slab, similar to many others in the area. There is no evidence that it was ever part of a striding sequence, nor that it was ever on an exposed bedding plane, as real prints would be. The "print" is very shallow and shows no sign of pressure deformation or foot movement at its margin. However, on one side of the print, extending to the side of the supposed toe end is a rim or lip that is typical of similar concretions from the area, but which is incompatible in position and form to be a pressure ridge. Also, of the two halves of rock, the side that has the heel indented shows raised relief at the toe end, and vice versa, whereas in a real print one should show impression or raised relief throughout each half.
​But of course. One thing is certain: Steiger can pack one heck of a lot of false evidence and misinterpretation into the briefest of passages.
32 Comments
EGG IN YOUR FACE
5/11/2018 11:19:46 am

I really cannot wait to see what will be written here once aliens will make their presence known:)

Reply
BigNick
5/11/2018 01:10:05 pm

Please feel free to hold your breath and wait for that to happen

Reply
John Hetherington
5/11/2018 11:01:51 pm

This hate blog is despicable and evil. Bitter, gay, old white man puts it out and all he does is recycle others work.

Reply
Only Me
5/11/2018 11:48:35 pm

>>This hate blog is despicable and evil.<<

You forgot to say, "Sufferin' succotash!", Sylvester.

>>Bitter, gay, old white man...<<

The lady doth protest too much, methinks.

>>...all he does is recycle others work.<<

Ready, willing and able to prove that?

Americanegro
5/11/2018 11:58:10 pm

Have you looked at Jason's photograph? He's clearly Little Brown Brother. Kinda discredits everything you say. Ever.

JOHN hetherington
5/12/2018 12:20:48 pm

I’ve been trying to get Jason to tone some of this down. But he just gets more angry. I was one of his college professors and I am his husband. So I know.

Only Me
5/12/2018 02:53:40 pm

So, not ready and both unwilling and unable to prove "all he does is recycle others work."

Got it.

Stickler
5/11/2018 11:27:12 am

"demonstrably false"?

Reply
Machala
5/11/2018 12:08:30 pm

I was sorry to read about Brad Steiger's death, the other day.

I met him back in the 1970's. I found him to be a very charming and likeable man. I can't say we were close friends but, for some reason, over the years, our paths would occasionally cross. He was always a warm and friendly man, who -- unlike many of the fringe writer, - was always self-effacing and soft spoken.

I agree with you Jason. His work was ill-researched, sensationalist, and really "off the wall" at times. But, even you have to admit, he was a good writer, by which I mean that he could hold the reader's attention, he wrote interestingly, and he could tell a good tale - however incredible or implausible it was. I can't say that I ever believed anything he wrote, but I enjoyed reading him.

From our brief interactions over the years, I can't with certainty tell whether he sincerely believed what he was writing and saying or if this was part of the author's personae that he'd created for himself. I always felt that there was more Eugene Olson than Brad Steiger in our interactions.

For what it's worth, I found him to be a nice person and a good man. I hope someone can say the same of me when I'm gone.

Reply
Bob Jase
5/11/2018 02:30:38 pm

Brad Steiger was no Frank Edwards!

Reply
Machala
5/11/2018 04:15:50 pm

I know who Frank Edwards was but I don't remember either reading any of his stuff, or listening to him on the radio.

Reply
Only Me
5/11/2018 03:02:06 pm

Those mysterious prints are odd because our sandal-wearer was clearly running for his/her life from a pterosaur. Apparently, the Atlanteans hadn't fully tamed the beasts at that time. I hear the sex ape program was quite popular, though. You'd be amazed at what the Templars could accomplish with some cookies!

Wow, I had fun jamming that fringe stuff together. Now I see the appeal.

Reply
Jim
5/11/2018 06:51:15 pm

I believe Oreo was the Mesopotamian name for the Earth Goddess. The "milk's favorite cookie" thing is in reference to the nurturing goodness of the Earth Goddess' mothers milk.

Hey, that is kinda fun.

Reply
BigNick
5/11/2018 08:22:23 pm

I crack a smile whenever someone mentions sex apes. It's still the most insane thing I've read about on this blog, and that includes the comments section.

Reply
T. Franke link
5/11/2018 04:58:13 pm

Also Brad Steiger, like Erich von Däniken, started his career as a fringe author in the years around 1968.

Some of his works:

- The flying Saucer Menace (1966).
- with Joan Whritenour: Flying Saucers are Hostile (1967).
- Flying Saucer Invasion - Target Earth (1969).

Reply
Americanegro
5/11/2018 06:20:31 pm

Where are you institutionalized? His first book was published in 1965. This year has an 8 in it so is it "around 1968"??

You are one cherry picking MFer. Don't embarrass yourself by pretending to be an expert on the Adena.

Reply
A buddhist
5/11/2018 06:54:33 pm

I would say that within three years of 1968 is "around 1968" when talking about literary movements and trends.

T. Franke link
5/11/2018 08:46:19 pm

For our question, it is not of interest, when he published this or that book, but whether he had greater success, and when this was. The 1965 book(s) left not such an impression in the records as the books closer to 1968 did.

Americanegro
5/12/2018 12:03:53 am

"started his career" So he only started his career when he wrote something that interested you or that fits into your 1968 fetish, Bumbaclot? What is this fockery?

T. Franke link
5/12/2018 02:50:14 am

Americanegro ... Well, when do you start a career? When you write a book nobody reads? Or when you write a book with success, so you can make a living of it? Alas, you are right, my pure wording did not express explicitly the key issue. But could you please be more friendly and polite when talking with others? It is unpleasent to talk to unfriendly persons. You have lost with your way of talking even if you are right.

Americanegro
5/12/2018 02:06:10 pm

"For our question, it is not of interest"

T. Franke link
5/12/2018 04:28:01 pm

Americanegro approaches the truth very slowly, step by step. Yes, the time itself is irrelevant, the success is the relevant thing. Or the time of the success, if you will. But this is not just any time. Time itself is not the key issue. For Brad Steiger, success happened around 1968.

It was the year, Martin Luther King was killed, if you happen to have heard of him (cannot imagine, since Martin Luther King was such a polite man). And there wie are:

Martin Luther King 1966 on Flying Saucers!

"Recently, the press has been filled with reports of sightings of flying saucers. While we need not give credence to these stories, they allow our imagination to speculate on how visitors from outer space would judge us. ....."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.#Family_planning

He says: "... while we need not give credence ...", which is not a downright clear statement against it, but rather a very cautious, personal refusal, as if he is frightened to loose followers, if he is to clear in this refusal.

Americanegro
5/12/2018 04:52:29 pm

You define "success" as "does it fit my 1968 fetish?" You are a mechanic of the "If it doesn't fit, force it" school. The more you try to support your argument the more you make it suck.

T. Franke link
5/12/2018 07:01:22 pm

Americanegro ... no, I am not. The 1968 hypothesis works pretty well. In order to sell well a certain type of book you need a public which is ready to buy it. I presented several cases. By the way, I just realize that you have presented nothing, so far.

Americanegro
5/13/2018 05:56:30 am

"Americanegro ... Well, when do you start a career?"

When you publish your first book, SO NOT 1968 you idiot.

"The 1968 hypothesis works pretty well." In an 'if it doesn't fit, force it' sense, MAYBE.

What is this fockery?

Americanegro
5/11/2018 08:49:54 pm

Because MLK and Bobby Kennedy just couldn't stop getting assassinated in the sixties and early seventies, of course we had the Olympics every year with the fists and every Buddhuist New Year (that's for you Bnotforbuddhuist) it was the same old North Vietnamese offensive, and of course it was a decade of beatings in Chicago. Something happened annually in Czechoslovakia but it didn't affect me so... 1965 was also around 1962 which means it's around 1959 and also 1974. I would say butt the heck out but that's not how this site works. But Jesus effing Christ on a bicycle. "I like my cigar too but I take it out once in a while."

Reply
Machala
5/11/2018 09:09:25 pm

As philosopher Harry Frankfurt wrote in his 2005 treatise On Bullshit, “It is impossible for someone to lie unless he thinks he knows the truth. Producing bullshit requires no such conviction.”

Reply
Only Me
5/11/2018 09:55:19 pm

"The amount of energy necessary to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it." - Alberto Brandolini

Reply
GodricGlas
5/12/2018 02:27:33 pm

I’m really sorry to be post #24 here, but Cheese and Rice!
Thank you, Jason, for being, apparently, the only good soul to have noticed the passing of Eugene.
If I were a purveyor if fine bullshit, I would want to be eulogized by you, too.
It would be only proper.
Go Jason. Go Jason.
Alright then.

Reply
John
5/14/2018 11:43:28 am

I always enjoyed Steiger's books. They were at least readable.

And then I heard him on the paracast talking about vampires. He had recently written a book on the subject. I could tell that his knowledge of the subject was very shallow -- I doubt that he had read any of the "standard" texts or even much fiction about vampires. He kept referring to "Vald Dracula" when talking about Vlad the Impaler.

Reply
Purrl Gurrl
5/31/2018 07:05:08 pm

Unlike some other hucksters, I think Steiger (real name Eugene Olson) actually believed many of the wild claims and stories he wrote about. I recently listened to a discussion of his work by, of all things, a few in the UFO community who faulted him for lacking in a critical approach to his material, and agreeing he failed to ask questions he should have.

Like an eager schoolboy, he was too naive or credulous to recognize how spurious were the theories he promoted. That bouncy enthusiasm made him a decent living, and produced some entertaining, but wildly inaccurate books.

Unfortunately, his widely popular, gullible enthusiasm for unproven, off-the-wall theories contributed to the development of our voracious appetite for wild conspiracy theories that make no sense at all if one applies even a few moments of critical thinking to them.

Reply
gary semerjian
7/10/2018 01:24:28 pm

I read I believe, this particular book.

Took the sandals story hook line and sinker. Believed it for years and was so disappointed when it turned out to be bunk.

If it was the same book there was a photo of a mysterious hand that appeared on a turned off television. More bunk. unfortunately.

I agree he was an engaging writer and am not surprised to hear he was charming.

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