Steiger's "Shadow World"

When I first became interested in the UFO puzzle I was a firm devotee of the works of people like Donald Keyhoe and Leonard Stringfield - the “nuts and bolts” brigade, in other words.

Throughout my teens and early twenties, things were relatively black and white: UFOs were alien spaceships; extraterrestrials were abducting people for their DNA; and a wealth of alien debris and pulverized ET corpses - recovered from a variety of crashed UFOs - was carefully stored away at secret military bases all across the United States.

But then, one day, I woke up.

It became clear to me as time progressed and as I began to delve into other, more esoteric and - what some would call - mystical areas, that the modern day mystery that we call the UFO, was in reality merely the latest incarnation of a phenomenon that has been with us for probably as long as we have existed (and maybe even longer).

Today, I am as convinced as I ever was that a small percentage of UFO reports represent something unknown, something from elsewhere, something truly alien in a literal sense - but not extraterrestrial in origin.

Manipulation, camouflage, exploitation, deceit, trickery and deception are its calling cards. I know not at all what the origin of the UFO mystery is, but I do not believe that its presence on our planet is of benefit to us as a species in the slightest.

We are a pawn in a bigger picture; and while there is indeed interaction between our species and this other intelligence, the simplistic angle of “aliens are coming to Earth to steal our DNA so they can bolster their dying species” is far too simplistic, sci-fi driven, and wide of the mark.

As I have said before, DMT, altered states and the use of archaic rites and rituals are far more likely to invoke a UFO experience than looking at the stars on a dark night and hoping the Martians might land ever will.

And that all brings me to Brad Steiger’s book, Shadow World, re-published by the good folk at Anomalist Books seven years after it first appeared.

Steiger’s book deals with life-after-death and the multitude of beings, entities and creatures that seemingly inhabit those twilight realms that exist beyond our own. Yet, as with the UFO issue, the spirit world is not all that it seems.

Everyone loves a good ghost story; and the creepier the better - even more so with Halloween just around the corner. However, Shadow World reveals that the other-side is not just spooky and creepy: it can be downright sinister and dangerous too.

Poltergeists, animal spirits, classic cases of loved ones returning after death and more feature prominently within the pages of Steiger’s book. However, it is with respect to two key issues of Shadow World that I draw your attention: "Spirit Mimics" and "Spirit Parasites," as Steiger accurately describes them.

As the author says: “The nastiest beings in Shadow World are the Spirit Parasites, entities that are especially dominant in places where murders or other acts of violence have been perpetrated. These entities can accumulate to make any house a repository of evil. Hideous and grotesque in appearance, they most often manifest as reptilian-type entities. Quite likely, Spirit Parasites are the traditional ‘demons’ encountered throughout human history. They are also capable of possessing unaware or vulnerable humans.”

With respect to Spirit Mimics, Steiger says: “…they appear to be entities who wish to impersonate men and women in order to experience the full range of human emotions, especially those of love and companionship. And then there are those more distasteful encounters, when these entities behave in ways that are mischievious, bordering on cruel. I have come to term these entities Spirit Mimics, for they generally do excellent impersonations of us humans. For quite a period of time, these mimics can do a remarkably good job of fooling the men and women with whom they have chosen to interact.”

Although Steiger does not go down the alien path in Shadow World, it became clear to me on reading his book that the other-worldly entities - and their actions and activities - that he discusses are eerily similar in many ways to those of our so-called “aliens.”

Of course, as most students of ufology will know, such parallels have been made on many occasions - the problem is that for the die-hard “nuts and bolts” crew, it’s far easier to ignore such controversial matters.

The work of Whitley Strieber, example, demonstrates for me, at least, that our “aliens” may inhabit a realm of existence that straddles both the physical world and that of the after-life. There are numerous accounts of so-called alien abductees experiencing phenomena in their homes and lives that an investigator of what, in simplistic terms, we might call “the paranormal” would ascribe to the work of spirits and poltergeists. Whereas the ufologist would point to little grey men with large black eyes as being the culprits.

The reptilian appearance, the mimicry, the deception and the desire on the part of the entities that Steiger talks about to “experience the full range of human emotions”, sound awfully like our alleged aliens who earnestly claim to come from far-off star systems and worlds with weird and wonderful names, and who use us, exploit us, manipulate us, and do indeed seem to want to understand the nature of human emotion.

Interest in the human soul (and not always a positive interest - from our perspective, at least) on the part of the “ETs” is a recurrent theme in some of the more enlightening ufological works. However, you’re unlikely to see such issues discussed at some of the bigger, popular UFO gigs that are held every year. Why not? Simple: It ain’t good for business, that’s why. And, so, such matters are often relegated to the side-lines; when in reality they might be integral parts of the puzzle.

And Shadow World reveals more than a few disturbing events in which the human soul seems to be a key factor.

So, what’s my point? Well, it’s this: in the same way that the work of people like Strieber and Strassman delves deep into areas that are not at all popular with those of an “It’s all ET” mindset, so Steiger highlights case after case that will not sit will with those who see the afterlife as being one based merely around the simplistic “love and light” approach.

And although Steiger does not address the matter, a reading of his book offers further evidence (as far as I am concerned, at least) that the entities that some of us view as aliens, that some view as gods or demons, and that others view as evil spirits whose sole purpose of existence is to create misery and terror, may well all be different aspects of a single intelligence that has been with us in varied forms since time began.

Brad Steiger’s Shadow World tells us much about the harrowing nature and intent of entities that, as he notes, may well be “multidimensional beings.”

The book may also, albeit inadvertently, give us a deeper insight with respect to where we should really be looking for the answers to the UFO puzzle. And with that, I think I’m going to go outside, start a bonfire and burn my first edition of Flying Saucers Are Real.

Ufology of the 1940s and 1950s is redundant. Utterly redundant. Yet some nostalgia-driven souls still fly the flag for the “good old days” when the subject was simple, when George Adamski hung out in the Californian desert and met people from Venus, and the “aliens” regularly landed to collect their “soil samples” - always ensuring that they were seen by someone whose story would bolster the belief that, yes, ET was here.

You should buy Steiger’s book for what it tells us about the afterlife, the spirit world, and some of the stranger, malevolent, and downright hostile beings that inhabit our planet. For this reader, they may just be the little grey men of ufology, too…

To learn more about Brad Steiger’s Shadow World and purchase copies, click here.