THE OTHER;

	In the first half of Sunday night's program, George Knapp welcomed legendary paranormal writer, Brad Steiger, who reflected on his prodigious career researching the unexplained and shared his thoughts on what may be behind encounters with otherworldly beings. Based on his experience looking at a vast array of paranormal phenomena, he surmised that "some external intelligence has been consistently trying to make contact with us or to teach us." To that end, he recalled being surprised to notice, when first speaking with UFO contactees in the 1960's, that the messages allegedly imparted to them by ETs were "essentially the same thing I was hearing in spiritual séances." Furthermore, he pointed out that the seemingly silly names used by these entities can be found appearing again and again in recorded history under similar circumstances of 'contact.' Ultimately, Steiger observed that paranormal phenomena has a way of fundamentally altering the lives of those who experience it and that may be part of a larger agenda aimed a "forever expanding" humankind's concept of reality. Acknowledging the nebulous nature and varied forms this "collective intelligence" appears to take when it interacts with humans, Steiger opted for the moniker of 'The Other' for whatever is driving the phenomena. However, he also theorized that the witnesses or experiencers, themselves, play a key role in how a paranormal event unfolds by unconsciously selecting the form it takes. Over the course of his appearance, Steiger also shared the story of his near-death experience at the age of 11 as well as recollections from when the MIB phenomenon first burst upon the paranormal landscape.