Poltergeists are the most physical and tangible phenomena in the field of paranormal research. "Poltergeist" is German for a noisy ghost, an entity that can throw objects, toss furniture around the room, and even attack people. Some poltergeists have demonstrated incendiary abilities and caused fires. In certain instances, poltergeists have developed voices that give evidence of a clever, mischievous intelligence behind the phenomenon. For thousands of years, poltergeist victims, exorcists, clerics, and psychical researchers have debated whether the frightening, violent disturbances are caused by ghosts, demons, elementals, or some burst of psychokinetic energy released by the human mind in an expression of frustration, hostility, repression, or corrupted creativity. In 1965, Brad Steiger's newspaper column on the paranormal attracted the attention of Ivan T. Sanderson, noted zoologist, Fortean, and explorer of the strange and unknown. Sanderson encouraged Steiger to write a book dealing exclusively with poltergeist cases, and with Sanderson as his mentor, Steiger agreed to enter the eerie reality that is the domain of the most bizarre phenomenon in all of psychical research. Released originally in 1966 but now with a Foreword by Loren Coleman and an Afterword by Brad Steiger, Strange Guests has the distinction of being the first of Steiger's now more than 160 books that dealt exclusively with the paranormal.