Michael Brein is an author, lecturer, consultant, travel storyteller, adventurer, and publisher of
travel books and guides, as well as a fascinating book series on UFOs, the paranormal, and the
highly strange.
He earned his PhD. in social psychology, with a specialty in the psychology of all things
travel, and an MBA at the University of Hawaii.
He has had a career for more than 20 years as a college professor in psychology and
business, teaching at various universities in Hawaii, including an overseas two-year stint
teaching for the University of Maryland in Europe.
Michael was the first to coin the term “travel psychology.”
Through his doctoral studies, work, life experiences, and world travels, he became the
world's first and perhaps only travel psychologist. As “The Travel Psychologist,” he is quoted in
leading newspapers, magazines, blogs, podcasts, and other interviews worldwide, commenting
on the psychology of travel as well as UFOlogy and the paranormal.
Michael has been a member of a number of world travel clubs, including the Travelers
Century Club, whose requirement for membership is travel to a minimum of 100 countries, and
the Circumnavigators Club, which requires going around the world on one complete trip.
He was the first to complete the United Airlines “50 State Marathon” contest in 1985,
flying to all 50 U.S. states to win a first-class pass for a year on United's domestic U.S. flights,
including Hawaii.
Michael Brein’s series, Travel Guides to Sightseeing by Public Transportation, is a first
of its kind, showing travelers how to sightsee the top 50 visitor attractions in the world's most
popular cities quickly and cheaply by public transportation.
Michael also publishes his True Travel Tales series, illustrating the psychology of travel
Through the travel stories he has collected traveling the world over the last five decades,
interviewing nearly 2,000 world travelers and adventurers.
Two books in the series include Travel Tales: Women Alone, The MeToo of Travel, and
Travel Tales: Michael’s Own Best 150. Travel Tales: Close Calls & Great Escapes are now in
the works.
More books are in production.
But Michael’s main publishing activity of late has been his unique Road to Strange book
series. The first two books in the series he co-authored with the late, great Rosemary Ellen
Guiley. These are The Road to Strange: Travel Tales of the Paranormal and The Road to
Strange, UFOs, Aliens, and High Strangeness.
With the passing of Rosemary in 2019, Michael continued on to publish a third book in
the series: The Road to Strange: The Contiguous Universe, as well as a fourth book: The Road to
Strange: A Psychic Reader.
In all, The Road to Strange book series comprises an extraordinary collection of nearly
1,800 pages full of fascinating personal experiences of UFOs, the paranormal, and the highly
strange from among the nearly 2,000 people Michael has personally interviewed in his travels all
over the world over five decades. The stories are largely not found anywhere else.
Finally, Michael formerly served roles for MUFON, the Mutual UFO Network, the
largest UFO research organization in the U.S. He first served as State Director for Hawaii and is
currently the Ambassador-at-Large for MUFON.