Michael Grady has been an Independent Scholar since 2003, having given or facilitated presentations on diverse subjects such as love, fertility, marriage, German culture, aging, alternative physics, alternative psychology, alternative biology, alternative spirituality and holistic healing. 

He is the inventor of a water curing kit that he claims can cure many diseases while dramatically reducing the effects of aging, even with a regular diet. Grady refers to himself as a "Thalasopher" in response to his discoveries of the many miracles that can be found in cured water. From 2007 to 2010, Grady operated the nation's first water healing balneotherapy spa, called "Atlantispa", in Davenport. Grady continues to maintain that there is nearly no disease that cured water alone cannot heal.

Grady has lived in five countries, and is married to his Indonesian-born wife of 26 years, Lina, who is an Independent Scholar in classical Chinese Feng Shui. He grew up in Quincy, Illinois and after many years, returned to the river from where he came. He is a graduate of Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.