The Third Man Factor Surviving the Impossible

by Geiger, John

• ISBN13: 9781602861299
• ISBN10: 1602861293
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-09-07
• Publisher: Hachette Books

Summary

The Third Man Factoris an extraordinary account of how people at the very edge of death often sense an unseen presence beside them who encourages them to make one final effort to survive. This incorporeal being offers a feeling of hope, protection, and guidance, and leaves the person convinced he or she is not alone. There is a name for this phenomenon: it's called the Third Man Factor.If only a handful of people had ever encountered the Third Man, it might be dismissed as an unusual delusion shared by a few overstressed minds. But over the years, the experience has occurred again and again, to 9/11 survivors, mountaineers, divers, polar explorers, prisoners of war, sailors, shipwreck survivors, aviators, and astronauts. All have escaped traumatic events only to tell strikingly similar stories of having sensed the close presence of a helper or guardian. The force has been explained as everything from hallucination to divine intervention. Recent neurological research suggests something else.Bestselling and award-winning author John Geiger has completed six years of physiological, psychological, and historical research on the Third Man. He blends his analysis with compelling human stories such as that of Ron DiFrancesco, the last survivor to escape the World Trade Center on 9/11; Ernest Shackleton, the legendary explorer whose account of the Third Man inspired T. S. Eliot to write of it inThe Waste Land; Jerry Linenger, a NASA astronaut who experienced the Third Man while aboard theMirspace station--and many more.Fascinating for any reader,The Third Man Factorat last explains this secret to survival, a Third Man who--in the words of famed climber Reinhold Messner--"leads you out of the impossible."

Author Biography

John Geiger is the award-winning author of four non-fiction books, including the international bestseller Frozen in Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition. He is editorial board editor at The Globe and Mail. He is a fellow of the Explorer’s Club, New York, and governor of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society and chair of the Society’s Expeditions Committee. His work has been translated into nine languages. He lives in Toronto.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. xi
The Third Man	p. 1
Shackleton's Angel	p. 20
The Ghosts Walk in Public	p. 44
The Guardian Angel	p. 64
The Pathology of Boredom	p. 83
The Principle of Multiple Triggers	p. 104
Sensed Presence (I)	p. 117
The Widow Effect	p. 123
Sensed Presence (II)	p. 158
The Muse Factor	p. 173
The Power of the Savior	p. 191
The Shadow Person	p. 221
The Angel Switch	p. 237
Acknowledgments	p. 255
Notes	p. 259
Index	p. 285
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