The Third Man Factor by John Geiger

"The Third Man Factor is an extraordinary account of how people at the very edge of death experience a sense of an incorporeal being beside them who encourages them to make one final effort to survive" (book jacket)

The book relates the experiences of 9/11 survivors, mountaineers, divers, prisoners of war, sailors, aviators, and astronauts, all of whom have escaped traumatic events to tell similar stories of having sensed the close presence of a helper or guardian. 

The incidents themselves are fascinating, and, if nothing else, reveal the strength of human beings to survive, and their resilience. The most famous, of course, is the Shackleton Experience of hiking across the Antarctic under harrowing circumstances but with the unwavering conviction that there were not two men travelling, but three, one of whom was always at Shackleton's right, not always visible, but an unseen presence.

Geiger discusses how in the early years of Christianity, monks and hermits retreated to the desert to seek spiritual renewal and communion with God through fasting, self-inflicted pain, meditation and prolonged prayer.  He also cites the vision quest of the tribal peoples of Africa, Asia and North America. the phenomenon of angels ("humans can indeed perceive disembodied entities") He also explains how humans seek out company: we are social beings and we need one another.  Monotony and extreme physical exertion are the enemies, and the knowledge of a presence nearby can be a tremendous motivator to survive. It can also be a ghostly apparition, a manifestation of a guardian angel, or hallucinations brought on by medical conditions like low blood glucose, high-altitude cerebral edema, or cold stress.

Geiger sets out to explain what neurological research has found. A scientist named Critchley was the first to seriously study accounts of the Third Man among the normal population and he was certain that its origins lay not outside the body, but within.

In 1976, Julian Jaynes, an American psychologist provided a context in which the Third Man could be viewed as the product of brain processes.  Until 3000 years ago, the human brain was divided into a right-brain "god-side" which appeared like an omnipotent being who dispensed advice and commands, while a left-brain "man-side" listened and obeyed.. "These voices are always and immediately obeyed.  These voices are called gods.  To me this is the origin of gods.  I regard them as auditory hallucinations."

External triggers such as extreme stress, cold, hunger, thirst are factors involved in appearances by the Third Man, but there is also an internal variable: an openness to experience, which Geiger calls the "muse factor": a person's willingness to explore, consider, and tolerate new and unfamiliar experiences, ideas and feelings."

The Third Man could also be a doppelganger: "an extension of one's own corporal awareness into extracorpoeal space". This is probably closest to my own interpretation of the Third Man: a presence that comes when the traveller most desperately needs it.  The mind creates another persona which aids and supports, not necessarily delivers, but reaches those areas of the psyche which facilitate survival and endurance. "The explorers and survivors in this book had pushed them to the bare limits and they reached the point of sufficient extremity to have experienced an additional unaccountable companion on their journeys."

Time and again, these people who experienced the presence of the Third Man, are convinced that the experience was produced by the brain as a coping mechanism.  Its origins were within, not without. "This benevolent being exists not outside of us, but within.  It is a real power for survival, a secret and astonishing capacity of mind, part of our social hardware. I call it the angel switch...It's the ultimate and quite beautiful example of how we are social animals- that in our time of deepest solitude and needs, our brain or mind finds a way to reassure us that we are not alone, and that fellow-humanity feeling is what ultimately makes the difference between life and death"