Book description
The Third Man Factor tells the revealing story behind an extraordinary
idea: that people at the very edge of death, often adventurers or
explorers, experience a benevolent presence beside them who encourages
them to make one final effort to survive. If only a handful of people
had ever experienced the Third Man, it might be dismissed as an unusual
delusion shared by a few overstressed minds. But the amazing thing is
this: over the years, the experience has occurred again and again, to
mountaineers, divers, polar explorers, prisoners of war, solo sailors,
aviators, astronauts and 9/11 survivors. All have escaped traumatic
events only to tell strikingly similar stories of having experienced the
close presence of a helper or guardian. The mysterious force has been
explained as everything from hallucination to divine intervention.
Recent neurological research suggests something else. In The Third Man
Factor John Geiger combines history, scientific analysis and great
adventure stories to explain this secret to survival, a Third Man who -
in the words of legendary Italian climber Reinhold Messner - 'leads you
out of the impossible.'
