When the Time Comes: Meeting the Third Man at Death's Door

James Sevigny lay bleeding to death and alone in a remote part of the Rocky Mountains after an avalanche carried him over 2000ft to what he imagined would be his death. He lay there with his back broken in two places, both his kneecaps shattered, loosing blood quickly and he gave up on life. He curled up in the snow and waited to die. But he didn't and he later claimed he was not alone. He is not the only one to have experienced this phenomenon. This is the story of the third man.

When Ernest Shackleton’s small boat became trapped in pack ice during a final attempt to reach his beleaguered crew who were days from death on Elephant island, he was forced, along with two other men, to make a gruelling and death defying traverse across the unexplored mountains of South Georgia to reach the Whaling Station at Stromness. Shackleton later wrote: "I know that during that long and racking march of thirty-six hours over the unnamed mountains and glaciers, it seemed to me often that we were four, not three."

And when Ron DiFrancesco found himself on the 84th floor of the south tower of the World Trade Centre on September 11th 2001,  he made the journey down to street level through a maze of locked doors, collapsed stair wells and raging fires. As DiFrancesco descended through the impact zone, blinded and choked by smoke and debris, he was surrounded by death and destruction. There, on the 79th floor in total darkness, he almost gave up on life but for a voice commanding him to “get up” and a hand leading him through the inferno.

The phenomenon of the third man is not exclusive to these three individuals. Explorers who have stared death in the eyes have later returned to recant the story of a figure, voice or presence guiding them on, encouraging them to push harder, saving their life. Many people have experienced the "third man" have been reluctant to talk about what they have seen or heard, others have passed it off as hallucination and some have put it down to a religious experience. The third man has occasionally appeared to multiple people at the same time, as was the case during Shackleton's journey across South Georgia. Each member of the team, independently of each other, claim to have felt a presence marching with them. The phenomenon derives its name from T.S Eliot's 1922 poem 'The Wasteland' in which, inspired by Shackleton's experiences, Eliot writes

Who is the third who walks always beside you?
When I count, there are only you and I together	360
But when I look ahead up the white road
There is always another one walking beside you
Gliding wrapt in a brown mantle, hooded
I do not know whether a man or a woman
—But who is that on the other side of you?

Despite the myriad of situations in which the the third man has manifested, the experiences people have recounted have all been broadly similar. When climber, James Sevigny first heard the voice, he said that it reminded him of a woman. It was warm and nurturing, and it gave him practical advice: repeating "You have to get your jacket on. You have to get water." Sevigny said didn't question it, he just did exactly what the voice said. After guiding him down the mountain the presence led him to a hillside where three people, who would turn out to be a mountain guide, elite skier and a trauma nurse were skiing. As a scientist and atheist, Sevigny cannot explain what happened that afternoon in the Rockies and he can't even talk about the experience without crying. 

The author John Geiger has collected the survival stories of people like Sevigny for over fifteen years. He has met with adventurers, sailors, prisoners of war and pilots, they all tell strikingly similar stories of being saved from death by a mysterious presence. Geiger has studied the third man ever since he experienced the phenomenon himself after the death of his infant son. 

According to Geiger, the experience could have several explanations. Scientists studying the phenomenon were able to evoke the sensation of someone standing next to a solitary person in a lab by stimulating certain parts of the subject's brain. However, the presence felt did not have the active, benevolent and intelligent presence that others have experienced when they meet the Third Man. It has also been suggested that the third man is a human coping mechanism that triggers a hallucinatory companion to help a person survive in terrible, life threatening situations. Whatever causes the third man to appear, know this, when you need him most he's going to be there.