The Third Man Factor: Surviving the Impossible

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 but amazingly, 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 while 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, the Third Man who – in the words of legendary Italian climber Reinhold Messner – ‘leads you out of the impossible’.

Reviews of The Third Man Factor: Surviving the Impossible

'Geiger recounts many, many tales of people who have found themselves in extreme situations, and felt a ghostly presence helping them. Almost without exception, they are exciting, edge-of-the-seat tales. Some of them might be familiar, which is no bad thing; it's like revisiting the greatest hits of exploration and daredevilry, but from a new angle … These are gripping tales, and Geiger tells them well.' Evening Standard