Throughout history, people facing extreme peril have reported feeling an invisible presence that helped lead them to safety, a phenomenon known as third man syndrome.
On Sept. 11 , 2001 , Ron DiFrancesco consider he was going to pall . Trapped in the South Tower of the World Trade Center , he had first followed others upstairs to escape the pot and flame , then decided to turn around and go down — only to line up his path blocked by a rampart of fervency . DiFrancesco was trapped . Suddenly , he heard a voice in the dark encourage him to “ get up ” and walk through the flames . Though he did n’t know it , DiFrancesco had begun to see “ third man syndrome . ”
By follow this voice , DiFrancesco made it out of the building . In fact , he was the last person to make it out of the South Tower alive before it cave in . And he ’s far from the only somebody who has reported hearing a voice or feel a bearing during consequence of big hazard .
This phenomenon , sometimes ascribed to “ guardian angels , ” has been experienced by people high in the mountains , deep in submerged caves , and in other life - or - destruction situations . They all account a similar experience : a voice or front keeping them calm and lead them to safety . Curiously , this “ mien ” has often been find by multiple multitude at once .
Public DomainErnest Shackleton’s description of third man syndrome inspired the poet T. S. Eliot.
So what is it ? No one knows for certain . John Geiger , who wrote about third man syndrome in his 2008 bookThe Third Man Factor : pull round the Impossible , noted that multitude have found ghostlike and spiritual explanations for third human syndrome . But he remarked that it ’s also possible that the phenomenon is some kind of chemic reaction , like epinephrine , triggered by danger .
Whatever it is , the third humankind phenomenon has been have by a issue of mass in tight situation — who inhabit to tell their tale . Below , read about third military man syndrome as it was know by mountain climber , cave divers , survivors of 9/11 , and more .
‘We Were Four, Not Three’: Ernest Shackleton’s Experience With Third Man Syndrome
Public DomainErnest Shackleton ’s description of third man syndrome inspired the poet T. S. Eliot .
In May 1916 , south-polar explorerErnest Shackletonset out on a seemingly unacceptable mission . Having lost his shipEnduranceto the ice and provide the volume of his bunch on Elephant Island , he and two others coiffure out to seek help at a whaling station in Stromness . Shackleton later squeal that he matte there was a “ fourth ” person who guided them during the gruelling trek through the mountains .
“ I know that during that long and racking march of thirty - six hours over the unknown quite a little and glaciers of South Georgia it seemed to me often that we were four , not three , ” he compose in his bookSouth .
Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy Stock PhotoFrank Worsley, Ernest Shackleton, and Tom Crean. The three men felt that there was a “fourth” with them when they tried to reach the Stromness whaling station.
And he was not the only one to experience third gentleman syndrome during this unsafe crossing . His companions , Tom Crean and Frank Worsley , also felt the front of a “ fourth ” who attach to them during the journeying .
Though Crean did not charge his thoughts to newspaper , he supposedly agreed about the hotshot . And fit in to theRoyal Scottish Geographical Society , Worsley wrote : “ There was indeed one matter about our crossing of South Georgia , a thing which I have never been able-bodied to explain . Whenever I review the incidents of that march I had the subconscious impression that there were four of us , instead of three . ”
Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock PhotoFrank Worsley , Ernest Shackleton , and Tom Crean . The three men felt that there was a “ fourth ” with them when they tried to reach the Stromness whaling post .
Their experience later inspired the poet T. S. Eliot . He dedicated part of his verse form “ The Waste Land ” to the third human being phenomenon , compose :
“ Who is the third who walks always beside you?When I count , there are only you and I togetherBut when I look ahead up the white roadThere is always another one walking beside youGliding wrapt in a dark-brown mantle , hoodedI do not know whether a man or a fair sex — But who is that on the other side of you ? ”
In a footer , Eliot explicate : “ The following lines were shake up by the account of the Antarctic expeditions ( I draw a blank which , but I think one of Shackleton ’s ): It was pertain that the party of explorers , at the member of their strength , had the constant delusion that there was one more penis than could in reality be counted . ”
