Writer John Geiger chronicles the phenomenon of the phantom companion in his new book, The Third Man Factor: Surviving the Impossible. As Geiger explains, the Third Man is an unseen being that intervenes at a critical moment ”” when people are in great stress or in a life-and-death struggle ”” to give comfort, aid or support.
“Clearly there is a spiritual or religious explanation to this phenomenon,” Geiger tells Guy Raz. But he also says there is strong science behind the Third Man: “Many skeptics and non-believers also had this experience and they attribute it to other explanations and there is certainly some very interesting science behind this.”
Geiger spent five years tracking down the stories of people who’ve experienced the Third Man phenomenon. He opens his book with the story of Ron DiFrancesco, a worker at the World Trade Center on 9/11.
I highly recommend the audio where the fascinating story of a 9/11 survivor is described. Listen to it all.
I’m very glad you posted this. I listened to this this morning, and then had a fascinating conversation with my neuro-psych-oreinted daughter about it. I am fascinated by the nodal, overlap points between science and religion, and this is one of them. There can be physiological explanations for religious phenomena. Those explanations in no way diminish our appreciation of God’s glory, they magnify the awe with which we gain greater appreciation for God’s power.
But what is the source of judgment? Do we judge science by Scripture or Scripture by science? Your god lies in the answer.
I have never felt compelled to “judge” either science or scripture. Each is what it is. My puny judgement changes neither.