# The Third Man Factor

Canonical: https://www.bookquiver.com/john-geiger/the-third-man-factor/9781847674203

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![The Third Man Factor](https://quivercdn.com/covers/canongate/john-geiger/the-third-man-factor_978-18-4767-420-3-fd52a661.webp?v=2026-10-31%2003%3A20%3A58)

- Book: [The Third Man Factor](https://www.bookquiver.com/john-geiger/the-third-man-factor) ([The Third Man Factor.md](https://www.bookquiver.com/john-geiger/the-third-man-factor.md))
- Authors: [John Geiger](https://www.bookquiver.com/john-geiger)
- Publisher: canongate
- ISBN: 978-18-4767-420-3
- Pages: 304
- Published: 2010-05-06
- Language: en_US
- Binding: Softcover

## 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 but 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. 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'.