The Third Man Phenomenon

 

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​​Who is the third who walks always beside you?

When I count, there are only you and I together

But when I look ahead up the white road

There is always another one walking beside you

–TS. Eliot, The Waste Land, written about Ernest Shackleton’s 1916 third man experience.

On this day in 1916 Ernest Shackleton reached a whaling station in Stromness in the South Atlantic, completing an epic 26 day journey to reach help after losing his ship. While crossing the mountains, starving and without climbing gear, Shackleton famously saw a fourth person in his group of three desperate sailors.

And he’s not the only one. The “third man,” named for the poem above, is the phenomenon where people in life-threatening or highly stressful situations sense another person (of whatever gender) with them. The solo hiker has a companion, or the group of four becomes five, of which most or all report seeing the extra person.

Read all about the Third Man Phenomenon and get writing prompts on my blog, such as:

All the lonely people. The third man has been reported most often in mountaineering, shipwrecks, and polar exploration, but any highly stressful situation would work for a story, including disasters, crime, or simply getting lost. The sky’s the limit here: you could have an alien on a disabled ship experience the third man as the ship’s AI, or a sorcerer believing their animal familiar is with them. You could also combine the third man with crisis apparitions, where people in life-threatening situations appear to their loved ones many miles away. Perhaps the third man is two-way communication.

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