Third Man factor

I do too.

It's called Third Man Syndrome.

Have you learned about that? Like, is that something you ever studied?

That is not something I have any expertise in at all or have ever come across and studied.

And this time we'll be hearing about a strange phenomenon which has been reported many times by people in the most desperate of situations.

In the company of poet and lover of mountains, Kathleen Jamie, let's explore Third Man Syndrome.

Advanced base camp to camp three, come in please.

Who is this who walks with you? Whose voice is this? Whose steps trudge the white road, echo here unseen alongside, at the edge of your blizzarding mind? Perhaps a step behind, to the left of you, or is it the right? Who do you sense here, past or present? Yes, I sense it, not I, moving with me.

The JMT has been called America's most famous trail.

And, uh, yeah, in this conversation, we get a pretty full download on Joe's experience out there, his place in the pantheon of multi-day and week legends of the sport, what he's learned over the course of three distinct attempts on this trail in the last six years, including his experience with the third man factor that I found really interesting.

There was a lot of good stuff, though, across the board in this one.

Before we get started, a few things.

Like, how are you?" And be like, "You okay?" And be like, "Yep, have a good one." Uh, and then, uh, like, once they would leave, like, Toy would, like, enter the picture again and be like, "Okay, Toy, let's keep going." [chuckles]

And I mean, after the fact, when you, like, have had the chance to rest and collect yourself, d- does this leave you shaken at all? Or is it like, oh, that's just kind of like, that's the nature of the business in these multi-day experiences?

I'd never had anything like this happen before, and there's a book called "The Third Man Factor" that really helped me process things.

Uh, ultimately, I was honestly, like, kind of ashamed because it felt part of my thing with what I do is, like, it's never actually dangerous.

Survivors simply say one thing, I know someone was with me.

This is one of the most mysterious experiences reported by people who are at death's door, the third man factor.

This phenomenon has appeared throughout recorded history.

It is reported on all continents and in all cultures.

Many claim that the companion looks exactly like someone that they knew, while others say it is a stranger.

No matter what they experience, the presence is calm and gives a person reassurance, hope, and the strength to go on.

Researchers who have collected accounts of the third man factor over the last century have noticed something fascinating.

The presence does not perform miracles or magically transport a person to safety.

So for subjective events, absolutely.

No, that's been, that's been proven to, in testing Third Man Syndrome, to stimulate the temporal lobe-

Yeah

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