1/12/24 Report - Third-Man Phenomena Experiences in History. Sitting Up and Looking Around.

 

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.

Ernest Shackleton
Public Domani Photo,

Detectorists seek the invisible.  Treasure is invisible to the seeker at the beginning of the search and often remains concealed, waiting for another day.

I just learned about what is called the "third-man phenomena." T. S. Eliot's wrote of it in the Waste Land, which was for a long time one of my favorite poems. Here is part of it.

“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
Gliding wrapt in a brown mantle, hooded
I do not know whether a man or a woman
—But who is that on the other side of you?”

In the distant past, when I read Eliot I didn't know about the third-man phenomena. In fact I didn't know about it until just yesterday when I found an article about it.
 
The phenomenon was often experienced by people under extreme and often life-threatening circumstances who during those circumstances sensed the presence of another person, which, remained unseen but in some cases seemed to provide assistance. 

The phenomena has been described by historic figures, mountain climbers, described by divers, survivors of the Towers on 911, mountain climbers and others. Below are a couple excerpts describing the experience.

In May 1916, Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton (shown above) set out on a seemingly impossible mission. Having lost his ship Endurance to the ice and left the bulk of his crew on Elephant Island, he and two others set out to seek help at a whaling station in Stromness. Shackleton later confessed that he felt there was a “fourth” person who guided them during the arduous trek through the mountains.

“I know that during that long and racking march of thirty-six hours over the unnamed mountains and glaciers of South Georgia it seemed to me often that we were four, not three,” he wrote in his book South....

Royal Australian Navy photo.

Henry Stoker, a Royal Navy officer, was captured during World War I. He spent three years as a prisoner of war in the Ottoman Empire, during which he was often subjected to solitary confinement. “I was confined in a cell, 10ft. square, to which practically no daylight could penetrate,” he later wrote, “and in which bugs, fleas, and rats abounded.”...

Eventually, Stoker decided to try to escape. He and two others managed to flee the prison, during which time Stoker and his companions began to feel that there was a “fourth” man among them. The figure’s friendly presence was especially strong when they found themselves in a tight spot, but seemed to vanish when the immediate “danger” passed.

Though Stoker and his companions were recaptured after 18 days on the run — he was repatriated to England in December 1918 — his encounter with “third man syndrome” left a strong impression...

Here is a link to one article giving those and many more detailed accounts.

Third Man Syndrome: 9 Shocking Stories Of Survival

There are many more interesting and similar, but examples described in the article.

Some think that the invisible forces are clearly angels.  Others prefer alternative explanations.  Some have offered a psychological explanation.  No matter how you explain it, the phenomena is real to those who experience it.  The remarkable experiences have influenced historic individuals and perhaps history.

As Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet, There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. 

Besides T. S. Eliot I liked Kurt Vonnegut.  There is one line that always stuck out to me.  I remember fifty or so years ago mentioning that line from Cat's Cradle to an Introduction to Psychology class.  It would have been some time in the early seventies, but I still like it.  Below is the entire piece.

“God made mud.
God got lonesome.
So God said to some of the mud, "Sit up!"
"See all I've made," said God, "the hills, the sea, the
sky, the stars."
And I was some of the mud that got to sit up and look
around.
Lucky me, lucky mud.
I, mud, sat up and saw what a nice job God had done.
Nice going, God.
Nobody but you could have done it, God! I certainly
couldn't have.
I feel very unimportant compared to You.
The only way I can feel the least bit important is to
think of all the mud that didn't even get to sit up and
look around.
I got so much, and most mud got so little.
Thank you for the honor!
Now mud lies down again and goes to sleep.
What memories for mud to have!
What interesting other kinds of sitting-up mud I met!
I loved everything I saw!
Good night.
I will go to heaven now.
I can hardly wait...
To find out for certain what my wampeter was...
And who was in my karass...
And all the good things our karass did for you.
Amen.”

― Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle  (Quote by Kurt Vonnegut: “God made mud. God got lonesome. So God said to ...”)

I do feel fortunate to be among the dirt that got to sit up and take a look around.  Awareness itself, is an amazing treasure.  Some take gold as the color of awareness, one characteristic that accounts for its desirability among some societies. 

A "wampeter" (mentioned in Cat's Cardle), as defined by Vonnegut, "is an object around which the lives of many otherwise unrelated people may revolve. The Holy Grail would be a case in point."

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Source: SurfGuru.com.

Today we have a northish wind and swell, but a smaller surf and moderate tides.

I know I probably got too philosophical and literary for some readers, but that is what, for some reason, I felt like saying today.  Sorry.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net