Scientific Explanations for the Presence

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Lots of climbers took their last breath right here. Some were still frozen in the ice. But his partner wasn't worried. They just needed a break and a bit of food. Frank broke a mint cake in half and held a piece out. But nobody was there. But Frank knew he wasn't alone. He experienced something thousands of people in danger experience. an unseen presence, calm and familiar, always there when you're about to die. Scientists call him the third man. They even built a machine that can summon him. But what the machine creates and what survivors describe They are two very different things. You ever eat something and immediately start doing mental gymnastics to justify it? Suddenly you're breaking down macros in your head, all because you just crushed a family-sized bag of chips. Solo. Most of us know what we're supposed to do. Actually sticking to it, that's the hard part. That's why there's weight loss by HIMS. It's designed to help you lose the weight and keep it off. 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Hymns.com slash the Y files. Weight loss by HIMS is not available in all 50 states. Wagovy is the registered trademark of Novo Nordisk AS. To get started and learn more, including important safety information, Wagovy Clinical Studm, and restrictions, visit HIMS.com. Ernest Shackleton's ship got crushed by Antarctic pack ice in November 1915. 27 men, three lifeboats, no ship. They camped on the ice for five months, dragging the lifeboats behind them. When the ice broke apart, they launched the boats and sailed 200 miles to the nearest land. But it was nothing more than a barren rock in the middle of nowhere. There was no hope of rescue. Nobody knew where they were. So Shackleton piled into a lifeboat with five men. They endured hurricane winds and 20 foot waves for 800 miles. But finally they reached South Georgia Island. That was the good news. The bad news, they landed on the wrong side. The whaling station that could save them was on the North Coast. They were on the south. And between them was a mountain range nobody crossed. Nobody even dared to try. But Shackleton was out of options. He picked two men for the final push, Tom Crean and Frank Worsley. They carry feet of rope, a small axe, and three days of food. No tent, no sleeping bags, no good options. If they stay, they die. I saw Macaive get off an island once, and all he had was a casue, a dental dam, and an extra rigid shiro. A rigid churro. Well, it wouldn't work with a flashy chiro. Okay. But it's nothing to be ashamed of. It happens to everybody's chiro once in a while. For 36 straight hours, they climb. They navigated by the stars when they were lucky enough to have clear sky. Mostly they just climbed in the dark. At one point, they got pinned. Going back meant freezing to death. Waiting meant freezing to death. So Shackleton coiled the rope beneath the three men like a sled, closed his eyes, and they pushed off. They slid 2,000 feet, screaming the whole way. Then they hit a snowback. And somehow, nobody died. They finally stumbled into the whaling station, filthy and frostbitten, but alive. Three men just pulled off one of the greatest survival feats in history, and each of them was hiding a secret from the others. Only later did they learn they all had the same secret. Weeks later, Shackleton admitted it first. It seemed to me often that we were four, not three. I said nothing of it to Crane or Worsley. not bring myself to look behind me. I feared what I might see. Or worse. Not. Worsley said the same thing. A presence just outside his field of vision keeping pace. They never saw the figure, never heard it speak, but all three were sure someone walked with them across that mountain range. T. S. Elliott wrote about it in his famous poem, The Wasteland. Who is the third who walks always beside you? When I count, there are only you and I together. I do not know whether a man or a woman. But who is that on the other side of you? That line gave the phenomenon its name. The third man. And 11 years later, Charles Lindbergh tried to cross the Atlanti alone. But he wasn't alone for long. May 20th, 1927, Charles Lindbergh climbed into a single engine plane at Roosevelt Field on Long Island. He was gonna fly nonstop to Paris. 33 hours over the open ocean alone. Plenty of pilots had tried, none made it. Now you're talking about Sister Patrell! What? You said a nun made it. Sister Betrol is the only flying nun I know. No, no nun as in no one. How dare you! Sally Field is not no one! I like her! I really like her! Problem started before he left the ground. By the time he hit the Atlantic, he was on his second straight day without sleep. Twice into the flight, he felt himself slipping. As a last resort, he pointed the plane straight down and dove. And just before hitting the water, he pulled up and flew so low that wav splashed into the cockpit. Even the icy water wasn't enough. Lindbergh was gonna crash, and he knew it. Then, just before he surrendered, the cockpit filled with people. Not one presence, many. Lindbergh called them phantoms. They sounded calm, friendly, even familiar. They pointed out a navigation problem. They helped him change course. And even though there was nothing behind his seat but fuel tanks and not enough room to stretch his legs, he could feel them, all of them all around him, keeping him company, keeping him awake, keeping him alive. These phantoms speak with human voices. Friendly, vapor-like shapes, without substance, able to appear and disappear at will. I am flying in a region beyond the range of human experience, where time and space seem to have altered. The Phantoms stayed for hours. They were comforting. They said he was gonna be alright. Then just over the horizon, he saw white waves crashing against the green coast of Ireland. Land. Lindbergh felt a rush of adrenaline. Or relief. It didn't matter. Fuel levels were good, instruments were working, and the landing strip was in sight. He was gonna make it. That's when Lindbergh realized something. The voices were gone. One minute the cockpit was full of people, then nothing. Lindbergh was alone. And after 33 hours in the air, and almost 60 hours without sleep, Charles Lindbergh landed safely. He crossed the Atlantic, he made history, he became one of the most famous, admired men in the world. He published books, he gave hundreds of interviews, and through it all, He never mentioned the voices, not once. But 26 years later, Charles Lindbergh took another risk. This time he risked his reputation. In 1953, he wrote The Spirit of St. Louis. And this wasn't a story of bravery and triumph. Lindberg wrote about his early struggles and regrets. And he wrote about that flight in 1927 when Invisible Voices saves his life. He was worried he'd be mocked for mentioning the third man. Instead, he won the Pulitzer Prize. Forty three years later, on the tallest mountain wall in the world, The third man appeared again, but this time, he couldn't save everyone. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy to see if you could save when you bundle your home and auto policies. Try it at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states. On June 29, 1970, Reinhard Mesnner and his brother Gunther reached the summit of Nanga Parbat in Pakistan, nicknamed the Killer Mountain, for its long, deadly history. They should have been celebrating. They just became the first people to climb the tallest mountain wall on Earth. 1500 feet of vertical rock and ice. Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. Here he goes. They shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. You done? Oh, I was going to the wall punishment. Take no wife, fat of no children? I'd do that right now if I could. Oh, you didn't get your alimony check? Hey, don't blame me. Blame the Raven! Climbing to the top was easy but now Gunther was in trouble. He felt dizzy, his vision blurred. Fluid was leaking into his lungs, and he knew what this was. Altitude sickness. He didn't know how bad, but he knew he couldn't make the climb back down. So Reinhold made a call. They descend a different side of the mountain. It was a shorter climb, but that's about all they knew about the terrain. They weren't prepared to take a different way down. But this was Gunther's best chance to live. They started down slowly, but still Gunther couldn't keep up. Every time Reinhold turned to check on him, It was farther and farther behind. They were a thousand feet in the air. Reinhold started to panic. That's when he noticed the third climber. Not ahead or behind, just to his right, a few steps back, just outside his line of sight. Reinhold never saw the figure directly, but it kept pace, steady and calm, for hours. Suddenly. There was a third climber with us, descending on my right side. But the third man couldn't save everyone. Near the bottom of the mountain, an avalanche hit. Reinhold barely survived, and Gunther didn't. His remains weren't found for almost 50 years. In 1985, two British climbers Joe Simpson and Simon Yates were coming down the west face of Sula Grande when Joe slipped and shattered his leg. This was a bad one. Bone was poking through the skin. and they were 20,000 feet up. So there'd be no rescue. So they worked out a system. They had a 300-foot rope, one end tied around each man. Simon would lower Joe down slowly, let him get in place with his good leg, and then follow down. And they did this for hours. 3,000 agonizing feet. Then a storm hit and they lost sight of each other. Simon called out, but the wind was too loud. Suddenly, Simon felt the rope snap against his ribs as it went taut. A gust knocked Joe off the mountain, so his full weight was pulling on Simon. Simon dug in as best he could, but his hands were frostbitten and he was down to one anchor. If Joe didn't grab hold soon, they'd both fall. Simon held that rope for a full hour while the storm got worse. Then he heard a dull scrape. His last anchor was starting to give. He still couldn't see Joe. He screamed. He begged. Nothing. Another gust of wind roared through, and the anchor slipped again. If Simon waited any longer, they'd both die. He had only one terrible option. He cut the rope. Joe fell a hundred feet into the dark. Simon assumed he was dead. He should have been, but he wasn't. Joe landed on a snowbank inside the crevasse, alive, alone, in the dark, with a shattered leg. Above him, a hundred foot drop he couldn't climb. Below him, a bottomless pit. No food, no radio, no way out. Then he heard a voice. Not his own thoughts. Another voice. Clear and calm. It told him to stop looking for a way up. The way out was down. Joe couldn't see what was down there, but he went anyway. And for three days... The voice kept talking. Which direction to crawl, when to rest, when to keep moving. There was this voice talking to me, and it was quite clear. You've got to do this, you've got to do that. And I do it. Joe dragged a shattered leg over boulder fields and three glaciers. He dragged himself all the way back to camp, just as Simon was packing up. Simon looked like he saw a ghost. Joe said he might have been saved by one. He wrote about it in Touching the Void. He didn't believe in ghosts or God or guardian angels or any of it. But he believed that voice was real, and he knew it saved his life. Two cases, two mountains. One presence watched a man die and couldn't stop it. Another pulled a man out of a hole in the ice. Whatever the third man is, He doesn't work the same way twice. Because 12 years later, a cave diver lost her lifeline in 100 feet underwater. She had 20 minutes of air left, and the stranger who came for her wasn't invisible. She knew. Lots of places can expose you to identity theft. Oh no. That's why LifeLock monitors hundreds of millions of data points a second for threats to your identity, which is way more than anyone can do on their own. If we find anything suspicious like new loans or changes to your financial accounts, we alert you right away. All through text, Phone, email, or the LifeLo app. Get the alerts that could make all the difference. Save up to 30% your first year at lifelock.com slash podcast. Terms apply. In 1997, Rob Palmer was one of the world's leading experts on blue hole diving. He spent years mapping underwater cave systems other divers wouldn't touch. That summer, he went on a dive in the Red Sea, and he never came back. A few weeks after Rob died, his widow got back in the water. Stephanie Schwab was a geologist. She studied the underwater caves of the Bahamas. Same territory her husband worked. She'd been in those caves dozens of times. She suited up alone. And descended into a cave called Mermaid's Lair. Yeah, Mermaid's Lair. That's the club on Flamingo, right? With the 24 hour buffet? No, it's a cave. No, you're telling me. It's the kind of place where every night is open pole night. An underwater cave. Well. Tuesday. That's enough. Cave diving works like this. yourself to a guideline when you enter. The line is how you find your way out. The cave is pitch black. Visibility is measured in inches. If you lose the guideline, the cave kills. Stephanie lost the guideline. She had a limited amount of air in her tanks. She reached into the dark and felt nothing. Her breathing picked up. Breathing hard at depth. Burns through air fast. Then she heard a voice. Stephanie. Stop. Wait. Calm down. You're going to be okay. She knew the voice. It was Rob. She stopped and felt him right next to her, helping her. Breathe, honey. Just breathing. Trust me, okay? Stephanie slowed her breathing. She felt her panic dissipating. Good. Okay, I need you to reach about three feet above your head. Slightly to your left. Don't rush. Just feel around. She reached up and felt the guideline. It had been directly above her the whole time. Good. I knew you could do it. Stay calm. You have plenty of air. You've done this a hundred times. Follow the line. Don't rush. You're gonna be okay. Stephanie followed the line back through the cave and up to open water. The moment she broke the surface, the presence was gone. She never saw her husband, but she heard him, and he saved her. And then he was gone. But the most dramatic account didn't come from a mountain, or an ocean, or a cave. It came from inside a burning skyscraper on a Tuesday morning in September. September 11, 2001, 9.03 a.m. The second plane hit the South Tower between the 77th and 85th floors. Ron DiFrancisco worked for Eurobrokers on the 84th floor. When the plane hit, he was below the impact zone by just a few floors. The people above him were dead, or were gonna be. He started down stairway A. He made it a few floors down, and ran into two people coming up. They told him the stairway below was gone, consumed by fire. The smoke made the air unbreathable. The group turned around and headed for the roof, hoping for a helicopter. Ron followed them up a few floors, but then he stopped. The roof was the wrong choice. He didn't know why. He turned around and went back down into the smoke, alone. The smoke was thick enough to blind him. A collapsed section of wall blocked the stairs. He tried to climb over it, but he couldn't breathe. His lungs were burning, so he stopped. He sat down and decided this was where he was gonna die. He thought about his wife, thought about his kids, and then he heard a voice. Get up, Ron. Get up. You can do this. Ron felt a physence next to him, but nobody was there. led to the stairs. I don't think something grabbed my hand. But I was definitely led. The presence guided him down through smoke and fire. At one point, it led him directly into the flames. Nobody saying runs toward fire, but Ron did. His hands burned, his face burned, but he made it past the impact zone. Then the voice disappeared. Ron kept going. He made it to the lobby, he ran out of the building. He was barely two blocks away when the South Tower collapsed. Ron DiFrancisco was the last person to escape the South Tow alive. More than 600 other people in that building died that day. Everyone above the 78th floor, everyone who headed for the roof. Ron says he wouldn't have made it without the presence he never saw. but felt. Journalist John Geiger spent five years collecting accounts like these. Climbers, sailors, soldiers. He found hundreds of cases and published them in a book called The Third Man Factor. Shackleton in the ice, Lindberg over the ocean, Stephanie underwater, and Ron in a burning stairwell. A hundred years of stories that nobody could explain. Then in 2006, neuroscientists in Switzerland found a way to summon the third man. All you have to do is let him open your skull, and stay awake while he does it. This is the new Weight Watchers. Built for real life and real results. No matter what mode you're in. Maddie went all in for her big day and lost 33 pounds. Emily lost 85 pounds and hit her goal while still living her life. Weight Watchers gave me the tools and I feel amazing. Join the millions of members and lose weight with the number one doctor recommended weight loss program. Lose more at WeightWatchers.com. At six months, participants in the clinical trial of Weight Watchers program lost an average of 12 pounds. You're 22 years old with epilepsy. You're lying on an operating table. Your skull is open. You're awake because the doctors need you to tell them what you feel when they touch your brain. This is so they know where to cut. Off by an in here or a centimeter there, you could lose your ability to speak, you could go into a coma, you could die. They send a small electrical current into a region behind your ear, and then a shadow appears behind you. You can't see it, but you know it's there. You can feel it. When you sit up, it sits up. When you lie down, it lies down behind you and wraps its arms around you. Then the doctors turn off the electricity, and the shadow goes away. You don't feel the presence anymore. Current on, presence. Current off, nothing. Every single time. They summoned the third man. The neuroscientist running that surgery was Olaf Blanc. And until that moment in 2006, nobody knew where the third man came from. Blanc's team stimulated the part of the brain that tracks where your body is in space. The left temporarietal junction. Ne tuna fried potato funyin'? Temporarietal junction. What I say. It takes signals from your muscles, your inner ear, your eyes, your skin. builds one picture of where you are and what you're doing. When that system breaks from exhaustion, oxygen deprivation, extreme cold, or an electrode, The brain builds that picture of you. twice, and you're aware of both. but it feels like the second presence belongs to someone else. In twenty fourteen. Blanc took it further. His team built a robot to mimic human movement. Blindfolded volunteers stood in front of one robot and behind another, like waiting in line. The subject then taps the robot in front of them on the shoulder. The robot behind copies this in real time. the subject on the shoulder. Fine. But when the robots' reactions were delayed, just by half a second, volunteers felt something. presence behind them, not the robot, a presence, sentient and aware. Some got so disturbed, they asked to stop. Two subjects felt even more than one presence in the room, all from half a second delay. Blanc's team built a machine that could create the third man on demand. The third man experiment proved that when the brain's prediction of sensation is interrupted, it attributes those sensations to an external agent. In other words, the third man. There's a big problem with this theory. That's not how the third man works at all. In 2014, researchers designed a robotic presence experiment to mimic the sensed presence in control conditions, and it worked. A presence appeared. But it was nothing like the third man. Subjects described a shadow entity that made them uncomfortable. Even frightened. That's not how the third man works. He doesn't create fear. He takes it away. Every survivor describes a calming presence, supportive and encouraging. The mechanism matched, the experience didn't. So, is the third man real? Let's break it down. The skeptical explanation is clean. Under extreme stress, the brain misfires. It hallucinates a second person built from its own signals. Blanc proved it by stimulating the temporarietal junction. Cap one metry pirate luncheon. Temporop never mind. Electric on, Ghost appears. Electric off, His team reproduced the effect in healthy people in minutes. The third man is the brain talking to itself. and not recognizing its own voice. And that explanation fits every survivor. Shackleton had been awake 36 hours in sub-zero cold. Lindbury hadn't slept in over two days. Joe Simpson was hypothermic with a shattered leg. And Ron DiFrancisco was breathing smoke and carbon monoxide. But the glitch theory can't explain the most important part. The third man is helpful. Hallucinations from oxygen deprivation are chaotic. Melting walls, hostile figures, panic. The third man is the opposite. He's calm. He gives. He knows the way out. And he's consistent. In 1943, the British neurologist McDonald Critchley interview almost 300 shipwreck survivors. This was 60 years before Blanc picked up an electrode Crisley found the same pattern. Calm presence, specific guidance, disappears when the danger ends. Christians and Atheists. 1916 two thousand one. mountain climbers, and office workers. All of them describe the same thing. And there's one more theory worth mentioning. In 1976, psychologist Julian Jaynes argued but ancient humans didn't have the kind of internal experience that we have today. They heard voices. Commands from the right hemisphere of the brain. and interpreted them as gods. James called it the bi-cameral mind. The theory says that under extreme stress, the brain reverts to that older operating system. Command voice comes back. Sounds like science fiction. but it fits these theories better than a misfiring brain does. But here's the question nobody can answer. If the brain makes the third man Why does it make him a savior? Evolution doesn't usually backup systems that switch on at the moment of death, unless they work. Systems that are calm, specific, directional. Systems that know which way to crawl, which way to walk, which way to swim in the pitch black. If the third man is a malfunction, he's the most useful malfunction in the history of biology. If the brain is doing this on purpose, then we're looking at something in human consciousness that science hasn't mapped yet. Something that knows you need help, and something that shows up on time. Something that leaves when you're safe. The survivors know what they felt. The scientists know what they can prove. And somewhere in the gap between those two things, on a mountain, in a cockpit, inside a cave, in a burning stairwell, the third man was there. And I don't need science to explain the third man. I don't care who he is. I'm just glad he's there. Waiting. and watching, ready to step in when you need it most. This is the new Weight Watchers. Built for real life and real results. No matter what mode you're in. Maddie went all in for her big day and lost 33 pounds. Emily lost 85 pounds and hit her goal while still living her life. Weight Watchers gave me the tools and I feel amazing. Join the millions of members and lose weight with the number one doctor recommended weight loss program. Lose more at WeightWatchers.com. At six months, participants in the clinical trial of Weight Watchers program lost an average of 12 pounds. Thank you so much for hanging out today. I'm AJ, that's Psychofish. You like me! You really like me! This has been the Wife House. Get fun or learned something, I'd appreciate it if you hit some of those buttons down there. Like, subscribe, comment, share. That stuff really helps us out. And like most topics we cover on the channel, today's is recommended by you. So if there's a story you'd like to see or learn more about, go to thewavefiles.com slash tips. Catch us on Discord, send an email, live chat, you can reach us a bunch of ways. Hey, remember The Wi Fluss is also a podcast. You can take us on the road. Twice a week I post deep dives into the stories that come right here on the channel, plus I simulcast all the episodes on the podcast. And it also posts episodes that wouldn't be allowed here. It's called the Wi-Fi Operation Podcast, and it's available everywhere. And if you are listening on an audio platform right now, Pay attention to the road. But also hit those buttons, follow, like, all that stuff. That really helps. I appreciate it. Now if you need more Wi-Fi's in your life, She therapy. No, I'm kidding. Check out our Discord. There's over 100,000 fans on there, so if there's someone on there 24-7 talking about the same weird stuff we do here, it's a lot of fun. It's a great community, it's really supportive, and it's free to join. And speaking of 24-7, check out our 24-7 stream on the Wi-Files backstage, link down below. Over there we run episodes back to back with some fun, weird content in between. And the live chat is amazing. There's people over there right now. If you enjoyed the stories I tell in the Wi Files, check out my other show on the channel called The Basement. It's a conversation show. where I chat with the interesting people behind the episodes. Some of them you know, some you don't, but they're all fascinating. Experts on fun topics like Night's Templar, the Moonlanding, JFK Conspiracy... CERN scientists, researchers. Hitler chasers, all kinds of random stuff. And if there's someone you want to see on the show, let me know. I'm always on the hunt for good guests. Special thanks to our patrons, made this channel. Every episode of the Live Ball is dedicated to our Patreon members. I couldn't do any of this without your support. And if you'd like to support the channel, keep us going, and join our community of Weird. amazing people. Become a member on Patreon. For as little as three bucks a month you get access to perks like seeing videos early with no commercials, exclusive merch, plus two private live streams every week just for you. And the whole Y Files team is on the stream. And you can turn your camera off. on stage, ask a question, talk about anything you like. I think it's the best perk there is. Another great way to support the channel is grab something for the WaiFile store. Give the heck of a C shape. Oh, what are these physical coffee bugs you can stick your fist in? Or if you have a third man around, you can stick his fist in there. Uh I don't care how anybody's fist going here. I'm not gonna report you to HR or nothing. Uh, grandmoney, set my face on it. Ladies, wanna be using a durable squeeze- I can't be taken. Adorable squeeze animal! Hang target fish toy. But if you're gonna buy merch, make sure you become a member on YouTube. Hear me out. YouTube members get 10% off everything in the WattPow store and it's three bucks a month. So if you're gonna spend $40 on t-shirts, Or physical coffee mugs, it pays for itself. And look, if you want to grab the coupon code and cancel, that's fine. That code is there to save you money, not make me money. In fact, all that revenue goes to the team. Yeah, let's keep that secret under your kills, those are the plugs, and that's gonna do it. Until next time, be safe! Be kind. And know that you are appreciated. Believe a scenario, Mickey One A secret code inside the Bible said I was I love my UFOs and the paranormal As well as mirrors So I'm saying the like I should But then another conspiracy theory becomes the truth My friends And it never ends No it never end The crap got I got stuck in the side mouth home With MKI trust I've been on week to a wear D cubric face the moon landing alone On a film shed I'm with a shadow before Yeah. Well A just thought the smiling man I'm told And his name was Cole Hope you're the night when they cabin out to the night So the way we feel M sidens and the solar stones still come To a Gotha The secret city underground Mysterious number stations Canada surf to Records Dark A Wether Watch us found The black knights that a lot of show I can leave I'm dancing with the fish Hish on Thursday next week So Yeah Because she is a camel C'est la death When the feeling is well Yeah