Vincent Lam wrote the foreword to The Third Man Factor by John Geiger, published today in trade paperback.John Geiger and I met and travelled together in the Arctic—the vast, icy, and beautiful landscape of the explorers. It is one of the places where men and women have sought to make lonely and difficult journeys to discover both the place and themselves. It is in such conditions that the Third Man has often appeared to comfort and assist lonely travellers. When John first told me about the Third Man phenomenon, and that he was writing a book to explore this subject, I recognized the topic immediately. I had experienced it myself.
My encounter with the Third Man occurred during my premedical studies. One winter, over a span of weeks, I faced a succession of daunting exams encompassing a huge range of material. I felt that I must perform flawlessly, and would otherwise ruin my chances of being admitted to medical school. During those weeks, I did nothing but study, eat, sleep, and write exams. Outside, it snowed steadily. Even when I slept, I dreamt of molecular biology and biochemistry, so that I never woke refreshed, only anxious to open the books again. I developed a sort of tunnel vision about my life because on these exams hinged my course grades, upon which rested my prospects for medical school, and that was a great part of my sense of self-worth and hope for my own future.
One evening, after a long day of intensive studying, I was completely exhausted by both the complexity of abstract information and the level of detail that I was trying to absorb. I decided to take a shower. In the shower, I sensed a presence. It did not alarm or frighten me because, like many in this book, I knew immediately that the presence, or Third Man, wished to help me. I felt that my guardian angel had been sent by God to guide me at a difficult time. The angel spoke to me and gave me advice. It offered practical suggestions about how to conduct my daily life, how to learn, and how to manage my emotions. The angel did not promise admission to medical school, but reassured me that things would work out as they should, that I should have faith.
I decided to record some of this valuable advice. I got out of the shower, sat down at the computer, and wrote several pages of guidance that was directly dictated by the angel’s voice. I saved these words on both the hard drive and a floppy disk, went to bed, and had my first restful sleep in weeks.
Strangely, when I went to look for those pages of advice, to review what I had been told, I could not find them. I distinctly remember having saved the file in two separate locations because of its importance. My computer had not crashed. Nonetheless, I could find no trace of the dictation of my angel. As for others in this book, my angel departed when I was back on the right track. The rest of my exam period went smoothly. I continued to study intensively, and felt more peaceful doing so. I scored high marks and went on to medical school.
Humans are inclined to be connected to one another. We seek the company of friends and family, we congregate in towns and cities, and the groups we belong to—our communities of faith, our co-workers, and our neighbourhoods—form part of our sense of self and place. Yet, despite these social inclinations, there are journeys that humans make that are difficult, and undertaken either alone or in small groups. Some of these challenges are sought voluntarily, as in the case of gruelling, long-distance voyages to remote parts of the world, and in the practice of some traditional spiritual quests. Other such journeys spring unexpectedly upon those involved, precipitated by mishap in the outdoors, or by cataclysms such as the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. What happens to people who are tired, afraid, alone, and have no choice but to address their threatening situation? This fascinating book explores the ways in which some are helped by a welcome presence.
My visit from a Third Man, whom I believe to be my guardian angel, occurred within a personal moment of crisis, rather than in the gruelling physical circumstances described by many of this book’s subjects. This sits well with John’s argument that the Third Man likely occurs more commonly than we recognize, and is not limited to extreme travel and exploration.
As a physician, I am trained to understand and work with a certain biological, empirical reality. In one sense, we are a collection of muscles, bone, neurons, and other bits and pieces that can be measured and observed. Yet, in many ways, knowing the mechanics of the human body reminds me of the reality that the sum of the parts do not make the whole. Our experience as people may occur literally just beneath the surface of our skin, but a simple knowledge of anatomy is not sufficient to explain the everyday phenomena of consciousness or thought.
As a writer and as a person, I know that human experience is very real, and yet anyone would be hard-pressed to weigh or measure the dimensions of love, anger, fear, or pride in the way that the mass of an organ can be measured. Certain complex experiences—the quiet pleasure of watching a stunning expanse of sky, the excitement and satisfaction of reading a wonderful book, the strength of religious faith—are at once concrete and utterly ephemeral. They are part of the mystery of being human, the wispy territory in which we exist somewhere between our ambitious science and our daily frailties. In the mysterious gap between our knowledge of biological mechanisms and our everyday experience as people, we find that things occur that are not easily explainable, but are no less real for that.
The Third Man is one of these phenomena. It is something that happens when people are placed in difficult circumstances, often when their very survival is at stake. Amazingly, despite the harrowing situations in which it often arises, most judge the experience to be valuable and positive—for many, a life-affirming force. The Third Man Factor is an account both of physically amazing voyages and personal discovery at the extremes of human experience. The Third Man speaks to both the ways in which we are fundamentally alone, and to the ways that as humans we always contain the possibility of relationship with others. It reassures us that even in the worst of times, help may come.
Dr. Vincent Lam was born in London, Ontario, and grew up in Ottawa. Dr. Lam did his medical training in Toronto, and is an emergency physician who also does international air evacuation work and expedition medicine on Arctic and Antarctic ships. His first book, Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures, won the 2006 Giller Prize.
