A lot of people talk about THIRD MAN SYNDROME, the feeling that someone appears beside you, saving you or offering assistance and comfort during terrible or stressful events. Sometimes people report hearing the person and others actually see the person, only to have them disappear inexplicably afterwards.
These stories seem to regularly pop up in wartime, during disasters and sometimes when children are separated from their families. Lately, the internet is filled with stories like this.
My daughter has had several of these experiences; ranging from hearing her grandfather’s reassuring voice and feeling his hand on her shoulder, to actually seeing he and her late father saddled up on the ranch at a distance. I absolutely believe her accounts, as they were given in near real time and her accounts have never wavered. I wish that I had experienced the same. What a comfort to feel your most beloved family walking beside you in your darkest moments.
When I think about experiences like this, I’m neither surprised, frightened or disbelieving. Whether our “third man” is a comforting voice, an actual person, or beloved family member; for me, their presence is a gift from God. Call them guardian angels or whispered reassurance from the Lord, they all add up to being watched over by a loving, personal Savior.
People who are fortunate enough to have such experiences should surely count it as an extra measure of assurance that God not only exists; but, is here and listening to each of us.
Some scientists will weigh in and say that the experiences are nothing more than a distressed individual’s psychological response to extreme stress. Maybe, but like a lot of what secular science purports as fact, they really have no more proof of their supposition than I have for mine.
I, like most everyone who hits a certain age, have experienced my share of tragedy as well as emergency and stressful situations in my life. I’ve also witnessed God working in my life and in the lives of those I love and who believe. That surety of God’s presence has changed the way I approach everything. Death no longer terrifies me and I generally approach even the most difficult situations with more calm and resolve than ever before.
I think the now popular notion of third man syndrome is really the age old belief in guardian angels wrapped in a new cloak. Whatever you call it, and however you experience it, we are all part of something much bigger and more profound than the physical world…and given the state of our physical world, that too is infinitely reassuring.
Kris Stewart is a rancher in Paradise Valley, Nevada.