John Grigsby Geiger is a Canadian journalist, author and shipwreck hunter. He is best known for his book ''The Third Man Factor: Surviving the Impossible'', which popularized the concept of the " third man", an incorporeal being that aids people under extreme duress. The book is the basis for a

National Geographic Channel National Geographic (formerly National Geographic Channel; abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo or Nat Geo TV) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by the National Geographic Global Networks unit of Disney Enter ...

video entitled ''Explorer: The Angel Effect'', in which Geiger appears. In turn, a second book on the topic, based on, and taking its name from the National Geographic video, was published in 2013. His other works include the international bestseller '' Frozen in Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition''. In 2024, Geiger led a

Royal Canadian Geographical Society The Royal Canadian Geographical Society (RCGS; French: ''Société géographique royale du Canada'') is a Canadian nonprofit educational organization. It has dedicated itself to spreading a broader knowledge and deeper appreciation of Canada, i ...

expedition that located

Ernest Shackleton Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton (15 February 1874 – 5 January 1922) was an Anglo-Irish Antarctic explorer who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic. He was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarcti ...

's last ship,

Quest (ship) ''Quest'' was a low-powered, schooner-rigged steamship that sailed from 1917 until sinking in 1962, best known as the polar exploration vessel of the Shackleton–Rowett Expedition of 1921–1922. It was aboard this vessel that Ernest Shacklet ...

. Geiger was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the

in 2013. Geiger was born in

Ithaca, New York Ithaca () is a city in and the county seat of Tompkins County, New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lakes region of New York (state), New York, Ithaca is the largest community in the Ithaca metrop ...

, in the United States, but grew up in

Edmonton, Alberta Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

in Canada, studying history at the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta (also known as U of A or UAlberta, ) is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta, and Henry Marshall Tory, t ...

. Geiger was made a member of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada () is a Canadian state order, national order and the second-highest Award, honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the Canadian Centennial, ce ...

in 2020.

Career

Geiger was the

editorial board The editorial board is a group of editors, writers, and other people who are charged with implementing a publication's approach to editorials and other opinion pieces. The editorials published normally represent the views or goals of the publicat ...

editor for ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...

'', and a senior fellow at

Massey College Massey College is the postgraduate University of Toronto#Colleges, college of the University of Toronto located at the University of Toronto#St. George campus, St. George campus in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The college was established, built and ...

. He has held senior positions at the Royal Canadian Geographical Society for more than two decades, starting when he joined the Society's Board of Governors in 2002. He was elected as its 13th President in 2010, and served until 2013, when he was appointed to the joint role of Chief Executive Officer of both the Society an
Canadian Geographical Enterprises
which publishes the Society's bimonthly magazine. In September 2014, John Geiger was a participant in the Victoria Strait Expedition that searched for Sir

John Franklin Sir John Franklin (16 April 1786 – 11 June 1847) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer and colonial administrator. After serving in the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812, he led two expeditions into the Northern Canada, Canadia ...

's ships HMS ''Erebus'' and HMS ''Terror''. HMS ''Erebus'' was successfully located, though Geiger himself was not among the search crew who found it.

Books

In 1987, Bloomsbury Publishing released ''Frozen In Time: The Fate of The Franklin Expedition'', written by Owen Beattie and John Geiger, with a revised edition in 2004 that featured an introduction by

Margaret Atwood Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian novelist, poet, literary critic, and an inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of nonfiction, nine collections of short fiction, eight chi ...

. The book has been published in seven countries and became a bestseller in the United Kingdom, and subsequently in Canada and Germany. Geiger spent three field seasons in the Arctic as historical investigator for the Knight Archeological Project, a scientific investigation of the 1719 James Knight Expedition disaster, research published as ''Dead Silence'' in 1993. Geiger's book ''Chapel of Extreme Experience: A Short History of Stroboscopic Light and the Dream Machine'' (2003) was made into an award-winning film FLicKeR, by director

Nik Sheehan Nik Sheehan (born 17 March 1960) is a Canadian documentary filmmaker, who established an international reputation with ''No Sad Songs'' (1985), the first major documentary on AIDS. The film cited by world-renowned specialist Dr. Balfour Mount as ...

. It contains a foreword by the writer and socialite

Leila Hadley Leila Hadley (22 September 1925 – 10 February 2009) was an American travel writer and socialite. Her books include ''Give Me the World'' (1958) and ''A Journey with Elsa Cloud'' (1997). Early life and education Beatrice Leila Eliott Burton w ...

. ''Nothing Is True Everything Is Permitted: The Life of Brion Gysin'' was published in 2005. In 2008, Geiger authored, with

Peter Suedfeld Peter Suedfeld (born August 30, 1935) is a Hungarian-Canadian professor emeritus of psychology at the University of British Columbia. Suedfeld is a researcher in the field of Restricted Environmental Stimulation Therapy (REST), and was the fou ...

, the scholarly study, ‘The Sensed Presence as a Coping Resource in Extreme Environments.’ In 2009, ''The Third Man Factor: Surviving the Impossible'' was published in 13 countries. The foreword was written by

Vincent Lam Vincent Lam (born September 5, 1974) is a Canadian writer and medical doctor. Early life and education Born in London, Ontario, and raised in Ottawa, Lam's parents came to Canada from the Chinese expatriate community in Vietnam. He attended S ...

. The book is about the

third man factor The third man factor or third person syndrome refers to the reported situations where an Anomalous experiences#Sense of presence, unseen presence, such as a spirit, provides comfort or support during traumatic experiences. History Sir Ernest S ...

where people at the very edge of death, often adventurers or explorers, experience a sense of an incorporeal being—a "third man"—beside them who encourages them to make one final effort to survive. The experience, which resembles a guardian angel, has been reported by scores of people, including well-known figures like Sir

Joshua Slocum Joshua Slocum (February 20, 1844 – on or shortly after November 14, 1909) was the first person to sail single-handedly around the world. He was a Nova Scotian-born, naturalised American seaman and adventurer, and a noted writer. In 1900 he w ...

Frank Smythe Francis Sydney Smythe, better known as Frank Smythe or F. S. Smythe (6 July 1900 – 27 June 1949), was an English mountaineer, author, photographer and botanist. He is best remembered for his mountaineering in the Alps as well as in the Himal ...

Charles Lindbergh Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974) was an American aviator, military officer, and author. On May 20–21, 1927, he made the first nonstop flight from New York (state), New York to Paris, a distance of . His aircra ...

Reinhold Messner Reinhold Andreas Messner (; born 17 September 1944) is an Italian climber, explorer, and author from the German-speaking province of South Tyrol. He made the first solo ascent of Mount Everest and, along with Peter Habeler, the first ascent o ...

Ann Bancroft Ann Bancroft (born September 29, 1955) is an American author, teacher, adventurer, and public speaker. She was the first woman to finish a number of expeditions to the Arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region ...

, and Stephanie Schwabe.

References

12. Sir Ernest Shackleton’s final ship discovered in the Labrador Sea. Canadian Geographic https://canadiangeographic.ca/articles/wreck-of-quest-famed-antarctic-explorer-sir-ernest-shackletons-last-ship-found-in-labrador-sea/

External links

The Third Man Factor website

AOL Health Q & A
{{DEFAULTSORT:Geiger, John G. Living people Writers from Ithaca, New York University of Alberta alumni Fellows of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society 1960 births Presidents of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society