“Im now almost 60 and still can only explain it one way someone intervened.”
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about a phenomenon called “third man syndrome.”
As someone deeply interested in all things paranormal, I was absolutely fascinated by it.
So, let me tell you what I learned!
There are quite a few things people chalk the phenomenon up to.
Others believe these “third men” are guardian angels sent to protect us.
Recently, I askedBuzzFeed Readerslike you to share their own “Third Man Syndrome” stories.
I got a truly surprising and overwhelming number of submissions.
Without further ado, here they are:
1.
“I was driving home after running an errand with my youngest child.
I did, and another vehicle plowed through their red light.
I looked around and no one was on the sidewalk.
There was a tall cinderblock fence blocking the road from the homes and everything else around.
I was even more shocked when my daughter asked who had yelled.
I asked her what shed heard, and she asked who the man who yelled, ‘Stop!’
She’d heard it, too!”
Anonymous
2.
“I’m an R.N.
I told my friend that I had to stop, so we did.
There was a young man stuck in his car.
We saw smoke coming from the engine and were in panic mode.
Out of nowhere, a man appeared and said, ‘I can help.’
He opened the car door with minimal effort.
We then were able to get the young man out and could clearly see that his foot was broken.
I turned to thank the man, and he was gone!
I don’t remember what his face looked like, but he was calm and pleasant.
I believe in a higher power, and I truly believe he was an angel.
I’m so grateful!”
donnakirkpatrick
3.
This resulted in me spending much of my elementary education in isolated suspension.
Well, turns out he never existed."
“More than 20 years later, I still remember him better than most of my classmates.
When I asked about him, no one knew a thing about who he was.
This was a school where graduating classes were rarely ever over 100.
He wasn’t in any yearbooks, even in the ‘absent for photographs’ section.”
t492e49f12
4.
“I was 14, up late reading, and the only person awake in my house.
It was nearing a.m. when I suddenly heard someone whisper my name in my ear.
jordanbrinker
5.
“A few years ago, I got my daughter a cat for her birthday.
The voice repeated itself, getting more and more urgent.
It sounded so urgent that I got up and went upstairs immediately.”
It was completely fogged up, and she was barely breathing.
It took me a few seconds to pry it off and start giving her CPR.
Fortunately, she was alright.
That voice saved my cat’s life!”
patriciajoseph1
6.
One morning, I was on a lonely section of US 287 in Colorado heading up into Wyoming.
‘You’re gonna wanna back her down, driver.
There some deer in the road right over this grade,’ it said.
I slowed down as I climbed the hill, pulling a trailer with a fairly light load in it.
‘Hey, thanks, driver,’ I said on my CB.
“If I’d been going any faster, I would have run right into them.
I keyed up on my CB again.
‘Hey, thanks, driver.
I would have hit them if you hadnt warned me, come back?’
Again, no answer.
The road was now a straight shot for miles.
I realized I couldnt see any taillights from a truck or car ahead of me.
No one behind me, either.
I didnt see anyone on the shoulder coming up the grade or on the other side.
There weren’t any houses on that stretch I was on, either.
I began to realize I hadnt passed anyone in a couple of hours.
I tried one last time.
I dont know who or what gave me a warning about those deer.
I was the only one out there as far as I could tell.
I sure am appreciative, though.”
Travis H.
7.
These swims were usually by myself and unsupervised since I was a relatively good swimmer.
I quickly noticed that my head was also inches away from the concrete side of the pool.
“When I was young, my mom’s favorite song was ‘His Eyes On the Sparrow.’
We agreed, and she sang ‘His Eyes On the Sparrow.’
How could she know that it was my mom’s favorite song?
No one knew who she was.
She simply disappeared.”
Sandy, Virginia, USA
9.
“I was taking a shortcut across a frozen reservoir on the way to a friend’s house.
Suddenly, the ice cracked, and I started to fall through.
I felt two hands slam into my back, and I skidded across the ice.
I was soaking wet when I arrived at my friend’s house, cold and shivering.
My friend turned white, and his eyes were bugging out of his head.
There were two hand-shaped bruises forming on my back.
40+ years later, I still get chills thinking about it.”
“Once I was cutting through the cemetery behind my house.
so loudly and clearly.
I stopped in my tracks, startled.
If I hadn’t stopped, my 6-year-old self would have tumbled six feet down into it.
I thank my guardian angels for the save.”
shelleyacarnes
11.
I was alone, taking a long route through a residential area.
He got closer, no matter how fast I walked.
Suddenly, I saw a dog tied to a pole in the sideyard of this large house nearby.
I pretended I knew the dog and walked over to it.
I then went to the house’s front door, and by some miracle, it was unlocked!
No one in our town would leave their home unlocked, especially this immaculate home.
I went inside, locked the door, and stayed there until the stalker crossed the street and disappeared.
I then ran the two miles to my house.
Linda, USA
12.
She was very young and looked like a teenager.
She wore all-white scrubs and would braid my hair when I was lonely and couldn’t sleep.
She’d sit with me for hours on end without having to go anywhere else."
“One night, she stayed with me when my parents couldn’t.
I felt a pain in my side and told her about it.
It was the most intense pain I had ever felt at that point in my life.
My call button wasn’t working, and there were no other nurses but her to help.
She told me she was going to get help.
About a minute later, a group of doctors and nurses burst into my room, asking who screamed.
Everyone had heard it except for me.
That really confused me.
The nurse in white had braided them, as I was and am still hopeless at braiding.
To this day, I know that was a guardian angel.
I haven’t seen her since, but I know she’s still with me.”
“It was 1990 and I was 23 years old.
I was alone…or so I thought.
I slowly climbed out and lay on the ground.
I heard the sirens and as the paramedics came down to me, she said I would be okay.
I told the paramedics about her, but they said no one else was there when they arrived.
I had the blanket, though, as proof.
sdalejg
14.
“One day, I was on my way out the door to drive to work.
I had a pair of open-toed, flat shoes on.
I was home alone, but I heard a disembodied voice telling me to put on boots.
So, I immediately turned around and put on a pair of boots.
It plowed into me, pushing my car into the van in front of me.
The car was totaled, but thankfully I was OK, just shaken up.
This happened at least 10 years ago, and I still have those boots in my closet.”
“I loved the ballet, but was too poor as a kid to participate.
Five or six minutes passed before I realized I had forgotten to go to the bathroom all day.
My husband saw the look on my face and frowned.
And fly I did.”
“When the time came, my slippery sling-backs launched me forward on the second step.
I can still remember, 35 years later, the feeling that I was going to die.
I was going to land on my head or break my neck on those stunning marble stairs.
Suddenly, someone grabbed me from behind and set me securely on step four.
I heard someone say, ‘You’re okay.’
I turned to thank whoever had saved me, but no one was there.
My husband said I was still in shock when I returned to my seat.”
Deborah, Phoenix, AZ
16.
“This happened in the early ’80s when I was about 20.
I thought I was just tired and hallucinating, so I ignored it.
The voice repeated itself very urgently.
They were high enough to be seen from the sheriff’s station.”
If I had been driving when the hood exploded, I may have wrecked it.
Carolyn, Georgia, USA
17.
Before I realized it, I was in very deep and running out of air.
I wanted to swim up toward the top, but I couldn’t.
I was too little, and there was too much water on top of me.
I remember trying to swim up, but the water was just too heavy.
“Whoever it was pulled me up until I was out of the water completely.
I grabbed on to the edge of the pool and took a deep breath.
I looked around to see who had saved me, but no one was around me.
Everyone else at the pool was far away and hadn’t seemed to notice what had been happening.
To this day Ive always been perplexed by what happened to me.”
“When I was 16, I was in a bad car accident.
I hit the fence surrounding a school’s tennis court, which went down an embankment.
He was standing beside the older man who’d been driving.
He helped me out of the car and found my glasses I couldn’t see without them.
When the EMT workers took me to the hospital, I told them how that young man helped me.
He said ‘There was no younger man with the older gentleman.”
Douglas W.
19.
“When I was 19, I was completely oblivious to my mortality.
I took lots of risks but none more so than when I borrowed my friend’s motorcycle.
A slight curve in the road was coming up fast, so I started slowing down.
I checked my speed and saw I was still going 70 mph.
Worse yet, I was already into the turn and going into a ditch.
I must have blacked out for a few seconds.”
I left the incident with just a little scratch on my leg.
My friends brand new Honda Interceptor lay in a tangled pile of metal.
Im now almost 60 and still can only explain it one way someone intervened.”
The house was two stories and my parents’s room was on the second floor.
I remember playing with my brother at the foot of the railing while my mother was folding clothes.
Out of nowhere, someone or something told me to grab my brother.
I turned to my brother, grabbed his ankle, and pulled him towards me.
My mother approached us, desperate and about to cry, but I could not understand why.
She said my brother had tripped and started to fall out the window."
I simply obeyed the voice that told me to grab onto him.
He pulled off the two-lane road we were on and into a gas station.
It was late at night, so the station was open but the mechanic garage was closed.
With no one to help, he popped the hood and stared at the engine.
Just open them up a little, and you should be fine.'"
But before he could turn back around and thank the guy, he was gone.
None of us had heard the motorcycle fire up and drive away…he just disappeared.
Dad borrowed a tool from the gas station and fixed the spark plugs.
The car fired up and purred like a kitten on the first try.
As dad settled behind the wheel for the drive home, we all sort of stared at each other.
We believed that that night, we were visited by a guardian angel.
I still believe it to this day."
Drea, Roseville, CA
22.
“My sister and I were returning home from a day spent shopping in Denver.
Unexpectedly, a severe snowstorm blew in.
The roads were an icy mess.
He was the best-looking firefighter we had ever seen.
He stayed for about 15 minutes, calmed us down, and guided us through turning the car around.
He hopped out of the car, and I turned around to watch him leave…but he vanished.
There was no way he could have walked away that quickly.”
We were all strong swimmers and didn’t have any floatation devices.
As we approached them, I got caught in a whirlpool that pulled me under.
I fought to get to the surface, only to be pulled under again.
I fought with all my might but was so tired and completely out of air.
Someone under the surface said, ‘you could’t give up!
and felt something or someone push me to the surface."
Brooke, Seattle - WA
Note: Submissions are edited for length and/or clarity.
