Third man factor

Sir Ernest Shackleton, in his 1919 book South, described his belief that an incorporeal companion joined him and his men during the final leg of his 1914–1917 Antarctic expedition, which became stranded in pack ice for more than two years and endured immense hardships in the attempt to reach safety.

In recent years, well-known adventurers like climber Reinhold Messner and polar explorers Peter Hillary and Ann Bancroft have reported experiencing the phenomenon.

Simpson describes "a voice" which encouraged him and directed him as he crawled back to base camp after suffering a horrible leg injury high on Siula Grande and falling off a cliff and into a crevasse.

[4] In Larry McMurtry's 1985 Western novel Lonesome Dove, Pea Eye, after surviving an Indian attack with Gus, makes a trek back to Call and has an experience of a "ghost" or "spirit" that guides him during his walk.

In moments of danger and high stress, a Special Forces agent named Jack Flack seemingly magically appears to guide Davey through the situations.

Also, in Max Brooks's novel World War Z, Colonel Christina Eliopolis crash lands in the midst of zombie-infested territory but is able to survive and be picked up with the assistance of a Sky Watcher codenamed "Mets Fan", who is later revealed to be a figment of her imagination.

In the 2018 film Adrift, Shailene Woodley's character Tami, a sailor whose companion is overboard after a hurricane in the middle of the Pacific, finds him in the sea injured and rescues him onboard.