The Canadian Press has reported a woman who was lost in northwestern Ontario for six days was comforted by a Third Man. The story, written by reporter Steve Lambert and published by the Toronto Star, details the ordeal of Valerie Cain, who was lost when she stopped for a break during a July 12 drive to Red Lake.. She saw some rapids off the highway, parked her car and started walking through the forest to get a better look, but soon lost her way. Her encounter with the Third Man occurred on the fourth day, as her situation became more desperate. Here's how Lambert describes it:

 

"Soon afterward, her mind started playing tricks on her. She saw a man on the other side of the river. She was convinced he was real. "I had about a three-hour, I don't know what you'd call it, a hallucination of sorts with a person on the other side of the river, who was telling me he was going to come and get me," Cain said. "He just couldn't get across or whatever ... so I just kind of moved back into the bush and laid underneath some trees and went to sleep for the night."

Cain now figures she was suffering from so-called "third-man" syndrome, a condition in which people who are in danger of dying feel the presence of an unknown person urging them to carry on. The syndrome was the subject of a recent book by Toronto author John Geiger.

.The full story can be viewed here.