Ron DiFrancesco was in the South Tower of the WTC when the airliner hit the floors above, generating a cascade of debris and knocking him into a wall. He climbed upward, hoping to be rescued from the roof, but was trapped by smoke and fire on the 91st floor.
Losing consciousness, DiFrancesco "heard a voice call him by his first name. 'The voice was insistent but encouraging. Somebody lifted me up. I was led to the stairs. I don't think somebody grabbed my hand, but I was definitely led.'"
Sarah Chalmers of the Daily Mail reports, "The benevolent helper guided him down the stairs, insisting he walk through fires - which he did, covering his face - to make his way down." He reached the exit and got out as the building collapsed. DiFrancesco awakened in a hospital to find that he was the last survivor.
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An avalanche swept James Sevigny away, killed his friend, and left him lying in bloodsoaked snow with a broken back, wrecked knees, internal bleeding and resigned to death. John Blake of CNN Living writes that Sevigny "felt someone behind him and heard a voice: 'No, you can't give up. You have to live.' It was like if I would sneak up to you and put my nose a quarter of an inch from your neck. It was that kind of physical sensation."
The voice was "warm and nurturing, and it gave practical advice: 'You have to get your jacket on. You have to get water.'" It told him to form his lost blood into the shape of arrows pointing his direction. Sevigny said, "I didn't question it. I didn't think about it. I did exactly what the voice said." The companion led him to safety.
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Extraordinary stories, but not uncommon. Years after his Antarctic trek with two others Ernest Shackleton reported he felt there were four of them - not three - and that the unseen presence guided them. It turned out the others had sensed the companion, too.
How does this happen? Scientists have stimulated epileptic brains to produce the sensation of a presence felt by the patient. They theorize that in extreme situations an "angel switch" is activated that creates this feeling. Others think it's a psychological coping mechanism that kicks in under stress. But neither explanation accounts for the comfort, support and specific instructions the companion provides.
Shackleton and DeFrancesco didn't need to explain it since both were Christians who attributed the "Third Man" to divine intervention.
Sevigny disdains religion, but his experience touched him so deeply he couldn't talk about it without crying for years. Sounds like an unresolved conflict between a brain trying to rationalize the experience into something it accomplished and a heart that knows God saved his life.
The name "Third Man" was inspired by the episode in which the risen Christ walks with two disciples without identifying himself. Is the Third Man Jesus, the Holy Spirit, an angel or just some physiological/psychological process?
Any thoughts? Has anyone had this experience or know someone who has?
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I know what you are talking about and I believe the source of it is found in passages like Psalm 91:11-12 and Hebrews 13:2. I have had two times like this in my own life. I don't share them much because I realize the subjectivity of them.
ReplyDeleteOne, When I was a young pastor, heading straight into a car accident that happened just in front of me, as I was traveling 60 mph. The last thought I had as I was feet away from the wreck was that I was going to die. Then, it was like I awoke from a dream, and my car stopped inches from a wreck where two people were dead. There is no explanation for this other than God stopped my car.
Two, when I was in the midst of a very difficult situation at FC, and had a very tough decision to make, I was in my office alone crying out to God. I was afraid and full of anguish. I didn't know what to do. It was a pivotal time in my ministry there. "Someone" spoke audibly to me and said three words that were the right answer. I looked around the room to see the person. No one was there. To this day, I know who it was.
I had an experience when, as I was opening my mind to God, I was entering my four-year-old's room to read him the same book we'd read for weeks. I told God that if Jon wanted to read the Child's Book of Prayers - which we had never read before - then I'd believe. Jon put down the book in his hands, pulled the prayer book out of a group of around forty identically bound Golden Books, and said he wanted to read it instead.
ReplyDeleteI related the story to an atheist, who chalked it up to coincidence - which is a typical response. I asked him to think about it, because his scenario is beyond credibility for a variety of reasons I haven't gone into here.
Interestingly, this guy then bought a copy of Finding Faith in a Skeptical World and I expect to discuss it with him when he's finished reading it.
I have no choice but to believe God was almost tangibly present at the time and probably gave me the chill I got up my spine then - and still get every time I tell the story.