Stephanie Schwabe, The Cave Diver Who Was ‘Saved’ By Her Dead Husband
University of KentuckyStephanie Schwabe encountered third man syndrome while trapped in an underwater cave in the Bahamas.
Unlike the last several entries, University of Kentucky geologist Stephanie Schwabe did not encounter third man syndrome high on a mountain but deep in an underwater cave.
In 1997, Schwabe — an experienced cave diver — embarked on a dive of special significance in Mermaid’s Lair in the Bahamas. Her husband and diving partner, Rob Palmer, had died during a dive just three weeks earlier. And they had often gone to Mermaid’s Lair together.
This time, Schwabe was going alone to collect sediment samples.
As she finished collecting her samples, Schwabe looked up and realized she’d lost sight of her “guideline,” an essential tool which cave divers use to safely navigate their way out of underwater caves. Without it, she was trapped. And she only had 20 minutes of oxygen remaining.
Rob Palmer Blue Holes FoundationStephanie Schwabe believes that her “third man” was her recently deceased husband.
Angry, scared, and overcome with grief, Schwabe “suddenly felt flushed” and everything around her seemed to “become brighter,” according to The Third Man Factor: Surviving the Impossible by John Geiger.
In that instant, Schwabe felt like someone else was there in the cave with her — and it felt like her husband Rob. According to Schwabe, he said something to her that he’d often said when alive: “Remember, believe you can, believe you can’t, either way you are right. Remember?”
With just minutes of air remaining, Schwabe looked up and spotted the guideline. With that, the “presence” in the cave vanished and Schwabe was able to make her way out. But she’s convinced that the third man phenomenon she experienced was Rob, and that it saved her life.
