The bestselling author of Frozen in Time and The Third Man Factor explores a haunting phenomenon—the apparition of an unbidden angelic presence in times of great stress that provides guidance and comfort

John Geiger’s last book, The Third Man Factor: Surviving the Impossible, explored an extraordinary idea: that people under enormous stress, sometimes at the edge of death, experience a sense of an incorporeal being beside them, who encourages them to survive. Through his research and the response from readers around the world, it became clear to Geiger that explorers and adventurers are not the sole recipients of such interventions.

It’s a phenomenon encountered across the world and shared by men and women, the religious and the non-religious, throughout history. Under extreme stress, people often encounter a benevolent being that can perform everyday miracles—saving lives, offering advice, providing a balm to victims and those in the throes of disease.

The Angel Effect describes people’s encounters with this power when faced with physical and sexual assaults; after terrible car accidents and airplane crashes; during events like a shark attack or a bank heist; in the midst of a long illness or in cases of persistent, gnawing loneliness. It explores how an ancient prayer, discovered by monks in the Egyptian desert in the early Christian era, may hold the key to accessing the effect at will.

JOHN GEIGER is a co-author of the international bestseller Frozen in Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition and the author of five other works of non-fiction, including The Angel Effect and The Third Man Factor: Surviving the Impossible. His work has been translated into fourteen languages. Geiger is chief executive officer of The Royal Canadian Geographical Society and a fellow of The Royal Geographical Society. He is also a senior fellow at Massey College in the University of Toronto.

ALANNA MITCHELL is an internationally award-winning science journalist and author whose latest bestseller is Sea Sick: The Global Ocean in Crisis. She has recently transformed the book into a one-woman play and is performing it across Canada. In 2014, the play was nominated for a Dora Award. She is a contributor to CBC Radio’s Quirks & Quarks and freelances for Canadian Geographic magazine and The New York Times. She has travelled to each continent and most parts of the ocean doing research and giving talks on marine science.

CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC magazine is a publication of The Royal Canadian Geographical Society, which is one of the largest non-profit educational organizations in Canada, with more than 150,000 subscribers and a network of more than 13,500 educators. The RCGS was a partner in the 2014 Victoria Strait Expedition.

THE HONORABLE LEONA AGLUKKAQ is the member of Parliament for Nunavut. Following an extensive career in government, she became the first Inuk to be sworn into the Federal Cabinet in 2008, as the Minister of Health. She now serves as Minister of the Environment and is also the Minister of the Arctic Council for Canada. Ms. Aglukkaq was raised in Thom Bay, Taloyoak and Gjoa Haven.

John Geiger's profile page