Literature on the reactions of contemporary human beings coping with certain kinds of extreme and unusual environments indicates the occasional experience of another entity appearing to provide help or advice, even when no such entity was in fact present. Sources of such reports reviewed in this article include spirit quests, solitary sailing, polar and mountain explorations, and the traumatic experiences of shipwreck and air-crash survivors in remote and hostile environments. The experience is frequently interpreted as a sign of psychiatric symptomatology, whereas it is not only quite common in such situations but may in fact be an adaptive reaction. It can be conveniently described in terms of Jaynes's (1976) theory of bicamerality, but its specific etiology and characteristics have not been adequately investigated.
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