Three-photon excitation of a dipole-allowed atomic transition in rare gases is cancelled at an elevated gas pressure due to the well-known destructive interference of the three- and one-photon transition amplitudes in resonant atomic excitation. This cancellation effect is independent of laser light intensity, but is strongly modified in the presence of counterpropagating light. It has been shown that under three-photon resonant pumping at 1010 W cm−2 the multiphoton ionization through the cancelled 6s[3/2] J = 1 resonance of xenon can be initiated by counterpropagating light with an intensity as low as 103 W cm−2, which is by many orders of magnitude less than normally required for the onset of multiphoton excitation and ionization processes in rare gases. Some peculiarities of such triggered multiphoton ionization are discussed.