Shadow People - Also known, or called as - Shadow Folk, Shadow Men, Shadow Beings
Ever seen a shadow, or shadow like figure from the corner of your eye? Or maybe awoken to see a dark mass like figure at the foot of your bed or down the hall? Then what you may have witnessed, is what many refer to as 'Shadow People.'
Shadow People, is a growing phenomenon, as more and more people claim seeing them.
There are many different theories as to what exactly Shadow People are or may be:
- Imagination - hallucinations
- Ghosts
- Demons or other entities
- Time Travelers or Interdimentional Beings
Sightings differ, and the experiences as well for those who have claimed to see them.
Shadow People Sightings have been described as:
- Menacing ( being chased, or attacked )
- Seen through the corner of one's eye, disintegrating, or moving between or on walls when noticed
- Standing in front of the witness, lingering or dissipating upon one noticing them
Most encounters are accompanied by feelings of dread.
Unlike Ghosts, even though a human-like form can sometimes be seen, no features, clothing, etc. are. Mostly appearing as silhouettes, and forms of an animal, adult or child, or simply black masses. Sometimes reports have them with glowing red eyes.
Witnesses have claimed them with movements which can be quick or slow, as well as both - starting out slowly and then in an instant, as if to 'hop' and appear in another location. Also acclaimed sightings are as if the Shadow People appear to 'dance' or move from side to side, ( bob ), in a slow swinging motion, on walls, and other areas.
Some accounts totally differ from the above mentioned, to a completely black form, ( sometimes described as a man like figure ), which appears to wear a dark cloak or coat and hat, which many refer to as "The Hat Man."
Sightings of these beings is spreading world wide, and even pictures and drawings are shared throughout the net, and can be found on many forums and websites, and many stories of them as well. Books are sold with stories of encounters and witness acclaimed reports.
What exactly are these beings? No one really knows for sure, though all tend to agree through witness sightings, that they are a shadow - or shadow like figure and that is about where the similarities of these sightings end. There has yet to be a case where the shadow person speaks to a witness - as far as anyone can tell.
*Constructs - Believed to be created by ones mind or by another to 'watch or spy'.
Here is a Story of what may just be 'The Hat Man':
And a Shadow Person Account:
Other Stories:
*Dream grasp
Dream
5/23/07
I sent a few stories here, but there's one that I can't explain. maybe if someone knows of this they could email me at least. When I was 16 (I'm 19 now), I was sleeping, near morning. As I was awakening, darkness over came that dream and I looked around scared. A dark creature, shadowish, red eyes told me "You can't leave Bobbie. You can't leave your dream." It was a big booming voice, deep and frightening. I actually tried pinching myself asleep, I could actually feel my eyelids trying to open. It started laughing and yelled again "You can't escape me!" Finally, I screamed myself awake, basically waking up my father who rushed in. I was wicked pale and sweat pouring. To this day I'm still confused about this dream. It hasn't happened ever since. Could someone help me?
Bobbie Morris
darkfang87@hotmail.com
Rutland, Vermont
Bobbie, Hello!
*Your description of the entity is very close, if not the same, as what many claim to be a 'Shadow Person'. If so, what you have experienced is the first encounter with one of these beings which has spoken to someone that we know of.
Though we cannot explain the dream itself, it is believed that many paranormal occurrences happen in the in-between state of awake and dreaming. So be it simply a vivid dream, or actual paranormal experience, would be hard to determine.
We hope that this page on Shadow People may help you obtain some more information, and possibly insight into what you experienced. - Ed
Also see:
*Haunted Apartment
Haunting
5/23/07
I lived at 10 Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn, New York from 1980 until 1994. I was first in apartment F3 and had no problems, but when I moved to apartment D3, which had been occupied by a woman named Sophie Brisman, her things were still there and I'd been told she'd had "an accident." There were strange scribblings on the bathroom walls, done with lipstick. I wanted the apartment, so didn't ask questions. While brushing my teeth, I would hear bells ringing. I chalked this up to the old plumbing. While taking a bath, I'd hear the phone ring, then jump up to answer it, only to find it was no longer ringing. (Even when I got an answering machine, this kept happening.) I heard loud slamming noises and figured it was angry neighbors slamming their closet doors. I was generally very happy there, but visitors were disturbed. People who slept over heard someone walking around in the living room all night, and the neighbors downstairs complained that I paced the floors all day, although I worked and wasn't there, and had put in a thick rug with padding. My second husband would no longer live there, as he heard "voices praying" all day, so I bought him his own apartment nearby. (We had two apartments for a long time.) I sublet the apartment, and she "saw things" but wouldn't discuss them. In the summer of 1994, my third husband and I saw a tall, black "shadow man" peering at us from the hallway, then retreating to the living room. He wore a hat and coat and had a stooped posture. He, too, would hear a bell (not the phone, the doorbell in this case) ringing just as he would settle into a nice bath. I did keep some of Sophie's things there with me, such as some of her kitchen utensils. I felt she liked me but played jokes, and didn't like men to come stay with me. Apartment A2 was haunted worse than mine. The handiman not only heard footsteps in the room where he was, he saw the floorboards move! My third husband tried to talk to the ghost, who was bothering him a lot during the day with loud crashing noises, but it didn't help. Since it was such a nice, big, old apartment and was not expensive, I enjoyed living there. Ten Ocean Parkway was built in the 1920s and has a colorful history. I think that Sophie, who was an original tenant and had raised a family in other, larger apartment in years past, had grown old and lonely there and fell in the bathroom and died there. I think she was a bit jealous of me having husbands and lovers. As far as I was concerned, however, the hauntings were only a nuisance, and I felt safe and happy there for years. A haunting doesn't need to be all bad. I do feel sorry for my overnight guests who were frightened by the footsteps at night, but they didn't tell me about the problem as it occurred, only just as I was leaving the place for good.
Lisa Falour
FRANCE
*Shadow People
8/23/07
Greetings!
I have seen one of these spirits, and as I have for some reason experienced countless encounters with supernatural phenomenon, let me tell you THEY AIN'T GOOD. I don't know if I would classify them as demons, but some spirits are dark. They are evil and can't go into the light. They prey on the weak and the sick and the vulnerable, and are just itching to "get inside". The fact that there are so many sightings disturbs me. When I was younger I would see smaller versions that looked like hovering black bats that never flapped wings, just hovered. The one I saw recently was a full body figure, about 4-5 feet tall and looked like it was wearing a hooded robe.
Susan
*Shadow man my true story
10/13/07
Well I had an experience that I will never forget. I was 6 or 7 years old. I was just put in bed, maybe around 7:30 or so.
My bed was against the wall. I was facing the wall wide awake. I then turned over to see the most horrifying entity in this universe. It stood next to my be, maybe 4 feet away from my head. A figure maybe between 4 - 5 ft tall. Solid, all black resembling a shadow. But I will never forget the outline. It wore a hat and a long coat of some sort. It appeared to be old fashioned clothing from what I could see.
The part that is so terrifying, is that my encounter did not just disappear... it stood there lurking at me moving it's head from side to side, as if it was saying no! Then Green "faces" neon lights started to circle around my room none stop as this figure continued to just stand there. I tried so hard for what I believe to be at least 10 minutes to scream, I was speechless for the only time in my life!
Finally it came out... My parents were in the family room... all the way at the other end of the house on the floor below me! My dad heard and ran up! I put the cover over my head till he came in, when he turned on the light I popped out and looked everything was gone... So I went down stairs to watch TV with them for about a half hour. The they brought me back up. And what do you know I put the cover over my head scared to death took it off and looked to see this all again, same thing green faces lights and dark figure lurking at me!!!! This time I could not scream. I fell asleep, or passed out to awake the next morning. I know I was young, but I was not sick, no fever...never fell asleep to see this! It wasn't a dream. This creature or spirit whatever, was very dark, and had an evil energy. I really wish I knew what happened after I fell asleep.. This has haunted me for ever.
D. B.
*Shadow People
2/21/02
2006 I was sleeping in my room. My girlfriend next to me. I have a framed poster of dolphins jumping in the water at night. I woke up out of the blue to a feeling of paralyzation. Floating above me and to my right was a black smoke. I couldn't see through it, but I could still see the wall and the window around it. I tried my hardest to nudge my girlfriend, even tried to yell. It felt as if ALL my strength was gone! I could still feel, hear and smell everything. I could move my eyes, but that was it. It stayed there for about ten minutes until my girlfriend moved in her sleep. I watched it draw back and as it did I could move. The second I raised my arm to nudge her it disappeared into the picture. More than that, it looked like it disappeared into the reflection on the water in the picture. I jumped up and hit the light. I let her know what had happened, thinking she would just tell me I was dreaming, but she said "The darkness". She said that a few times in her life she had seen something similar. She had described different sized shadows that would normally disappear into a mirror or puddle. I know what I saw and I KNOW I was awake the whole time. I don't know why I couldn't move while it was touching me, I would have to say fear, I guess. I wasn't afraid of it as much as not being able to move. I would have never ever believed such a thing possible, but I couldn't come up with anything that could explain what happened. My thought is they live in reflections, which is why in our world they appear as shadows.
Chris H.
*Shadow People
6/11/08
I'm putting the finishing touches on a book about Shadow People and have been looking for someone who believes Shadow People are time travelers. It's not necessary for the book, but I'm trying to touch on all theories and I know this theory is out there. If you know of someone, would you send them my way?
Thanks. I hope all is well.
Jason Offutt
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Visit his Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com for Jason's other books, and while you're there, why not subscribe to Jason's (more or less) monthly newsletter. ( Humor Writing )
*My Shadow Man Experience
Haunting
6/12/08
I was 9 years old when I had this experience. I was about 4 years old when we moved in to this house in Cortez, Co. I remember it so clearly because I didn't like it it gave me the creeps! my parents back in those days were quite the entertainers, always had friends over to play cards or listen to my dad's band. This night my parents friends had brought their kids over so my younger sister and I wouldn't be obnoxious and stay out their hair. It was getting late and my mom had came back to tell us girls to let the other kids sleep in the beds and for my sister and I to sleep on the floor. We got ready for bed and my mom turned off the light and turned on the bathroom light for me, I have always been afraid of the dark so this was ritual. My younger sister and the other two kids went to sleep right away but I couldn't shake this feeling of someone watching me so I sat up and when I did there was a solid black figure standing right at the foot of where I was laying, at first I thought it was my dad so I said "dad is that you"? no answer! I was starting to feel really scared I just stared at it for a minute and when I was about to ask again the hall light came on, then my dad walked past my room and went into his room, by this time I was in shock frozen with complete fear! I couldn't speak or move! at the same time my younger sister sat straight up and looked right at me and just laid back down and went right back to sleep! I can't tell you how scared this made me because it all happened at the same time, but this shadow man stayed right where he was, didn't move! so I slid down under my covers and didn't look up for about 5 minutes, thinking this thing would just go away but when I looked up he was still there!! I didn't know what to do so I just slid back under my covers and didn't look up till morning! I don't know how long he had been there but I could see him perfectly, his head was round, I could see his neck and shoulders all the way down to his feet, he was solid black! and the feeling of dread and fear was unreal, he didn't feel like he was good at all, it was a very evil feeling! it wasn't long after this experience that mother was diagnosed with cancer, she was very superstitious being from England and all, she believed in this stuff but I never did tell anyone about it but I wish I had, after this experience I had another experience at one of parents good friends house, my younger sister and I had to stay with them while my dad took mom to Denver for chemo. They were very religious, they had religious icons every where from pictures to statues, one in particular stood out to me, it was a statue of a nun kneeling in prayer, it stood about 3ft high. My younger sister and I again were sleeping on the floor in their living room. I was sleeping really well until I got that crazy feeling of being watched, when I opened my eyes that kneeling nun statue was sitting right beside me like she was praying over me, I didn't feel the fear like I did with the shadow man but I was a bit freaked out! I shut my eyes and when I looked up she was back in her place. I don't know what to make of it but it seems odd to have one evil experience then have a divine one later. What ever it was I think I was the most vulnerable because nothing ever happened to anyone else, I have asked my younger sister if she ever saw anything weird in our house and she said no, my older siblings I have never asked they weren't home much. I am hoping someday I will figure out why me? my life was never the same after the shadow man, it seemed everything just went wrong, my family always fought, yelling all the time, my brother and older sister physically fought to hurt each other. My parents fought all time, my dad actually packed his bags a few times! my mom's illness didn't seem to matter to anyone but me and my youngest sister. There were times I didn't feel like myself, I would do things that I didn't want to do but just did it anyway! I pulled a knife on my brother and when I snapped out of it my mom was crying. I don't know but there is something in that house! I am now 39 and both my parents have passed, we sold the house in 05' and I always wonder if the owner has had any experiences there but I don't think I will ever know. I can tell you all this since we sold that house our lives have all been 100% better, we all have very successful lives but for me in particular I will never forget. Thanks for allowing me the opportunity to tell my story.
Robin
Cortez, Colorado
Any Stories, Drawings, or Pictures are welcome! Please send Here with 'Shadow People' in the Subject line. Thank you!
