Awesome Or Off-Putting: Shadow People
Awesome or Off-Putting is a weekly delve into cryptozoology, ufology, aliens, medical marvels, scientific wonders, secret societies, government conspiracies, cults, ghosts, EVPs, myths, ancient artifacts, religion, strange facts, odd sightings or just the plain unexplainable.
Every week in this feature we bring you weird stories about the types of things you see in the paragraph above. We’ve talked about bigfoot, aliens. ghosts and a ton of other other-worldly oddities. The only one that really spooks us is today’s topic – shadow people.
Shadow people are just what they sound like – a dark outline of a person seen walking across a wall, a door, or even through trees. The one individually recognised around the world is the Hat-man, so named because he always seems to be wearing a bowler. Perhaps the reason it spooks us so bad is because we know a lot of people who have seen them.
Today we bring you a few stories of these things, along with a video of people describing their encounters. So, you know, curl up in your jammies and enjoy.
Shadow people, according to Wikipedia, are:
“…supernatural shadow-like creatures of both modern folklore and traditional native American beliefs. According to folklore, they appear as dark forms in the peripheries of people’s vision and disintegrate, or move between walls, when noticed.
“Reports of shadow people occupy a similar position in the popular consciousness to ghost sightings, but differ in that shadow people are not reported as having human features, wearing modern/period clothing, or attempting to communicate. Witnesses also do not report the same feelings of being in the presence of something that ‘was once human’. Some individuals have described being menaced, chased, or in some rare instances, attacked by shadow people. There have also been reports of shadow people appearing in front of witnesses, of which they stay there or lingering for several seconds before disappearing. Witnesses report that encounters are typically accompanied by a feeling of dread.”
They’re usually described as being seen out of the corner of your eye. It’s only a second that they’re there, but witnesses can’t deny it. Here are a few encounter-samples from the Shadow People Archives. (All quotes [sic])
Sample #1:
“[My] first unmistakable encounter with a “shadow being” was sometime in late 1987. My door would mysteriously come ajar during the middle of the night. And I would have to get up and close it. This happened dozens of times. Then one night when I went to get up to close it I saw a tall shadow with a fedora hat standing on the other side of the door. It was blacker than the darkness around it, featureless and was staring right at me. Terrified, and feeling I had no place to run, I picked up a screw driver and lunged at the figure. As I did this it slipped into the wall to the right of me within a split second! It made no sound and went through a solid wall. I was so frightened I thought I was going to die.”
Sample #2:
“One nite when I was about 16 yrs old, I lay in bed trying to fall asleep. I heard a faint sweeping sound, as if someone was slowly sweeping a floor. As I look around, see nothing so I lay back down. The sound stops and I finally go to sleep, but abruptly awoken by something covering my mouth and nose. I could not breathe. As I look at what is there, I see a 7 foot tall jet-black shadowy figure standing over me, pushing on my chest. I remember not being able to get up; it was very strong. I started seeing sliver and red and everything went black. When I came to, it was gone, but I hear that sweeping sound again. I lay there afraid to move, afraid to breathe. The sound faded away. And I get brave enough to run to my mother’s room. When I tell her what had happened she told me it was bad dream.
“Now when I turn about 25, I start seeing black shadowy human figures out my side view. When I look right straight at them, they disappear. I tell my mother about them and she tells me that she has seen them too. She did not want to scare me by telling me that the night I awoke, she awoke also but felt being choked instead of feeling pressure on her chest. She sees them a lot.”
Sample #3:
“…This one time though, I actually had a physical encounter with one of the creatures. I was about twelve at the time and was starting to see them more frequently (I assume they somehow knew we were moving soon). One night, I saw one of them appear on the wall farthest away from my bed (I’m still not sure if there was only one or many that “visited” me, I always just saw one at a time). This one started making it’s way across my wall towards my dresser, it was moving faster than any of the ones I had saw before. Once it got to my dresser, it kind of casted itself on to my dresser and continued moving toward me in the same fashion. I felt paralyzed and couldn’t move even though I knew it was coming towards me. Once it got to my bed I stood up and jumped to the corner (my bed was up against two walls).
“I remember trying to find a way off my bed so I could run out of my room, but once it casted itself onto my bed it’s “legs” spread all the way to the end so that I couldn’t get off without stepping on it. I saw it’s arm move up the wall beside me and touch my shoulder. I could feel it’s hand. It was a terrible sensation, at first it felt cold and numb, but then it started to feel like it was squeezing my shoulder without actually causing an indention. I can’t really explain what it felt like in full detail, it was something in a class of it’s own.
“I had my eyes closed and waited for in too go away. After about two minutes I opened them again and saw that the image had gotten much more darker than it was before. I panicked, tore away from it and ran to the basement. I slept in the basement with the lights on that night, but kept fearing that the shadow person would follow me. I slept in my room the next night and didn’t see anymore images until the night before we moved, but thankfully none of them came near me.”
There you have it. Three particularly spooky encounters to make you feel warm and cozy when you turn the lights out at the end of the day. As if that wasn’t enough, here’s a video to keep you feeling especially cozy.
You were gonna be up at night anyway, right?
Some of these frightening stories sound so much like the odd and scary things tht occur in sleep paralysis, and I urge those who do not know about this condition to research it on the Web. The University of Waterloo in Ontario recently did an in-depth study, and the facts presented are very much like thefacts printed above. The business where you cannot move is a telling quality. And the more you know about how your brain works and how out-of-sync it can become, paralysing the body at times butwith a mind wide awake and the recipient of sounds like sweeping or footsteps, the sighting of appartitions, etc. has probably given rise to much folklore down the centuries.
This is a most ftightening business. I have encountered it myself. But once you know what is causing it, there are things you can do to prevent it, such as not sleeping on your back or having too many warm bedclothes. Do look up some well-written University-type research. You will probably be well assured. Having said this, in the middle of the day whilst wide awake, I have had encounters with those “shadows”, and no one is offering any explanation of these so far.
Helen – here’s one: you’re crackers.
Justing kidding…?
As a former ’shadow person’ myself, I can state
without equivocation that their intentions are noble.
You see, they target people who post on snide
celebrity blogs but do not understand irony, know how to spell, or
think for themselves. (That covers just about every
poster on this site, come to think of it.)
This article is the work of slanderous h8ers.
They are doing good work. Keep it up ’shadow people’.
Some of my best friends are ’shadow people’, but
FYI – they really don’t like it when you call them that.
I’ve heard that shadow people are from another dimension or that they are ancient alien spirits trying to warn us about something about to happen in the near future that will change our perspective on reality
I was eight years old when I first encountered a Shadow person. As a child, we’re all frightened of what lies hidden under the bed…but, this was different!
My mother had recently divorced, and we had moved into a new apartment. Any time I was left alone, I felt I was being watched. It was as though a tremendous pressure surrounded me. It was very tangible, negative, and extremely frightening.
One night my mother went to take a shower. I was sitting in the living room, and I felt the pressure increase. I ran and jumped into my mother’s bed…and threw the covers over my head trying to hide.
I peaked up from the covers for only a second, and that’s when I saw it…
It wasn’t a peripheral view…it was a dead-on view. It was a Shadow man…and I saw his profile running along the wall. It moved VERY fast. I knew it wasn’t the shadow of someone running outside..because, where the eye should be there was no shadow…just the light of the wall. And, I remember trying to reason with myself on this as a child. And, the energy in the room at that was horrible.
I’d never mentioned my fears to my mother. I knew she was going through a lot having recently divorced, and trying to take care of us on her own. And, I was a kid…she’d think it was a “Monster in the Closet” tail. But, that night I was so scared..I did say something. To my surprise, my mother instantly went to cussing it out, and screaming at it to leave me alone. She too, had been sensing it.
We moved shortly after. I’ve never seen one dead-on like that again. But, I have had the same “pressure” sensations..and will occassionally catch a glimpse in my peripheral view. The intensity and frequency has subsided as I’ve grown older.
For years, only my mom knew about our incident. Then with the advent of the internet..I began reading other people’s experiences, which made me feel less crazy. As a child, I’d always thought ghosts were white whispy sort of creatures like Casper…nothing like what I saw.
Hello I just read your posting.
No your not crazy neither is anyone else who has seen these “shadow” people.
I also have seen one face to face. I later found out my then boyfriends son, at the time 12 yrs old, seen it as well on many occassions, as well as a former girlfriend one evening as we were bringing in vegetables from the garden. All three incidences in the same home.
I have had MANY experiences with spirits ranging from hearing them, seeing them etc. I could go on for at least an hour minimum
sharing my experiences up to the most recent, which we now live in what was my parents home. My mother passed away a year ago October 7, 2008 in her sleep in this house. We are now seeing what we believe to be a portal which we think she is using to visit us. This “portal” is up stairs in the loft area just off our bedroom.
If I can I’ll share my “shadow person” encounter.
This is no sleep paralysis phenomenon. When I was about 11 or 12 I was in my room, functioning normally and standing upright, and I started to feel uneasy like someone was watching me intensely. I retreated to the covers of my bed because of my intense feeling of dread. Then I was suddenly paralyzed and felt a hand press onto my chest. It lasted about 7 horrifying seconds and when it stopped I laid in fear for about a minute before running out of my room.
After that I have seen shadow people looking like black figures in the corner of my eye. I had the misfortune of seeing one directly for a second or two and I am convinced they are some form of evil. These are creatures that look like hunched over primates and seem to move with remarkable agility. Their fur (not fur but the closest thing we know to what I saw)is pitch black and their eyes always seem to be red or yellow. I think there are more powerful ones like the one that touched me, and their presence is one of pure evil, certainly an experience you won’t forget.
I went to sleep around 4-5 pm one evening. I awoke somewhere around 10 pm. When I awoke, I made no indications of waking up other than merely opening my eyes. Somehow or another, I noticed something move toward the foot of my bed. So, I moved my eyes without moving my body to look. I saw the outline of a person that was essentially facing me. I could see the outline of the whole body. The head, shoulders, torso, and legs. It walked up the side of my bed, from the foot of my bed, up to right in front of me, but it did so as it was facing me. It wasn’t sideways. It was directly facing me. I wasn’t afraid to begin with. I was more or less fascinated. I watched it move in front of my VCR and block out the green light of the time on it. It got right next to my head, standing straight up and facing me, and all of a sudden, I was extremely frightened. When I say it walked up beside my bed facing me, that’s what I mean. It had its stomach and face facing my bed as it walked beside my bed. The way it walked wasn’t like it was human. It walked as though it was gliding or something. I watched it straight on directly. no peripheral vision or nothing. i was looking at it straight on. it wasn’t moving very fast at all. from beginning to end, i watched this thing for about 7 seconds. It moved really slow. It appeared to stand about 5 foot tall, and I couldn’t tell if it was a male or female outline, though, my first impression I thought it was a female outline. Anyway, when it got to my head facing me, I screamed, jumped straight up, and ran down my bed, jumped off the foot of my bed, grabbed the door handle with one hand, flipped the light with the other, turned around, looked, didn’t see anything, and ran out of my bedroom. I was terrified. The rest of that night and the following night, I slept with my bedroom light on. Thereafter, I started sleeping with my television on. Then, I networked my bedroom, and now I sleep with my computer monitor on(no power saving mode). I will not sleep in absolute darkness anymore cuz of that night. My mom died a few years before I saw it, and it looked about her height. My first impression was that it was a woman outline, and it was about her height. Maybe it was her, pacing back and forth in front of my bed as I slept. Perhaps protecting me, or reaching out to me cuz she needed help. I’m not sure if it was her or not, but either way, it freaked me out.
I can relate to your statement about not being afraid at firt when you saw this shadow. I wasn’t either for the first 10 or so seconds. But eventually I was after I passed my arm right through it, I was scared shitless.
I moved into an old apartment in Long Beach California in august of 2008. Right after I moved in and got settled, I started feeling like someone was watching me…all the time. I absolutely knew I wasn’t alone when I was on the computer one day and I felt a hand on my right shoulder, at first it was just a touch, but then it turned into a squeeze just under the point of hurting. I said to it, you are not real, you are not real and it went away. The 2nd incident was when I was laying in my bed facing the closed bedroom door and I saw a tall shadow move from in front of the door to the right where I have a rack with clothes hanging on it. It seemed to move right through the clothes and get as close to the wall as possible and stood right next to my bed, I yelled at it to go away and yelled to it that it wasn’t welcome if it was evil and it left. Last night I was sound asleep and I woke right up and looked to the foot of my bed and saw HIM standing there, he seemed to be very tall, atleast 7 feet tall. He had a fisherman hat on and a black cloak like cape on and was so black that he stood out in the darkness, behind him is my window so he was very defined. I didn’t feel like he was happy and it scared me so much. I am pregnant and it makes me scared that he wants to hurt me or the baby. I turned over and put my arms around my fiance and closed my eyes hoping he would go away, I didn’t check again to see if he was ther but I am scared to sleep tonight now….
After reading everyones posting on their encounter(s) with the black shadows,I have decided to share my experience. As I stated above I have had many sightings, encounters with spirits etc. I would say 85% of them I wasn’t alone when they occurred.
Here is my “shadow person” experience.
18 years ago I moved in with my then boyfriend. We were living in what was to be the garage to the house which was to be built.
It started with one morning I was up at about 4:30am-5:00am to get ready for work.
I was in the bathroom washing my hair in the sink. After I had rinsed my hair and applied the conditioner the bottle I set on the counter had fallen over. I thought nothing of it and attributed it to being displacement as the reason the bottle fell over. I picked it up and set it back down. Once I rinsed the conditioner out of my hair I lifted my head out of the sink and immediately felt something blow very cold air directly into my right ear. I did not feel it on my face just my ear. This is in the middle of winter here in Canada, all windows were closed and the heat vent was under the counter. I looked to the right and saw nothing; thinking it was my boyfriend I went to the bedroom to see if it was him playing a prank on me but he was sound asleep snoring.
Some time had passed say maybe a month or so and during that time I always felt as though someone/something was watching me and I was never alone in that home when he was not home.
Finally one evening we went out to a Christmas party and arrived home at around 2:30am. In this home the dinning room, living room were the same room. The main bedroom was just off the dinning room, the bedroom door opened into it.
I came out of the bedroom to hit the dimmer switch and turn off the light.
The bedroom door was closed all but about 2 inches. After I turned off the dimmer switch the only light coming into the dinning room was from the bedroom; I then felt as though I was not alone in the room. I turned to my right and was basically face to face with a shadow image. I chalked it up to my eyes adjusting to the sudden change in light but after standing there facing this shadow for about 9 seconds I though my boyfriend was playing a trick on me and he had to have put something there. By this time the shadow image was that of what would be a person standing there. Head, shoulders, arms and straight down, no facial features no eyes. I could not see though it, in fact it seemed to get darker as though it was something solid standing in front of me. I could clearly see the pictures on the walls, the pin ball machine, the furniture. I decided that if my boyfriend was playing a trick on me I should be able to knock this “thing” over if I hit it with my arm. So I extended my right arm and swung it right through this shadow. It then hit me, what I was looking at face to face was not of this world. I suddenly was scared shitless, I turned and ran to the bedroom I threw open the bedroom door, turned around to look back and there it was standing in the same place I left it only it was now facing me as I stood in the bedroom door.
I then ran and sat on the foot of the bed, arms crossed rocking my self back and forth reciting the words “HOLY SHIT” two to three times at least while looking back at my boyfriend.
The next morning I told my boyfriend what I saw, eventually he told me I know what you saw you were telling me about it while you were out there and I was trying to get you to come back into the bedroom.
I didn’t remember that.
Sometime later I shared that experience with my boyfriends grandfather, he then asked me if I had told the kids what I saw and I replied “no” why? He told me the kids stated they also saw this shadow in the house.
The same year a girlfriend and I were bringing in the vegatables from the garden. The next day on the phone she told me one of the guys must have been in the salarium when we were bringing in the vegetables. I told her no, she insisted someone had to have been in there. Again I told her no, and asked why she was so certain one of them had to have been in there? She said because she saw a dark shadow of someone standing in the salarium that night. I told her no they were not and proceeded to tell her of my story.