WeAreTheKey

Shadow people (also known as shadow men, shadow folk, or shadow beings) 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.[1][2]

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


Accounts of shadow people typically describe them as being black humanoid silhouettes with no discernible mouths, noses, or facial expressions, though accounts also exist of them being child-sized humanoids or shapeless masses that sometimes change to a more human like form.

The eyes are usually not described as being discernible but in some reports glowing eyes are mentioned. The color of the eyes, if any, is typically given as red. Their specific form is described variously as two-dimensional shadow to a vaporous or distorted three-dimensional body (as though made out of smoke or steam). Movement is often described as being very quick and disjointed. Some witnesses describe this movement as though the shadow entities they have seen "danced" from one wall to the next, or as moving around the room "as if they were on a specific track". Rarely, they are seen "standing" in the middle of doorways or off the wall. Often they are described as being seen staring at the floor. Some accounts describe what appears to be the outline of a cloak, and in some instances the outline of a 1930s style fedora hat. This last type is referred as the "hat-man".
(all info above taken from Wikipedia)


I actually hadn't known that the Shadow entities were a wide spread thing until fairly recently.I had a pretty terrifying experience when I was really young. I woke up in the middle of the night. Our house was nestled in essentailly a clearing with a wall of rock and forest out looking my bedroom(which was on the second story) When I woke up I looked out the window from my bed and saw a man with no features, all black and obviously wearing a wide brimmed hat and jacket. He almost seemed as though he was a cartoon due to the solidness of his black. He was dancing counter clockwise rapidly on the cliff in a circle.Not looking at me, not even acknowledging my presence. But i was scared out of my mind and practically paralyzed with fear.

I managed to stammer a whisper out and called for my mom(who was down stairs and WAAAAy out of hearing range) I was relieved when a woman appeared at my bedroom door. I though for a moment she was my mom. But I quickly realized she was not. She was in all white in a long gown, but had no distiguishable features. She glided across the foot of my bed, (which was a queen-so there was quite the distance from her being as i was no more than 9 is)She walked along the opposite side of my bed knelt down clasped her hands together as if she were praying and dissapeared. By this time I was out of my mind scared and realized I had to pee.. I laid there for as long as I could, summoning up the strenght to leave the room.

The man was still there out side my window, frantically dancing. I gathered my strength and ran for the door. I figured since the bathroom window was right beside my window I would see if he was still there, from the door, and decide from there wether to go get help. Gratefully he was not and I was allowed relief. but when I returned to my room, he was not the only one, there was what appeared to be a native american girl dancing clock wise about five to ten feet away from the man. I dove in my bed pulle dthe sheets over my head and eventually I exhausted myself with fear enough that i fell asleep.

I realize this sounds crazy but it truely was something i experienced. I had several "supernatural experiences" on that property for the time that I lived there(and some elsewhere). Nothing was as grandios as the terror of that night.

I am a believer in this phenominon. I still have moments in the middle of the night where i will have seen the shadows move like a liquid reaching out for me. I do not know how much that is linked to "dream paralyisis(but I am no where near paralyzed for sure-I fly out of bed exclaiming.", or if it is linked to the shadow people.. All I know is what I saw that night was NOT a dream.

I don't know if I believe in shadow men or not, as I've never had the pleasure of meeting one. However, we had one of the worst experiences of parenthood on our last night camping this past weekend that can be blamed on shadows:

We were all in our tent sleeping soundly, when at around 3:30am my daughter suddenly started frantically saying something. My wife sat up to check on her and in a half-sleep daze my daughter said something like "the monsters are getting me". Then she suddenly started screaming. This was not a typical young child cry, but a horror-movie high-pitched terror scream. And she was frantically trying to get away from the side of the tent. My wife then picked her up to set her right in between us and calm her down. Being sleepy and terrified, she at first didn't recognize that it was her Mom picking her up and she screamed in terror even more. Once we laid her down between us she recognized her Mom and Dad were there and she quickly calmed down.

You see, we had set up our tent under a tree, and we were also close to the bathroom/shower facility which had lights always on. At night this created shadows of the tree branches through the fabric of our tent. The combination of waking up in the middle of the night and seeing black, arm-like branches swaying right next to you and not being old enough to have a concept of what a "shadow" is, could be terrifying.

Anyway, the story actually continues. Seeing our daughter comforted and go quickly back to sleep snuggled between us, we thought the episode was over and went back to sleep ourselves. Well, just after 4:00am, just inches from my ear I was horrifyingly awakened again by the terror-piercing scream of my daughter. We shot up and immediately started to calm her down. But when I looked at her, the eyes and mouth were both WIDE open in fear. She had woken up and this time saw MY shadow, which terrified her just as much as the branches. We calmed her down and explained to her that shadows cannot hurt her and that they are not real "things". She did not fully understand the concept but started repeating our phrase "they're just shadows" and calming down.

Then, in a strange turn of events, she pointed to the shadow of my head on the tent wall and said "who's that guy?", in which we told her that it's just a shadow, and she repeated, "it's just a shadow", then completely unexpectedly asked "can I cuddle with him?". We were, of course, very surprised that she would ask to "cuddle" with the very thing that just seconds before had her utterly terrified. We realized that, not comprehending what a shadow is, she saw that Mom and Dad were not scared of it and were telling her that it was safe. The "cuddle" comment was her way of coming to terms with the fear and finding comfort. The whole episode shows the power and need of comforting parents being available to their children as they come across things that they do not understand.

Also, the my daughter went back to sleep and did not wake up again (although I was so freaked out by the ordeal that it took me an hour and a half to fall back asleep). But the whole ordeal had me thinking about Shadow Men and how the majority of those "experiences" are probably misunderstood, half-awake experiences similar to what my daughter experienced that night. I don't mean to imply that necessarily ALL experiences can be explained away by that (including yours, Alluscion) but probably most. It's all about perception.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Man, that had to have been terrifying..
did she remember what happend? Did you talk to her about it the next day at all? What a crazy experience..

I guess it is to be expected on account of it being her first real camping experience, and frankly there are times I still get freaked out camping at night..

I actually had some non paranormal "shadow" issues this weekend.. Severe exhaustion and riding home over 4 hours can create serious occular distortions.. Which can be quite unnerving.(thank god I wasnt the one driving)

but I am aware that not every account of something "paranormal" can just be a distortion of perception, and unfortunatly the manner in which we communicate and exist doesnt alllow us to show the incident in a way that shows it as it happend, only the ones present can be the ones to rationalize it and weigh the situation to figure out the answers..

I find the hardest part is experiencing somehting "unreal" and not being able to find a "logical' explanation, and feeling weird or crazy when you try and share your instances with others.. I guess i am aware of the concepts alone being out of the ordinary and having something be real but be percieved as fictionalized... it is frustrating.. Probably alot of people dont speak up about odd instances for that very reason I would imagine..

Whoa, that's quite a story, Prasutagus!
I'd take the next sunny-day opportunity to explain shadows to her, and how you can make them funny by making hand-shadow puppets or something. I remember not grasping wholly how shadows worked until i was like 6 or something. It shouldn't have taken that long, but no one bothered explaining it to me! For some reason, it's difficult to intuitively understand what's happening...
Man, it's stuff like that, that kinda sucks to go through, that actually makes me excited to eventually have kids. Interesting, educational growing experiences...

Yes, shadows are a regular topic at our house, now. And although I have explained to her what shadows are (for my own sake), a two-year old cannot possibly comprehend the true concept. Therefore, the goal at this age is to simply get them to see that they are harmless. So, two new common phrases from her are "they're just shadows" and "shadows are nice, they don't hurt me". I have attempted to add things like "shadows CAN'T hurt you, because they are nothing. There's nothing actually there." But it's feeble at this stage because at 26 months old they are not at that developmental level.