Shadowperson Incident & Other Scary Things Afoot




























(photos above portray my son in the positions the shadowperson was in)

I decided to re-post an incident I wrote about last October. One of my favorite subjects has been shadowpeople and I have yet to explain a phenomenon that I find is genuinely chilling. Chilling because it is proof of interaction which I have always found elusive and debatable. This very real encounter, however, was proof of interaction and it still chills me to this day, but not as much as it does my son, Alex, who experienced it himself. It literally changed the course of his life a great deal.

My intention when I began avidly ghost hunting and officially ghost hunting back in early 2003 was to learn more through trial and error and also to enjoy the art and beauty of cemeteries and their headstones. I often took Alex along with me to cemeteries. He found it morbidly interesting and mostly just liked to read the headstones. He never gave any thought to what became of their souls or whether their families visited them often. He was mostly appreciative of the park-like setting. He was a very analytical type and hoped to maybe become a computer programmer. Mind you, my son was in gifted programs all his life with genius level IQ and also a typical "German engineer" type in that he was very straightforward, no games, no egos, pure logic. He didn't believe in anything at all of any unknown nature.

He did, however, decide one boring night when he was 17 to talk his best friend into entering St. Francis Cemetery at nighttime to see if he was brave enough to go in. My son was fascinated by how people were superstitious and spooked by such things. He doubted his friend would go through with it. In the end, that night changed his life so entirely that he became an art major soon after and has a fascination for abandoned sites and urban archaeology. My husband and I shake our heads in wonder. We never saw it coming at all. He wasn't the art type before. That fateful night not only changed his life, but made him open his mind to the supernatural world and want answers like I do. It also made him and his friend go their separate ways. They couldn't talk about what happened and both were baffled and scared. His friend has a religious upbringing so I think it probably scared him more. For my son, it made him realize he doesn't know the world at all like he thought he did.

So, to begin the story, I was riding in the car with my son when he was 18. I said, "you wouldn't understand why I look for answers about ghosts. You have to have something happen to you that no logic can explain and then you seek answers." He went kind of pale and quiet. I thought maybe I chastized him too much for asking me why I hunt ghosts. I didn't realize he was probing me for a conversation starter. He said, "Yeah, well, actually I know exactly what you mean. I never told you this, but last year, me and (we'll call him Bud) Bud went to St. Francis around midnight. I never told you because you were adamant with me not to go to closed cemeteries. Something happened that I still can't explain and I never will." He shivered and his voice actually quavered. My son is so logic-minded his emotions are all logical too, so when he did this, my alarm bells went off. He proceeded to tell me of this experience and I felt my hairs standing on end. He was not only an excellent witness but he debunked by the methods he learned from me. His findings were, to me, irrefutable that there is something unknown, something interactive, something out there that deserves further observation.

Here's his story...

They were walking through the grounds of the cemetery in the dark when they stopped about 25' away from a large altar at the outdoor crematory vaults. My son saw something very dark and dense-looking next to the altar (see above picture). His first thought was, a homeless person. His friend next to him said, "do you see that?" and my son nodded. They proceeded to approach the altar until they were perhaps 10-15 feet away. My son held up his digital camera, clicked on the red light that helps him to target what he wants to photograph and figured it might alert the person to leave. The red target sat atop of this dark definitely solid mass. It did not shine through it. It also frightened it and the dark mass unfolded to the same height as the altar (3' tall) and scurried behind it.

My son's heart was pounding and his friend was horrified. My son rushed to the altar, beamed his flashlight on it and realized that the altar was attacked to the solid concrete wall. There was no behind to it.

Feeling a heavy sense of dread and doom, they both rushed away to the side of the altar some 20 feet away and looked back. When they looked back, this 3' tall black thing peered out from behind the altar and looked at them (see photo above). They ran off to the far end of the cemetery. They gave the altar wide berth and took off out the far side of the cemetery where his friend saw it move between headstones. My son shook his head as he explained it. He had absolutely no idea what it was but it was nothing he could explain. It wasn't a creature. It wasn't a person. It was person-shaped but not detailed. It was definitely aware of them, as it startled and hid and then curiously peeked out at them.

What are shadowpeople? Well, they intrigue me because they show a sign of intelligence I've never seen in hauntings. They seem almost like what folks in Celtic cultures might have called elves or Scandanavians would call trolls. They go about their business but, when they realize they've been seen, they rush off. That's a hallmark characteristic, as is the sense of doom and catching it with the corner of your eye first. They can show up anywhere, even in modern houses with no haunting history. The fact that they show a startle response and flee when seen shows that they don't expect anyone to be able to see them. I think that's key in finding out what they are (keep reading to find out why).

The theories on shadowpeople including interdimensional beings that occasional blip in and out of our world through portals, alien life forms, noncorporeal entities that were never human, a form of ghost manifestation that's unusual in its qualities, natural life forms we weren't aware of until we began using high frequency HDTV and computer screens that made our eyes better able to discern things we didn't have a spectrum to see before.

I think the latter is a remarkable explanation and the one I stand by at this point in time. I do believe the fact these things are almost always seen in your peripheral vision first is telling. They often flee when seen straight on or disappear. This may have more to do with what our eyes are capable of, but I must admit in reading witness accounts, it seems that this modern day ability to see shadowpeople often occurs after a day on the computer screen. We could very well be training our eyes to see things in spectrums we haven't before been able to do. It also explains why shadowpeople are most often viewed in modern times and not really spoken of before the advent of TVs and computers. However, there will always be that person whose eyes may not need that training to see them.

The accounts of seeing shadowpeople has risen so much in the past decade that it makes me wonder. I can't think of any reason we'd suddenly be getting shadowpeople unless they've always been there and we're just now able to see them. For that reason, my deduction so far early in my research is that, in fact, our eyes are changing to pick up things we've never seen before and because of that we're startling those beings that might have gone about their business unnoticed for so long that they took it for granted they could go anywhere and do anything. Now, they have to consider where the humans are and move accordingly. It's just a theory, but it at least holds more water than evil spirits which is folks tend to like to call anything they don't understand. It's a long jump from shadowy phenomenon to evil, but you know there's going to be those with a spiritual explanation for phenomenon who are going to jump on that explanation. Why else is it black? Why else is it small and demon-like? Why else does it come with a sense of dread?

I could take a Stephen King-ish stand and say, "it's possible the sense of dread comes from us seeing a projection of our own souls and that terrifies us because for it to materialize, it is at that moment vacant from the vessel of our bodies..." (Boo!)

I had my own incident at this same cemetery that left me quite shaken. I was standing inside that outdoor crematory and my ghost hunting partner went back to the parking lot to get batteries (they always die there instantly). I heard very distinctly and without doubt a man speaking in Latin in quiet respectful tones. I made out the world "domino" and that was the only one I recognized. Although I read Latin okay enough, I suck at understanding spoken languages, but I did definitely recognize this as Latin, as I had many Catholic friends when I was growing up who took me to church with them and I did take Latin in school. He droned on for a few minutes and I realized that I'm standing there with a camera and how embarrassing if someone is having a funeral. I peeked out the archway to look into the cemetery and there was no one there. Not a single soul. It was twilight but there was still tons of light and I looked all around, behind the stones and trees, and found no one. My friend came up a few minutes later and I said, "who's here?" She said, "we're all alone. Not a car in the lot." I'm not usually a strong auditory person, but that was absolutely, definitely, a man speaking in Latin. It also was the cemetery where the priests and nuns are buried...

Well, hope that puts you in the Halloween mood. The scariest stories are always the true ones.

Comments

  1. Amazing stories, you guys are lucky to have experienced them. I would love to experience something, but I have to admit, I would not want to be alone.

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  2. Sandra;
    The crazy thing about it is that the first time you experience it, usually your logic takes over and you're thinking "this world" so it takes until well after the incident that you go "what the heck was that?" Then, your legs turn to rubber.

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  3. Ooooohhh...Thanks for the tingle! You're right the best stories are the true ones. I've never liked graveyards because things always feel "unsettled" to me in them...

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  4. Moxie;
    I totally get you. When I was a kid my mother was an artist and historian and adored cemeteries. She'd drag us to every one up and down the Mid-Atlantic states. I think the fact I grew up in a Civil War hospital and a lot of folks suffered and died there, that feeling of the place was familiar to me. When I go to cemeteries, it's kind like coming home. Weird, I know. Most folks don't like the stark quiet and the final resting place. It can be quite shadowy and creepy and it always looks like things are darting between headstones.

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  5. The shadow people are one of the most perplexing types of paranormal phenomena out there. Before I read this, I was reading about a 'hat man' on Jason Offut's blog. Those are really odd to me...why do so many people see shadow people wearing fedoras? Is it like a fashion for shadow people or something?

    That's interesting about the comparison to elves and trolls. I don't know that I've ever thought about it that way, but the mischievous behavior would seem to fit.

    But I guess if that were the case, then our eyes must be getting worse if people are only seeing them as shadows now!

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  6. Thanks for reposting your son's story. I even got chills reading it again just like the first time. What an incredible story. I will definately tell Mike about that cementery to see if he would be interestested in checking it out. He's not big on cementeries but I'm sure that his sister Kelly and I can persuide him to go.

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  7. Jeff;
    The elf/troll phenomenon could in some way be related to shadowpeople in the characteristics. I'd say that it's possible some people have eyes that are simply better at capturing such things and perhaps even in more detail. Now that just common people without any exceptional psychic skills are seeing them at increasing rates indicates something changing in man--whether it's evolutionary or what, but my guess would be either the changes in our brains from multitasking or videoscreen vision. A great deal of people report seeing them after a long day on the computer. November 19, 2008 I did a post on shadowpeople and peripheral vision. You might want to check that one out too. The fedora sightings are interesting. They're actuall very common and seen on the tall human-sized shadowpeople. You'll often hear about shadowpeople on Ghost Hunters show and they really are baffled too. They've even gotten them on film before, most notably the Moon River Brewery episode on Season 2 Halloween special. You can see it here:
    http://alienufoparanormalcasebook.blogspot.com/2008/10/video-ghost-adventures-trailer.html (The link was sent to me by Eileen from alienufoparanormalcasebook when she heard I was trying to find that episode that wasn't for sale). It's very impressive. It darts out from behind a pool table and back into the wall again) I hope to do more research and get another article up before Halloween about this chilling subject. I'm hoping to do more spooky posts as we get close to Samhain.

    Julie;
    I hope you can talk him into it. It's really worth it. It has some of the creepiest statues and a wall of faces and huge walls of cremated remains, creepy statues, and stained glass. It's just freaky deeky. I admittedly now park outside the fence and if they don't see me and lock me in, I easily climb over the small fence and get out of there. When they locked me in, it was well before sunset--stupid people! If you guys decide to go over that way, let me know. I could probably meet you there. Same goes for Double Buttes--it's a doosie!

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  8. The hair on the back of my neck is standing at attention. My friend and I used to see shadow people a lot when we were young. We actually thought it might have been her dad, who died in a plane crash. Perhaps we were just more open to the vibes because we wanted to be......

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  9. Theresa;
    Yes, children definitely see these more often. I think this might also be attributed to the fact that they haven't yet learned to disregard things in their periphery. Chilling...

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  10. I am trying to remember a book I read maybe twenty years ago. It was excellent in that the parts where it spoke of things I had encountered were dead on. And not the hype usually found.

    I became more and more "disturbed" as the last couple chapters were on...elves, fairies, trolls etc...and I read it only to finish the book and thought it was just so much bull.

    But the other information was so very precise and factual in my own experience. This has always bothered me....like the Bible, either you take it all or nothing.

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  11. @eloh; I have to admit, I loved your comment about the Bible. That's the dilemma I run into as a ghost hunter. There's believers with absolute conviction and then there's nonbelievers. The believers take the entire "story" of what ghosts are, i.e. they're souls that don't realize they're dead, sometimes they're noncorporeal evil beings, they drain your batteries to get energy, they suck the heat out of the air as they try to form creating cold spots... It's very hard to study something when you have to take the whole "fictional" package--because, let's be honest, how can you possibly say those things are fact? There's no basis for it, they're just stories passed from one hunter to another. I end up having to throw out all the bullsh@$ that everyone else has laid down in the field and start new. Even the instruments they use to hunt, I have to test and question their efficacy and have thrown out some like EMF meters. It's an individual journey to find out what rings true by using logic and commonsense, at least for me it is. I'll let the believers keep doing their thing, it's a form of spirituality for them.

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  12. I almost came back on in the middle of the night to do a little "addition".

    Just as I had posted my comment, I hear someone excitedly talking about catching a shadowman on film in Az near Tombstone I think...I leaned over to see what was on the tube, Discovery channel 1am and the guys had ep on their shirts....,before I could catch a program name.....my 19 year old daughter comes into our room visably disturbed....about shadow people....I asked her where she had heard of such things....,I didn't care for the answer.

    So, what is actually known about this? Could you do a fact sheet?

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  13. @eloh;
    You caught the picture they showed on "Ghost Lab." It was my first time watching it (it's on Tuesday nights on Discovery). The dudes have only been together about a year which made me really skeptical, but someone is seriously financing a shitload of equipment for them. They don't seem stupid, but as is usual on most ghost hunting shows, they're more a bunch of good ole' boys who like to hear themselves talk and sound like they know it all. It gets old after a while, but there's two types in ghost hunting--the middle-ager know-it-alls who think they're hunting "wabbits" and the new ager psychics who are full of dramatics. I did appreciate they brought in professionals to discuss things and that they were willing to consider physical conditions feeding phenomenon-finally. One thing I hate about Ghost Hunters show is that they don't bring in professionals and so they seem stale and inbred. They need new blood and new information and new equipment. It's safe and boring with GH, kind of like ghost hunting with condoms on. Okay, enough of my bawdy talk. I think I will have to do a followup on shadowpeople. You see, they're one of my favorite subjects right now. I'm fixated on what is going on. I hope to have more answers in a future post.

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  14. i love stories about shadowpeople!

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