Honestly, I don't think the paranormal community does enough about this phenomena. It intrigues me so much that I incorporated into my book on Kindle & Nook "Josiah: Undead Cowboy."
Shadow people are a very odd phenomena with lots of theories. Here's the most typical features:
1. They can be seen anywhere, new home, old home, haunted, not haunted, park, public building...
2. They are first seen usually out of the corner of one's eye. When the viewer turns his head, he might see it whiz off or he might watch it a few moments before the shadow person perceives being seen and then startles and disappears.
3. They sometimes come with feelings of dread and doom to the viewer that is palpable, not just a fear reaction, but a sense of something bad about to happen.
4. They are often times seen as 3-4 feet tall, human shaped, completely opaque black as if they have mass. Sometimes, they are seen as tall and slender and are sometimes even reported with a top hat.
INTERDIMENSIONAL?
What if they are interdimensional and are used to being in our space, but when they see that we know they're there, they freak out and leave. It's like they're used to being unseen. Why are we sometimes catching glimpses of them? Perhaps modern day human eyes are changing. There are theories that fast refreshing screens on computers and TVs are making our eyes trained for things they hadn't been before looking at things in a natural world outdoors.
HARBINGERS?
What if shadowpeople are harbingers? The first time I ever heard of the phenomena was at a SciFi convention I was speaking out. A Native American woman said, "I was in a hospital when I saw a little person who looked like a shadow. It was all black and not defined. It peered around the corner at me and a few times I saw it cross my room. I worried it might mean I was going to die." My son and his friend had a lengthy encounter with one in a graveyard. Others report them showing up in their homes during marital troubles and family issues. Are these terrestrial mothmen?
Hmm...
DEMONIC/NONCORPOREAL?
This one is bantered around a lot. I have a lot of issues with this concept, the main one being, nothing freaking bad happens when they show up. If they don't want to be seen, you'd think a noncorporeal (a being that has never inhabited a human body) or a demon would be sharp enough not to be seen. They'd also manage to get their job done. When they show up, they'd do the dirty deed (whatever that dirty deed demons and noncorporeals are believed to do).
These continue to surprise us, especially because there is no particular place or person they show themselves for. It can happen to any of us, at any time. I have encountered 2 adult-sized ones and one short one. The short one showed up during a ghost hunt and lined up with physical things that occurred at the time. It was like a prankster. The two adult-sized ones I saw were the classic ones that as I looked up at them, they just disappeared mid step.
All we know that these things have in common is that they can appear to anyone, anywhere, not particularly haunted locations, and they bring with them often a feeling of doom or dread and when they realize they are being seen, they rush away. So, it would seem that we are being watched by something that does not like for us to know they are watching.
The paranormal is very interesting.
ReplyDeleteI have problems with demons too---CONGRESS! Ha ha ha Anyway, seriously, my problem is that I've encountered more people obviously suffering from various degrees of paranoid schitzophrenia or fantasy-prone personalities (again, with touches of paranoia and the weird googlie eye thing where when they talk to you, they try to impress upon you how much it is the truth by going all bug-eyed) to take much of it seriously. I've had my share of paranormal experiences, but never have I felt threatened. I interviewed a woman once who was about to show me this old church wherein a the evil spirit of an abusive pastor (who tortured children) resided. In looking around her home (something I always do on an interview), I see nothing but horror books and DVDs and the like. The woman LIVES this stuff (if only vicariously through the dog-eared pages of her books) and I have to think that influences what she experiences (or thinks she experiences) in that old church, which by the way had none of the history she associates with it.
ReplyDeleteThat silhouette reminds me of a zombie. lol.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, the ghost hunting shows have helped to feed a lot of fantasy for people. It's a shame because sometimes the hardest part or an investigator is weeding out clients and it can become necessary to have them logging events for a month or so before you even consider going there.
ReplyDeleteMy encounter was rather ominous but it made for great blog fodder just the same.
ReplyDeleteMM. Was yours in a cemetery? My son had one in a cemetery and I hear people often talk about seeing them there. I saw one at a cemetery too. I felt as if it were there as a witness. Wonder if they simply like to see grieving people? Intriguing phenomena.
ReplyDeleteGREAT post! Excellent point about not enough written about them AND that as Harbingers (as in a bad conotation of that) nothing really bad happens when they're around. I thnik they're some kind of Guide. And in some cases I think they get left behind when they place is abandoned and they don't know to move on themselves. Or they're the ghosts of Angels of Death? I don't know, but I definitely think they are their own category separate from ghosgts and I love that you wrote about them!
ReplyDeleteThanks Court! They are one of my favorite puzzles. By studying where they are, how they're seen, and their reactions, we might come to some conclusions.
ReplyDeleteI used to see one when I was a child. I considered 'her' ( she had a female shape) my guardian angel. The last time I saw one was exactly a month after my brother died. I considered that a quick hello. It brought me a sense of relief to know that he was okay.
ReplyDeleteVivienne;
ReplyDeleteI've heard people talk about seeing them before or after someone's death, hence, the association with being harbingers. I'm so sorry to hear about your brother. I lost my brother. He was my hero. It's worse to be orphaned by siblings than parents, I think. Most folks report a feeling of dread and awful-awful as if everything bad in the world were concentrated in one moment's emotions. I have heard a good deal of discussion of them being created by our minds somehow, a manifestation of our feelings or whatnot,but there does not seem to be a correlation with intense feelings and seeing them and they also seem startled that we can see them, which says it's not something our mind created. It is independently cognizant. As someone looking desperately for proof of intelligent interaction from the other side, this is one of the most telling things I have seen. The one I witnessed on a ghost hunt walked several feet from one computer to another and then the computer turned on and the receipt printer ticked out receipts. It obviously could interact with the electronics too, especially a computer that was logged out for the night.
I've seen a shadow man twice when family members died. Both times I had no knowledge of their impending deaths. After the second one I realized it was a harbinger. At least for me it is.
DeleteI saw one out of the corner of my eye once at a place I used to work at that is supposed to be haunted. I always just associated it with some sort of residual energy.
ReplyDeleteI see them often and in various locations (I'm a SAHM, so most times right here and usually the small ones), but never with a feeling of dread. I just chock it up to "just one of those things".
ReplyDeleteI did have an experience with a friend of mine in my kitchen, though, that was a bit odd and hasn't been repeated as of yet. I commented on again seeing the things and a buddy of mine was making cracks about it. He then stopped and asked: "what IS that?!" as he whipped his head around this way and that. I told him the same thing I usually see. He started babbling and trying to rationalize it with little success and finally decided it was because he was tired. The shadow shape then flew up from our peripheral vision, swooped less than a foot in front of his face twice, and promptly vanished.
He doesn't scoff about shadow creatures anymore lol.
Around here it is usually other people who see these things... Smoe are short... sometimes as an upper torso.. head is a "lump" (no neck visible)
ReplyDeleteA couple of people who sit in the chair that allows a view out of the picture window have seen on quite a few nights these "malformed" Shadow People roaming my front yard ( most were crawling or short in stature) Whenever eyes are seen , they are glowing Red.... These Shadows tend to avoid me for some reason...