Shadow people?

[arta]

I was raised a skeptic. My father was a nuclear physicist. He taught me many things for which I am thankful, but he was also trapped within the dogma of common sense, which is to say he didn't believe in anything that hadn't been proven to exist via the scientific method. Obviously, things can exist outside the bounds of a publication, else there would be no need for science in the first place. This is something I soon learned.

It showed up in the middle of the night. It was not a dream, or a hallucination, nor do I have a family history of mental illness. Nevertheless, there was a black shadow in the form of a person in my living room one night. I was wide awake when I saw it, as I had gotten out of bed to use the restroom. It did not acknowledge me or act in any way. It left no signs of its presence the next morning. If it were fully corporeal, it could not have gotten into the house. Being a child, it terrified me, but also inspired a lifelong interest in the supernatural and occult.

All that to say, "shadow people" are a rare sight but more than an urban legend. Quite a number of people have reported seeing them. Back when there was a subreddit dedicated to these sightings (which was filled with mostly made up stories and a couple real sightings in between), I remember reading a story about a woman who passed directly through one and said it made her feel cold but gave her no other physical sensations. Again, almost all of these sightings agree that the entities do not interact with or even seem to notice us. We may very well be invisible to them.

Still, I'm left wondering after all these years: What are they? Where do they come from? They may be a common hallucination, but the accounts of sightings are so similar and so vivid as to make me doubt that. They could be spirits of the deceased, but then why are they here and with what purpose? Frankly, the thought of dying and still being trapped on Earth is horrifying enough to not want to think about. They may be some product of human consciousness, like an afterimage of our presence. Or they may only look like us as a product of us being the ones observing them.

Anyway, if anyone has had experiences with these things I'd love to hear them along with your theories.

 

[Albintres]

I was raised a skeptic. My father was a nuclear physicist. He taught me many things for which I am thankful, but he was also trapped within the dogma of common sense, which is to say he didn't believe in anything that hadn't been proven to exist via the scientific method. Obviously, things can exist outside the bounds of a publication, else there would be no need for science in the first place. This is something I soon learned.

It showed up in the middle of the night. It was not a dream, or a hallucination, nor do I have a family history of mental illness. Nevertheless, there was a black shadow in the form of a person in my living room one night. I was wide awake when I saw it, as I had gotten out of bed to use the restroom. It did not acknowledge me or act in any way. It left no signs of its presence the next morning. If it were fully corporeal, it could not have gotten into the house. Being a child, it terrified me, but also inspired a lifelong interest in the supernatural and occult.

All that to say, "shadow people" are a rare sight but more than an urban legend. Quite a number of people have reported seeing them. Back when there was a subreddit dedicated to these sightings (which was filled with mostly made up stories and a couple real sightings in between), I remember reading a story about a woman who passed directly through one and said it made her feel cold but gave her no other physical sensations. Again, almost all of these sightings agree that the entities do not interact with or even seem to notice us. We may very well be invisible to them.

Still, I'm left wondering after all these years: What are they? Where do they come from? They may be a common hallucination, but the accounts of sightings are so similar and so vivid as to make me doubt that. They could be spirits of the deceased, but then why are they here and with what purpose? Frankly, the thought of dying and still being trapped on Earth is horrifying enough to not want to think about. They may be some product of human consciousness, like an afterimage of our presence. Or they may only look like us as a product of us being the ones observing them.

Anyway, if anyone has had experiences with these things I'd love to hear them along with your theories.

When I was a young boy I once tried to chase one of these shadow creatures around our garden shed. I was never going to catch it, but I got tremendous satisfaction from trying. At first I thought it was the shadow left by my brother who I had been chasing round the shed (that's my little kid brain) but he had already gone into the kitchen. I remember thinking at the time that it was feeding on our excitement, not feeding feeding but it was attracted by our youthful energies and was somehow scooping them up. The jolt of fear and excitement only added to the experience giving it a double dose of flavouring only it was never going to do us any harm to be honest. As quickly as it appeared it vanished and these things are fast, faster than a chubby eight year old anyhoo.

Fast forward nearly fifty years and I am married with children my daughter saw one come flying through the wall of our house as next door were having a mighty blazing row. I didn't see it this time but I guessed from my daughter's reaction and her uncertainty in that split second I simply asked her if she had just seen a shadow person. Her look and my sympathetic shrug was enough for her to admit yes. We never spoke of it again.

So yeah, fear or excitement, heightened emotions seem to attract them. Any left over psychic residue or unwanted scraps of anger, rage or fear act like some sort of bat signal. You only get the one turning up mind you, if at all. Which has to be a good thing.

Good luck in your quest by the way, happy hunting!