The subject of shadow people is a fascinating one. Most are reported as being either of average height or extremely tall, but I have also received reports of very small, dwarf-like shadow figures. Oddly enough, many shadow people have been seen wearing hats, anything from top-hats to fedoras. This type of mysterious shadow figure is known as, you guessed it, "The Hatman". Still others show themselves as hooded figures or even animals. In all cases they are solid black, and they are often accompanied by a feeling of negativity or even evil.
Unlike a real shadow, a shadow-person seems solid. Some describe the figure as having depth to it. Shadow people have been seen walking through a room as if they are aware of the objects around them, often hiding behind doors, chairs, or bureaus. But they can also pass through physical objects and often vanish by walking straight into a wall.
Shadow People Stories
I received a story submission from a woman who had seen a shadow person when she was a young girl. The figure was male shaped, and totally black. Although she didn’t say that it was wearing anything special, she might not have noticed because of what it was holding in its hand.
“My dresser had a mirror attached to it, and the shadow figure blocked both the dresser and the mirror. It was very human looking. I would say it was somewhere between 5’ 7” and 6’ tall, seeing it was about the same height as a normal human male. Apart from the fact that it was completely black, there was nothing unusual about its appearance. It had a normal sized head, arms and legs. I didn’t see much of its feet, but wasn’t really paying attention. I was more concerned with what he might do with what he was holding in his hand — a knife about the size of a large kitchen knife. He was holding the knife in his right hand, and holding it down on his right side so that it was close to his thigh. The tip of the knife was pointed down toward the floor.” (You can read the full story by clicking HERE)
UPDATE (2/28) After publishing the newsletter, a reader emailed me the following Shadow Person account:
I just read your e-mail, I can’t believe you spoke about shadow people! About a week ago, I was having crazy dreams that I was being pulled down by something... I remember yelling in my dream that I was more powerful and I was yelling for arch angel Michael’s help.. then I woke and saw a shadow person standing next to my bed he was wearing a black cape.. then he disappeared into the floor. It was 2:22am when this happened. It’s The third time something like this has happened to me. I was glad to read the other stories... it really did happen and shadow people.. not sure why they appear or who they are.. but they do exist.
Shadow-people are usually described as being male. Obviously, since the figure is entirely black, this is based primarily on its size and physique. Another indication of the supposed gender of the shadow person is the hat it sometimes is seen wearing since top-hats and fedoras are generally associated with males. Shadow figures often seem to be wearing a cloak or a cape. I know this to be a fact because I once saw a shadow-person wearing a cape during an investigation I conducted at the historic 'Le Chateau Restaurant' in South Salem, New York in 2010 with Katonah Paranormal.
Kathy O’Donnell, Karen Darby and I conducted the investigation, and the figure most frequently reported by the restaurant staff was that of the “Cape Man” - a man wearing a long, black cape. This figure was seen by several people both in the restaurant and outside on the grounds. Now I have to admit that I was totally skeptical of this figure. A man wearing a cape? No one wears a cape these days, and even in the old days they rarely wore capes — long coats, maybe, but not capes. To me, capes are for super-heroes and Zorro. But the estate was beautiful, the investigation was fascinating, and Kathy and Karen were picking up some amazingly accurate intuitive information, so I kept an open mind. After doing a walk-through of the inside of the house we made our way outside to the upper and lower parking lots in front of the restaurant. It was here that the Cape man was reported to have terrified workers as they made their way to their cars at night.
It was beginning to get dark as we walked around the parking area, and I kept fooling around with Kathy and Karen by saying, “Cape man, show yourself!” as I randomly snapped photos with my digital camera. We all had a good laugh about it until we made our way to a field to the right side of the building next to a smaller house on the property. “Cape man, show yourself!” I said in my best super-hero voice. I snapped a picture and looked over my camera at the field that had been illuminated by the camera’s flash. There, standing right in front of me no more than eight feet away was a totally black shape. It was a male figure about 6 feet tall, and looked like a solid black cut-out of a person. The field around and beyond this figure was lit up by the flash, but the figure itself was black and totally solid. It was so black that it seemed to absorb all of the light from the flash. I could clearly see its head, and what looked like the high collar of a cape pulled up around its neck. Flowing down around it all the way to the ground was a wavy, cape-shaped garment. All of this took a split second, but it was totally clear and I was absolutely shocked. I couldn’t believe it. I had seen the Cape Man! I'm sorry to report that nothing unusual showed up on the photo I took.
When they are not taking on a human shape, shadow-people often show themselves as demonic figures. I recently received a message from a woman whose family is being plagued by a sprit that sometimes shows itself as a dark shadow-figure that she described as looking something like Gollum from “Lord of the Rings”. During a phone interview the woman told me:
"I've seen something small. It's crouched down, and it runs up and down the hall. It lives down in the basement. My nine-year-old son went down in the basement one day when he was playing hide and seek with one of the neighborhood kids, and he suddenly ran upstairs looking like he had seen a ghost. He said that something dark was crouched down in the basement near a bunch of boxes we have stored down there. He said that this thing ran over all the boxes and went to the back corner of the basement."
Theories
There is no shortage of reports of shadow people, but what are they? Some theorize that they are inter-dimensional beings, which would account for their odd appearance and the way they are able to move through solid objects in our world.
Another theory is that they are actually the images of people who are having out-of-body experiences. I personally don't buy this explanation, since many people describe a feeling of negativity or evil when they encounter a shadow person.
Because of these feelings of evil, shadow people may be a type of demonic entity. If that's the case, we have to ask ourselves, what is their purpose? Shadow people have never been known to communicate directly with people. They just seem to show up and then disappear. It's not unusual for a person to have just one shadow-person sighting in their lifetime, so it is unlikely that their appearance is the beginning of the oppression stage of demonic possession.
Could shadow people be some type of time traveler? Doubtful, since they behave in a way that is contrary to someone dropping in briefly to take a peek at the past or the future.
Aliens perhaps? While some theorize this to be the case, most alien abduction stories and alien sighting stories don't seem to match the MO of shadow people. Whereas aliens seem to have some type of intent to their visits, shadow people behave almost without purpose.
While it is convenient for some to theorize that shadow figures are simply people's imagination running wild, or that they are experiencing a type of sleep paralysis, the stories that people have come forward with seem to disprove these theories. They are not simply fleeting glimpses of something dark seen out of the corner of your eye. The sightings last fairly long, and they often take place while the witness is wide awake. And we can't ignore the fact that many people who have never heard of a shadow person prior to their experience report them as wearing hats and cloaks/capes. How could such a bizarre detail find it's way into a person's imagination?
In short, shadow people are a mystery. If you have a shadow person story, please drop me a message.
Resources Podcasts
Unlike a real shadow, a shadow-person seems solid. Some describe the figure as having depth to it. Shadow people have been seen walking through a room as if they are aware of the objects around them, often hiding behind doors, chairs, or bureaus. But they can also pass through physical objects and often vanish by walking straight into a wall.
Shadow People Stories
I received a story submission from a woman who had seen a shadow person when she was a young girl. The figure was male shaped, and totally black. Although she didn’t say that it was wearing anything special, she might not have noticed because of what it was holding in its hand.
“My dresser had a mirror attached to it, and the shadow figure blocked both the dresser and the mirror. It was very human looking. I would say it was somewhere between 5’ 7” and 6’ tall, seeing it was about the same height as a normal human male. Apart from the fact that it was completely black, there was nothing unusual about its appearance. It had a normal sized head, arms and legs. I didn’t see much of its feet, but wasn’t really paying attention. I was more concerned with what he might do with what he was holding in his hand — a knife about the size of a large kitchen knife. He was holding the knife in his right hand, and holding it down on his right side so that it was close to his thigh. The tip of the knife was pointed down toward the floor.” (You can read the full story by clicking HERE)
UPDATE (2/28) After publishing the newsletter, a reader emailed me the following Shadow Person account:
I just read your e-mail, I can’t believe you spoke about shadow people! About a week ago, I was having crazy dreams that I was being pulled down by something... I remember yelling in my dream that I was more powerful and I was yelling for arch angel Michael’s help.. then I woke and saw a shadow person standing next to my bed he was wearing a black cape.. then he disappeared into the floor. It was 2:22am when this happened. It’s The third time something like this has happened to me. I was glad to read the other stories... it really did happen and shadow people.. not sure why they appear or who they are.. but they do exist.
Shadow-people are usually described as being male. Obviously, since the figure is entirely black, this is based primarily on its size and physique. Another indication of the supposed gender of the shadow person is the hat it sometimes is seen wearing since top-hats and fedoras are generally associated with males. Shadow figures often seem to be wearing a cloak or a cape. I know this to be a fact because I once saw a shadow-person wearing a cape during an investigation I conducted at the historic 'Le Chateau Restaurant' in South Salem, New York in 2010 with Katonah Paranormal.
Kathy O’Donnell, Karen Darby and I conducted the investigation, and the figure most frequently reported by the restaurant staff was that of the “Cape Man” - a man wearing a long, black cape. This figure was seen by several people both in the restaurant and outside on the grounds. Now I have to admit that I was totally skeptical of this figure. A man wearing a cape? No one wears a cape these days, and even in the old days they rarely wore capes — long coats, maybe, but not capes. To me, capes are for super-heroes and Zorro. But the estate was beautiful, the investigation was fascinating, and Kathy and Karen were picking up some amazingly accurate intuitive information, so I kept an open mind. After doing a walk-through of the inside of the house we made our way outside to the upper and lower parking lots in front of the restaurant. It was here that the Cape man was reported to have terrified workers as they made their way to their cars at night.
It was beginning to get dark as we walked around the parking area, and I kept fooling around with Kathy and Karen by saying, “Cape man, show yourself!” as I randomly snapped photos with my digital camera. We all had a good laugh about it until we made our way to a field to the right side of the building next to a smaller house on the property. “Cape man, show yourself!” I said in my best super-hero voice. I snapped a picture and looked over my camera at the field that had been illuminated by the camera’s flash. There, standing right in front of me no more than eight feet away was a totally black shape. It was a male figure about 6 feet tall, and looked like a solid black cut-out of a person. The field around and beyond this figure was lit up by the flash, but the figure itself was black and totally solid. It was so black that it seemed to absorb all of the light from the flash. I could clearly see its head, and what looked like the high collar of a cape pulled up around its neck. Flowing down around it all the way to the ground was a wavy, cape-shaped garment. All of this took a split second, but it was totally clear and I was absolutely shocked. I couldn’t believe it. I had seen the Cape Man! I'm sorry to report that nothing unusual showed up on the photo I took.
When they are not taking on a human shape, shadow-people often show themselves as demonic figures. I recently received a message from a woman whose family is being plagued by a sprit that sometimes shows itself as a dark shadow-figure that she described as looking something like Gollum from “Lord of the Rings”. During a phone interview the woman told me:
"I've seen something small. It's crouched down, and it runs up and down the hall. It lives down in the basement. My nine-year-old son went down in the basement one day when he was playing hide and seek with one of the neighborhood kids, and he suddenly ran upstairs looking like he had seen a ghost. He said that something dark was crouched down in the basement near a bunch of boxes we have stored down there. He said that this thing ran over all the boxes and went to the back corner of the basement."
Theories
There is no shortage of reports of shadow people, but what are they? Some theorize that they are inter-dimensional beings, which would account for their odd appearance and the way they are able to move through solid objects in our world.
Another theory is that they are actually the images of people who are having out-of-body experiences. I personally don't buy this explanation, since many people describe a feeling of negativity or evil when they encounter a shadow person.
Because of these feelings of evil, shadow people may be a type of demonic entity. If that's the case, we have to ask ourselves, what is their purpose? Shadow people have never been known to communicate directly with people. They just seem to show up and then disappear. It's not unusual for a person to have just one shadow-person sighting in their lifetime, so it is unlikely that their appearance is the beginning of the oppression stage of demonic possession.
Could shadow people be some type of time traveler? Doubtful, since they behave in a way that is contrary to someone dropping in briefly to take a peek at the past or the future.
Aliens perhaps? While some theorize this to be the case, most alien abduction stories and alien sighting stories don't seem to match the MO of shadow people. Whereas aliens seem to have some type of intent to their visits, shadow people behave almost without purpose.
While it is convenient for some to theorize that shadow figures are simply people's imagination running wild, or that they are experiencing a type of sleep paralysis, the stories that people have come forward with seem to disprove these theories. They are not simply fleeting glimpses of something dark seen out of the corner of your eye. The sightings last fairly long, and they often take place while the witness is wide awake. And we can't ignore the fact that many people who have never heard of a shadow person prior to their experience report them as wearing hats and cloaks/capes. How could such a bizarre detail find it's way into a person's imagination?
In short, shadow people are a mystery. If you have a shadow person story, please drop me a message.
Resources Podcasts
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