Shadow People Again

The Shadow Man is the only Fortean thing I've ever had any personal experience of. So it's hardly surprising it's a subject that I will return to, time and again. I'm nearly a total sceptic, I know it's weird that I thus write a blog about the unexplained but I'm a sympathetic sceptic. And the reason for that is simply part of me will never accept that the Shadow Man was a figment of my imagination or a construct of my unconscious mind. How would the dog know he was there? Why did I see him then and not have similar experiences later on? And how come I've [Jae Note - Following link to my personal journal has shirtless man on it. Forewarned is forearmed!) seen other shadow phenomenon in that same property but never anywhere else? These are real questions, and I need answers. I might never get them, but I need them!

So... firstly listened to Beyond the Edge Radio today and they had Jason Offutt on discussing Shadow People. His blog, From The Shadows, has been in my blogroll since I started this blog and it's well worth a read. Obviously, once I heard that, I gave up on the house work and headed straight to my computer to look for Shadow People videos. I know, it always upsets me greatly but I'm like a dog with a bone once I'm on to something...

And I found this video which has some interesting pictures and footage. Most interesting was the last video, showing what I believe is the top of a cape of a shadow person. Why do I believe this? Because (as I've said in my NSFW link above) I used to see two of these doing the same thing at the living room window quite often. Always on the move. When I saw that video, it completely blew my mind. Imagine seeing something that makes you feel full of warm nostalgia and fearful terror all at once. That's how it was for me.

Then there are personal testimonies here and here. Both of these stories are interesting, but also bring home to me the differences in different sightings. The shadow man, and the hooded shadows, I saw as a child were not "shadows" as we know them. Them were 3D beings, composed of some black material. A lot of shadow people sightings have them as 2D shadows often on walls. I'm not saying that those people are lying just stressing there are major differences in sighting report.

Another difference is a lot of people (including my old work colleague who reported her second encounter of a shadow involved it moving extremely fast) report the shadows moving with uncommon speed. In my case, and this is possibly the aspect that scares me most, the shadow man moved with a terrifying lack of speed and moved from the hall to my doorway at a leisurely pace. Although I admit the hooded shadows I saw at others times always moved with the sort of speed reserved for the Flash.

Everytime I look I find something more that confirms my beliefs that what I saw was not a figment of my imagination, but something else (whatever that may be!). The first time I looked I found the Shadow People were a fairly common phenomenon which shook me up. The second time I looked I discovered the two entities I'd always thought of as strange witch like creatures who were often seen outside my old house were actually ALSO common entities linked to the shadow people. And now I've seen a video of one of those two entities and can confirm I have seen that thing myself. That scares me. It scares me because:

1) anything that makes the Shadow Man out to be anything other than a figment of my imagination means I might one day encounter him again and that is not something I wish to consider. I simply don't know what I'd do if he walked back into my life.
2) it would totally threaten my lovely, safe world view. My world is a world free of religion, spirits and filled with science and flesh and blood beings (even if some of them might not be recognised by science just yet!). If the Shadow Man were to be "real" then I'd be wrong somewhere along the line. And I don't like that one bit. But at least I'm willing (unlike scary fundamentalists) to accept that possibility!!

Oh well... until more evidence appears I'm going to just keep my doors closed and hope to a God who I hope doesn't exist that I never have to see those bloody red eyes again.

Further Reading

Darkness Walks: The Shadow People Among Us - Jason Offutt (UK Amazon, US Amazon)

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