What are shadow people? Who are they? What do they want? Sit back as we explore and explain the terrifying mystery behind the unknown entity we call the shadow people.
It’s the middle of the night. You’re sound asleep when suddenly – your eyes pop open. You’re not sure why – you didn’t hear a noise – but you feel something.
As if something is watching you from a corner. Your room does feel colder than usual. You look around your room. Nothing. Relief washes over you and you start to close your eyes when – there is something there!
A shadow in the corner. Something that wasn’t there before. You can’t quite make it out, but it looks human. It’s so dark you can’t tell. You pull the blankets up just below your eyes. You close your eyes and when you open them, it’s not there.
What was that? It must just be a weird shadow, right? Or is your brain playing tricks on you? Who are these shadow people? Or more accurately, what are they?
Are you just hallucinating and seeing them out of nowhere, or some weird illusion, or is something more sinister going on?
What are Shadow People?
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When you google “shadow people” you learn that you’re definitely not alone. Lots of people report seeing these things, and the reports aren’t new either.
People have talked about shadow people for hundreds of years, with these mysterious creatures appearing in countless religions, legends, and belief systems.
There are lots of different theories, but whatever they are, people have been scared of them for a very long time. They are staring at you from the dark, and you can’t do anything. So what are the shadow people?
Not many mainstream media outlets have talked about them or the possibility that they are real, usually dismissing them as urban legends, but there’s no shortage of information on alternative radio devoted to cryptozoology and the supernatural.
The shadow people, shadow person, or black mass, first broke into the sort of mainstream in 2001 on the conspiracy theory-centered radio show Coast to Coast AM, when Art Bell introduced the concept with Native American elder Harley Reagan.
Bell decided to spice up the show by inviting listeners to submit their own shadow people stories – and was stunned when hundreds of people wrote in, sending drawings of the supernatural shadow beings they had supposedly encountered.
Drawings were eerily similar to the being people encountered multiple times. The Shadow People gained a new investigator only a few months later when paranormal investigator Heidi Hollis published her first book on Shadow People.
Theories
Whereas Bell and Reagan normally portrayed the shadow people as neutral entities, Heidi Hollis went further with a whole new concept.
Hollis argued that they were hostile alien entities that were stalking us, and claimed they could flicker in and out of peripheral vision, getting close enough to jump on people’s chests and choke them.
Many people say they feel a strong hostile energy from these beings, and believe them to be angry spirits from beyond the grave, stalking the living.
While others think they might be the psychic remnants of inhabitants from another dimension – and that they are either trying to make first contact with us or trying to warn us about something.
A theory advanced by the late paranormal writer and researcher Rosemary Ellen Guiley is that they’re something else entirely – a supernatural being known as a Djinn.
These creatures frequently appear in Middle Eastern mythology and are more commonly known as genies – yes, the kind that grants wishes. But Djinns aren’t bound to a lamp or a bottle and are filled with magical energy.
These shape-shifting beings can take any form they want, and many believe the shadow people are remnants of Djinns from ancient times.
Description
There are some shadow people sightings that are more intense. More real. These encounters can be traumatic and in some cases: violent.
Whether they’re a genie spirit or from another dimension on a spirited journey, the abundance of evidence from shadow people is quite disturbing.
The internet is full of stories of people recounting their experiences with shadow people. One of the strangest elements of shadow people is how closely one person’s description matches that of others.
They’re almost all the same – a shadowy, vaguely human-like figure lurking just far enough away from the person that it can’t be made out clearly. Many people report glowing red or yellow eyes staring at them.
Some of the shadows look more like an amorphous blob, as in the case of the famous phantom at the Gaslight Inn, which resembled a creeping mass slowly expanding over the basement.
Hat Man
However, many others report a clearer, more disturbing figure which the community know as the Hat Man. This is a distinctly humanoid figure, dressed in a black three-piece suit, wearing a black hat.
His eyes glow red, and he holds a pocket watch that he occasionally checks – as if he’s waiting for something or someone. He’s very tall, at least six feet, but he’s also been described as being up to ten feet tall.
Many people believe the Hat Man could be linked to the popular urban legend Slender Man, another abnormally tall, sharp-dressed monster with ties to supernatural terror.
Most people thankfully only encounter the shadow people for brief moments, seeing them out of the corner of their eye or in the dark corners of rooms, only for them to disappear when the light falls on them.
But some people have had longer and far more terrifying experiences that suggest there may be some truth to these encounters. Author Daniel Pinchbeck, a paranormal expert reported that he began seeing other-dimensional beings that resembled the shadow people.
Pinchbeck believes that he was able to see into another dimension, and that somehow these creatures came back with him – haunting him for weeks before they stopped and he was able to return to his normal life.
Scientific Explanation
However not everyone believes that the shadow people are a supernatural entity. Scientists who have analyzed the sightings propose a much more down-to-earth explanation- that these shadow beings are a product of our mind playing tricks on us.
The most common times for people to see shadow people are when they’re under intense emotion, isolated, or very tired. The mind is experiencing heightened stress at this point, so mundane things, like a coat rack or a shadow, become a potential threat.
Sleep paralysis, which is where the body’s motor functions take longer to wake up than the mind, also causes hallucinations that can take the form of shadowy, demonic figures and may be the origin of the mysterious figures.
According to psychologists, two more factors that might be influencing shadow people sightings include sleep deprivation and addiction.
But if that was the case, why have so many healthy people, even those who have no substance abuse issues, sleep deprivation, or bouts of sleep paralysis, seemingly spotted them out of nowhere?
Shadow People in Pop Culture
One thing’s for sure, the shadow people have captured the attention of everyone who loves ghost stories and paranormal phenomena.
These mysterious creatures have shown up in countless movies and TV shows, with perhaps the most famous appearance being in an episode of the rebooted The Twilight Zone in 1985.
In the episode, titled “The Shadow Man”, the shadow person lived under the bed of a teenage boy and was a danger to everyone besides him. The 2013 film Shadow People spun out of the legendary GR16 sleep study, dramatizing it with terrifying results.
And plenty of popular video games have you encounter the shadow people as enemies, giving gamers a brief taste of these terrifying beings without letting them get too close – we hope.
Sightings go back decades, and hundreds of people are giving very similar reports of encounters just like the ones you experienced.
So next time when you encounter shadow people you would probably have just two question. Was your mind playing tricks on you, or are there actually otherworldly beings stalking you?
