Episode 2: Shadow People

Shadow people are a paranormal phenomenon where a patch of shadow takes a human-like form which can be seen as either good or evil. In some stories they even have red or yellow eyes. A lot of the time shadow people just appear but don’t really do any harm to us, they do feed off electricity and energy of human beings though.

There are supposedly three types of shadow people: the shadow man without a face, this one is supposedly harmless, it doesn’t bother you, it won’t touch you. Then there are shadow people with yellow or green eyes, these watch us but are mostly harmless as well, but the third type is a more disfigured type of shadow person, these are more demon-like, with yellow or red eyes even and this type is considered the evil type, this one feeds of our fear.

This is only one theorie though, another theorie I read about is where they are interdimensional beings: beings from another dimension that can travel to ours, to either study us or another purpose we don’t know about.

What I also heard or read a lot was that most people don’t believe shadow people to be ghosts. Ghosts are the energy that’s left of a human that passed away, something that is supposedly good. Our spirits are often portrayed as a white light, not a dark shadow.

Other theories are that shadow people are time travelers, people from the future who have super advanced technology that can make them block their identity, it could also be aliens who are masking their appearances.

Another super interesting theorie I heard is that shadow people are astral projections. Astral projection is also known as an out-of-body-experience, and it’s where a person is able to free their soul from they’re body to travel on the astral plane. I’m not gonna go into detail about it because I feel like most people kind of know what it is, but if you don’t, it’s really worth looking up. So like I said it is believed that our spirit would be a white light, but in this theorie it is said that because the person is still alive during an astral projection, the soul is seen as a dark shadow and this could be why the faces aren’t detailed, because it’s just the soul traveling while the body is still alive.

Now these are all theories, some I think are believable, in a way, and others I don’t believe at all.

Laurens

DIFFERENT SHADOW PEOPLE/ OTHER CULTURES

Benign Shadows

These are the most common forms of Shadow people. They just occupy the same space as you and I. They move around a house paying no attention to the humans living there. These are the forms that I have dealt with, that most people have dealt with. Some people say that these ones are people close to them that passed away who keep visiting them. I found that some Native American cultures believe in the three sisters. 3 Benign Shadows in the form of women who foretell doom and death upon arrival. I did however only find one source on this so I'm not sure how credible this is.

Red-Eyed Shadows

Red Eyed shadows are supposedly demonic entities who prey on fear. It is however thought that the red eyes are just a projection on “normal” shadow people, because it’s how we’re trained to think. We are conditioned to believe that red is evil, so these evil shadow people have red eyes.

The Hat Man

The Hat Man is a very specific Shadow Person, it can be recognized by its hat. The hat man is always dressed as if he came from the 1930 or earlier, with a wide brim hat.

Mud People

In his book the active side of infinity, writer Carlos Castenadas talks about an experience he and his teacher Don Juan have with beings called Mud People. Castendas was trained in shamanism under a Yaqui sorcerer, the Yaqui are the indigenous people of the Rio Yaqui valley in the Mexican state of Sonora. In his book Castenadas describes him seeing shadows in the corner of his eyes, under tutelage of Don Juan of course. Don Juan later says that Ancient Mexican sorcerers were the first ones to see these fleeting shadows. They believed that these shadows were companions for life, a predator of sorts. I quote: ‘There is an explanation, which is the simplest explanation in the world. They took over because we are food for them, and they squeeze us mercilessly because we are their sustenance’. He then further describes these predators as sort of gods. They give us our systems of beliefs; our ideas of good and evil; and our social mores. They set up dreams and expectations, our dreams of success and failure. I didn’t quite understand the next part but Castenades says that these predators do all this by giving us their mind, which in turn becomes our mind. These predators feed upon our human energy. There are 2 types of Mud People. Inorganic entities are shapes that can be good or bad, good ones may barter for your energy, bad ones will steal it. Organic or benevolent entities do not feed off humans but won’t attempt to stop the inorganic ones from doing so. What’s your opinion on this Rei? I should also say that there are doubts about the veracity of Castenada’s work; it is thought that Don Juan is imaginary. A number of arguments include that Castaneda didn't report on the Yaqui name of a single plant he learned about, and that he and Don Juan go quite unmolested by pests that normally torment desert hikers. In the book Castenada’s Journey by Richard De Mille include 47 pages that show quotes which Castenada attributes to Don Juan were actually from a variety of other sources.

The Jinn

The Islam knows a paranormal entity called the Jinn. We have used this word and image and made it into the Genie. The Jinn can become invisible, shapeshift, teleport and have the ability to possess humans. Allah created the Jinn from the smokeless flame of fire. A non-Muslim Jinn is considered dangerous and wicked. They appear as dark figures and prey upon unsuspecting human souls. Jinn are great deceivers and may present themselves as the ghost of a loved one. Like Mud People it is believed that every person has a Jinn attached to them. The things I read about Jinn attacking and entering a human body closely resembles an exorcism in my opinion. Being entered by a Jinn would cause illnesses like epilepsy.

The Wandering Souls

In Hinduism there is the concept of Antarloka, the dimension between worlds where souls wander from incarnation to incarnation. It is possible for some of these souls to appear in our world. In Hindu thinking Shadow people are more likely to be a wandering soul of a person who died an untimely death and is earthbound for a period of time. These are just lost souls and can only be seen by a person sensitive to their presence.

Buddhism

In Buddhism there also is a type of Shadow People. Buddhism focuses more on peace and tranquility so they do not like to probe into the Dark Shadows. They exist beyond our periphery; entities within our reach we shouldn’t touch. Tibetan Buddhism is rich in dark threatening entities and it is believed that they only affect us through the power of our true demons: hatred, stupidity, pride and envy. To get rid of these entities one should appeal to the Buddha for compassion, fearlessness and abandon these bad emotions.

Nalusa Falaya

In Choctaw mythology there exists the Nalusa Falaya who is a shadow resembling a man. He has very small eyes and long, pointed ears. These beings liked to frighten hunters and feed off their fear.

Cherokee

In Cherokee culture their shadow people are more monstrous in appearance. They are humanoid shaped but not proportionate to a normal person. These beings are the product of medicine people gone evil. They have perverted the uses of their powers for their own greed. These people cease to be people and become something else. They can not be considered human anymore.

Old Red Eyes

In Belgium we actually have a shadow people legend. Old red eyes or The Beast of Flanders was supposedly a 7 foot tall black clothed man who changed into a large black dog with fiery red eyes. In recent times he could change into a dark shadow figure with red eyes. In the late 17th century children were reported missing and were believed to be the victims of a cannibalistic shape shifter. Witnesses claimed to have seen a large naked black man running away after trying to steal a young girl from her bed. He was shot at and seen to change into a large black dog. A homeless man was then caught, lynched and skinned all without trial. From the early 18th century until present, a ghostly dark figure with fiery red eyes has been seen in Mechelen and surrounding areas. It is said that he seeks his skin to become whole again as the demonic figure he once was. During the 20th century the ghostly being became known as The Necker (de nekker) as part of a story told to children who stayed up past their bedtime that they'd be eaten alive if they didn't go to sleep.

Rei

PERSONAL EXPERIENCES

I’ve had a period in my life, a few years ago, where I constantly saw a shadow in the corner of my eyes but whenever I turned around there was nothing. I wasn’t sure if it was something paranormal or not, so I decided to do some internet digging to figure out what it could be. It actually didn’t take me too long to find a super logical explanation. Apparently when you lack vitamin A you can experience shadows or black dots in the corner of your eyes. I didn’t get this checked by a doctor but I just figured it was that. I started eating food that is rich in vitamin A and after a while it stopped and I didn’t really experience anything like that anymore.

I tried to find some personal experiences of other people, a lot of them were very alike, but here are some stories I encountered while doing research:

HAILEY REESE

Hailey Reese is a YouTuber who’s channel is about all things paranormal. She is a Christian woman who believes in the strength of light and love and has experienced many paranormal encounters. She has a whole video dedicated to shadow people as well, which is where I got a lot of my theories from! When she was little she would wake up in the middle of the night, and she would see the shadow figure on the side of her bed. She thought her eyes weren't adjusting to the dark yet so she couldn't make out what it was. She said that this shadow person in her room would walk across the room sometimes. At other times she would roll over in her bed, open her eyes for a brief moment and she would see a shadow person lying next to her in bed. She says that she used to get rid of the shadows by quickly turning on the light. But now if she sees one she just goes back to sleep because she believes that most of the time these beings are harmless. She says that if you trust in the faith of light and love, evil beings won't want to be around you. She also believes that shadow people come from another dimension.

DR. PHIL

There is a clip on YouTube from an episode on Dr. Phil where a girl named Haley, claims she sees Shadow people and they call out her name sometimes. She doesn't feel safe around them and wants them to go away. She says doctors have given her all different kinds of medications but nothing worked, the shadow people were still there. Now from what I saw in the small clip, the girl seemed rather shy, like I believed that she's actually seeing these shadow figures.. Now I did some digging and found more clips of this episode on Dr. Phil with Haley. Apparently she has also claimed to be pregnant with Jesus and diagnosed herself with Paranoid Schizophrenia. Now, I'm not a doctor, I know a little about different mental illnesses, but really not enough to claim something myself. I do really think she has a mental illness though and needs to be treated for it. I didn't get to watch the whole episode but from the clips that I saw it definitely seems like she believed what she was saying. I didn't find any other recent updates on her but I just hope that she's doing better now.

COREY SCHERER

Corey Scherer is a YouTuber and part of one of my favorite channels: TFIL and now OVERNIGHT. (TFIL won’t be uploading more paranormal content but instead moved this to a new channel called OVERNIGHT.) This channel explores haunted places to collect evidence from the paranormal. What I like about them is that they are very realistic, down to earth but also open minded. One of the team members is Corey Scherer who has done a lot of paranormal investigations with Sam and Colby as well. In one of their videos he tells his story with the Shadow Man. When he was younger, Corey and his family had played with the Ouija board and since then Corey has been seeing a dark human-like figure, with a top hat and a cane, he called it the Shadow Man. He claims he has seen this figure more than once and wonders if he has been haunted his whole life. Now during one of Sam and Colby’s videos, they were investigating the Langham Hotel in London -which is said to be the most haunted hotel in the UK- Corey suddenly got a text from his little brother -back in the US- that he started seeing the Shadow Man around their house too. Of course this is only a part of his story, but I do think it’s really creepy. During the videos you can also see Corey being very afraid of it, which makes it all more believable. I personally don’t think he’s making it up either, and now that he’s brother is seeing it too, I don’t think it’s just an illusion either. What it really is though? I have no clue. Yet.

SLEEP PARALYSIS

I found many more personal experiences, especially on reddit, some more believable than others, in my opinion. But there was another type of experience, shared by many, MANY, people. People who see the shadow man, or shadow people, while they’re lying in bed, they’re awake but unable to move. They’re experiencing sleep paralysis, which is a very terrifying but real condition where you are in a state between being awake and asleep. To keep it short, when you dream your body is in a paralyzed state. But with sleep paralysis you are awake as in, you can open your eyes, you can breathe, but your body is still “dreaming” so you're not able to move or speak. This to me sounds already scary AF but to make it worse some people experience hallucinations during these episodes, as in your dreams kind of mingle with reality. Meaning that sometimes people experience sightings of monsters, ghosts or shadow people while being in a state of sleep paralysis. I can understand why people would think it’s a paranormal phenomenon but even though I am a believer of the paranormal, I believe that this is a very real condition with a very real scientific explanation. So in these cases I do not believe they are actually dealing with a Shadow man or shadow people.

Now we actually have someone who shared their sleep paralysis experience with us! We’re talking about one of the hosts from Grafspraak, an amazing Belgian paranormal comedy podcast, an absolute must hear for all our Dutch speaking listeners. Grafspraak, which is hosted by Jens and Nikki, is what got me into podcasts so they definitely deserve a shout out here and of course a big thank you to Jens for sharing his story!

Laurens

JENS’ EXPERIENCE

Jens used to be a shy kid, he was bullied by a guy in his class. That kid’s mom was also a teacher at school. When Jens got to the 4th year of middle school the teacher he got was his bully’s mother. In Belgium, in middle school, we have one teacher the whole year round. This meant that his teacher for the whole year was his bully’s mother. On his first day, the first thing his teacher told him was, ‘ I have heard of you, you bully my son’. So his bully told his mother that Jens bullies him and not the other way round. Jens, being too shy, never corrected the record. That school year the class had a math assignment, they got a textbook full of math exercises and they needed to fill in some of these exercises . Jens didn’t hear what the exercises was and he was too shy to ask. So he went home and in a sort of panic filled in a lot more exercises than was necessary. The next day he went to school and he didn't make the correct one. That evening he did more exercises , still not the correct ones. This went on for 2 weeks. This was so stressful for Jens, he counted down the seconds at night till he had to go to school. Eventually the teacher asked him and he confessed that he didn’t know what the assignment was. In those 2 stressful weeks he had a night where he woke and couldn't move a single muscle. He felt something looking at him and with a lot of effort he opened one of his eyes. Looking around he eventually saw a single black figure, the figure of a child, standing next to him. This was the first of many sleep paralysis episodes from Jens.

You can find a link to GRAFSPRAAK on our website in the "FRIENDS" section!

(or just click on the image below ;P)