Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

For some, every supernatural or paranormal entity (including aliens) are demons and this has to do with personal religious beliefs. For others there are no demons and there is no evil and these people believe in good and Angels. They think that all that we view as evil is a product of man and man’s thoughts and the belief that all thoughts have energy and it is either positive or negative.

There are many things that get labeled as demons that are not demons. Just because it is an evil entity does not make it a demon. We have to remember that some entities have never been in human form, so they will not have the same value system that we have. It is their nature to be the way they are and it is not a moral thing it is just the way they are. If you look at nature and animals you see things that to our moral outlook appear as evil. We think that the way they act to each other is cruel. Don’t get me wrong there are rare cases of animals that become evil because of things outside their control and nature. Like a rabid dog could have been the best dog before it became a rabid Old Yellow and attacked everything.

Sorry, I digress a little… back to what I wanted to talk about. What we see may not be what we think it is OR is it? Looking around you, what do you see? I know that I can see the light and the shadows that the light makes. The way we see the world is with light and light produces shadows. What is a shadow? Is it a void of light, an area that lacks light? For this article let’s just say that a shadow is an area that is darker that the surrounding area that has a shape that is recognizable. Sometimes they are smaller than the actual object that is between the shadow and a light source and sometimes they are bigger. But most of the time if you look around you can see the object that is producing the shadow. The exception to the rule are the shadow beings, shadow people or even shadow demons. They are the “object” and not the “shadow” of an object. The entities may only appear to us to look like a shadow and this is due to how our mind works.

When we see something, our mind compares it to what we have already seen to see if there is a match. The shorter the time that we see the entity the more our mind fills in what we think we see. Our conscious mind does this with our perceptions of what we see, but our unconscious mind just sees what is. That is why in our dreams we see things clearly; our unconscious mind is not cluttered with all the things that we have seen so it can just see. Looking at your shadow can you tell it is you? Or do you just see an area that is darker than the surrounding area? Hold out your hand with your all of your fingers apart and look at the shadow… you can tell it is a hand. Now hold out your hand with your finger all together. See how the shadow looks different and your hand can look like something else? Remember making shadow puppets with your hands? You made a shadow with your hands that looked like an animal or profile of someone but the object of the shadow was your hands. So this is another instance to prove that a shadow may not be a representation of the object. OK you can see that what we see in a shadow may not be what we think it is. Is that a bird?  No, it is my hands making a shadow puppet.

So where am I going with this? A shadow can look like something that it is and something that it is not. Some people think everything paranormal is a demon or created by a demon. So is every shadow entity a demon or evil? Some think that everything that is void of light has to be evil… light is good and anything that is dark is bad. People have even used the word “darkness” to represent evil, like the lack of light means evil. Even when we were young the dark corner or closet was always where the monster lived because it was dark and they always lived in the darkness. Like in many myths and legends evil cannot stand the light; they even shun from the light or it even destroys them. This goes back to our primal fear of the night and most of the predators that would prey on man hunted at night. We learn not to fear the night and we convince our conscious mind that there is nothing in the darkness that can hurt us. Our unconscious mind knows that the darkness can hide what is really there… hide it in the shadows. Our unconscious mind can see things that our conscious mind will not let us see, like what I like to call “no see-ums.” This is when you see something out of the corner of your eye, in your peripheral vision, and if you try to look fully at what you see it is gone. Most people have described what they see as shadows or dark figures. Your conscious mind may sort out what you really saw in your dreams because your conscious mind gives up control when we sleep.

Let us stay in our conscious mind a while and with what we think, or should I say what we are lead to believe. There are books and movies that have the evil entity being a shadow or a dark figure void of light except for its eyes in some cases. This may be because it is easy to let the imagination of the viewer or reader run wild if you don’t see the monster very clearly. For example: The dark and shadowy figure moved closer to the sleeping girl, as you can see you filled in the height, shape and consistency of the figure with your imagination. And most likely if you look at the figure with your mind’s eye you will see that you have seen it somewhere before, maybe in a movie or picture. Our imagination will use things we have seen before and the easy route of interpretation. If you guide your imagination, you can see something new with your mind’s eye. Now I am not saying that people that see something paranormal are imagining what they saw, or that they have an over-active imagination. But there are cases that are just that- someone that watches a scary movie and lets their imagination run wild. They lose their objectivity when their imagination takes control of their thought process, it can be very real to them although it was something totally natural not supernatural. When it is supernatural and your imagination runs wild you may interpret it being something that it is not, like a shadow person becoming a demon.

There are several different schools of thought on what a shadow person is and one is that they are inter-dimensional beings that appear in our reality as shadows and cannot affect our world in any way. On this same idea, there are some that think that they can affect our dimension and us, and that they are trying to take control of us or have control of our world. Concerning the inter-dimensional beings explanation, some believe that they may even be observing aliens and that it is a cloaking device that makes them look like a shadow or a device that makes them out of phase with our world so that they can watch us. There are some who believe that shadow people are ghosts, and some who believe shadow people are demons or other types of inter-dimensional beings.

You can see that there are many different ideas on what a shadow entity is and it is a point of view thing for the most part. Here is another possibility of where a shadow entity comes from… the shadow of someone that is very evil takes on a life of its own after their death. It is not their ghost but their essence that takes the form of their shadow. It is a type of ghost but consists of all emotion like hate. Some say that they can control their shadow to do their bidding, like it is their familiar. If this is the case then the shadow is set free when the person dies, or it even causes the death of its controller.

You can keep looking at all the different ideas on what shadow entities are, and at the end of the day you will have to make up your own mind. I personally think that there are demons that will look like whatever you fear even a shadow but, not all shadow entities are demons. I think that there are many different entities that look like or have similar looks that can make people put them all in the same category. Just because it looks like a duck, it may not be a duck, it needs to quack like a duck and waddle like a duck then maybe it is a duck. This is a simple look at it but let’s look at a shadow entity and what would make me think it was a demon. First would be the feeling that I get when the entity is present - the feeling of dread, fear or even apprehension. Is there any sounds, smells or anything physical feeling that changes like cold, heat or even static charges? Things like this will help you to know that it is more than just a shadow; still there is always exceptions to the rule of thumb. There can be natural reasons for the physical changes and your imagination can cause you to have feelings of dread or fear.

Seeing is not always believing and our eyes can play tricks on us because of our imagination. Just because it looks like what we think it should look like it could still be something else and the more information you have the better your identification will be. With all the different entities that are in the world of the supernatural, it is best not to make a quick judgment on what you are seeing. Just because you want it to be a certain thing does not make it that type of entity, unless it is your own thought form taking the shape you are willing it to have. With our current technology and understanding how to use it, we may not be able to know what the shadow entity is in regards to the supernatural but we can rule out natural causes. Many a picture that is supposed to have a shadow entity in it only has the shadow of someone in the group or an object out of the picture. Remember that not everything paranormal is evil, so try to catch a good look at a no see-um and don’t freak out if the shadow in the corner moves. Fear of the unknown is natural but not good for a paranormal investigator, caution is better. You should respect the paranormal and not be foolish and tempt faith when it could be a bad situation… always be protected in your own beliefs. The last shadow entity is the one that lives in our shadow - it is not our shadow but hides in our shadow. So walk in the light and see your shadow grow and beware of what may be hiding in your own shadow.