Submitted by Paranorman on
Throughout history, many people have claimed to have been involved with some type of encounter involving a moving shadow, or a phenomena which is commonly called “shadow people”. While pop-culture may have given it a catchy little name, these entities have been around for thousands of years, and have been written about in many instances. This article is not to convince you one way or the other as to whether or not they exist or not. I am writing this because for years, I have been plagued by a shadow entity in which my family and I call “The Watcher”, and based on my own feelings, observations, and perceptions, this article is going to give solid “factual” encounters and some history behind the phenomena. Read on if this topic interests you.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE SHADOW PEOPLE
Throughout history, especially in the Greek (translating Greek σκιά, Latin umbra) and later Roman mythologies, “shadow people” were famously known as “shades”, and guess what? It wasn’t a big deal. Just like daimones, they regarded these shadow people as an every day part of life. They can be interpreted as a spirit, or a ghost. They existed mainly as the residue left behind from people who had died, and were now existent within the underworld. They were especially popular in history as well as poetry.Religions in which the dead live in shadow is also not as uncommon as you would think, the most popular being the Hebrew religion. The classification I am referring to is tsalmaveth, which literally translates to “death-shadow”. Shadow-People, a/k/a “shades”, are also known famously by the Scottish as “Wraiths”.
The Egyptians believed that during the preservation of the body, as well as the soul, and the below excerpt is taken from the Wikipedia page pertaining to the Egyptian Book of the Dead, which can be located here:
Finally, the shut, or shadow of the deceased, was preserved by spells 91, 92 and 188. If all these aspects of the person could be variously preserved, remembered, and satiated, then the dead person would live on in the form of an akh. An akh was a blessed spirit with magical powers who would dwell among the gods.
Some of the most common references throughout historical epic poems that involve shades would be Homer’s The Odyssey, and Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy.
SHADOW PEOPLE IN POPULAR CULTURE
And I can’t even begin to paraphrase how many pop-culture references there are to the shadow people, but I will quickly try. You can view them most famously in the Disney cartoon “Peter Pan”, as he wrestles to keep his shadow attached to him. Then, most recently, in both literary form as well as in the form of a motion picture trilogy, there were “Ringwraiths” or Nazrul features in J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” mythology. Recently, a movie was released entitled “The Vanishing on 7th Street”, which deals entirely with the topic of shadow people. And, for certain elements, in the also recently-released movie “Insidious”, for a portion of his time there while he was accumulating power, the demonic character in the film appeared as a shadow person. There is also currently a movie in the works for release in 2011, known simply as “Shadow People“. You can read about that upcoming movie, previously known as “The Door“, here: http://www.upcominghorrormovies.com/movie/shadow-people
Other famous characters in popular culture have been infused into video games as well. The protagonist in the entire “Legacy of Kain” vampire games, Raziel, was actually a wraith, a shadow of his former self.
Many people throughout history have seen or otherwise encountered these shadow people, and the shocking thing about these stories is that while there may be many similarities, no two stories are in fact identical.
The one common factor in Shadow People accounts is that they generally usually have a generic, shapeless, humanoid form devoid of any details, and they come in all shapes and sizes. They usually seem very skittish and/or “jumpy”, in the sense that once they are noticed, they usually retreat back to where they came from, but not all of them do. If you have hours and hours of time to read about the topic, I would highly recommend http://www.shadowpeople.org as a place to get some reading done. While you can read their stories from any point of view that you choose, regard it with a grain of salt, whatever your choice is, the sheer amount of stories can’t be ignored. This is obviously a very, very widely known phenomena, and as of the current date, it cannot be definitively explained.
SHADOW PEOPLE AND THE DEMONIC
Many people, myself included for a short time, had reacted to shadow people as if they were one and the same as the demonic. This was before I had done any research on the topic, and before I had taken a step back and begun to look at it from the point of view of someone who has experienced both the demonic and shadow people. What I noticed was that the feelings I experienced between the two were distinctly different. Many religious clergy, especially the Catholics/Christians, believe that there is no difference between the demonic and the Shadow People. Unfortunately, there just simply aren’t any facts to base an opinion on. They can be a plethora of other unexplained entities.
One of the more “famous” stories involving the Shadow People actually involved world renown demonologist John Zaffis and one of the paranormal investigators that he had mentored over the years named Stacey Jones. She was an ex-police officer, who had finally and reluctantly allowed her teenaged son come along with her and her team on a graveyard investigation. Nearing the end of the investigation, her and her son were separated from the group, and her son began to see multitudes of Shadow People accumulating all around them. Stacey, being a hardcore skeptic didn’t think too much of it, until days went by, her son began to experience strange things such as cuts and bruises randomly appearing on various parts of her body, as well as dramatic and drastic personality changes, many of which involved violence. While that was not the entire gist of the story, ultimately, her son was only experiencing a very strong spirit attachment, and through this attachment (the “Law of Attraction” in play, maybe?) Stacey herself became diabolically possessed. John Zaffis had to step in, and use his contacts with the clergy in order to more or less abduct Stacey long enough for her to agree to the major exorcism, and have the demonic entities evicted from her body. I have managed to sum this story up into only as paragraph, but trust me, it could be much, much longer than that. In over 30+ years of paranormal experience, John Zaffis claimed that this was the one and only time he has ever witnessed honest-to-God levitation during possession.
The entire story was actually med into a 1-hour episode for the TV Series “A Haunting” on the Discovery Channel. It was Season 4, Episode 9, and it was entitled “Ghost Hunter”. I strongly recommend watching it if you have an interest in this article.
The folklore around the world is as a whole almost too much for any one human being to successfully study, so in that regard, try to absorb as much information as possible to form your own opinion. As far as my own opinion on the matter…
WHAT I THINK SHADOW PEOPLE ARE
My personal opinion is a rather complex one.
I believe that the Shadow People are a species. Unfortunately, the best way that I can compare this is actually to two races. The simplest being canines. Dogs are a basic species. You see a dog, and you know that it is a dog. However, within the species, there are different kinds of dogs. You see a PitBull, you kno that it is a PitBull. You see a Chihuahua, you know it is a Chihuahua. The point is, each dog is unique and different, and has a temperament to match. If a Chihuahua came up to you in a dark alley, and started to “attack” you, nibbling on your sneaker and jumping up at you, you would lean down, try to pet it, calm it down, laugh at it a little bit, and then move on. But take that exact same scenario, and substituted the Chihuahua with the PitBull. If you are trapped in an alley, and a PitBull approaches you, growling, snarling, and agitated, you would treat that dog accordingly – most likely significantly different than you would the Chihuahua. That is what I perceive the Shadow People to be. The second comparison would be to human beings. Much like the dogs, there are different kinds of human beings, but beyond that, human beings have intelligent, they are self-aware, sentient beings. There are different types of people beyond the physical differences as well. The mentally ill, the unstable, the violent, the twisted and demented, the list goes on and on. You would obviously not compare Ed Gein to your children’s pre-school teacher, or close friends you have.That is my point. I believe that Shadow People are simply a different species of the shadow as a whole. In many religions and cultures, there is belief that there are other realms (Realm X, etc.) in which other beings exist. The Egyptians believed in the realm of The Afterlife as a world, the Greeks/Romans also had the Elysian Fields and Hades. The Celts believe in the Sidhe (the faeries) and the Muslims believe in the Djinn. The Catholics/Christians/Jews believe in Heaven and Hell, and sometimes Purgatory. As a matter of fact, while listening to a radio show called Coast to Coat AM with Art Bell and famous exorcist Father Malachi Martin, I heard Father Martin speak about what he believes the “Middle Plateau” to be – a alternate realm where all sorts of “magic” is still present, where certain beings such as the Demonic, the Djinn, and the dead exist within. He also believe that this is the place people “go to” when they are astrally traveling, remote viewing, and possibly even dreaming. It was very interesting to hear him speak on the matter, especially since that is where I believe the Shadow People are from. I do believe that they have been around a while, and that they simply know how to walk through the veil that separates our world from theirs.
My belief is that yes, the demonic can imitate these Shadow People, but that doesn’t make every shadow person a demon, just like it doesn’t make every pre-school teacher Ed Gein. Each and every shadow figure is unique, just like we are. I don’t believe they just manipulate our physics to exists, and I don’t believe that they are all malevolent. In a world that I relatively unknown to us, I also believe that anything is possible. In my own personal experienced with the shadow figure that I call “The Watcher”, I do believe that this is a malevolent – maybe even possibly a demonic – entity. I base this on the fact that I know all of the things I have done in my life, I know the evils I have partaken in, and the doors that I have opened. I know that for the rest of my life, the darkness will have an interest in me, and most importantly, I know the feelings and emotions I had experienced while in the presence of this thing. It was very, very large, and the feeling I got from it was not just mere curiosity, it was intentionally spreading absolute terror. It was angry with me. There was a hatred there, much like the first story I quoted above. It was not “randomly” there, it was there for me. And the only reasons that I believe nothing had ever happened is because not only am I very knowledgable about the paranormal, but I am also very paranoid. In my bedroom, I have multiple blessed items “hidden”, mainly around the door frame. I also have an undisturbed solid line of salt embedded underneath my thresh hold, I have a 12” handmade knife under my pillow that is crafted out of solid 200 year-old iron, and I have set up religious “barriers” on every opening in that room, much like I described in my “Possession 101” article in the Ralph Sarchie excerpt. I also wear blessed medals of St. Michael and St. Benedict around my neck at al times, and have begun taking up the process of praying nightly to keep these entities at bay. And it works. Barely.
In the past few months, there have been multiple paranormal experiences around my home, and yes, the activity is increasing. Specifically, in the regards to Shadow People, I have seen some more in addition to “The Watcher”. And yes, I am worried. My mirrors have been going crazy, thin air has literally screamed at me only feet in front of me, and night terrors have been a common thing. The footsteps have continued in my abandoned top floor, and I am constantly seeing shadows dart around out of the corner of my eyes. It’s gotten to the point where now, I go to sleep with my bedroom door opened and the hall light on, just so that I can stare into the hallway al night and count how many times I see something pass in front of the light and temporarily block it out. So for a bottom line, I’d recommend that you treat these entities the same as the demonic, even though they may not be the same. Tread with caution, because being that these entities are largely unknown, we still do not know what they are capable of. And even if they are benign, the Law of Attraction isn’t, and these entities could attract other entities that are residents of the dark. Ultimately, just be careful. That’s all I can recommend.