Shifting shadows or "shadow people."

Hang around paranormal circles long enough (or even watch paranormal television shows for longer than ten minutes) and you'll probably hear about "shadow people."  Shadow people are exactly what they sound like:  They are shadows that look like people that are entities in their own right.  There are many theories about shadow people and many explanations of what they are.

Suppose you're just hanging out, doing whatever you would normally be doing at a certain time of day, when you see what appears to be a person standing in your peripheral vision.  Your natural inclination is to turn in that direction to see who it is, right?  When you turn to catch a glimpse of this person no one is there.  No one is even in the vicinity.  Sometimes you might even actually see the figure slink away into the shadows or around the corner, never to be discovered.  Most people have probably had an experience similar to this before.  Personally, I've had a few experiences like this, mostly with smaller shadows though.  Shadow "bugs" or shadow "mice."  I'll turn to see what it is and there isn't actually anything there.

I fully acknowledge that a lot of these experiences of mine are probably just fatigue, insomnia, and tricks of the eyes.  Those of you that read the timestamps on my blogs should find it unsurprising that I'm usually up at the wee hours and this is most often when I have such experiences.  I won't go into the scientific reasons why the eyes can trick us in this way; I'll only acknowledge that there are perfectly rational explanations for some "shadow people" experiences.

All of this in mind, I have had one experience that I cannot immediately chalk up to tricks of the eye.  The most startling shadow person experience that I have ever had occurred perhaps two years ago.  It was late at night, I had just brushed my teeth, and I was about to retire to my room but I was looking back into the rest of the first floor of the house to make sure the lights were off before I went to the stairs.  I stood in the darkened living room looking down the night-lighted hallway into the kitchen.  As I stood there for those few seconds a shadow suddenly appeared on the lighted hallway wall, a shadow vaguely human shaped and sized.  This shadow did not stay still for long, immediately moving along the wall and off into the darkness.  This would not have been so startling to me if I hadn't been standing still the entire time, surveying the kitchen to make sure the lights were off.  This solidified in my mind that it was not my shadow.

There could be a rational explanation for my encounter but I'm unable to come up with one.  This said, I'm also unable to come up with a paranormal conclusion about the experience.  I was admittedly tired when this happened, but I have never had a fatigue-induced shadow appear in the center of my field of vision and then move off into the shadows.  I do think it should be noted that there have been some somewhat unexplainable occurrences in my house, but I generally attribute most of them to settling, wind, and other natural phenomena as the house is over a century old.  There is a door that used to mysteriously come open no matter how well you made sure it was closed (it no longer has this problem).  Sometimes there would be a mysterious sound coming from outside that sounded exactly like a ball being bounced on the driveway when no one (and no ball) was there.  That particular phenomenon hasn't occurred, to my knowledge, for at least several months.  There are countless creaks, groans, moans, and thuds that occur in my home everyday (most notably at night, probably due to it being more noticeable during the quiet hours).  I make no claims of living in a haunted house, but strange things do occasionally happen.  This shadow person encounter was by far the strangest and most inexplicable.

So, what are shadow people?  This often depends on who you ask.  A popular theory I see often is that shadow people are supernatural entities that feed on negative energy.  I'm not a ghost hunter, just a paranormal researcher.  Ghosts and shadow people and other such things are not a primary area of interest to me but I have looked into those subjects a bit.  When it comes to shadow people, it seems that anyone is free to come up with just about any explanation they want.  I can't claim to know what causes the most drastic cases of shadow people or other shadow phenomena, but I do have some ideas.

I do not think that shadow people are deceased humans, if they are indeed real entities and not just illusions.  In my research of encounters with what are ostensibly deceased humans I can't recall a mention of the deceased appearing in a shadow form.  When taking a form at all, the deceased seem to always take a form close to the stereotypical vision of the ghost:  That of an ethereal, transparent, replica of the person as they were in life.  I do acknowledge that I have not examined every case of spirit communication ever though.

I do not think that shadow people are demons, or at the very least, not dangerous demons.  I am speaking of demons in the popular sense:  A malevolent supernatural entity that preys upon mankind; an evil spirit.  I feel that if shadow people are demons they would not make themselves so apparent and would not be so obvious.  Shadow people also do not fit with typical tales of demonic activity that I have encountered.  Usually, when a malevolent entity is attacking someone, the entity is completely invisible to human eyes.  Shadow people, overall, seem to be rather indifferent to human beings, choosing to simply observe from a distance rather than interact.  It's not uncommon to see reports of people claiming to be watched by shadow people.  I'm unaware of any case of shadow people actually causing harm or attacking anyone.  In my opinion, this means that the idea of shadow people being malevolent entities (or at least overtly malevolent entities) is out.

What do I think shadow people are?  I think that they (if they exist at all) are probably benign non-human spiritual entities.  In my view, they are a natural part of the greater picture similar to the idea of nature spirits.  They seem to me to be just as natural as human beings or trees; they are just another part of the world that we inhabit, albeit not as well understood as the other examples.  This is, of course, just my opinion.  I don't claim to hold the absolute truth about much of anything, especially not something as seemingly unverifiable as the phenomenon of shadow people.

If you have ever experienced shadow people (or shadow critters of any kind) then you probably have your own ideas about what they are.  I'm always interested in hearing new ideas so feel free to drop me a comment and let me know what you think.  If you're someone better versed in the subject then feel free to correct me on anything I may have wrong here.  All I have to go on is my limited experience and what research I've done.

That's all until next time.  I won't think less of you if you leave the light on.