I must admit that I had never heard or had any interest in the Shadow People. I have been a fan of horror since a child, remembering the eerie voice announcing my father's weekend movie. Its single word playing over in my head: "Chiller." My sister and I jumping up and down hoping to catch a glimpse of what was occurring on the TV screen. I was desperate to open the door to the unknown.
While I was too young to remember any particular movies, and I was not allowed to watch them anyway, the word that played on Chiller Theatre remained with me. Much like the words of my youngest son, when he divulged that he was being visited by shadow people.
Every mother's life changes with the second child but as mine aged, he became a little more "intuitive" than I had liked and I was not amused. Besides, one day claiming to have been my father's father, where he made certain statements about his so-called past life, which only my father had known about his dad, he claimed to have visitors in his room at night. Hence, his continual visitation to my bed, holding his pillow in his arms asking to crawl in for escape from the shadow man. It raised the hair on the back of my neck for one night. After the first few nights, I was tired and wanted sleep.
Unable to handle the bags under my eyes any longer, I decided to look up shadows to try to end this nightly occurrence. I had to get this child to sleep in his own bed. I did not have these problems with my older son. Possibly, I would be able to explain to my son that all little boys see this. That this is a common thing among children and there is nothing to worry about. Shadows cannot hurt you. I repeated that verbiage over to him again and again.
When I started hunting online, I was shocked to find over a 100,000 various websites listing those darned shadow people or shadow folk. I found stories and details and sometimes even pictures. Some of the stories matched exactly what my three-year old had spoken of.
However as time went on, I would do all I could to make my son independent enough to sleep alone. I asked him often why the shadow man sat on the edge of his bed. He would shrug his shoulders. As this became a three to four night weekly occurrence, his unusual intuitions kicked in full force. He would sit in the cart at Price Chopper and wave to people and ask them how their sick cat was or if they missed their deceased father and before I knew it, I was in a conversation, assuring that person that I did not know them or their loved one. It was strange times indeed.
One evening, as he stood at the side of my bed again, begging to come under the covers with me, he announced in a whisper that he knew why the shadow man was here. The shadow man was here to get his mama. He had been trying to sleep with me all these months to protect me. With everything that was going on with my intuitive boy, I didn’t say a word. I raised my blanket up and let him crawl in.
I saw the shadow people during most of my childhood. I started seeing them when I was about four or so, and did not know what it was I was seeing. Being a child makes one think that all is normal. I thought they were supposed to be there. I would watch them for hours and then mum would wonder why I was too tired to awaken for school.
For years, I would lie in bed at night and watch them go up and down the hallway. I always wondered if they were going into my mother’s bedroom. Finally, when I turned 11 or 12, I asked her who were the people walking up and down the hall. She turned white. And, I mean white. All of the color drained from her face. She would not talk about it. She started closing my door at night and eventually I stopped seeing them.
I often wonder what was going on. Mum still will not talk about them and they have become sort of an uncomfortable joke when I try to discuss them.
Thanks for listening.
April (e-mail held upon request.)
I Have Seen Them:
by Riger
I started seeing the shadows as a kid. A young kid. I cannot remember how old I was but was young enough not to be afraid. I watched them go into my bedroom bathroom and never come out. There was always a long line of them. Maybe 10 or so. They would wait in an orderly fashion to go inside. Once inside the bathroom, they would vanish.
I do remember being an intuitive child. People would make comments to my dad, who is an accountant, about my abilities, and he would shrug his shoulders. He had no imagination for the unknown. He always laughed and said I would be a writer or a movie director, due to my imagination.
I have seen them here and there over the years and noticed I saw them only during the most stressed out times of my life, like during final exams in college. I assumed they were a manifestation of my own stress but then I began reading and learned that millions have seen them.
I did become a movie-maker but I work strictly in documentaries. I am all facts. I have seen them recently while researching cultural changes within the UK. The dark, foggy, rainy nights, the camera, the shadow people and me. It has raised the hair on my neck a few times over the last several weeks. I still have not been able to capture them on film though. I am working on it when I least expect it.
What the hell are they? Are they real or something our minds make up? The more research I do, the more it appears that people that do see them have some ESP situations going on. Are they the past touching the present? I guess only time will tell. I am determined to catch them on film. I only hope I can.
Riger, Oregon native living in London.
They are real!
I will tell you that the shadow people can be scary. One night I was at my brother’s house. His wife has just given birth to twin boys and we were celebrating. I walked home and thought I saw something run from my backyard and disappear into the wall of my garage.
I was freaked out thinking that someone was trying to break into my house. I have an alarm system and when I went to the front door, all was intact. I brushed it off as having “one too many.” However, I still see that damn thing. Weeks will go by and I see nothing and then once I am off guard, here he goes running from my backyard into the wall of my garage. I search for him and nothing is there. This has been going on for about three years now.
I tried to tell a few of my friends that are C.P.A.’s like myself and they pretty much laughed at me. I knew they would. It is a joke when we go out for dinner or to the bar for a drink but I know what I see. I try to tell them they have no imagination but this is not a tale, it is the truth.
