Shadow People: What do they do?

I did a search on this topic, and found many threads on them with stories. The one thing I noticed is that a lot of people don't like Shadow People, but no one has really pinned down what they can and can't do. What they are isn't important (since they can't really be classified as a person, ghost, or whatever), what is important is what you've seen them do. I'll tell you all my first encounter with one, and then I'll tell you what I observed from that encounter.

Back in the 90's I was doing a lot of ghost hunts. Organizing some and taking part in others. One of the homes I was lucky to check out had an interesting history to it. The original owner of the property died in the mid 1800's, and was buried on the property. Sadly though, his grave site was not where his body was. The head stone had a fence around it so the current owners thought (rightfully so) that the body was in the grave. They had started to dig a hole for an in-ground pool. This was stopped after the backhoe had cut the buried remains in half. The police was called in, and it was determined that it was in fact the body of the original owner. The sited grave was empty. The body was then given a proper burial on the property, in a newly dug grave.

About a month later the new owners stated that they were having "things" happen. Lights turning on and off, things being moved, voices, and footsteps. One of the issues people had was that they claimed to see the top half of a person floating in the basement.

Basic haunting right? Well after going through the house and taking pictures (remember this was in the 90's) I went down into the basement to check to see if I could document this half-body. Upon going down the stairs to the basement I felt cold. I thought it was due to a simple airflow issue, but then I saw out of the corner of my eye a person standing by the hot water tank. When I shined my flashlight on the person (thinking it was a member of the owners family playing a joke) my light went through it.

It looked like someone had taken a pair of sunglasses and cut out a human figure out of it. The person was tinted in a smoky shade. I was stunned. I wasn't afraid while I was looking at it, but then it looked at me. I can only describe the feeling as being shot with fear. The feeling came over me so fast that I couldn't do anything.

After what seems like a minute, this creature threw a plastic knob at me. This knob hit me in the face, and I looked away quickly (I think it was a reflex reaction). The creature was gone when I looked back. It couldn't have gone anywhere since it was backed into a corner, and I was standing in the doorway.

This was my first encounter with one of these Shadow People.

Here's what I remember from that first encounter:
This Shadow person seemed to be interested in the water heater. It was unaware that I was even there at first.
*This leads me to believe that they are no better than we are when it comes to their surroundings (being that I snuck up on it)
They had tossed an object at me. There were other things in the room that could have hurt me a lot more than a knob, but it was doing something to the knob.
*This would lead me to believe that they are restricted from affecting objects outside of their reach.
After it had distracted me it disappeared. It had either vanished into thin air, or cloaked itself somehow.
*Given how quickly it was gone after it distracted me lead me to think that it was still there, but cloaked (or at least it was out of my visual range)

Can these things only affect objects when they're shaded? or are these Shadow People the rude things behind poltergeists?

What I would like is if people would recount their Shadow People story, with what was learned about the Shadow Person behavior. My thinking is that if we can log what these things can do, then we can figure out what they are (or at least what they are not) I ask that you only post your personal encounter and not a story of a friend of a friend.

Since this is my first thread, if I am in any violations of any rules I will be willing to edit out the violations. Thank you for reading

I'll try and make a list of things that we all learn of that they can do in this posting. I know that many of you readers have your own threads about your encounters. If you can just link your thread, and give us a summery of what you've leard about the Shadow People that would be great. Thank you.

Originally posted by snowen20

So cats and dogs can detect them. It may sound odd, but I wonder if other pets can be effected by them (fish, snakes, mice...ect...ect)
Another case of them moving an object (the plastic bag and toilet)

Originally posted by IShotMyLastMuse

I've heard that we can see things better from the corners of our eyes due to the way our cones and rods detect light. I've have two events where a Shadow Person moved an object at me, but nothing outright violent. I have heard stories, but thats why I felt this thread was needed, so that we can collect these stories and figure out what they can do.

Originally posted by ExpansiveMind

This is an interesting thought, maybe if we can collect enough information we might be able to speculate on this.

Thank you all so far for responding

They just hang around being fictional, doing fictional stuff.

To keep it brief, I will tell you I have seen whatever the hell these things are most of my life, and white ones too.

On all occasion save for maybe 2 I have found that "shadow people" or whatever they are, dont really do much of anything but dart around and freak out the cat and or dog. Occasionally freak out a guest that may have come over.

The only two occasions I was messed with were when I was 16 and when I was 23, and in both those instances it wasn't specifically anything physical more of a (I'm letting you know I'm here for sure) kind of thing. Which I honestly didn't like. The one when I was 16 seemed to follow me around outside the house, and the one at 23 seemed to mess with hings in my apartment, like flushing the toilet constantly, chasing the cat, throwing a plastic bag around the dark kitchen, and I had some really disturbing dreams. ( I dont know if that's related), but I felt messed with in my dreams.

Thats my experience anyway, I'm 33 now.

I was under the impression you could not see them "outside" of your peripheral vision. this is the first time i hear stories of seeing some smack in front of you. Or interacting with anything for that matter.
My experience with them in fact is the "classic" one, figures chasing up to me from the corner of my eye, frankly every time it happens i freak out, it's a true feeling of dread, but i always thought these things are just shadows, moving quickly depending on your position in relation to a light source. Kinda like your own shadow catching up to you while you pass by a lamp.
That or the park i walk through every night has about 4 or them that are just trying really hard to kill me.
Have there ever been stories about them being violent? Not just throwing a knob but actually attacking people?

Maybe they are watchers from another dimension, they watch to see our progress, to show us they exist and we had better know it too. Or maybe they are just dead people, caught here after death, who knows.

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Originally posted by Ryanssuperman
POST REMOVED BY STAFF

What you call ignorant, I call sensible. Shadow people don't exist... I mean, common.... shadow people.

My reply was useless, but so is the thread.

I have seen a white one twice, very strange. They were very thin. The second time it made like it wanted to punch me but I ducked, very strange. It could have been my imagination.

Let me get this right,
The first time you met one of these "shadow people" it hit you in the face with it's knob.
Interesting...

I've had quite a few experiences that I can't seem to find a rational explanation for in the house that I'm living in now. In fact I'm trying to reach 20 replies so I can post my story. However one of these experiences did include what looked like a black mass in the form of a short hunched over person. It was while lying in bed reading a book when I got this instant feeling of dread and coldness coming from my left side. I turned my head and this thing that I just described was leaning in over me in the bed. It very quickly pulled back and just kinda dissolved into nothing. As for what he was doing I have no idea, maybe he wanted to read some. This was btw the first of many things that happened in my house, must be about 6 years ago now.

reply to post by SpearMint


I guess these are one thing you'd have to see to believe it.. I understand your hesitation but some people (myself included) have seen them. Myself being severely scarred. You can call them fictional, but to me after seeing one every night for 4 years you would kind of have to believe in their existence...

Of course I never knew anyone else had witnessed a similar thing until I came to ATS. I thought I was alone.

What I witnessed, however, never moved anything.

I would have some respect for people, even if they witnessed something you deem fiction having never seen it yourself. Perhaps you were never unlucky enough to be haunted by whatever the hell they are...

Of course how many things have you never seen that you actually believe exist?

Does anyone know the history of shadow people? I can't remember when I first started hearing of these beings. It seems that ghosts and poltergeists have been around forever but not shadow people.

I think I had a few Experiences with "shadow people" but not sure. First time was when I was about 8. I woke up in the middle of the night and looked in my doorway and there was a dark figure about 4ft tall just standing in my there looking at me. We looked at each other for like 2min the whole time I was thinking should I hide under the covers or should jump up and run at it. I went under the covers to get up the courage to run at at it. When I throw the covers off it was gone.

that was the last time I seen one. Then 16 years later when I was like 25 I was in Iraq my wife seen something a few times. She said she would wake up to use the bathroom (you can see the bed from our bathroom and we have night lights in the bedroom and bathroom so we don't have to turn on the lights) well while she was in the bathroom she seen a dark figure standing next to my side of the bed and she said it looked like it would stroke or pet my pillow. She said she would grab the pistol I keep in the bathroom and turn the tac-light on that was attached to the pistol and when she did that it was gone. she isn't the type to make stuff up and she doesn't believe in ghost. She said it happend a few times but she didn't feel threatend by it.

I never seen it until about a year after getting back from iraq when me and the wife seperated and getting divorced. When she left that's when I would start seeing the dark figure out the corner of my eye. Then one day I was laying on the couch watching tv, my cat jumped up on me(he is a siamese that the wife and I rescued from the shelter when it was a kitten, he always lays with me and tries talking to me) anyway while I was petting him I noticed the dark figure out the corner of my eye then I said to the cat " I know you miss her, so do I ". Then I said " don't worry we will find someone better" when I said the dark figure was gone, I heard y whoosh noise and my cup full of water on the coffee table got knocked over and splashed all over me.

I have no idea what that was or what happend. But for some reason I kept thinking this thing felt like part of the family. When one of us was gone for a while it wasn't happy and would make its self known since that's the only time one of us seen it. Then when I said I will find someone better I must have pissed it off. Idk, what you y'all think. That was the last time I seen it.

Oh yeaah, I think it said something to me once. Sometimes if I was going to go fishing I would dropp her off at work and pick her up after. Well this one time I was going to get her from work after a fishing trip and it started pouring rain (anyone who lived on the gulf coast knows how bad these pop up storms are) well I was on the phone with my friend while driving. I said I'm gonna be late picking her up cause I can't see the road, my buddie said something like you don't wanna be late she will kill you, you better hurry up. Then something said inside the car " don't do that". I was like wtf was that. It was loud. My buddie on the phone said what are you talking about. I said something just said don't do that inside he car, he said I heard that to over the phone. That was kinda of strange.

Shadow people manifest due to hyper vigilance brought about by dopamine dis-regulation.
a bit of this will vanquish these and other pesky fleeting phantoms.

OK so I can’t edit a post after four hours have past (Why didn’t I think about that). So what I’ll do is post a collection of everyone’s learned experiences so that maybe we can start to understand them better.

*So far others have also pointed out that they have seen these Shadow People move items (plastic bags, a knob, and a cup of water) We have a story where one appeared to want to punch another person (this is important since it indicates that also is aware of us, and that it knows it can harm us) Has anyone seen one move an object that wasn’t within reach of their form?

*Cats and Dogs are able to be affected by them. So has anyone noticed if other pets (fish, snakes, mice…ect…ect) are also affected by them?

*They seem to be different types (or at least they appear in different shades. Black, smoky, white) Does this mean that they have racial traits, or that they can alter their tone? The comment about one looking thin is great. I only seen ones that appear small human sized (4-5 foot ranged) and average build (one was fat looking though).

* At least one story implies that they may have emotional attachments (very interesting)

As for speculations:
*I’ve heard that the reason we can see things better out of the corner of our eyes is due to the way our cones and rods are.

*I personally have never been directly attacked by a Shadow Person (other than the knob throwing incident), but it does seem like they can physically attack us since they can move objects.

*I’m not sure about how long ago they’ve been reported. I remember reading about tiny black figures in ancient India that would cause bad misfortune if encountered.


I like to thank everyone who responded so far.

Originally posted by SpearMint
They just hang around being fictional, doing fictional stuff.
And
What you call ignorant, I call sensible. Shadow people don't exist... I mean, common.... shadow people.

My reply was useless, but so is the thread.

That’s fine that you believe this, but your reply was anything but useless. It brings up a valid point, “What are Shadow People?” are they really a species of people, an intelligent creature, an interdivisional being, or something else? That’s the point behind assembling this thread. If we can group up their behaviors we might be able to figure them out.

Originally posted by rom12345
Shadow people manifest due to hyper vigilance brought about by dopamine dis-regulation.

If this true then it can be tested to see if other can see and record them. That's the issue with Shadow People that makes them different then a personal event groups of people have stated that they've seen then at once, and they have been recorded on film. If it was due to a dopamine issue then wouldn't the person having the issue be the only one seeing them? (interesting point though. This could explain some reports, btu again what about the group sightings and recorded images)

reply to post by rom12345


There could be some truth to that, although recommending someone be put on meds and the phantoms go away, is not true if they are there. I suffered from PTSD, and part of that was hyper-vigilance. However, when I went on the medication, the spirits did not go away. Why? Because it was a real experience,and not just a brain fart caused by chemical imbalances.
These were not shadow people though.

I have seen a shadow person twice since I moved where I am now, with some freaky occurrences around where I saw it, but until I know more personally about what is going on with my building,
I will remain silent for the most part.

reply to post by Baxta54


No, it motioned like that. That's all.

Originally posted by seen2much
reply to post by Baxta54

 

No, it motioned like that. That's all.

I think that was pointed at me. Yes it threw a hot water tank control knob at me.

I have seen, for many years, shadow people all over the place. I have never felt threatened by them. There is one that is very tall and quite "buff" looking that comes into my room many nights. Sometimes when driving at night, I see them on the side of the road, and occasionally I see small ones run across the road in front of my vehicle. Thus I do not like to drive at night....