For thousands of years the world has experienced shadow people, the hat man, and many other entities that appear during the dead of night. Yet we’re no closer to understanding why they appear or what they want. There are plenty of theories about their origins, but none that can be proven. The strangest part of the story is that most of the time these entities just watch people while they sleep; it’s creepy and terrifying nonetheless.
Fear of the Dark
Human beings have an unnatural fear of the dark. Our minds play trick on us. Normal sounds are amplified, objects appear blurry and distorted, and we conjure up the most dreadful images. Tree branches scratch across window panes and the winds whip up leaves and debris. Nocturnal creatures emerge from their caves and burrows to roam the darkened landscape. Everything seems to be moving in an unholy dance that causes the hair on our necks stand up and our skin to go cold and clammy. There are shrieks and sometimes howls and sometimes noises with no explanation. The fear is real. But in most cases, even if we are scared, being in the confines of our bedroom seems to bring a feeling of comfort and safety to most people.
But what if that safe space was no longer safe? What if it was infiltrated by the shadow people? Imagine waking in the middle of the night and seeing something dark and ominous lurking in a shadowy corner or doorway. Imagine a dark figure just watching you and when that shadowy form realizes you are watching back, just vanishes before your eyes. You’re momentarily petrified; unable to move or even call out for help. Your mind desperately tries to process what just happened and you feel yourself teetering on the edge. You’ve just had an encounter with a unknown entity known collectively as the shadow people.
What We Know About Shadow People
Shadow people come in many forms and have been reported by people across the world for many years. Most often they are seen in bedrooms, but some personal stories report that shadow people have followed or stalked them. As previously mentioned, most shadow people are only observing; no one knows why they watch or what they are looking for. They have many characteristics of a ghost, being able to move through physical objects at will, and disappear whenever they choose to. Descriptions given show striking similarities, regardless of where the sightings are reported. Most are quite large, towering from six to over eight feet tall. Most also appear in the shape of a human man, but this isn’t exclusive. Some appear sexless, having no hair or other identifying features. Still others have been described as a dark, almost cloudlike mass. What makes them different from regular shadows is that they have depth, rather than just a flat image appearing on a wall and are very dark, even darker than the night.
The larger share of the reports describe the beings as masculine, wearing a full length cloak, overcoat, or other type of long full-body covering. Often times this male entity is wearing a fedora-type hat and most do not have discernable eyes, ears, or other physical features aside from a human shape. Of all the reported sightings, there is one more terrifying than all the rest. He’s now known as the Hat Man and it’s said this shadow person has the demeanor of a demon spawned in the depths of hell and if that alone isn’t terrifying enough, the Hat Man also has glowing red eyes.
Examining the Theories
Even though the shadow people appear humanoid in shape, they are not human. The bodies, or figures, mimic human behavior to a degree leading some theorists to believe they are remnants of human souls destined to walk the earth forever. Despite having no physical contact with people, they’ve been described as oppressive and malevolent. Could it be that the shadow people are some sort of energy source left behind from evil humans throughout time? This energy source might still retain the will to inflict harm upon living humans, but is unable to make contact in any other form aside from a visual. The lack of facial features in most sightings makes it difficult to try any analysis on the motivation of the entity.
Another strongly supported theory is that shadow people are actually aliens; specifically part of a species called ‘the greys‘. These extraterrestrial beings have been documented in hundreds of personal sighting reports across the world. Some of the supporters of this theory go further to say that they creatures use a hat and long coat depiction as a disguise to conceal their true identity. There are millions of people who believe that aliens are always present on earth and those aliens spend countless hours studying humankind. This supports the greater percentage of the reports that the shadow people are just observing sleeping people and not interacting with them.
Another theory is that they are really inter-dimensional beings capable of shape-shifting at will, moving through solid objects, and vibrating on a different frequency than humans. These interdimensional beings may be from a time period earlier or later than our current time stream, thus the different appearances. Another theory that is closely related to this one is that the hat man and shadow people are time travelers, but with a twist. Since we have no real benchmarks on how time travel works, this theory seems to imply that those who have figured out how to do it can only observe another time stream and not influence it, other than to scare someone with their presence.
There are also many people that believe the hat man is a demon or demonic entity that exist only to torture unsuspecting people, feeding on their fear. Still others try to write the entire thing off as figments of our imagination due to exhaustion, lack of sleep, stress, or other personal issues.
Why and When do Shadow People Appear?
Most non-believers want to write off the entire notion of shadow people in the same fashion they write off ghosts, aliens, supernatural beings. And despite their non-belief, the sightings continue and the plot thickens. The non-believers say shadow people are figments of our imagination caused by movies, tall tales or other explainable things. Those who are open minded see the hat man and shadow people as observers, but hungry ones.
It is believed that shadow people appear to humans during periods of high stress. They think the entity feeds off of the negative energy that accompanies that stress. The negative energy generated by fear must be an added delicacy. Imagine the burst of pure terror that your body would emit at waking to the sight of a dark shadow on the wall. A shadow that has been silently staring at your sleeping body. A darkness that is focused on nothing and no one else but you. Then imagine it suddenly disappears without a sound. All the while, you lay frozen in fear with your eyes frozen and fixed, your heart pounding and brain trying to find any rational reason as to why. Yes, I think that kind of fear would be in high demand by a supernatural creature of this type.
Conclusion
Our world is filled with unexplained things, creatures that go bump in the night, and things that feed on energy. Shadow people are the latter. They seem highly intelligent as they just feed and leave; no haunting and no mischief. Whether you believe or not isn’t important. The shadow people don’t need your permission to cause terror in the night
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One of the 1st memory as a child. I was maybe 2 years old is the presence of a large individual in the shape of a black shadow.The only way I could describe was a Gorilla, maybe that escaped (different reasoning came later to life).. But just remembered the thought of being frightened & thought someone climbed up our 1st storey flat, maybe? (More reasoning :))… To this day..It has always made me wonder.