Have you ever been reading or watching TV when suddenly, in the periphery of your vision, you catch glimpse of what appears to be a shadowy figure in the room with you?
Dark, shadowy, humanoid figures like these are commonly known as shadow people,
and they can be extremely scary and unsettling to the people who experience seeing them. But defining exactly what shadow people are, and if they are paranormal, is up for debate.
Shadow people are a bit of an enigma in the paranormal community. They are ghosts or a collection of negative energy, but as is true with most paranormal phenomena, there is no finite answer. Shadow people can appear in different forms and may even indicate that someone is under a psychic attack. Many paranormal experts also theorize that there may be a connection between shadow people and extra-terrestrial life and that these beings could be other-worldly in origin or have a correlation with alleged alien abduction experiences.
While the supernatural origin of these shadow-like beings is debated among paranormal experts, there is one thing that most agree upon, which is that the presence of shadow people is unsettling. These shadowy, human-like entities have a bit of a murky reputation, as most people who report seeing them state that they feel uncomfortable, scared, and in extreme cases, even paralyzed with fear. Most reports on shadow people are overwhelming negative and are accompanied by a feeling of dread.
What about those that are seen during the day, or when people are not asleep? They seem to peek around walls, hide in corners, and are just terrifying in general. And those glowing eyes!! What's that about?!
Skeptics believe that seeing shadow people could simply be sleep paralysis, which is a medical phenomenon that takes place when someone is in between a sleeping and wakeful state. During sleep paralysis, a person feels fully conscious, but they are unable to move or speak and may experience a feeling of intense dread, the sensation of being suffocated, or even hallucinations of shadowy figures.
Other potential explanations include experiencing heightened emotional states, sleep deprivation, or substance use. It’s also important to consider that most shadow person sightings appear in our peripheral vision, which is designed to detect motion and movement, not detail. That said, it would be easier to mistake something in the corner of our eye for something it is not than it would be if we were to see something head-on.
One name for shadow people is Djinn, or Jinn. A Djinn is a certain type of spirit in Islam, like an angel. Muslims believe that a djinn can take the form of an animal or a human. Muslim mythology includes angels and the spirits known as djinns or jinn’s, which are known for having free will, and for being either good or evil, like humans.
Hat Man is another form of shadow person. People claim to have woken in the dark to find a shadowy figure, dubbed the Hat Man, looming over them. For as long as written records have existed, people have described a frightening night-time vision that paralyses them with fear and seems to suck the breath right out of them, often by pressing directly upon their chest. Others claim that these beings may be so-called Men in Black, or aliens using a cloaking device.
Whatever the case is, these beings are downright terrifying. What do you think? Alien, evil spirit, something else? You can be sure I will keep my covers close to me tonight!!!
Steph
