One paranormal entity that has aways unnerved me is the mysterious "shadow people". I have never seen a human shadow form, but I did however catch a glimpse of an animal shadow form - a cat that was perched upon my desk in my bedroom, that quickly jumped down into thin air when I opened my door to enter. As I have four cats at home, (none of which are allowed in my room) I first supposed that one had managed to sneak in, but upon extensive searching, found no such cat to be hiding anywhere in the room. The ghostly cat was black, and followed the common traits of a shadow form.
Here's a little excerpt from Wikipedia:
Shadow people (also known as shadow figures, shadow beings, shadow men, or shadow folk) are supernatural shadow-like figures of both modern folklore and paranormal popular culturee that believers describe as dark humanoid forms or evasive specters that are seen mostly in peripheral vision.
Hmm, interesting.
You see, shadow people are reportedly the most common of all apparitions seen. They can be men, women, children and animals as I had seen.
Many have actually been reported to be just black masses with red glowing eyes (THAT part scares me). Also it seems that descriptions of seen shadow people have been so consistent in fact that there is actually a belief that the very same shadow entity is responsible for multiple sightings and hauntings, I.E a shadow man with a hat (or "hat man" as he is referred) is described as a very common apparition sighting as well as the "hooded figure". Whether it is the same man with a hat and hooded figure each time is doubtful to me, but many believe it to be so.
So why are they made up of a black mass?
The mass of their form is apparently so dense that flashlights will not even penetrate and unlike many other apparitions seen, they are often not translucent at all.
Popular belief says that the shadow form is due to their spiritual condition. The black shadow represents an absence of light or truth - not necessarily that they are of evil or malevolent intention, but that for some reason or another, the entity is unwilling to go towards the light and move on from this world.
This may be due to continuing attachments to people, objects or places in the physical world, or very often are hiding in fear of moving onto an eternal hell as punishment for something they have committed in their physical life.
Another trait typical in shadow people is fearfulness of being seen. Almost all sightings are reported as a fleeting glimpse as the apparition hastily disappears from sight, or the apparition may be calm and seemingly unaware in the presence of physical people - until the entity realises it can be seen. Shadow people even go so far to remain unseen that another common sighting is of a shadow person peeking around corners while in a manifested state.
Their will to stay in hiding at all costs is somewhat puzzling. Only coming out in darkness, hiding behind objects and perhaps even using a sort of camouflage (the shadow form) is fascinating. What are they hiding from, that even in death in a spiritual form, keeps them running for what could be an eternity?
The picture used is the infamous Moundsville Penitentiary Shadow Man photo, captured by Polly Gear of Mountaineer Ghosts Paranormal Investigators. Read her fascinating account of the shadow man here: http://www.angelsghosts.com/moundsville_penitentiary_shadow_man_ghost_picture.html
