Shadow People

Brian-- I enjoyed this podcast as much as I have all your others. Thank you so much for sharing. Were I to feel I had any particular value proposition to offer you--such as, arranging a speaking tour of Japan or Maui--I would without hesitation.

Please indulge me going off on a tangent. I am intrigued (sp?) by your use of the phrase "supportable perspective." I am really curious what it means to you. Please tell me!

The reason I ask is that I have lately been pondering the meaning of the word "supportive" and its cognates. It seems this word is thrown around alot in American society, as in "I support you" or "I am supportive of your efforts." I have come to wonder, "how does that support translate into concrete action?" I feel it often means a sort of cheerleading or moral support.

So I am curious if by "supportable perspective", you mean something like "defensible point of view", or "perspective which lends itself to searching for substantiating evidence", or.."point of view which I find potentially healthy, and which I encourage the holder to explore in case there is some real value there for everyone." Or is it something else altogether?

Not Brad, Not Tokyo
October 13, 2009 7:28am

I've had sleep paralysis. Saw a shadow person wearing a coat and a hat. Woke up to realize that it's a coat rack. Also saw a ship's steering wheel on the wall before realizing that it was the ceiling fan. I was lying on my side and didn't sense which way is up.

Max, Boston, MA
October 13, 2009 8:22am

Just wanted to point out that astral projection is indeed testable. A person claiming to be able to project themselves astrally, should be able to gain information they could not gain without this ability.

So, for example, an experiementer could write or draw something on a piece of paper in a locked room with no cameras. The individual claiming to be able to use astral projection would be told to send his/her astral form to that room and view the piece of paper.

If the individual was able to accurately and repeatably report on the contents on the paper, this would confirm that astral projection is a real phenomenon (barring cheating or collusion, of course.)

Of course, this experiement has never been performed successfully to date.

Chris, Toronto
October 13, 2009 12:52pm

Well, some forum or other mentions a hospital that has a sign posted where an out of body spirit in the operating room would surely see it.

They ask all the people who claim out of body experiences during surgery and none of them mention this sign.

Anyone have a better reference for my poorly remembered anecdote?

tudza, Seattle
October 13, 2009 3:05pm

tudza,

Maybe some hospitals have done it, but the big study was supposed to start in 2008 and continue for three years.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7621608.stm

Max, Boston, MA
October 13, 2009 7:39pm

Funny you should put out this episode today Brian. Have you heard of a new "scientific ghost-hunter" show on Discovery Channel called Ghostlab? Tonight's episode is focused on the wild-wild west and "shadow people"! Are you psychic Mr. Dunning? ;)

Renee, Washington, D.C.
October 13, 2009 7:43pm

Can anyone tell me why in the middle of the anecdotal stories about the shadow people there was the sound of someone yelling/growling?

Jeffery2010, St. Louis
October 14, 2009 9:13am

Instead of "They usually come at night" you should have said "They mostly come at night... mostly."

MScott, Ithaca, NY
October 14, 2009 9:32am

Vivid hallucinations often occur with macular degeneration. I mentioned this to my Dad, in his 90's at the time, asking if he had ever experienced this since he had an advanced case. He swore up and down he had not as do many of the elderly, fearing that folks will think them crazy. However, when he was dying he mentioned the invasion of Chinese bandits in his suburban Atlanta home (he had been in China during the war), a money foun-tain in the front yard that my sister and I needed to investigate and he teared up recalling a speech my sister had given in Spanish from her Lipizzaner stallion. My neighbor, who is also in her 90's and has the condition, has said a few things which make me suspect she has seen things as well but she will not admit it even when I explain it is natural and not crazy.

I glimpsed a shadow person wearing a fedora about 20 years ago, even made a drawing of it as it was somewhat unsettling at the time. I had forgotten about it until I read this.

I used to have rapid image shows of hypnogogic imagery before I fell asleep but that, as well as the vividness and plots of my dreams, has diminished considerably now that I am on the far side of menopause.

Did not know the term hypnopompia. Thanks for an interesting read!

Patty, Philadelphia
October 14, 2009 3:15pm

Tudza, I believe that sign in the hospital operating room said, "If you can read this, you are either astral projecting or dead; please return to your body."

Not Brad, Not Tokyo
October 14, 2009 10:16pm

HAH. I have just made a decision. I am going to be like Brian Dunning. I am going to become an authority on something i know nothing about. let's see, I do not know how to perform open heart surgery, so I am going to start writing articles on a website with my thoughts on the subject and how i think it's not done right. this guy probably works at McDonald's when he's not typing on his site. I bet his kids are totally jacked up. he's probably brain washed them. I see another Fred Phelps rising up.

Mr. Nook, East Coast USA
October 15, 2009 9:47am

Nook,
Are you claiming Mr. Dunning misrepresented hypnogogia or the Shadow People?

Morgan, Tracy, CA
October 15, 2009 12:55pm

Brian,

Great episode as usual. However, be careful with the sound effects. That spooky scream you played at 1:56 startled me when I first listened to it while driving and I nearly lost control of car!

Mark A. Siefert, Muskego, WI
October 15, 2009 2:41pm

Ugh...
You know, I used to love this podcast, but the last months, Brian's been getting into new Woo that I hadn't heard before. As a result, my faith in humanities bright and glorious future (and flying cars) is at an all time low. I can't grasp what has to be wrong with someone's brain to actually believe bullshit like this.

Thanks Brian, for once again exposing me to another facet of human ignorance. If I ever get depressed, I'm blaming you for shattering my blissful ignorance.

*the above should be read with a comically heavy tone of irony.

Alcari, the Netherlands
October 16, 2009 3:19pm

I find this to be very informational. Thanks for expanding my understanding once again.

When I was a kid, I thought I saw a shadow man on my door all the time when attempting to sleep. I remember there was a night light in the hallway. This podcast reminded me of this memory. Now I can look at it from a different perspective with an expanded vocabulary.

Andrew, Minneapolis, Minnesota
October 18, 2009 2:19am

When I was I child (can't remeber exactly what age) I woke up during the night, and I the hallway was lit in a dim blue light. A strange dark figure stood there that scared me wittless. Nobody believed me, of course, and I remained quite puzzled for some time.

I tried to explain what happened then, and as I grew older the quite disturbing word "schizophrenia" popped into my head every so often when I was thinking of the incident.

So thanks for the explanations, it's good to know I'm not crazy

Alex, Cluj Napoca
October 18, 2009 1:05pm

Thanks for this...about ten years ago I had something of a debate with a person who passionately believed in "Shadow People" and it's kinda sad that it's still hanging on. She claimed there were "uniforms" seen but I asked how they could be made out when they're just shadows...well, she didn't like that. She also claimed there were references to shadow people in ancient mythologies, and that they dated back to Egypt, but couldn't give me any clear references.

She suggested I do a Google search for info on these things...and what I found, even from woo-woo ghost-hunter sites, was disbelieving and dismissive. She also claimed that "every library" had multiple books about shadow people but in the DC area there are none to be found. Eventually she admitted it was her own "personal research" which sounded more like "paranoid fantasies" to me. Alas, this seems to have lingered, thanks to other paranoids who watch too many horror films and play too much D&D and read too much woo-woo crap and get lost in a fantasy world.

Mike, Washington, DC
October 19, 2009 12:37pm

Last week I had the lamest hypnogogic hallucination ever- a crummy orange rectangle floating over my face.
Either that or I encountered the elusive Shadow Kraft Single.

namowal, Los Angeles
October 20, 2009 9:11am

Actually, now that I think of it, a few times I've seen shadowy figures that vanish when I look directly at them. But it's always out of my right eye, and I have glaucoma in my right eye (thanks to a steroid nasal spray I had been on for several years), with a loss of peripheral vision and a blind spot. I assume it's the glaucoma, and I wonder how many other "shadow people" sightings are because of glaucoma or other eye problems.

Mike, Washington, DC
October 21, 2009 11:15am

When I was 4 I remember being rolled off my bed. I kept getting back up and even crawled into my brothers bed. I then saw a shadow on my wall staring at me. It had no eyes they were blank. Its head was round body was slim. Then when I was around 7-8 I was sleeping and awoke jumping up as if waking from a bad dream, I saw a shadow that went from hovering above me fly straight into my open closet and dissapear. I recently asked my mother about this and she explained that it was me and my 3 brothers who all have the same story with on exception, my brothers saw the shadows with red eyes. My mother explained to me that this began with my great grandfather. Although she told me his expierence led to a heart attack. and that something unknown was hovering above the house when my grandma and her sister and mother arrived at the house. to find my great grandfather.

Sean, Austin, Texas
October 26, 2009 8:35am

More about some of the nonsense I've put up in my waking dreams here:
http://tiny.cc/qU8E8

As annoying as they are, I'm glad I was born in the 20th century, where at least there's a natural explanation. It'd be awful to think those things were real entities.

namowal, Los Angeles
October 26, 2009 6:01pm

"Faith in the supernatural offers you nothing better than an implausible and ignorant supposition that stifles further understanding, while the willingness to accept science gives you a whole universe without limits." Really? Faith in the supernatural does lend itself to a lot of ignorance but also faith in the supernatural has led people to explore the world, physically and intellectually leading to the foundations of modern science (faith holding fear of the unknown at bay enough to make intellectual advances). Gold into lead? Alchemy which led to chemistry as well as physics. Faith that mathematics would lead to a better understanding of god led to the discovery that we revolve around the sun and not vice versa.
It's not an acceptable hypothesis to say it's astral projection? Or otherdimensional beings? You raise valid questions the should be answered at least tentatively. Why not perform an eye study on people to see if it's a flaw in the eye itself when they see them? Or perform MRIs on them while it happens? Then you would have proof to say that it isn't supernatural. You demand an explanation and when it fails to meet your exacting standards you cry foul and foolishness, yet fail to provide your own proof that you are right. Next time you call upon the religion of science, remember it has rules and limits. (Btw 100% proof is only necessary in logical proofs, not real world situations.)

Anonymous, Earth
October 26, 2009 9:12pm

While you do raise a valid point, Anonymous, you seem to be confused about the word faith in particular. The wikipedia definition, Faith "is the confident belief or trust in the truth or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing", which I thing everyone would agree upon. IF you had absolute faith on a particular subject, you would NOT be active in the pursuit to test it. Hence, your examples are pretty weak, as these people, while in pursuit of something that might not be doable in today's prespective, we're still performing "Science", which I might add, is not a religion, but an action, a verb.

When you wonder about something and think actively to discover it, it's science. When you settle on an explanation that does not seem to fit in the natural world, and believe it fully without any active pursuit to test it. That's faith. Which is not bad, by the way. I'm pretty sure you have faith that your family loves you. Makes no sense to test that. Unless you really wanted to. That's a very personal belief.

Finally, science does have limits. But it's the limits that confine your own very reality. And what else is there, aside from your (our?) reality?

David, Durham, North Carolina
October 27, 2009 8:56am

I remember an episode of "Coast to Coast AM" where a man was talking about subterranian lizard people, and a caller said he thought that maybe the lizard people were related to extradimensional Shadow Men.

The Lizard Person enthusiast tried to distance himself from that idea, as it was too crazy even for him.

Morgan, Tracy, CA
October 27, 2009 9:07am

I wasn't trying to say they were testing their faith, simply that their faith led them down paths of knowledge they thought would reinforce their particular faith or belief and ended up creating new branches of knowledge. People have faith in science, I do and I'm pretty sure you do too. It's when that faith in something begins to overrun being open to ideas that seem contrary to your faith that problems arise. That's what I meant by "the religion of science". It's not scientific thought, it's faith in science and rational explanations while discounting anything that seems irrational as unscientific and therefore untrue. Which brings me back to my original point that faith in the supernatural leads us to explore our world. And we have a tendency to do it, currently, in a rational process. Which by your definition is science.
I used the two examples because with alchemy we know to have had outrageous claims yet led to modern chemistry, such as what may be happening in our so called modern times with the supernatural. While astronomy (not mathematics, sorry) showed earth wasn't the focal point of the universe.

Anonymous, Earth
October 28, 2009 11:24am

Hypnogogia can likely debunk all shadow people and alien visitation tales. I experienced this many times growing up, less frequently now. The experience is initially non-threatening and disconnected. You slowly become concious of your inability to move. You begin to panic. You then experience something scary dredged from your unconcious mind. A figure that is hard to focus on, a gigantic spider descending upon you from the ceiling while you lay paralyzed (poison? webbing?), an alien whose vast intelligence and resources helps your somewhat conscious mind logically explain your inability to move, etc. I think if you ask these people what their first conscious sensation was, it would be paralysis, followed by the introduction of these "apparitions" at the peak of their panic and confusion.

Blah, Atlanta
November 04, 2009 1:29am

Be brave enough to stay awake for 5 days without any sleep, and you may be surprised at what manifests, and how real they are when you see them interact with living humans and how those humans respond to what they do. In some subcultures shadow people are known as fact by using certain methods to bring them into vision. Trust me I am a very rational person and they are as real as you are.

Chris, Morgantown,WV
November 05, 2009 4:32pm

I HAVE HAD AN EXPERIENCE WHEN I WAS ABOUT 7 YEARS OLD. I WOKE UP ONE NIGHT AND SAW A SHADOW AT THE FOOT OF MY BED. I DON'T THINK IT WAS THERE TO HARM ME BUT IT GAVE ME A REALLY STRANGE FEELING LIKE IT WAS UP TO NO GOOD.IT FADED AWAY INTO A CLOUD AND WENT OUT THE WINDOW WHICH WAS LEFT SLIGHTLY OPENED.I ASKED SOME OF OUR LOCAL ELDERS AND ALL OF THEM SAID TO BE CAREFUL OF THE UNKNOWN AND ALSO MENTIONED WICTHCRAFT.LETS JUST SAY I LISTENED TO MY ELDERS AND HAVE NOT HAD ANYMORE SHADOW PEOPLE AT THE FOOT OF MY BED.

BELIEVES, SAN JUAN
November 08, 2009 7:21pm

You don't think that maaaaybe staying awake for 5 days will have negative effects on your perception and cognition?

A study (link: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-long-can-humans-stay ) states that while it's possible to stay awake for 11 days, a progressive series of degradations on perception and higher mental ability will result after 4-5 days awake.

So... if you are "brave" enough to stay awake for five days and then see mysterious floating apparitions that cause you to believe that whatever the voices you (and you alone) can hear are a great idea, please, don't pick up any sort of weapon. Grab a pillow and get some sleep, chum, you're hallucinating.

While some subcultures may realize this sort of result from ritual, it doesn't mean that anything spiritual is happening. The truth is that the ritual results in hallucinations, the INTERPRETATION of those hallucinations is where the potential for the lie of "spirits" comes in.

I'm not denying them their faith and belief in mysterious shadow people, just saying that the explanation is simple in your example--hallucination brought about by severe sleep deprivation in collaboration with an enhanced response to persuasive stimulii.

What you said isn't wrong, it's just not completely correct.

Chris, Seattle
November 09, 2009 12:22am

Have to agree with Chris from Seattle. I used to experiment with substances when I was younger and after about 3 days of being awake you start to hear and see things :)

But on the flip-side of that, just because no one else sees it doesn't invalidate the fact that YOU saw something :) Guess we each have our own skewed view of "reality" as our minds will fill things in when no outside stimulus is available or can't be processed for one reason or another.

If anyone has tried one of those flotation tanks you will know what I am talking about. The experience can be a bit unsettling but it is amazing some of the stuff the mind will create for you.

Joshua, Conyers, Ga.
November 11, 2009 9:24am

I can't believe there was enough to this subject to even warrant a podcast.

Someone sees something out of the corner of their eye, or in near dark, and the logical leap is a race of SHADOW PEOPLE?

This, more than any of Mr. Dunning's podcasts, left me stunned and thinking WTF.

Even the bloop, which to me seems like much ado about nothing, at least presents something to examine. This is just... It's...
Words fail me...

SHADOW PEOPLE? REALLY? SERIOUSLY?

Lewayne, Near Des Moines
November 12, 2009 5:16pm

I understand this a website/podcast for skeptics of the paranormal, but I feel obliged to throw in my 2 cents. To dismiss any and all experiences of shadow person encounters by hundreds of thousands of people all over the world as foolish, drug-induced, or simply sleep paralysis, seems to be bounding above and beyond skepticism and landing in the realm of ignorance. How can you explain the experiences that occur during broad daylight, to skeptics just as yourselves? My mother is very religious, and doesn't believe in any of this "paranormal mumbo-jumbo". I however, for the past 6 months have had 3 entities residing in my apartment, felt and seen by both myself and my fiance. After not getting any rest from disturbing encounters (being bothered by these beings during the night and the day), my mom finally came over. It didn't take 20 minutes for her to feel the presence and break down in tears by the heaviness and darkness she felt at my place. The beings are shadow people, and they are very real. Basically, I just want to hear you guys debunk these experiences that so many people are having, throughout history, in several different cultures, and in todays modern home, without calling it sleep paralysis (which i have, NOT the same thing), stupid, or imagined. If I hear an actual LOGICAL response, I would love to come back and have an intelligent debate. I look forward to some insightful replies, thank you.

Cody, Austin, TX
December 09, 2009 3:44am

We're a very pragmatic family, given to finding explanations no matter how long it takes, when presented with something not quite usual. And we had black shapes down in the television room some years ago. Not only that, but the electricals in the niche just nearby were badly affected from time to time and I was always replacing light bubls there. We kept this strange corner-of-the-eye business quiet, not wanting to scare our two sons. But one of them came flying up the stairs in a panic, saying that teo black shapes had confronted him as he played with toys downstairs, and later on, came hurtling from the toilet, poor little boy, because "they" were in there with him! We never had any sort of strangeness before. This was associated with all sorts of other strange things in our house, and ended in the early hours one morning with four very loud and urgent knocks. And then it was over. No more tall thin black shapes trying to sidle past, the electricals behaved perfectly. These episodes were not imaginings by any stretch. They were real, and we held back on tring to explain them by paranormal ways, simply because we had no idea of what it was about.
Are they time travellers, popping in along the power lines for a look at the typical 21st-century family> And then with a few sharp knocks, that brought us all to the landing, are they gone to another family? Very interesting stuff indeed.

Chris, Montreal Canada
December 12, 2009 1:53pm

Cody - I would love to come and check that out, but since you're several states away, it's probably not going to happen.

You challenge me to "debunk" it based on your email. First of all, your email does not constitute testable evidence that can be meaningfully studied. Second, "debunking" is quite an insulting term. It presumes that I've already concluded your claim is "bunk". I cannot possibly reach any such conclusion based on your email alone.

If you're serious, shoot and send me some videos. If they're compelling enough it wouldn't surprise me if we could put together a budget to send some folks to study what's going on.

Brian Dunning, Laguna Niguel, CA
December 18, 2009 7:42am

Hey Cody,

If you are serious about wanting a skeptical on site investigation, I'm sure one could be arranged.

Mike

Mike Weaver, Athens, Ga
December 18, 2009 11:28am

"Are they time travellers, popping in along the power lines for a look at the typical 21st-century family>"

Mysterious black shapes = time travelers?

Isn't this a seriously huge logical leap?

Lewayne, Near Des Moines
December 18, 2009 12:52pm

For Lewayne, Near Des Moines:

Ah, such a tantalising response, and one that would be interesting to expand upon, not actually having myself a clear-cut definition of what a "time traveller" actually is. My statement was simply "tongue-in-cheek", for, as with the experience with the shadow forms, one is merely lost in the dark in attempting any tangible explanation. Please do elaborate further. It will be fascinating to finally understand what a "time traveller" actually is. Spare no details.

Chris, Montreal, Canada
December 27, 2009 1:38pm

I think Lewayne is just questioning how YOU got from mysterious black shapes and dodgy electrics to anything like the "time traveller" YOU mentioned. You brought it up, why don't you clarify what you meant?

C. MacLeod, Lots of different places
December 27, 2009 7:10pm

Oh I experienced this... never knew they were called shadow people. I've experienced this since I was a child. When it happens, I cannot move my body. The only thing I can do is open my eyes and wiggle my toes (If I try hard enough, but it takes all of my energy. I can also scream if I try really hard). My parents would always ask me why I was yelling for them in the other room.

From my experience, yes they are mostly black shadows. Not always human form. Sometimes they look like globs or a bird or free forming. Sometimes transparent but mostly they are like black shadows.

Also they are accompanied by some type of white noise. I always hear it when I see them. It got frequent to the point where I did not want to open my eyes. So I could just feel them and hear them. Sometimes it sounded like bees or flies swarming around my face. Sometimes I could feel a strange suction like sensation around my body. It's weird I know and nobody really understands unless they experience it for themselves. I don't bother talking about to anyone. They will probably think I'm weird lol.

But sometimes they do speak in another language... not human that's for sure and when they do come around you feel like you are in another dimension. For example when I slept next to my bf and they came around- he felt so far away even though he was right there next to me. Difficult to explain.

lyn, la
January 20, 2010 3:28pm

"I've experienced this since I was a child. When it happens, I cannot move my body. The only thing I can do is open my eyes and wiggle my toes (If I try hard enough, but it takes all of my energy. I can also scream if I try really hard)."

Sounds like sleep paralysis. Which might also explain the sense of your BF being "far away".

"From my experience, yes they are mostly black shadows. Not always human form. Sometimes they look like globs or a bird or free forming. Sometimes transparent but mostly they are like black shadows."

Which makes them sound suspiciously like, well...
shadows. Not shadow creatures, just shadows.

Lewayne, Near Des Moines
January 21, 2010 7:00pm

i see this shadow.it is EVERYWHERE i go.i walk out my door.its outside.everysingle place i go it is there. i can stare at it sometimes if i dont blink. it used to scare the living hell outta me but not so much anymore.but now i think its in my dreams.like tapping into them. trying ot tell me somehting.i need serious help. somebody please help me..email me at jessica_joann33@yahoo.com PLEASE i dont know what to do anymore

Jessica, madison,wi
February 07, 2010 6:02pm

I've experienced 'sightings' since I was a child and I'm now 29. I've never really looked in to it before until today. I always get the sightings at night in low light. Usually I'll wake up (often with my heart pounding) and sense someone/something in the room. When I look in to the room I see shadow people. Often they freeze and slowly morph into something. Sometimes I actually see a human like figure (dark shadow) moving around and they/it appears to only stop once it realises I've seen it. Needless to say it can be pretty terrifying at times. I've only really ever told my wife and close family friends about it through fear of being seen as a mentalist! I'm genuinely a totally normal bloke who can relate to hundreds of other people out there who get similar things happening to them. For what it is worth I have a history of sleep walking/talking too. Like most other people who see the shadow people I'm undecided on what I think it is. One last really weird experience - my wife and I once both woke and saw a shadow like figure (different to the ones I normally see - more blob/swarm like than a human shape) in the room. It looked like a swarm of thousands of tiny flies. It was only visible for a few seconds and then it vanished. My wife has no history of 'sightings' and yet we both saw exactly the same thing.

Martin, United Kingdom
February 09, 2010 2:29pm

Your listener feedback episodes are my favorite. Keep 'em coming -- if you can stand it!

Maria, Wickenburg, AZ
March 16, 2010 4:30pm

Thanks for that SHRIEK during the shadow-people stories, you rascal. I'm still pulling my fingernails out of the ceiling.

primeordinal, state of shock
April 27, 2010 8:58pm

This is a true story!

I see shadowpeople, honestly, and disturbingly often. It began when I was 19.

I used to have two jobs working night and day. they were stressful jobs and and due to my schedule I only had five hours between shifts that I could sleep. Despite how tired I was I quickly developed insomnia. At first I just dealt with it, but soon my new mental state allowed me to see something most will never experience. The first time I noticed it was just of of the corner of my eye. A man in a dark robe off to the right. But when I looked there was nothing there. As the days wore on They came more frequently. And more clearly. They always resisted attempts to look directly at them, but soon they were almost always with me. They even began to whisper my name.
I first began this experience in mid November, by around Christmas they were constantly with me and constantly whispering snatches of messages I could not quite make out. I was visiting my mom's house for the holidays. Once, she called to me but I did not respond. By now I was uses to "Them" and simply ignored her, when she came and asked what was wrong I told her the story. She asked If I was "seeing them now?", I actually laughed out loud to hear her ask that while surrounded by them!

I am not an idiot. I know the truth.

The truth of the shadowpeople is that I had not slept for a goddamn month! Its no fu@king wonder I was hallucinating!

I'm now 35, I still get insomnia,
but at least I'm not stupid.

Colin, Okazaki, Japan
May 19, 2010 8:48pm

I appreciate the fact that you are helping to dispel many of the shadow people sightings. However, I believe your superficial explanations do not cover all bases. Your argument is basically your mind is playing tricks on you. It very well could. I usually don't believe anything about what these people write in their stories to be honest. But I have seen a shadow person. In fact, until relatively recently I didn't even know that other people had similar situations. I saw it in my living room when I was going up the stairs. I saw someone in the dark (silhouette of an adult male)I figured it was just my brother. I said hey, and he turned and looked at me. Then I slowly came to the realization that it wasn't my brother. My brother was much shorter... I quickly ran up the stairs in fear. All my family members were upstairs and I told them about it. We all came down and looked around but no one was there. This was approximately 5 years ago. I forgot about the experience until recently I was watching some stupid ghost hunting show on tv thinking what a crock it was. Then I remembered my experience and began googling what I saw and to my surprise I found a lot of people describing a similar experience. I wanted to verify that I hadn't been dreaming so I asked my brother if he remembered me running up the stairs that day and explaining to him what I saw; he told me he remembered that night.

Skeptoid, USA
July 24, 2010 4:58pm