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'''Shadow people''' (also known as '''shadow men''', '''shadow folk''', or '''shadow beings''') are [[supernatural]] shadow-like creatures of both modern [[folklore]] and [[paranormal]] [[popular culture]] that believers claim appear as dark forms seen mostly in [[peripheral vision]]. Unlike a [[black mass (paranormal entity)|black mass]], these creatures assume a humanoid form.<ref name=coasttocoast1>Guiley, Rosemary Ellen (2006-10-30) "Magic, Hauntings & Shadow People", Coast to Coast AM (Broadcast)</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Jenkins |first=Greg |authorlink= |title=Florida's Ghostly Legends and Haunted Folklore, Volume 3: The Gulf Coast and Pensacola |publisher=Pineapple Press, Inc. |date=2007 |pages=215 |isbn=1561643998}}</ref> Anecdotal reports of shadow people occupy a similar role in popular culture to [[ghost]] sightings.
'''Shadow people''' (also known as '''shadow men''', '''shadow folk''', or '''shadow beings''') are [[supernatural]] shadow-like creatures of both modern [[folklore]] and [[paranormal]] [[popular culture]] that believers claim appear as dark forms seen mostly in [[peripheral vision]]. Unlike a [[black mass (paranormal entity)|black mass]], shadow people assume a humanoid form.<ref name=coasttocoast1>Guiley, Rosemary Ellen (2006-10-30) "Magic, Hauntings & Shadow People", Coast to Coast AM (Broadcast)</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Jenkins |first=Greg |authorlink= |title=Florida's Ghostly Legends and Haunted Folklore, Volume 3: The Gulf Coast and Pensacola |publisher=Pineapple Press, Inc. |date=2007 |pages=215 |isbn=1561643998}}</ref> Anecdotal reports of shadow people occupy a similar role in popular culture to [[ghost]] sightings.


==Paranormal popular culture==
==Paranormal popular culture==

Revision as of 20:36, 30 August 2009

For other things named Shadowman, see Shadowman (disambiguation).
Shadow person

Shadow people (also known as shadow men, shadow folk, or shadow beings) are supernatural shadow-like creatures of both modern folklore and paranormal popular culture that believers claim appear as dark forms seen mostly in peripheral vision. Unlike a black mass, shadow people assume a humanoid form.[1][2] Anecdotal reports of shadow people occupy a similar role in popular culture to ghost sightings.

Authors such as Rosemary Ellen Guiley and Heidi Hollis have helped popularize the concept through books, articles and appearances on radio talk shows devoted to paranormal subjects such as Coast to Coast AM where listeners are invited to call in to relate stories and "sightings". Shadow people are typically described as black humanoid silhouettes with no discernible mouths, noses, or facial expressions, child-sized humanoids, or shapeless masses that sometimes change to human like form and featuring eyes that are either glowing or not discernable.[3] Movement is said to be quick and disjointed, and some stories describe the visible outline of a cloak, or a 1930s style fedora hat.[1][4][5][6]

Various authors and paranormal-themed web sites have drawn beliefs and speculation regarding shadow people from religion, parapsychology, metaphysics, cryptozoology, demonology, and the occult, proposing that shadow people represent a Thoughtform (egregore), ghost or demon that was created by events in which extreme physical/emotional stress/trauma has taken place, have been purposefully summoned through black magic or other occult practices,[4] or are creatures who exist on a separate plane of existence that occasionally overlaps with ours.[1][7][8] Others believe shadow people are two-dimensional beings, are related to Grey aliens, or to the Reptilian humanoids found in conspiracy beliefs such as those promoted by David Icke.[4][7]

Scientific explanations

Several principles based in science can be used to explain reports of shadow people, including optical illusions or hallucinations brought on by physiological/psychological circumstances, drug use, and the interaction of external agents on the human body.

Images seen in peripheral areas of vision can be caused by pareidolia, a condition in which the brain incorrectly interprets random patterns of light/shadow or texture as being familiar patterns such as faces and human forms.[9] The same condition can also be observed in macular vision in low light conditions, or when viewing a complex but random image. A common example would be perceiving a shadow, thrown by an item of furniture in a darkened room, as being a person.

Hypnagogia, also known as "waking-sleep", a physiological condition in which a person is part-way between sleeping and waking, can also account for such perceptions.[10] During hypnagogia, a person can be conscious and aware of their environment, but also in a dream-like state where they can perceive images from their subconscious. People experiencing waking-sleep commonly report the sensation of lights or shadows moving around them, as well as other visual hallucinations. A feeling of dread is also a sensation that occurs when experiencing hypnagogia. Hypnagogia is sometimes known as 'the faces in the dark phenomenon' because those who experience this state commonly report seeing faces while experiencing waking-sleep.[11] Similar hypotheses have been put forward linking this condition to a number of other apparent paranormal experiences, including alien abductions, paranormal nocturnal visitations, and religious experiences such as contact with angels or demons.

The use of various psychoactives, including methamphetamine, cocaine, MDMA (Ecstasy) and LSD can produce human shaped hallucinations. Dopaminergic drugs such as pramipexole, as well as pergolide, which is also an ergot derivative as is LSD and ergotamine, can sometimes cause these hallucinations.[12] The use of various Deliriants including Datura as well as first-generation antihistamines such as Diphenhydramine (when used in very high doses) can often evoke dark, vivid, entity-like hallucinations which may resemble reports of shadow people. Less commonly, opioids can cause hallucinations -- although much more frequently auditory rather than open-eye visual -- due to action on the kappa and delta opioid receptor subtypes, with the benzomorphan class (pentazocine, phenazocine, cyclazocine and others) being the most likely to create hallucinations, with some morphinan opioids (levorphanol, dextromethorphan and others) also possibly causing them. The latter group of opioids also overlaps with a fifth drug group, dissociatives like ketamine and PCP because of these drugs' actions upon sigma (formerly known as sigma opioid) receptors and the NMDA system as well as potentially inhibiting serotonin and/or norepinephrine reuptake. Pethidine is an opioid with anticholinergic effects similar to scopolamine. The withdrawal syndrome of some depressants such as alcohol and meprobamate also are implicated in a phenomenon known colloquially and by some experts as The Fear and for producing hallucinations of all five senses. Another method by which drugs can cause hallucinations, especially those seen out of the corner of the eye, is sleep deprivation and/or an accumulated deficit of REM sleep.

Elevated body temperature for whatever reason can also produce hallucinations.

Electromagnetic fields have been demonstrated to interfere with the functions of the temporal lobe, creating altered states of perception in which auditory and visual hallucinations can occur.[13] Researchers have used electromagnetic fields to recreate many experiences similar to those reported during paranormal encounters.[14][15] Researchers have also documented correlations between variances in naturally-occurring magnetic fields and areas where paranormal events have been reported.[16]

In addition, certain neurological conditions, such as photosensitive complex partial seizures and Dementia with Lewy bodies, have also been known to cause individuals to experience visual hallucinations.[17]

  • Keith Parker's Shadow People, an independent suspense/horror feature from Tornspace Films features shadow people as the villain.[18]
  • "The Shadow People" was the title of a 1953 episode of Hall of Fantasy, an American horror old time radio program that dealt with beings very similar to modern shadow people.[19]
  • Wes Craven's They explores the concept of shadow people; first as a psychological phenomenon, then as a paranormal event.
  • Charles Bryan's Shadow Beings explores the concept of shadow beings as a phenomenon of beings trapped in-between the parallel worlds that make up our multiverse. They cannot exist in our world physically, thus they appear as shadows.
  • In the novel Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz, the protagonist of the same name sees malevolent, insubstantial shadowy entities that feed on the suffering of the dead and dying.
  • In the 2001 Japanese film Kairo, and the subsequent American remake Pulse, majority of the "ghosts" that infiltrate the human realm appear as distorted shadows.
  • In the movie, The Eye with Jessica Alba, the "escorts" resemble Shadow People. They would escort the ghosts of the dead and were shadowy in nature with a horrible feel to them.
  • In the 2007 film The Deaths of Ian Stone, the "Harvesters" appear as shadowy beings, unseen by the public.
  • The movie Ghost depicts these things as agents of Hell who take evil souls to Hell.
  • In David Wong's novel John Dies at the End, malevolent extra-dimensional "shadow people" are slowly taking over the planet and re-shaping it to fit their own purposes.
  • Peter Hammond's "Sapphire and Steel" TV series uses regular appearances of shadow-people interchangeably as either an extra-dimensional crossing of a character into or out of our dimension, also using 'darkness' as a focal point - a sinister gestalt malevolence.
  • The book Convergence: When the Living Clash with the Dead features a man who says he encountered numerous shadow people accompanied by a bizarre sound near an abandoned slaughterhouse in Marlboro, New Jersey.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Guiley, Rosemary Ellen (2006-10-30) "Magic, Hauntings & Shadow People", Coast to Coast AM (Broadcast)
  2. ^ Jenkins, Greg (2007). Florida's Ghostly Legends and Haunted Folklore, Volume 3: The Gulf Coast and Pensacola. Pineapple Press, Inc. p. 215. ISBN 1561643998.
  3. ^ "Shadow People". About.com. Retrieved 2008-09-22.
  4. ^ a b c Hollis Heidi ) "Shadow Beings", Coast to Coast AM (Broadcast)
  5. ^ Jim ) Witness's rendering of a Shadow Person", Coast to Coast AM )
  6. ^ Hollis Heidi, "Shadow Being Images" (Various artistic renderings of Shadow People)
  7. ^ a b Wagner Stephen ": Shadow People", About: Paranormal Phenomena (2007-04-25)
  8. ^ "Shadow People". About.com. Retrieved 2008-09-22.
  9. ^ Wiggins Arthur W. Wynn Charles M. (2001), "Quantum Leaps in the Wrong Direction : Where Real Science Ends...and Pseudoscience Begins," National Academies Press, ISBN 0-309-07309-X
  10. ^ Ohayon M M, Priest RG, Caulet M, Guilleminault C (1996), Hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations: pathological phenomena?, The British Journal of Psychiatry (October 2006)
  11. ^ McKellar Peter (1957), "Imagination and thinking: A psychological analysis," ISBN B0007DES76
  12. ^ Falkowski, Carol L. "Methamphetamine Across America: Misconceptions, Realities and Solutions" (PDF). Hazelden Foundation. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  13. ^ Becker Robert O (1990) "Cross Currents," Tarcher, ISBN 0-87477-609-0
  14. ^ Persinger Michael A (2001), "The Neuropsychiatry of Paranormal Experiences" (October 2006)
  15. ^ Arzy Shahar, Seeck Margitta, Ortigue Stephanie, Spinelli Laurent, Blanke Olaf (21st September 2006) "Induction of an illusory shadow person", Nature 443 (7109): 245 - 370 (p287)
  16. ^ Wiseman, R Watt C Stevens P Greening E O'Keeffe C (2003). "An investigation into alleged 'hauntings'", The British Journal of Psychology, 94, 195-211
  17. ^ Shuper, A (2005-04-23). "Photosensitive complex partial seizures aggravated by phenytoin". Pubmed. Retrieved 2006-10-01. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  18. ^ http://www.tornspacefilms.com
  19. ^ Old Time Radio Horror (available for free download; all episodes believed to be in the public domain)

In Fiction

  • Heidi Hollis (2001), "The Secret War: The Heavens Speak of the Battle," Writers Club Press, ISBN 0-595-20331-0
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