Has anyone ever seen an apparition or shadow being shaped like a large bat or manta ray?

I myself witnessed a large shadow like a manta ray or large bat "fly" across the ceiling of my kitchen in broad daylight. It was between 10-15' across and "flew" directly over my head I couldn't find anything in the house to explain the shadow, not even a moth, and believe me I looked.

What's stranger is that the shadow flew against the light source. What I mean is that the windows in the kitchen are on the opposite wall from where the shadow emerged. The wall that produced the shadow is a solid wall with a huge built in welsh dresser on the kitchen side. The only opening on that wall is a small door way on the far right side as you face the window wall. There are no windows behind the door because of the way the room across the foyer is positioned.

I have tried producing a shadow with a broom, etc, but there is just not a light source sufficient to make a shadow there, so I am at a complete loss. More important than the mystery of how the shadow was produced, though, is what the heck the shadow was. Should I be scared? It certainly felt threatening. The way it flew directly over my head, slowly, felt aggressive, sort of like "Here I am. What are you going to do about it?".

This sighting is in complete contrast to my encounter with a human shadow in my house. He was so 3D that I actually thought it was the shadow of a person walking upstairs until I followed him into the room and it was empty. I even searched the closet before I admitted to myself that no one was there. That encounter felt completely different. I definitely got the impression that my seeing him was a complete accident and that he didn't mean to scare me or to bother me in any way. He just tried to avoid an encounter without terrifying me too much. I know it makes no sense logically, but I definitely do not think the two shadows are related to each other and I am sure they are not the same thing. Just my opinion, but I am fairly sure about it – they just felt completely different

I would very much appreciate any information or advice that anyone could give me. It would be great to just hear that someone else has seen something similar. More than anything, I would just like to know what I saw.

was this recent? i only ask because you worry it's threatening.

i've seen a shadow person (like you in a location where a shadow wouldnt naturally be)

but never a flying shadow creature.

Actually, it was about 2 years ago. A feng shui expert came and cleansed the house right after I saw it and the house has been fairly quiet ever since. That is, up until the last few weeks, when activity in the house began ramping up again. Knocks, raps, bangs – nothing overtly negative and nothing that would ordinarily bother me. On the other hand, I keep catching a really bad smell, like something rotten or wet. The worst part is that no one else can smell it even though it's so strong sometimes that I find it almost nauseating. I also feel like something none too friendly is watching me. Not watching me with curiosity or interest, rather, it feels like it is watching me with a cold eye. That's the best way that I know to explain it.

The smell and the feeling of something hateful watching me make me suspect that the bat thing is back. I can't be sure of that, but I am sure that it doesn't feel like any other haunting phenomena that I've experienced other than what I felt before I had the house cleared.

Another thing, and this is going to sound crazy: before we had the house cleared, I constantly had body aches and stomach problems. Those are back, too. I can't swear that they're the same, but they sure feel the same. It's probably just some kind of weird bug, but still . . .

To be honest, if I hadn't seen the bat thing, I probably wouldn't give any of it a second thought. But since I don't know what the bat/manta thing is, I am a little worried.

I just want to know what this thing is so I can figure out what to do if it really is back.

Have you had a complete physical exam lately?

I only ask because while I do believe in the paranormal,

I think all non-paranormal things should be ruled out first.

also, just curious if you live anywhere near the area where

the Jersey Devil is.

I truly don't know where a reflection would come from because of the way my kitchen is laid out. All of the doorways are away from windows, and the only mirror is on the other side of the kitchen wall, so there's no place for a reflection to come from that's not quite far away. I can't imagine how a shadow would get all the way up on the ceiling. I'm not saying it's not possible, believe me, I'd like to believe it. I'll have to check it out in the morning.

KuriusKat-

First off, I'm not sure if you read my post on Smudging, and while I didn't "smudge" for paranormal reasons, I've spoken with many people who swear by it. It might be worth picking up some white sage or ordering it online to do it.

Secondly, I've actually seen something very similar to what you described and I actually forgot about it until reading this post. There is an area in Connecticut that I drove through regularly for quite some time- for as long as I can remember the entire town always bothered me. There were areas I'd drive through that made me feel choked, and later I found out another one of my friends had the same experience in the same place. The back story to the weirdness was a culmination of old and new witchcraft- one of those circumstances of old stories drawing in new "covens", stirring up bad stuff.

One night while driving home through this town I remember starting to feel very eerie- something drew my eyes up to the tree line and I saw clearly a large flying black mass moving parallel to my car. I kept glancing on it, trying to figure it out, something logical that could be causing it. I slowed down- and it slowed down. I finally came to a stop in the road, I could clearly see it- very much as you had described- manta ray like in shape. And just like that, it darted along the tree line only to take a quick turn into the forrest. Needless to say I was lucky to not be pulled over during the rest of my drive lol. I couldn't get home fast enough. The overall feeling of whatever it was was very negative. No idea as to what it was though.

Thank you so much, Jilla08 for sharing your story. I am sorry that you went thru such a frightening experience but I can't tell you how relieved I am that someone else has seen something similar to what I saw. A giant manta ray shadow just sounds so crazy, doesn't it?

What I really would love to hear from you is your impressions of the thing. Did it seem aware of you? Did it seem to be deliberately appearing to you or otherwise interacting with you? Most of all, how did it FEEL to you? You say it felt negative. What do you mean by that, specifically? Did it seem threatening? Hostile? Finally, do you have any thoughts about what it might have been? What it may have wanted, if anything?

Our house was smudged by a feng shui master immediately after I first saw the manta ray thing and I have sage on hand but I have been loathe to smudge again without knowing what I am smudging for. I'll definitely read your smudging post – it's not something I'm very familiar with.

What part of CT were you in, if you don't mind my asking?

It definitely sounds crazy and I don't think I'd ever have brought it up if I hadn't read this here. I was lucky enough that the friends I did share it with believed me, because they'd had odd things happen to them in this area, also. The location is around Devils Hopyard in East Haddam. While I saw it and after the experience I kept trying to figure out what it could be that would make sense. A bird? A bat? The shadow of my car somehow being projected into the tree line? Nothing seemed to fit.

As for how it felt to me, well, I felt terrified. It became very clear to me when I finally stopped the car that it wanted me to see it- it was definitely sentient. It was like it was messing with me- messing with my mind. I've dealt with the paranormal before, and I've had scary experiences, but this was one of the weirder ones. It was like nothing I'd seen. I've seen "shadow people" clear as day in the middle of a well lit room. This thing was like stalking and watching me. I never knew exactly how to describe it's shape, but you hit the nail on the head- manta ray. Huge and pitch black. And yet, when it stopped, I don't even know, it was like perched- I can't explain it. There were parts of it that somehow were even darker than the darkness I'd see as it moved alongside me. Like shadows within this large shadow, but I couldn't make it out. I just remember being in such shock over the whole ordeal- like I couldn't believe I was seeing what I was seeing.

I remember that I called my best friend right after it happened. I didn't want to be alone. I just kept him on speaker phone the whole way home, shaking and on the verge of tears. My exact words to my friend was "You don't understand, it felt like pure evil". And if it hadn't stopped and then darted around the corner the way it did, I'm sure I would have just shrugged it off as my eyes playing tricks on me, because it was nothing like I'd ever seen, or even heard of.

As for what it might have been, the only feeling I got from it was what it wasn't- it wasn't human, or ever human. But that is just my feeling on it. Not sure if this helps any, but at least it seems you're not alone in this experience. And neither am I /smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />

Holy Crap, I can't believe it! I just cannot believe it!!! Jilla08, I could hug you! At the same time, I've got chills so badly that I had to go put the kettle on for tea. You have expressed EXACTLY how it made me feel. Exactly.

Wow, both of your experiences Jill and Kurious give me chills.

This creatures sounds like a cross between the Jersey Devil and the Mothman!

Lucky us