14 replies to this topic

[KuriusKat]

I've been thinking a lot about shadow people, so I thought it might be interesting to start a thread about them.

Maybe we can share stories and our thoughts about what they may be.

I saw a shadow man go into the bedroom in my house. It looked like the shadow of a real person. In fact, I thought it was the carpet cleaner until I followed him into the room and it was empty. I found him upstairs where he was supposed to be. So who or what went into that bedroom?

My husband later thought he saw a man standing in that same room, so I'm not sure if our visitor is a shadow man or a ghost, assuming they are not the same thing.

[nypdretired]

When you saw it were you looking directly at it or did you catch it out of th e corner of your eye?

[sympathyforthedevil]

Don't know what they are or if ghost related. But, i've seen them for a fairly long time, off and on over the years.
I think they are protecting something, somebody, or watching over type of thing.

[KuriusKat]

I was looking directly at it. I followed it as it walked into the bedroom. I really thought it was the carpet cleaner going into the wrong room.

After I found the room empty, I realized that the shadow was moving fast - faster than a person would normally walk.

[nypdretired]

Sometimes I do "catch" something out of the corner of my eye and wonder if "there was something there" or just a reflection off the frames of my glasses or just something that is there that I am seeing.

[TraditionalWitch]

There is much that can be said about shadow people. You have people who think they are always the product of evil or some kind of evil entity out to cause harm. I digress. I think there are naughty ones, and there are benign ones, much like what you see among human population.

[Ziva]

Many think they are evil incarnate and hard to banish. I know a semi-famous psychic who actually told me he is certain they are from another, parallel, universe. I don't buy into either of these extreme beliefs.
I had an shadow man who hung out at my bedroom doorway for months. Perfect black silouhette (sp), incredibly fast movement, the red eyes, the whole 9. Of course, I felt I was being watched (cuz I was) and I felt kind of creeped out. But, nothing bad happened. In fact, nothing happened at all. Until.... I decided I had had enough. The next time I saw him (it "felt" male) I announced that unless this spirit was 100% of the light, he needed to leave because he was bothering me. Bada-bing, bada-boom! Gone!
Well, there was a little more to it than that (given I have 40 something years experience in the field) but not much. During the brief time I awaited a response I got a pretty strong impression that this may well be the spirit of my dear, departed friend Jon who basically had an extended bipolar breakdown and shot himself. I could be wrong, but that was my guess. I sure as @# did not think he was from Mars or beyond!!!!! Though shadow people look very different than the traditional ghost, I think that may well be a reflection of their mental/emotional status. Perhaps more serene entities present as regular people who vanish or the familiar filmy white and depressed or disturbed entities present as dark shadows. That is my current working hypothesis, at any rate.
Certainly we are hearing more and more about shadow people these days and it would behoove us as a community to come to some consensus.
Just wanted to share my experience.
Peace,
Ziva

[TraditionalWitch]

That sounds like a good hypothesis to me. I can totally see how a spirt that died admist mental troubles may turn up dark looking to us.

[Persephone]

The Shadow or Fylgia is what you are talking about, here is a short description:

The fylgia or fylgja is the Norse name for the fetch, and was closely associated with the soul. It was believed that every man had his fylgja, or follower, and that this spectral double would die with its host. Tradition holds that the fylgjar come into the world in the caul of a newborn child, and that should the caul be burnt or thrown away, the man would lose his guardian spirit for the duration of his life.
Although the fylgja is bound to the physical body, which it haunts, it is capable of roaming from away it. In Norway a departing guest is always attended to the door, to make sure that it is kept open long enough to allow the spirit to pass out after the man. The fetch is also capable of preceding a person, so enabling it to look into the future and see what was to come; indeed it is recounted that people have even tripped over a person's roaming fetch. Others still have seen a persons ghostly double performing actions that its owner would subsequently repeat, especially if such persons have the Sight.
The fylgia, although a ghostly double, was also able to take on the shape of an animal, normally in the temperament of the person. This self-same notion accounts for the stories of witches travelling forth in the shape of hares and so forth, and when such creatures are shot or injured, the witch is later found with a corresponding injury.

Hope this clears up any fear or misinterpetations, The Fylgja more commonly likes to reveal itself in one's dreams whereas it's more ghostly apparitions tend to prefer the waking hours. While the Fylgja may, in one way, be understood as the "Hugir" (soul), it can also describe a Fylgjukona or even a Dis, namely; guardian spirits of the female variety; that may defend their own gender, watch over an individual, or a whole kindred.

I've often heard people coin the term "soul retrieval" and "soul fragments" in neo-shamanism. However, I find that it does little to understand what is really happening on the para-physical level with death.

Then there is the doppelgänger is not necessarily an omen, but a subconscious restlessness that seeks to be elsewhere for whatever reasons. Perhaps the most famous of these is the story of Emilie Sagée, however there are a good many cases where people were aided in an emergency by the fetch of a friend or relative while that person was actually hundreds of miles away at home sleeping.

[HeidiAnn67]

I saw a ghost once...but maybe shadow person would have been a better description of it.
I was a child. I saw what was obvious to me to be an old woman, but I also remember it was
all black, so I'm thinking it must have been the shape that made me think that. At the time I
thought it was my Grammy standing in the room and I called to her. When the "shadow" did
not respond I began screaming and my Grammy came running into the room and the shadow
vanished. From that moment until now that room always gives me the creeps day or night, but
especially at night. I had another experience as an adult in that room, but it did not involve
seeing anything

[Persephone]

A ghost and Shadow are two different things but it could of been your Grammy fylgia possibly or someone who recently passed away Shadow hanging around for a bit.

[HeidiAnn67]

I read your description of a fylgia. I had never heard of one before. Maybe it was my grammy's fylgia.
Thanks for the info Persephone . Is this a Scandinavian belief? Strangely enough my Grandmother
was part Scandinavian

[Persephone]

This is old well known knowledge of European heritage, not necessarily Scandinavian but Germanic. You will find most beliefs started from Germanic tribes, this is why I am here after reading questions on Shadow People I felt inclined to join. I am guessing this was your Grandmothers fetch or fyglia, no doubt she passed within that year, if not then it was someone elses watching out for someone in the home. You will see terms such as Shadow, Doppleganger, Wraith but ultimately it is simply a "part" of self or for those of Christian faith "soul". Nothing to fear at all, what is difficult is people think linear when in reality we are anything BUT linear. Many parts or multidimensional which is where "ghost" comes in. (For another thread)

All shadow people are fetches (fylgjas) rather the distinction should be made as to whether the owner is living or dead. If they are living then their fetch is more commonly seen as a Doppelgänger which means a visual "double". To call it a wraith does not make that distinction. This distinction is important in the practice of hedge witchery (or shamanism, if you like) as they each involve an entirely different approach.

[HeidiAnn67]

She did not die for many years after the experience.
She did get Alzheimers Disease within the year or two of it.
Not sure who else it could have been

[Persephone]

Ah that would explain it, makes perfect sense. She was not there.