Guest Author - Deanna Joseph

One morning I was sitting comfortably at my computer enjoying a nice hot cup of coffee. I was feeling rather inspired, so my attention was pretty much 100 percent on the topic of my article. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed someone walk through my living room, but as I looked up they disappeared. I laughed as I happened to be typing an article on ghostly encounters, and figured it was just my overactive imagination playing tricks on me. But as I once more became engrossed in my article, I noticed the shape again. I looked up as it disappeared into my laundry room. After a thorough inspection of my laundry room, I decided that it must be a ghost, and I demanded that it leave at once!

But there were a couple of things about this encounter that rather intrigued me. First off it didn’t really seem to act like a ghost. And it looked more like a shadow than anything else, and didn’t actually seem to put off any sort of energy (so I felt neither comforted nor frightened by its presence). I began to wonder if I’d just had an encounter with a being known as a shadow person?

Not quite ghosts, not quite demon, shadow people fall into a category all their own, and folklore on them is relatively rare. Where ghosts will generally appear somewhat similar to how they looked in life, and will have an energy about them, shadow people typically appear as a dark shadow. They can be either two or three dimensional (sometimes they appear as a black smoke). Demons can generally be identified by the feeling of evil that surrounds them and poltergeists are identified as being noisy and intrusive energies, yet many shadow people pass unnoticed, leaving no emotion at all.

Many people support the theory that shadow people appear as an omen to a coming tragedy (similar to the mothman appearances). And still others say that shadow people are simply multi-dimensional visitors who have popped into our dimension quite by accident.

Shadow people are very difficult to investigate. Where ghosts, demons and poltergeists are more likely to leave evidence of their presence, shadow people simply disappear, leaving no trace behind other than a wispy memory of their encounter.

So if one evening you happen to catch a glimpse of a shadowy figure out of the corner of your eye, go ahead and investigate it, and definitely demand that it leave. If it slips away quietly you may have just been visited by one of the shadow people.