Me, wife, and the dog saw a shadow person behind the bedroom door at 2am. We all woke up at the same time and subsequently freaked out at the same time. This happened 13 yrs ago and still rattles my brain. Anyone else have a story?

Did you do anything at all to test what it might have been in reality?

I mean, already, it is suspect waking up in the middle of the night, groggy from sleep, and trusting every weird thing you kinda see.

Light is actually really crazy, man. We take it for granted so much how crazy this natural phenomenon really is. And it's stuff we can test and prove how it simply works and behaves in these crazy ways.

Our eyes are also crazy unreliable. Especially in bad lighting, upon first waking up, if we're heightened emotions, etc. When you were a kid, did you never have a moment where a coat on a chair looked like a person at first? It doesn't go away when you're an adult. You can still see something and your mind jumps to conclusions, fills in pieces and just straight up makes stuff up.

You've never invoked the name of Jesus Christ and raised your arm to the square to cast out a floor lamp?

I dunno what this means. Is this common where you are? Are you threatened by light? Or lamps? Don't be scared. It's natural phenomenon, with testable data.

What is Jesus going to do? Sacrifice himself and extort the lamp to behave? Make the light earn his love through blood magic and cannibalism? Or is Jesus Christ a special spell word that does magic, like Abracadabra?

Human "A" wakes up--is spooked by strange but natural phenomenon.
Human "B" then wakes up--or is woken up.
Now the dog is disturbed, and also responds.

Perhaps.

But dogs do have more finely attuned senses: I allow for the possibility that there was an intruder who then fled. More info would help, especially if you made a careful check of possible modes of entry and exit in good lighting. For example, B&E guys ("breaking and entering") usually come in through any possible mode of entry (usually rear or side of premises), perhaps with physical break, but always leave via a door (usually the front) they leave unlocked. Thus: was a window open, damaged, any door unlocked?

I'll never forget and I was quite young. I was sharing a bedroom with my 2 sisters and we slept in a double bed together. I woke up one night to a shadow figure climbing up and down the door. I didn't know what to do. It scared me to death. It had to be significant for me to remember.

I thought it was some evil force. I didn't wake anyone up because I was afraid if I talked that it would know I was there or do something to the whole house and family. I couldn't get out of the room as I've have to pass by it.

Some shadow person was making a lot of noise outside my window last night. Lots of noise. I didn't see anything. Sounded like the lid to the big black garbage can next door wasn't all the way closed and it kept blowing up and then fall down.

WOKE is the operative word here folks

just sayin’ the obvious

This is great but I feel like I want to hear more even though intuitively I know it makes perfect sense :)

I had nightmares as a child.

As a kid going to Sunday school at the Mormon church, I had heard about evil spirits. And at the same time there were a lot of horror movies on late night TV. Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist, and a lot of Stephen King movies.

I was afraid that I had opened the door to the Devil by just watching those movies.

Years later I put 2 and 2 together. My parents did not get along. That was a taboo topic. So the only explanation that I came up with as a child was evil spirits.

And I wasn't asleep. I had tucked that event away until I read the subject of this thread.

I thought it was an evil spirit. It was bad enough that I still get stressed out when I think about it--how scared I was as a child and mom and dad were upstairs sleeping.

Greyfort: I believe you, too. My mother believed stuff like this and other experiences I've had over the years.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/09/2023 09:47AM by cl2.

Yes. I was 16 years old and I woke up to see a guy in a cape or coat and a hat standing in my bedroom doorway.

At first I thought it was my Dad so I said, "Dad? ... Dad?"

Then it occurred to me that my Dad wouldn't be standing in my doorway all dressed in a coat and hat at 3:00 o'clock in the morning.

I sort of sunk down and peered at him over the top of the covers. After several minutes, he turned and walked towards my brother and sister's rooms.

There was no way out of the house except to pass by my bedroom door again. So I stared at that doorway until the first signs of the Sun coming up in the morning. Then I finally fell back to sleep.

I never saw him again. It was a few months before my Nana and my best friend passed away. I didn't know if there was any connection to that. I didn't know my best friend was going to pass away, but I did know that my Nana was. I thought maybe I gave off some sort of energy that made some sort of being curious. I didn't feel threatened. It just stared at me.

That was in 1975. I know that I wasn't paralyzed. A lot of people tell me that it was sleep paralysis. I said, "No, I sat up and was talking to it."

My Mom still insists that I was dreaming. I said, "Mom, I was awake for three hours, and I was talking to it."

Anyway, I've no idea what the heck that was, but I never forgot about it.

Greyfort Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Yes. I was 16 years old and I woke up to see a
> guy in a cape or coat and a hat standing in my
> bedroom doorway.
>
> At first I thought it was my Dad so I said, "Dad?
> ... Dad?"
>
> Then it occurred to me that my Dad wouldn't be
> standing in my doorway all dressed in a coat and
> hat at 3:00 o'clock in the morning.
>
> I sort of sunk down and peered at him over the top
> of the covers. After several minutes, he turned
> and walked towards my brother and sister's rooms.
>
> There was no way out of the house except to pass
> by my bedroom door again. So I stared at that
> doorway until the first signs of the Sun coming up
> in the morning. Then I finally fell back to
> sleep.
>
> I never saw him again. It was a few months before
> my Nana and my best friend passed away. I didn't
> know if there was any connection to that. I
> didn't know my best friend was going to pass away,
> but I did know that my Nana was. I thought maybe
> I gave off some sort of energy that made some sort
> of being curious. I didn't feel threatened. It
> just stared at me.
>
> That was in 1975. I know that I wasn't paralyzed.
> A lot of people tell me that it was sleep
> paralysis. I said, "No, I sat up and was talking
> to it."
>
> My Mom still insists that I was dreaming. I said,
> "Mom, I was awake for three hours, and I was
> talking to it."
>
> Anyway, I've no idea what the heck that was, but I
> never forgot about it.
**********************
Greyfort, I believe you.

RandoDude Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> **********************
> Greyfort, I believe you.


Thank you. It did happen. I just don't know what it was. I don't try to assign an explanation to it. I know what I saw. I just don't know what it was.

Greyfort Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Yes. I was 16 years old and I woke up to see a
> guy in a cape or coat and a hat standing in my
> bedroom doorway.

What a coincidence. I just heard about the "man in the hat" on a podcast yesterday. Apparently, several people have experienced something like sleep paralysis or pressure on their throat when seeing a man in a hat.

I've never experienced this, but I've heard the same story from different people who are not connected, not religious fundies, and totally sober when it happened.

T-Bone Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What a coincidence. I just heard about the "man in
> the hat" on a podcast yesterday.


Yes, there are a lot of accounts of such encounters now. Mine was in 1975, long before I ever heard of any other stories. The first time I heard such a being mentioned, it really got my attention. "What? What?? Somebody else has experienced this?"

I remember the first time I heard another such story mentioned. It was on a Canadian show called Ghostly Encounters. A lady had a similar experience and it gave me goosebumps to hear of something so similar. I don't remember when that show aired, but it was quite some time ago now.

Can you share your account?

Greyfort Wrote:
> Yes, there are a lot of accounts of such
> encounters now. Mine was in 1975, long before I
> ever heard of any other stories. The first time I
> heard such a being mentioned, it really got my
> attention. "What? What?? Somebody else has
> experienced this?"
>
> I remember the first time I heard another such
> story mentioned. It was on a Canadian show called
> Ghostly Encounters. A lady had a similar
> experience and it gave me goosebumps to hear of
> something so similar. I don't remember when that
> show aired, but it was quite some time ago now.

I have to admit, it freaks me out when various sources who are not connected, not reporting other sources of stress (like my parents), and not influenced by religion, all report a similar experience.

When I was in the MTC I woke up a saw a pillar of light coming down and then expanding on the floor. I literally followed the shaft of light with my eyes down to the floor and saw it expanding into a bigger strip of light.

I thought I was having a heavenly visitation.

A few more seconds went by and I became more awake. I then realized it was the hallway light shinning through the crack along the length of one side of our room door and then getting bigger as it shinned under the door gap.

Doh!

When I was 5, I saw a ghost with graham cracker eyes standing next to the sliding door in the family room. To this day, I can't explain it.

awoke to find my bedsheet rising up as if under it's own power. Then I realized that just moments before I was having one of my naughty dreams.

Thank you all for all of the replies. (Even the the silly and sarcastic.)
I wasn't looking for any sort of affirmation. In fact I'm not even sure why I felt inclined to post or share this, fully expecting the reactions and comments above. I rarely talk about it and I rarely visit this site anymore. I genuinely had the random thought while laying in bed last night to post on here and see if anyone else has had a similar experience through the lens of an exmormon. For the record, when this happened I had passed well through my "faith crisis" and pretty much had an atheistic outlook on life.

So on to what happened.
Our small bedroom was slightly lit from a blue light located on the power button of a floor fan. This fan was located at the foot of our bed just next to the door that leads into our hallway. The light cast a blue glow over the door and the right side wall. The door was about 3/4 way open- creating its own shadow against the right side wall and the resulting "dark space" in between the door and the wall. I was on the left hand side of the bed and my wife was to my right. Our bedroom is small and our California King takes up almost the entire room. Our very chill and not easily aroused black lab was on the right next to my wife on the floor in her doggie bed.


I woke up for no reason. No startling sound, no flash of light, no earthquake...nada. At pretty much the exact moment my eyes opened, I saw this 5-6' tall "person" standing behind the gap between the door and the wall, my wife grabbed my arm at the exact moment in a panic and the dog went into berserk mode and then tore out of the room as if chasing something. This all happened at once. It was a shocking moment. We had all woken up inexplicably at the exact time.

I did what any freedom loving American does and grabbed my Glock that was (and still is) stowed on the side of my bed. Hero weekend warrior to the rescue! I flew out of bed fully thinking someone was in my house. Trying to flip on light switches like a bumbling idiot -chasing after the dog who had made it into the basement and was still barking.

I flew down the stairs without crapping my pants- fully expecting to encounter an intruder and there was my dog in the middle of the floor 100% scared s**tless barking and panting at nothing...

I turned on every damn light in the house and cleared every room, closet, cupboard, and door. Every door was locked. Every window closed. Middle of the winter. Nobody-nothing...was or had been in the house.

To this day, we sleep with lights on in the house. From that time forward until she passed, our dog reacted to shadows cast in dimly lit rooms, from flashlights, and so on. She would put her tail between her legs and scurry out of the room if you passed your hand over a lamp that cast a shadow on the ceiling.

This event challenged my world view. It still does. It isn't logical, there is no rational explanation. I have had to come to terms with the fact that there are some things science cant explain. Some time after this happened, a coworker told me of the shadow people phenomenon. It had happened to him. After a few years, I became brave enough to start doing a little research. Sleep paralysis and this sort of event are quite common and to the logical mind, easily explainable...(when experienced as an individual). But I have yet to find a story where there were more than one witness to something like this, and even more so with an animal reacting to the event.

The thing that is so weird and bothersome to me, was the depth of the shadow. It wasn't a two dimensional shadow in the normal sense. It was a fully three dimensional blackness of a figure that was somehow darker than the shadow it stood in. In a space behind a door that could not fit a person, this three dimensional figure blended into the wall as if the wall weren't there. It had its own space about it.

It is an image that is forever burned into my brain that I wish I could forget.

Enough detail? For the record, nothing like this has ever happened to us since.

I've had similar experiences, not with seeing anything, but instead with hearing (clairaudience,) and feeling (clairsentience.) For instance, one evening as I was on the edge of falling asleep, I felt someone grab my hand like we were about to go off on an adventure. This startled me so much that I fully awakened. I laughed and informed my spirit friend, "Too soon!" -- then went back to sleep. I do believe that our spirits go off on nightly jaunts.

A few weeks ago. as I was waking up, something must have grabbed my attention. I said my (deceased) cat's name, and heard him give his greeting trill back to me. I had totally forgotten about that particular sound. It was always his way of saying, "Good morning" to me. I could even pinpoint the location the trill came from, on the carpet at the base of my bed.

I just file things like that under things that I don't need to have explained. Just interesting phenomena. If we survive our deaths, then I will find out for sure one day.

Interesting. Thank you for sharing.

It’s comforting that you had the gun. I’m glad the doors were locked.

all similar to Joey's experience?

Joey?

Joseph 'Joey' Schmidt, late of Sharon, VT, 1805-1844. Mythologist & Grifter.

Survived by: An uncertain, undocumented number of 'sister wives'.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/09/2023 10:38AM by GNPE.

If he even had those experiences. There was a reference in Jordan's recent "Dartmouth" post that, IIRC, someone in his circle had a similar experience before Joseph did. He may have borrowed from that as he did in so many other things.

In the past missionary 'discussions' the missionaries sat the scene with a series of loaded questions; the Crown was the missionary describes in rather vague telling then asks 'Brother Brown' "who were these two personages?" (my memory from the late 60s)

Derp- my bad. Shows how long Ive been out.

When our kids were little, they all saw a dark figure wearing a top hat. It ran across the basement, and scared all of them.

We've had different experiences, but the one that stands out in my mind is when my husband and I were driving back to Salt Lake City from St. George.

I think I've told this story in a post from some years ago, but for any that haven't read it, here it is:

We left St. George around 10pm, with the intention of driving most of the night to SLC.

Between St. George and Cedar City, it's a lonely stretch of highway.

We were wide awake because we were on the alert and watching for deer or any wild animal that might try to cross the road in front of us. We weren't drunk, weren't sleepy. We were going about 50 mph at the time.

All of a sudden, I saw some movement of something running by my peripheral vision.

I thought: "Oh no! A deer is running by us and getting ready to jump in front of us!"

I turned to look, and what I saw was no deer. It was a large black dog, blacker than the night. It had white eyes and large white teeth. It was keeping pace with the car, and his head was turned towards me and it was grinning.

At the same time, my husband (who was driving) saw one on his side. His looked like a German Shepherd. Mine looked like a Golden Retriever.

I said: "Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" He said yes.

Both of the black dogs not only were keeping pace with the speed of the vehicle, but they were flanking us, moving in closer to the car. We thought they were going to leap inside with us!

Up ahead was a little gas station that was closed, but it had one light in the parking lot. We headed for the parking lot, and finally, the dogs backed off and disappeared.

We sat in the lot for a few minutes to calm down and talk about what just happened. We decided to take off and thankfully, we didn't see them again the rest of the way home.

That was pretty scary for us.

Geez thats crazy! Thats a whole different level of earth shattering experience! I don't think I would ever function properly after that.

DW & I left Blanding where we had visited her sis, I've forgotten if I /we checked the gas in the early an as we left...

About an hour or so out, I became aware we were LOW, but nothing around open yet...

We pulled into a gas station (first time on this riad), it was CLOSED with no one seen...

On a Dare, I tried the pump and... it wasn't shut off !!!

Put gas in, paid by putting $$ in the mail slot..

Talk about a Happy Experience, that was A Topper !!!

were you nudely nude?

As a shadow person, I approve this thread.

I remember a shadow that looked like a guy with a hat traveling along side of our car one night on a dark isolated road. It turned out to be the moon in a position that cast a shadow off the rack on the top of the car.