NationStates Jolt Archive


Shadow People

Wilgrove
18-10-2008, 06:33
This is a common topic on Coast to Coast AM (C2C) and around the Paranormal circle, Shadow People. Has anyone ever seen a shadow person, what was your experience, whats your opinion on shadow people? These shadow people never actually say anything, sometimes they wear a hat, have beady red eyes, and paralyze the living. I actually never saw a shadow person, but my friend claims to have seen one at her aunt and uncle's house.

Discuss.
Smunkeeville
18-10-2008, 06:35
I saw one a few weeks ago, I've been paralyzed ever since.
Conserative Morality
18-10-2008, 06:35
I see shadow people right now. It's my imagination paralyzing me every few minutes.
Chumblywumbly
18-10-2008, 06:35
These shadow people never actually say anything, sometimes they wear a hat, have beady red eyes, and paralyze the living.
I've seen people wearing hats before.

Does this count?
Gauntleted Fist
18-10-2008, 06:38
This is a common topic on Coast to Coast AM (C2C) and around the Paranormal circle, Shadow People. Has anyone ever seen a shadow person, what was your experience, whats your opinion on shadow people? These shadow people never actually say anything, sometimes they wear a hat, have beady red eyes, and paralyze the living. I actually never saw a shadow person, but my friend claims to have seen one at her aunt and uncle's house.

Discuss.I've never met the sort.
Thumbless Pete Crabbe
18-10-2008, 06:41
I see them regularly. It's a symptom of insomnia for me: go without sleep, see non-existent people. Simple as that. I can imagine how worrying it might be for a first-timer! :p
Wilgrove
18-10-2008, 06:43
I see them regularly. It's a symptom of insomnia for me: go without sleep, see non-existent people. Simple as that. I can imagine how worrying it might be for a first-timer! :p

I've had insomnia before, but I never saw shadow people. How long do you have to stay up for this to work?
Snafturi
18-10-2008, 06:46
What's a shadow person?
Smunkeeville
18-10-2008, 06:46
I've had insomnia before, but I never saw shadow people. How long do you have to stay up for this to work?

Hallucinations start for me about 36 hours without sleep. First I have olfactory hallucinations, then auditory and then visual.....the escalation can take hours.

I wouldn't recommend it because you could exhaust yourself to the point of death (or something scary) I've been staying up for 6-8 days at a time for about 12 years......so it's like my body is used to it.
Conserative Morality
18-10-2008, 06:46
I've had insomnia before, but I never saw shadow people. How long do you have to stay up for this to work?

Try getting up at 3 am, stay up until 5 am the next day, no light except your computer. That usually works.
Dinaverg
18-10-2008, 06:49
I've seen people shadows, does that count?
Thumbless Pete Crabbe
18-10-2008, 06:50
I've had insomnia before, but I never saw shadow people. How long do you have to stay up for this to work?

Depends how stressed I am. Could be as few as 14 or 16 hours without sleep (a long day with enough stress, in other words), but much more likely after 20 to 36 hours, and *much* more likely when driving - any activity requiring concentration ups the odds substantially for me. In college, I used to call them "finals week hallucinations," since the short-term spike in my stress levels meant lots of funky visuals. Kinda dangerous on the road.
Ootbrrfry
18-10-2008, 06:51
This is a common topic on Coast to Coast AM (C2C) and around the Paranormal circle, Shadow People. Has anyone ever seen a shadow person, what was your experience, whats your opinion on shadow people? These shadow people never actually say anything, sometimes they wear a hat, have beady red eyes, and paralyze the living. I actually never saw a shadow person, but my friend claims to have seen one at her aunt and uncle's house.

Discuss.

huh. would appear that I saw one the other day.

looked something like this:
http://bp0.blogger.com/_tDcQwJH0cE8/R-5ftOXgHxI/AAAAAAAAA6E/69-kgDdAWTg/s400/David+Cameron+Kiss+Me+Quick.JPG
Cannot think of a name
18-10-2008, 06:59
They are, in reality, Lamont Cranston, wealthy man about town. Margo Lane knows their true identity.
JuNii
18-10-2008, 07:23
This is a common topic on Coast to Coast AM (C2C) and around the Paranormal circle, Shadow People. Has anyone ever seen a shadow person, what was your experience, whats your opinion on shadow people? These shadow people never actually say anything, sometimes they wear a hat, have beady red eyes, and paralyze the living. I actually never saw a shadow person, but my friend claims to have seen one at her aunt and uncle's house.

Discuss.

there's one following me. I can see it during the day... but at night they're damned hard to spot without some sort of ambient light nearby.

Here In Hawaii... they go marching. and when you hear their drums and their footsteps, you best be planting your face into the ground. anyone who looks upon them will soon find themselves taken away.
Idealamandia
18-10-2008, 07:25
I've had insomnia before, but never saw shadow people and never hallucinated. If I don't sleep 24-36 hours I just get very irritated.
Anti-Social Darwinism
18-10-2008, 07:48
there's one following me. I can see it during the day... but at night they're damned hard to spot without some sort of ambient light nearby.

Here In Hawaii... they go marching. and when you hear their drums and their footsteps, you best be planting your face into the ground. anyone who looks upon them will soon find themselves taken away.

Is that when the ghost wind starts to blow?:eek:
Trotskylvania
18-10-2008, 08:13
Try getting up at 3 am, stay up until 5 am the next day, no light except your computer. That usually works.

I've stayed up all weekend before, accompanied only by the light of my computer, and I haven't seen any shadow people.

I want my money back! :soap:
Western Mercenary Unio
18-10-2008, 09:06
Shadow People? What Shadow People?
Bokkiwokki
18-10-2008, 09:29
What's a shadow person?

On a sunny day, go stand in front of a wall, facing the sun. Then turn around, and on the wall you'll see... :eek:
Hammurab
18-10-2008, 09:46
This is a common topic on Coast to Coast AM (C2C) and around the Paranormal circle, Shadow People. Has anyone ever seen a shadow person, what was your experience, whats your opinion on shadow people? These shadow people never actually say anything, sometimes they wear a hat, have beady red eyes, and paralyze the living. I actually never saw a shadow person, but my friend claims to have seen one at her aunt and uncle's house.

Discuss.

You know, I used to work for a group that published roleplaying games about vampires, and at conventions, we would sometimes encounter people who felt they had real experiences with this kind of thing.

We typically smiled and then avoided them.
Call to power
18-10-2008, 11:44
I usually see them hanging around KFC or the benefits office :p

I see them regularly. It's a symptom of insomnia for me: go without sleep, see non-existent people. Simple as that. I can imagine how worrying it might be for a first-timer! :p

why can't you just do drugs like normal people?
Lunatic Goofballs
18-10-2008, 11:47
They are, in reality, Lamont Cranston, wealthy man about town. Margo Lane knows their true identity.

Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!
Cannot think of a name
18-10-2008, 11:50
Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!
The weed of crime bears bitter fruit, crime does not pay!
SaintB
18-10-2008, 11:52
I stay up for 24-36 hours rather often, even 48 hours more than once a month but I have never seen shadow people.
[NS]Cerean
18-10-2008, 11:53
This is a common topic on Coast to Coast AM (C2C) and around the Paranormal circle, Shadow People. Has anyone ever seen a shadow person, what was your experience, whats your opinion on shadow people? These shadow people never actually say anything, sometimes they wear a hat, have beady red eyes, and paralyze the living. I actually never saw a shadow person, but my friend claims to have seen one at her aunt and uncle's house.

Discuss.

What the hell is wrong with you??
shadow people, aliens, etc. I think you've watched too much x-files.
Lunatic Goofballs
18-10-2008, 11:59
The weed of crime bears bitter fruit, crime does not pay!

So... Temporary hijack: Do you think Alec Baldwin did the character justice, or do you hear Orson Welles' creepy voice in your head?
Call to power
18-10-2008, 12:12
Cerean;14112958']What the hell is wrong with you??
shadow people, aliens, etc. I think you've watched too much x-files.

how do you know this is the real wilgrove?

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/1543/shadowot1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Katganistan
18-10-2008, 12:45
They are, in reality, Lamont Cranston, wealthy man about town. Margo Lane knows their true identity.
Who knows? ;)

So... Temporary hijack: Do you think Alec Baldwin did the character justice, or do you hear Orson Welles' creepy voice in your head?
Radio show ftw, of course.
Cannot think of a name
18-10-2008, 12:57
So... Temporary hijack: Do you think Alec Baldwin did the character justice, or do you hear Orson Welles' creepy voice in your head?

No, I didn't really like Baldwin's Cranston/Shadow. I would say that he was the Adam West of the character, but there is still the Bill Johnstones out there-as that show stayed on the air it could get pretty cheesy (like the episode where the guy invented a television that would show whatever was in any room they wanted...no cameras, just the television...or the guy who invented the time machine that stuck everyone in December 31st over and over again (60 years before Groundhog Day!)

The pulp stories, where you find out that he's actually not Lamont Cranston but rather switched identities with him-there's a cool element to that-with every hero that has a secret identity you wonder which identity is 'them,' it's fairly common-getting that revelation he really was a shadow even as Lamont is pretty cool to me.

Incidentally, Sam Raimi is taking another shot at a Shadow movie coming soon (he wanted to do it a while ago and got trumped by the Baldwin movie, so he made Darkman instead). I'm cautiously optimistic.
Callisdrun
18-10-2008, 13:39
I went to a bar with a bunch of them recently. They're not very talkative, but they're great listeners and man can they hold their liquor.
Zainzibar Land
18-10-2008, 13:59
You mean New Yorkers?
See em all the time, they clog up the roads, paralysing your cars
Muravyets
18-10-2008, 14:47
Shadow people stories are a new, Americanized version of a very old superstition. The particulars about them have really been mostly invented by parapsychologists, who spend too much time trying to explain things they have not actually seen, imo.

I think shadow people have their origins in tricks the brain plays when stressed by fatigue or anxiety, or misled by effects of light, or by images in especially vivid dreams (which can sometimes be mis-remembered as real events).

I like the idea of shadow people, aesthetically. I want to use them in a story some day. My favorite shadows-are-up-to-no-good effect is from the early talkie German movie Vampyr: Der Traum des Allan Grey, directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer. There are no good quality, undamaged copies of that movie anymore, but what survives of it is on DVD. In it, a young man wanders into a village haunted by a vampire and:

He begins to see strange sights that are impossible to explain (notably shadows leading a life independent from that of their "owners")

The primitive effect, filmed in daylight, is actually quite weird and disorienting, like a real life optical illusion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampyr
SaintB
18-10-2008, 14:54
So you mean like Bodaks?
Katganistan
18-10-2008, 15:02
Cerean;14112958']What the hell is wrong with you??
shadow people, aliens, etc. I think you've watched too much x-files.
Mind your manners. Flaming's bad, m'kay?

You mean New Yorkers?
See em all the time, they clog up the roads, paralysing your cars
WE DO NOT.
Damned tourists.
H N Fiddlebottoms VIII
18-10-2008, 15:13
I'm often silent, sometimes wear a hat, and my eyes tend to be bloodshot. I don't think I've ever paralyzed someone, though. Unless, of course, you count that guy I pushed down the stairs, he doesn't do much walking anymore.
I have a new purpose in life, now. I just need some black trousers and a can of shoe polish.
Wilgrove
18-10-2008, 18:38
I'm often silent, sometimes wear a hat, and my eyes tend to be bloodshot. I don't think I've ever paralyzed someone, though. Unless, of course, you count that guy I pushed down the stairs, he doesn't do much walking anymore.
I have a new purpose in life, now. I just need some black trousers and a can of shoe polish.

and then you'll get beaten up because people think you're doing black face.
H N Fiddlebottoms VIII
18-10-2008, 19:15
and then you'll get beaten up because people think you're doing black face.
Well, it is better than getting beaten up for no reason, and that was my favorite episode of The Sarah Silverman Show.
Wilgrove
18-10-2008, 19:18
Well, it is better than getting beaten up for no reason, and that was my favorite episode of The Sarah Silverman Show.

I don't find her funny to be honest. She seems to be the female version of Carlos Mencia. They both suck.
Nanatsu no Tsuki
18-10-2008, 19:18
A shadow... person... what? Wil, love, gimme some of that shyte you´re puffing. :D
Vampire Knight Zero
18-10-2008, 19:19
Shadow people?

I am one. :)
Conserative Morality
18-10-2008, 19:30
Shadow people?

I am one. :)
*splashes holy water on VKZ*
H N Fiddlebottoms VIII
18-10-2008, 19:32
I don't find her funny to be honest. She seems to be the female version of Carlos Mencia. They both suck.
I'm not familiar with her stand-up, but her show is pretty hit-or-miss, with some episodes of her show being funny as Hell (the blackface one, or the one where she kidnapped three people and a cat to be her new friends), and others just dragging on and on while she tries to fit as many uses of the word "doody" into 22-minutes as possible.
Mencia is just terrible all the time, and the worst part is he doesn't even know his material is stupid. He honestly seems to think that jokes about sweaty balls or older-than-dirt, over-satirized racial stereotypes are the height of wit.
JuNii
18-10-2008, 19:35
Is that when the ghost wind starts to blow?:eek:

no, it's when the Night Marchers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folklore_in_Hawaii) roam.
Rhursbourg
18-10-2008, 19:35
if they wear Hats do they know how to correctly doff their hats
1010102
18-10-2008, 19:37
Not since I ate some brownies at some dudes party..
H N Fiddlebottoms VIII
18-10-2008, 19:41
if they wear Hats do they know how to correctly doff their hats
Only in the presence of shadow ladies. Shadows are, after all, notoriously snobbish about their non-material composition.
Vampire Knight Zero
18-10-2008, 19:56
*splashes holy water on VKZ*

Holy Water? Don't make me laugh. :D
The Lone Alliance
18-10-2008, 22:34
They might be albinos , that would explain the eyes and why they wear hats (Sunburn).
If they are real and if I meet one I won't make eye contact. I'm betting that people mentally 'freak out' and freeze when they get startled by the eyes.

I'd just tip an imaginary hat to them and continue on my way.
JuNii
18-10-2008, 22:48
Holy Water? Don't make me laugh. :D

yeah. the best way to get rid of a shadow person is...

*turns on 10,000 candlepower spotlight on VKZ*
Copiosa Scotia
18-10-2008, 23:21
Thread needs more John Dies at the End.