Shadow People have followed Daniel Pestana of Portugal for years. Blacker-than-night human-shaped shadows visit Daniel often … and stare. Some wear hats, some a monk’s cowl.
“They are never hostile to me. They seem to be mere observers,” Pestana said. “I used to see them in the hallway of my house, in the reflections of mirrors and sometimes floating quickly from door to door.”
He became used to these frequent visits until the night he encountered something different. Something he feels is evil.
“I just saw it once,” he said.
Pestana was walking his now-ex-girlfriend home when they stopped in a small park in the center of a quarter.
“When we were saying good-bye to each other we heard a noise coming from a tree (next to) a house nearby,” he said. “I looked and I noticed that the top of the tree fanned itself with violence.”
Violent rustling and the snap of breaking branches bit through the night.
“Then I heard a muffled sound of something crashing into the ground,” Pestana said. “A strange feeling arose inside me that I still can’t explain.”
Pestana and his girlfriend watched silently as two hands grasped the top of a wall that surrounded the house’s yard.
“They didn't seem (like human) hands,” he said. “They were dark, as if it was burned paper.”
As the two stood frozen, a head as dark as the hands pulled itself up from behind the wall.
“Two brilliant and red eyes stared directly at us,” Pestana said. “The creature loosened a roar of some kind and it jumped upward (onto) the wall. We saw it perfectly.”
The figure was human-like and “pitch-black from head to toes.” Neither Pestana nor his girlfriend could make out features, only the fiery red eyes.
“I grabbed my girlfriend's hand and we ran through the streets without looking back,” Pestana said. “It was the only time that I felt truly threatened by those creatures.”
Shadow People are seen worldwide. Some seem oblivious to the people who see them, some curiously watch, and some seem to be mischievous. But the ones with red, glowing eyes have one common trait – they elicit terror.
A student of the paranormal, Bishop James Long, of St. Christopher Old Catholic Church in Louisville, Kentucky, says these red-eyed entities are demons.
“I have found that through my research and field experience, Shadow Figures that contain red, or very dark orange color, eyes tend to be negative in nature,” Long said. “The entity is clearly demonic. It is … fear that it preys on.”
Pestana is fortunate to have run.
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
I Dream of Shadow People
The shadows sat across one side of a semi-circle table, cloaked, piercing holes for eyes fixed on a crowd of people. Dawn Sevier of Sparta, Tenn., who has been haunted by Shadow People, thought this was a dream – but it felt so real.
“There was more than one, there were nine,” she said. “Each one was allowing their eyes to be seen. All the eyes were black, the blackest black I've ever seen, and they were looking out on a crowd of people who were there to voice concerns.”
Dream-Dawn walked up to the table and looked at each of nine shadows, one by one.
“None acknowledged that I was standing in front of them observing them,” she said. “In my dream, I had no fear at all. After I reached the last shadow, two people grabbed me and carried me through the crowd and put me into the back of a white limousine. I awoke feeling disturbed and have never forgotten this dream.”
Many parapsychologists consider dreams – especially lucid dreams, dreams that seem too real to be just dreams – to be a form of astral projection. You’re consciously aware during the dream and can control your actions while your soul travels outside your body – as can the very real entities you may encounter there.
Dawn’s soul may have stood before that council of nine, but she doesn’t know who they were judging, or who in the white limousine stepped in to save her.
Dawn has had a few of these lucid dreaming encounters, but none as terrifying as the thing she encountered while recovering from surgery.
“I had just been released from the hospital, and was heavily medicated,” she said. “I'd had a bad experience in the hospital, suddenly I couldn't tolerate morphine and it arrested my breathing. I had one of those experiences where you disconnect from your body and watch everything that's going on.”
Dawn was staying with a friend because she couldn’t be alone. During the first night at her friend’s house, she saw herself leave her body.
“I was sleeping and I found myself standing next to myself, watching myself sleep,” she said. “As I stood there, I could sense that someone was standing to my left – behind me – but I couldn't turn and look, I was blocked from turning. I could look to my right, and when I did, the wall began vibrating faster and faster.”
Suddenly a Shadow Person walked through the wall.
“It was uncloaked and its appearance was like looking at black oil,” Dawn said. “Its body was muscular, its head was large, no hair, and its eyes were black and red.”
Dawn stood next to her body and watched the creature. The entity had almond-shaped eyes, a small nose and small mouth set in an oval-shaped head. But the main feature was its veins.
“It had red blood veins … like humans have blue ones, running all over it's muscular structure,” she said. “It stood about seven feet tall, and it couldn't see me at all.”
She stood, staring at the creature when she realized it was looking at something specific – it was looking at her.
“I noticed that it was looking at the me laying in bed,” she said. “I suddenly felt like fighting and looked down at its feet, only it had no feet. Its legs faded to black-and-red mist, and as I saw this I had an urge to jump into my body that was sleeping.”
As this urge swept through her, the human qualities of the Shadow Man dissipated into a cloud of black and red mist. The mist rose above her body forming a column, and began wrapping itself around her feet and ankles, snaking it's way up the length of her body.
“Suddenly, I found myself throwing covers off myself and screaming, ‘no,’” Dawn said. “I demanded that the thing leave me alone, I told it that it couldn't touch me.”
As Dawn sat in bed – now awake – draped in an icy cold, sheets and nightgown soaked with sweat, she was not afraid. Curious and angry, but not afraid.
“I felt … anger at its attempt to invade my space,” she said.
Although Dawn hasn’t had a lucid dream encounter with a Shadow Person for years, she now sees them in her waking hours.
“I still see them today, mostly out of the corner of my eye,” she said. “I have no idea who or what they are, but I know they interact among us, and they don't like being known. Perhaps they are escorts from this realm to the other side, perhaps they are connected with the death process, but I don't feel they are to be feared. The nature of darkness is to be unknown; we're not supposed to be able to ‘see' in the dark. These entities are unknown by most, and seem alarmed when they are seen.”
Dawn doesn’t see these entities as evil or demonic, she sees them as travelers.
“But I don't know where the destination is,” she said. “If we can endure and move past the fear, perhaps one, or some of us can learn more about these Shadow entities.”
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
“There was more than one, there were nine,” she said. “Each one was allowing their eyes to be seen. All the eyes were black, the blackest black I've ever seen, and they were looking out on a crowd of people who were there to voice concerns.”
Dream-Dawn walked up to the table and looked at each of nine shadows, one by one.
“None acknowledged that I was standing in front of them observing them,” she said. “In my dream, I had no fear at all. After I reached the last shadow, two people grabbed me and carried me through the crowd and put me into the back of a white limousine. I awoke feeling disturbed and have never forgotten this dream.”
Many parapsychologists consider dreams – especially lucid dreams, dreams that seem too real to be just dreams – to be a form of astral projection. You’re consciously aware during the dream and can control your actions while your soul travels outside your body – as can the very real entities you may encounter there.
Dawn’s soul may have stood before that council of nine, but she doesn’t know who they were judging, or who in the white limousine stepped in to save her.
Dawn has had a few of these lucid dreaming encounters, but none as terrifying as the thing she encountered while recovering from surgery.
“I had just been released from the hospital, and was heavily medicated,” she said. “I'd had a bad experience in the hospital, suddenly I couldn't tolerate morphine and it arrested my breathing. I had one of those experiences where you disconnect from your body and watch everything that's going on.”
Dawn was staying with a friend because she couldn’t be alone. During the first night at her friend’s house, she saw herself leave her body.
“I was sleeping and I found myself standing next to myself, watching myself sleep,” she said. “As I stood there, I could sense that someone was standing to my left – behind me – but I couldn't turn and look, I was blocked from turning. I could look to my right, and when I did, the wall began vibrating faster and faster.”
Suddenly a Shadow Person walked through the wall.
“It was uncloaked and its appearance was like looking at black oil,” Dawn said. “Its body was muscular, its head was large, no hair, and its eyes were black and red.”
Dawn stood next to her body and watched the creature. The entity had almond-shaped eyes, a small nose and small mouth set in an oval-shaped head. But the main feature was its veins.
“It had red blood veins … like humans have blue ones, running all over it's muscular structure,” she said. “It stood about seven feet tall, and it couldn't see me at all.”
She stood, staring at the creature when she realized it was looking at something specific – it was looking at her.
“I noticed that it was looking at the me laying in bed,” she said. “I suddenly felt like fighting and looked down at its feet, only it had no feet. Its legs faded to black-and-red mist, and as I saw this I had an urge to jump into my body that was sleeping.”
As this urge swept through her, the human qualities of the Shadow Man dissipated into a cloud of black and red mist. The mist rose above her body forming a column, and began wrapping itself around her feet and ankles, snaking it's way up the length of her body.
“Suddenly, I found myself throwing covers off myself and screaming, ‘no,’” Dawn said. “I demanded that the thing leave me alone, I told it that it couldn't touch me.”
As Dawn sat in bed – now awake – draped in an icy cold, sheets and nightgown soaked with sweat, she was not afraid. Curious and angry, but not afraid.
“I felt … anger at its attempt to invade my space,” she said.
Although Dawn hasn’t had a lucid dream encounter with a Shadow Person for years, she now sees them in her waking hours.
“I still see them today, mostly out of the corner of my eye,” she said. “I have no idea who or what they are, but I know they interact among us, and they don't like being known. Perhaps they are escorts from this realm to the other side, perhaps they are connected with the death process, but I don't feel they are to be feared. The nature of darkness is to be unknown; we're not supposed to be able to ‘see' in the dark. These entities are unknown by most, and seem alarmed when they are seen.”
Dawn doesn’t see these entities as evil or demonic, she sees them as travelers.
“But I don't know where the destination is,” she said. “If we can endure and move past the fear, perhaps one, or some of us can learn more about these Shadow entities.”
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
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