From: Elizabeth
To: shadowpeopleorg@comcast.net
Sent: Wednesday, July 15, 2015 7:30:20 PM
Subject: my story

Before I got to college, I had never had any experiences with "shadow people". I didn't even know what they were or that they were apparently so common. I just graduated from college May 2015, and since my first experience back in 2011, I have had quite a few. I have never felt threatened, but I was scared at first, since I woke up out of a dead sleep and the figures were the first things I saw.

My first experience happened one night in my dorm room when I was a freshman in college. I do not remember what I was dreaming about at the time, but I do remember waking up out of a dead sleep. I had a mesh butterfly decoration hanging above my bed, and when I woke up, I looked on my chest, and it turns out my butterfly fell from my ceiling and landed on me. Perhaps that was what woke me up, but I didn't wake up from a start, I was very calm. My instinct was to look around to see if my roommate had woken up, and next to my bed, at about at least 5'5'' tall, is the silhouette of a man. I only saw him for a couple seconds, but he was just standing with his arms at his side. I immediately grabbed my cell phone next to me and shined its light, but there was nothing there. My uncle had died a year or so before then, so after pondering it for a few days, I thought maybe that was him. But I'm still unsure.

Another experience I had that I can remember specifically is a time that I spent at my best friend's grandparents' house. This was after my first experience, perhaps a year or two later. We had gone to sleep and I was in a deep sleep. Like my last experience, I do not remember having a specific dream, but I woke up out of nowhere to see a girl standing next to the bed. The bed is low to the ground, so I was about hip height to her. She was a black figure, yet I could make out a glowing white light around her figure, which resembled a night gown. First reaction, I thought it was my best friend, but when I used my phone again as a light, she was gone. My best friend was sleeping next to me, so it was clearly not her.

This next experience is a bit different than the last two, because while it was a figure, I do not believe it was human. I was having a sleepover with my friend at my house about a few months ago. I was woken up to the feeling of something crawling over my feet, I could feel the increased weight that wasn't there before. Assuming it was my cat paying me and my friend a visit in the middle of the night, I opened my eyes and did in fact see a fuzzy creature. I was shocked to find out that when I reached my arm out to pet him, he was gone. The weight was gone, and I even grabbed my cell phone to use it as a light to check. The shadow was gone, and as I looked around my room, I can see my cat sleeping in my chair across the room.

A more recent event happened when I was in Maine with family for a relative's wedding. We had a log cabin that we stayed in and on the second night, I felt something strange around me. I had that feeling as if someone was very close to my face trying to get my attention. I wake up and notice just how dark it is in my room. There is a table next to my bed, and as I turned my head to my right, it appears that there is a woman with long hair sitting crouched on top of the table. She is a black figure; I cannot make out a face but I can in fact see long hair and I swear I even felt the hair hit my face. My hair was tied back in a bun, so I am confident it wasn't my hair. Being half asleep and confused and scared, I assumed it was my mom that was next to my bed, since she was sleeping in the same room as me. I called out "Mom?" just as I grabbed my phone next to me to use as a light, and my mom was in fact sleeping on her bed across the room. The figure was gone as soon as my light hit the table.

I have seen shadow people more than I have told, but these are examples that I will never forget. I never felt as though they were going to hurt me, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't scared. The most concerning events were when I saw the fuzzy black creature at my feet, because I had only expected to see shadow "people" and that was out of the ordinary. What does it mean? The other concerning experience was when the woman was crouched over my bed. She had gotten so close to my face that I could feel her... or at least that's it certainly felt like to me.

It's difficult to share these stories sometimes, but it depends on the people you tell. Luckily my friends and family are supportive when I tell them these things, and I've even met some people in college who have seen similar things. They also referred to them as "shadow people" or "shadow figures" so I just had to ask them their stories, and do my research. I am very grateful that I stumbled upon this website; I don't have to feel alone out there.

I am prepared to deal with this my whole life, I just wish I knew exactly why I see them and what they mean.