But really isn't it ALWAYS Halloween, Halloween, Halloween! 👻

[RAvery]

Why I Think Shadow People are Real
Part II — Celebrity Endorsements

Despite his corny stage name and generally clean-cut appearance, Orson Bean led an interesting and sometimes experimental life. This left him many stories to tell, and he loved telling stories about himself. Anyone who has seen “Tattletales” is aware of this.

I’m going to paraphrase a story he told on a talk show in the mid-90s, during the Dr. Quinn phase of his career. I don’t remember who’s talk show it was — there were so many of them at the time.

It’s a serious story, but he told it in a humorous manner. He described it as a ghost story, but no, what he saw was a shadow person. I have searched for a clip of this story on YouTube, but cannot find it.

The story comes from Bean’s time living in Australia with his then-wife Carolyn Maxwell. They had just bought a house, and had been living in it for about two weeks.

One night, he and his wife were getting ready for bed. She was in the bathroom, he was lying on the bed absentmindedly watching television. While lying there he became aware of a dark transparent figure walking across the room. It went out the bedroom door and continued down the hall.

At that moment his wife came out of the bathroom and saw on the bed, staring out the door with a look of disbelief on his face. She asked, “have you seen it, too?”

Apparently she had seen this figure walking through the house a few times in the past two weeks, but dismissed it as just her imagination.

He concluded the story by saying they packed their bags that night, left the house and never went back.

[RAvery]

I saw this some years ago at a “New Sounds Live” event. As part of John Schaefer’s introduction, describing Murnau and the film, he said:

It’s hard sometimes to know exactly what to make of this movie, but it is undeniably creepy. But what do you expect from a movie about real estate.

[smulder]

[Lucy_Gothro1]

If you can, get a copy of “Gumbo Ya-Ya”; there are dark-men stories (and others, it’s a great book) of Lousiana.

[smulder]

[Lucy_Gothro1]

[ChuckV]

The Damned (Là-bas) by Joris-Karl Huysmans
Translation by Terry Hale

[Lucy_Gothro1]

Love your avatar, btw.

[ChuckV]

Thanks.

Tis Fantomas, The Elegant Menace:

The Fantomas Website: THe Mexican Comic Book

[Lucy_Gothro1]

He reminds me of DC’s The Phantom Stranger.

[ChuckV]

I loved it.

You didn’t even mention the middle of film music video:

Hack-O-Lantern (1988) - D.C. La Croix "Devil's Son"

A true work of art:
https://tubitv.com/movies/585500?utm_source=justwatch-feed&tracking=justwatch-feed

[RAvery]

Oh that was music?

It’s the work of the Devil. Leave it alone!

[RAvery]

Why I Think Shadow People are Real
Part III — Second-Hand Knowledge

As I’ve said before, I’ve never seen a shadow person and I don’t ever want to, but I know someone who did.

First, let me explain that there is a subset of shadow person sighting that involve “the Hat Man.” This is a shadow person who is perceived to be wearing a hat. Why this is, I can only speculate. Perhaps there are only two shadow working people world-wide, and one of them likes to wear a hat.

For a time in the mid-2000s I was friends with a woman, or perhaps I was dating her. That’s a story for another time. She and I had some things in common. For example, she lived for a while in Minneapolis to study art as had I. She was then working at Macy’s in New York, and that’s where we met.

Another thing was we had in common was a connection to the small town of Ashland, Wisconsin. She had grown up there in the 80s, as had my father 40 years earlier. It was interesting, I told her, to hear her reference some of the same locations my father did.

She was always an enthusiastic talker, and one evening on Montague Street she told me about her friends’ usual hangout during her high school years. Outside of town there was a disused railroad track in a cut where they would meet after school. There they would do whatever stuff bored teenagers do in small town America.

Then she went on.

“And, you know, there was this weirdest thing we would always see down there. There was this dark figure — you couldn’t see any details, just dark — and it would climb to the top of one of those towers, you know, they have beside the tracks. And it would try to jump across to the other side. We would always run towards it to try to get to it, to see it up close, but when we got there it was always gone.”

I was dumbfounded. Her story sounded very similar to other stories of shadow people witnessed by adults: A dark figure in a natural setting. A repetitive task out in the open. Disappearing when people try to get a closer look.

Before I could say anything she continued.

“And it was always wearing this hat. You know, one of those old-timey hats, with the brim on it.”

At this point I broke in. “You saw the hat man!” She had no idea what I was talking about. I explained the shadow person phenomenon to her. She had never heard of them before.

[Lucy_Gothro1]

I’ll have to get out my copy of “Haunted Heartland” again. I’ve not read it in a long time. It covers IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, MO, NE, OH, and WI. I recommend it.

[AndyHilmer]

I saw this phenomena maybe a half dozen times in my life. It’s basically an out-of-body-like experience when you get kind of stuck between sleep and waking for a short bit and you see a shadow version of a generic person superimposed on what your open eyes are looking at. But it’s dim and scary and makes you come to in a panic a few seconds after opening your eyes and seeing it. Sort of a sleep-paralysis ass-backward sleepwalking thing.

Sorry, not really scary and maybe not what you’re talking about.

[AndyHilmer]

I normally hesitate about talking about it now. Religious people get upset.

[ChuckV]

@RAvery

“And it was always wearing this hat. You know, one of those old-timey hats, with the brim on it.”

Sorry, that was me. I sunburn easily.

[DaakSyde]

I can’t claim to have seen the Shadow People. However I have seen, and heard, shadow creatures.

It was 9 years ago, 2013, right at this time of year. I would go out after work to rake the leaves, clearing big areas in the yard. Sometimes making patterns or clear paths through the leaves. It was zen, relaxing, fulfilling. Exercising, the sun slowly setting, the sky turning orange. A good way to gear down after work.

One night I’d been out there raking for awhile and started feeling thirsty, decided to go in and get a drink. When I looked up from my pile of leaves, the sky wasn’t orange, it wasn’t twilight, it was full-on dark except for moon and starlight. I went inside to the kitchen to get a glass of water and the clock said it was after midnight. I’d been out there about four hours longer than I thought I had. And never noticed time passing.

Oh well, guess I just got caught up in the moment and what I was doing, zoned out in the simple rhythym of raking. No big deal.

Shortly after that I started noticing new wildlife in our yard. We had a lot of things - squirrels, chipmunks, groundhogs, skunks, possums, sometimes a fox. But these weren’t any of those.

They showed up at night, after sundown. Their behavior was a little bit like squirrels, running across the ground, or skittering along the tree branches, or along the fence. But the squirrels were all in bed well before they came out. And these creatures were bigger, and chittered in a way that squirrels don’t. I could only ever see them as shadows. Long arms and legs, a head shaped like that of a snake or lizard. A curled-over tail. There would often be two or three or more, all running in the same direction.

Sometimes they’d stop and look at me. I couldn’t see their eyes in the dark, but they stopped and turned their heads towards me. And then just went on their way, passing by.

They reminded me of the idea of psychopomps, spirit creatures who come to collect the souls of the dead. But they weren’t there for me. They were a little scary, but also, oddly comforting. They never approached me, but also didn’t run away when they saw me. They just kind of acknowledged me and then went on about whatever they were doing.

Since then, I might’ve caught a glimpse of one or two of them briefly out of the corner of my eye, but I’m not really sure, kinda doubt it. That year, however, I definitely saw them. And heard them. Several of them and several times that fall and winter. Always running in the same direction together. With that weird subdued chittering noise.

[RAvery]

Wow. That’s a new one to me.

[smulder]

I can’t tell if we’re reading fiction or memoir