At first, you catch a glimpse of something out of the corner of your eye. Just as you turn your head, it’s gone. But the feeling of being watched now becomes evident. Shadow people: Just the term conjures many different visions in people’s minds. Most often, it brings feelings and visions of fear.

Reports of shadow people have been around for centuries, but stories and sightings of these elusive entities are coming out now more than ever. In recent years, The Rhine Research Center (the Institute for Parapsychology) has gotten hundreds of reports from people claiming to have seen Shadow People. Paranormal research groups are witnessing them during investigations, even being able to photograph some. What does this mean? Why are Shadow People being seen so much more now than in previous years? What are they???

Well, what they are is not known, and you will receive a different answer from each person you ask. But, most paranormal researchers do agree on one aspect: They are not human entities. We don’t believe they’re ghosts. Don’t believe they’re demons either. But, on a scale, we’d lean more towards the negative side, especially given the bad feelings we get from the vibes they give off. It’s suggested that their presence means something bad, or that something bad will happen.

One thing that makes them so interesting is the consistency of reports of their sightings. Year after year, from person to person, the description almost always stays the same. Shadow People can appear as a dark, wispy indistinguishable shape or mass or a silhouetted shape of a person. It is said that they can appear with a hat or a hood. They have no facial features and no type of clothing. They’re simply a “shadow”. And they’re darker than dark; so dark that their silhouette can be seen in a pitch black home. They’re often described as small in size, usually no more than a few feet tall, and if the eyes are seen, they’re typically small and red. They stay (or come from) the corners of rooms, behind the TV, couch or chair, in lower cabinets, under beds or in closets.

Most of the time, they do nothing… just watch the living, though there have been reports of people being attacked by Shadow People. Unlike some ghosts, Shadow People seem to be very aware of our presence and at times seem intent on making us feel frightened or uncomfortable. They seem to appear where other paranormal activity has been sighted or where there is or has been a great deal of stress, grief or tragedy. It is also theorized that they feed off the energy of people. This makes sense, especially when coupled with the theory of them appearing where a tragic situation has occurred. There are negative emotions or energy, so the Shadow People exploit this and grow stronger, thus appearing more often.