From: name and email withheld by request
To: The Official Shadow People Archives
Sent: Wed, Aug 12, 2009 12:42:52 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: My Shadow Person Experience
My experience occurred while living in the San Fernando Valley in the greater Los Angeles area back in 2000. I was 28 years of age. At the time of the experience, I had never heard of 'Shadow People' and I do not believe at that time they were well defined.
I worked as a research assistant for a very recognizable university. I lived with two roommates. One turned out to be my future wife and the other was one of her classmates. They were both enrolled in a graduate program at a local university studying genetic science. We were all high functioning individuals working hard toward future careers.
On the night of my experience, my roommates went to sleep as they normally did between 9:30 PM and 10:00 PM. Myself, I stayed up late that night reading. I had the next day off of work and was pretty engrossed in the book and stayed up until about 2:00 AM. The night was very quiet but also very hot. Summers in the San Fernando Valley generally are very warm. The building where I lived was surrounded by a wall that separated our property from the other adjacent buildings. As a result, the wall also prevented good air flow or night time breezes. We would generally keep our windows open to let what cool night air was available to flow through the apartment.
At about 2:00 AM the apartment was very quiet. My two roommates were fast a sleep and I moved into my bed next to my future wife. She appeared to be in a deep sleep. I am not sure how to explain it but she was almost strangely deep to sleep. She did not move as I moved into bed next to her.
The bedroom window was taller than it was wide and it would slide open from right to left and not up and down. There was a screen on the outside of the window and vertical blinds on the interior side of the window. The vertical blinds were open to let in air and I could see light (street light or moonlight not sure) coming in through the window. It dimly illuminated portions of the room. The blinds were not moving and little air flow was coming in through the window. I was laying on my back starting to relax prior to falling asleep.
Suddenly, the blinds crashed. It sounded like someone jumped right through the window and blinds. At the same time I saw a dark shape move from the area of the window to the corner of the room. This was directly diagonal away from me. My heart started to pound as my pulse started to race.
I do not know how else to explain this except that my primal instincts went on high alerts. I went from trying to fall asleep to scared to death of the sudden presence of something that felt so alien, evil and unnatural. I literally became frozen with fear. I must say that this was something very unusual for me. I grew up in the inner city of Chicago and had learned how to handle myself. I did not fright easily and absolutely never to this extent. As I lay on my back I could see a shadow in the corner of the room. It seemed to be observing me. It looked like an average man-sized outline the build was quite thin. I have always thought that it had wings but it could have been a coat or a cloak. There was some sort of slight bulk above the shoulders. I though these were wings. It appeared to be trying to squat or duck in the corner. It was so foreign. I did not see any eyes.
The only strength I could muster was to turn over and avoid looking in the direction of the shadow. I started to instinctively recite the Our Father. I did this until I fell asleep. My future wife never broke out of her sleep throughout this entire experience which I always found to be odd.
Over time, I have read experiences of other people and have found many similarities. My encounter did not try to dart away unless the crouching in the corner was its attempt to hide. The "physical" contact of the window blinds was also very strange. The overwhelming fear highlighted this encounter. When I reflect on this experience I remember it like it was yesterday. I have no idea what the shadow person was but the way my body reacted to its presence has always meant to me that it was not native to this world.
