The shade you describe, Frater, seems to differ from shadow people. I'm only speaking from what others have told me and my own experiences, but shadow people usually move. Sometimes they are alone, but often they are in groups. Shadow people also sound less defined than the shade and you can look right at shadow people and watch them for sometimes long perieods of time.

I have never really heard of this shade, but it's story of bringing calamity reminds me of the original banshee.

Hi Juders. Likewise, thank you very much for your post. Other than the term, I knew nothing about, "Shadow People." So, I greatly appreciate your information about them.

As I cautioned kitsuyo, the ways people experience occult phenomena are often highly subjective. It seems that only broad generalities can be made. I described Shades only as accounts of them have been related to me and, also, from my own experience. But, I think that what you experienced conforms so well to the broad generalities that I think it is safe to identify what you experienced as a Shade.

I've never heard of a Shade appearing to two different people in the same house before. However, that's not to say that it can't happen. After all, I am only one person limited to one perspective. I don't see why it wouldn't be possible. What you would have to investigate is: a) Was it one Shade appearing to two different people?, or b) Were there two different Shades, one appearing to your mother and one appearing to you? I don't know.



I, too, looked my Shade straight in the face. But, I first detected it with my peripheral vision. He gave me time to roll over and catch a straight on glimpse of him. But, then he vanished almost instantly.



This is interesting. This is the first time I've heard of an animate Shade. Maybe they can be mobile. Again, occult phenomena is subjective. You mentioned that you saw the Shade in a dark room. Could the lighting, or lack thereof have created an optical illusion? Or, are you sure of what you saw?



Again, I wrote about Shades only from my own perspective. "Bad things," rarely involve just one person. There are usually two or more people involved. One is the, "Doer," and the other is the person being, "Done To." For example, in my initial post, my old girlfriend was the one doing the bad things. Why didn't the Shade appear to her warning her that she would be found out? Instead, it appeared to me warning me of what was being done to me. In the case of the restaurant manager and board member stealing money from the club, why did the Shade appear to the restaurant manager, who was the, "Doer," and not to any of the other members who were being, "Done To.?" One has to be sufficiently psychically sensitive enough to sense occult entities to begin with. Perhaps they appear to both the, "Doers," and the people being, "Done To." But, only the psychically sensitive ones are able to see them. Or, perhaps Shades are able to detect which ones are the most psychically sensitive and only appear to them. Who knows?



There are a number of possibilities here, Juder. Unfortunately, I don't know you, or your life's set of circumstances well enough to make any speculations. However, I can say this for sure. What both you and I experienced are prime examples of what occultists refer to as, "Psychic Attack." The subject of, "Psychic Attack," is extraordinarily complex. There is more---much, much more---to the subject than simply what its name implies. If you are interested in investigating the reasons for the appearance of your Shade more deeply, then I highly recommend Dion Fortune's masterpiece, Psychic Self-Defense (2001 Samuel Weiser, Inc.). It was first published in 1930. Dion Fortune was one of the original members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn: to this day, the most credible of occult societies. Dion Fortune is no intellectual slouch. She made her living first as a school teacher, then as a Freudian Psychologist, and later as a Psychiatrist. She dedicated her life to the revival of the Mystery Tradition of the West. I've read most of her books, but this one, I've studied intensely. It's remarkable. I'll warn you. Fortune is an intellectual in the truest sense of the word. Her writing style takes a little getting used to. She's got a kind-of, "Julia Childs," way of speaking. But, she's a MARVELOUS teacher with a wonderful sense of humor. Her books are quite comprehensible and she's got a lot to say about the matter. By the way, she doesn't discuss Shades, specifically, nor other spirit entities. Rather, she discusses the psychological and occult reasons for spirits in general and cites them specifically as the need arises. You've got to read this book! That's all there is to it!

Thanks also to you, MaskedFox and tviscante, for your information on, "Shadow People." I really was oblivious to them before. So, I very much appreciate all of your information on them. It's funny how the human mind operates. Now that I know what Shadow People are---now that they have been, "suggested," to me---I'll probably start seeing them. Thanks a lot folks!

These are just some afterthoughts on Shades that came to me over the weekend. I wondered if there might be any relationships between Shades, the negligent use of Magic, and Psychic Attack directed by human agencies. Let me explain what I mean.

Regarding Magic:

Paradigms:

Magicians perform their Magic within the parameters of, "Paradigms." A, "Paradigm," is simply a model, a way to look at the world, a fundamental set of assumptions that are rarely questioned. Magicians choose paradigms according to what they think will work most effectively in specific Magical operations. Common paradigms in Magic are the Spirit Paradigm, the Energy Paradigm, the Psychological Paradigm, and the Information Paradigm.

Regarding the, "Spirit Paradigm," generally, Magicians either subjugate, or call upon already existent Spirits to assist them in their Magical operations. The most common catalog of these Spirits is included in an historical grimoire called the, "Goetia," reported to have been written by King Solomon from the Christian Holy Bible. The Goetia is, basically, a list of Spirits, their physical characteristics, "personalities," and for what they are the most useful. However, the Spirits in the Goetia, of which there are over 70, happen to be redundant and limited in their capabilities. So, often, a Magician cannot find a Spirit specific enough to perform a certain task. In such instances, a Magician will simply, "create," a Spirit in his imagination specific to a certain task. These, "created spirits," are called, "Artificial Entities:" a perfect name for them, I think. One of the most common types of, "Artificial Entities," is the, "Servitor."

Servitors:

As stated, Servitors are Artificial Entities created in a Magician's imagination to perform a certain task. One of the ways Magicians create Servitors is that they think of the task first. Then, they make a list of all the most important, "symbols," related to that task. And, then, they, "create," or, "mentally construct," a Spirit in their imaginations with these symbols as sort-of, "building blocks." I'll give you an example:

As some of you know, I'm a musician. Just for fun, I created a Servitor to attract more tips to my tip jar when I play the piano at restaurants. Obviously, unexpected money, or, "money luck," is the Magical intent. So, I used a bunch of symbols to, "create," "Gluck." My Servitor for this particular Magical operation is named, "Gluck:" the German word for, "Luck." Essentially, he is a, "Body of Symbols:" specifically, money symbols. He is green-complected. He wears green clothing. He is a Leprechaun. His cufflinks, hat and shoe buckles are golden dollar signs. He carries a, "Pot of Gold." Essentially, he is a, "Body of Symbols," of everything I could think of pertaining to money. His task is to go around to every table in the restaurant and whisper into the guests ears that they should put money in my tip jar. Interestingly, I only used him once and, that night, I got a tip from every single table! So, do you understand what Artificial Entities/Servitors are now?

Okay. Now, it is advised that when the Artificial Entity is no longer needed, then the Magician should, "Mentally Dismantle," it. This is just mentally doing whatever is necessary to make it not exist in the imagination anymore. There are a number of ways to do this.

Here is my point. It seems that most Spirits---artificial, or not---are, "Bodies of Symbols." The symbols, alone, are how we most often perceive Spirits. Now, one of the most peculiar characteristics of Shades is that they sorely lack in, "Symbolic Information." In fact, other than a, "human outline," and, "concentrated darkness," they don't have any symbols at all. Or, at least their symbols are to a great extent, few, vague, and innocuous.

I just wonder how common this Magical practice is. I've read that is is rather common in the U.K. I also wonder how conscientious Magicians are about dismantling their Artificial Entities when they are through with them. What if they just carelessly forget about them? Here, they've, "created," this, "Spirit Entity," simply forgotten about it, and now we've got this poor, "Spirit Being," wandering aimlessly about the Astral with absolutely no traces of the Magician's imagined symbols left to define it and no more purpose---no more orders to carry out. So, this Artificial Entity is simply reduced to a symbol-less, purposeless, defined-less, "presence." Much like a Shade. I wonder if Shades are just, "Spirit Shells," much like the seashells we find on the beach. There is the residual presence of something, but without any substance, or vitality.

One of the things I've noticed is that already existing spirits have some degrees of their own consciousness and intelligence. They're to differing degrees, autonomous. Conversely, Artificial Entities don't seem to have any consciousness, or intelligence, whatsoever. They seem, "stupid," or comatose. The only thing they can do is carry out orders like a mindless slave, which may be a good thing. I've noticed the same thing about Shades. Shades don't seem to have any consciousness, intelligence, or autonomy. When they appear, they just stand there like large, comatose beings.

Well. These are just thoughts. What does anyone else think?

Psychic Attack Directed by Human Agencies:

We need to be aware of the fact that there are people out there using the occult for malicious purposes. No offense to you ladies out there. But, I can think of several examples of jealous, vindictive women who have resorted to the occult to attack rival lovers and lovers who have jilted them. I just wonder if the, "Shade," is one of the ways that human beings perceive a, "Psychic Attack." There is a whole lot to, "Psychic Attack," that I cannot go into here. But, it was just a thought, which leads me to my last point:

I wonder if, "Shades," are a sort-of Jungian Archetype, or part of the Jungian human, "Collective Conscious," or, "Collective Unconscious? We humans like to assign concrete symbols to abstract concepts. For example, the, "Heart," is a universal symbol for Love. But, how did that association come about? Is it just a symbolic association innate in human beings----like, "Bundled Software." We didn't have to, "Install," the information? It just came with our brains when we were first conceived?

My point is, I wondered if I asked one million human beings to draw a picture of, "Fear," how many of them would draw tall, broad, dark, shadowy, figures with human form? Could the Shade just be one of the human mind's way of personifying fear? Giving concrete form to an abstract concept?

Who Knows?

Here is an article about Shadow Men is anyone is interested. I found it really informative and interesting: http://www.trueghost.com/shadow_men.htm

Frater Manifesto - thank you for suggesting the book. I am going to order it off Amazon today and read it. I would be really interested in learning more about this. I've only read one book on the occult/ ghosts & hauntings, but I would love to read more if you have any other suggestions of books.



I am about 95% sure of what I saw. The reason I don't think it was a trick of the light or an optical illusion is because I saw it 5 different times and in 5 different parts of my room. It would be very likely if I had just seen it once, but 5 times and in 5 different places leads me to believe that it was something.



Honestly, I don't know much about what my mother saw, just that she saw a man similar to what I did. I am going to talk to her about it now though and try and find out exactly what she saw. She doesn't like to talk about it much because before me she was the only person who saw stuff and I think people kind of convinced her she was crazy (especially my dad who slept next to her and never saw anything she did).

What you wrote about Shades being magical entities that no longer bare the symbols of their "magicians" ( I have no idea if thats what they're call or not, sorry if I offend anyone by referring to it that way), I am not similar with this magically practice so I can't really say for sure what I think on this matter. Although I can say that when I saw the man, I don't think I would refer to him as empty. I have no idea if I would be able to sense if they actually were empty or not, but to me, I just got the feeling that he was watching me. Maybe studying me or possibly protecting me? I know that doesn't make sense because I said I was scared each time I saw him, which I was very scared, but I just get the feeling he was there to help me and didn't want to hurt me.

Frater Manifesto, Thank you so much for the information, and it really helped in hindsight. I now know that the shade was just trying to warn me!

You see what was happening was that i was lying about my grades to my mother, so we wouldn't fight, and several days after posted this, my mom and I had a Knock down fight that ended badly, and afterward i stopped seeing my 'shadowy little friend' as my friends called it, and now i see the error of my ways, and have stopped lying and now have good grades

Hi Kitsuyo. I'm very sorry to hear about your matter. But, I'm very happy to hear that it had a positive outcome. Thanks so much for your courteous last post. I think most of us on this forum are here to help one another through our information and shared experiences. So often, people post their questions for help. And, then, a lot of us try to help them with our information. But, after that, we never hear from them again. In such cases, it would be nice to hear back from the people to see if whether what we've told them is correct information, or not. It helps us gain better perspectives from others' experiences. So, thank you very much for following up. Your experience helps us to validate the, "Shades appearing before calamities," theory and gives us a better perspective. Good luck in school!