So a couple of weeks ago i was taking out the trash cans, when out of the corner of my eye i see a tall black figure leaning against my neighbors tree. Freaking out i turn quickly to face it, but there is nothing there. so i shrug it off as not sleeping well enough, and i continue to take out the trash cans. A couple of days later i am walking up my street, and i stop to look at the stars and i hear a loud crack behind me, and as i am turning i see the same figure as before, and where it was standing, there is a cracked piece of solid ice, and i had not walked where the ice was, as it was on the side walk and i didn't want to fall.

And now i see the figure everywhere i go. And it is really creeping me out, also to add to the creepy factor, i always get a chill and goosebumps right before i see it, Every time.

So my question. What the hell is it?

how long has this been going on?

For about three months

Hi Kitsuyo. I see that you joined this forum just a little over a month ago. Welcome to Discuss the Paranormal. I hope we can all supply you with helpful information.

First and foremost, you need to relax, calm your emotions and overcome your fear. This, "tall, black, figure," you described will do you no harm. In fact, as much as this apparition frightens you, or, "is really creeping 'you' out," as you put it, it might even be helpful for you to think of this, "tall, black, figure," as your friend.

Occultists refer to the apparition you described as a, "Shade." The appearances of Shades are more common than one might think. People who have witnessed them describe them fairly consistently. They have human form. When the subject is sensitive enough to sense gender, they're almost always described as male. They appear as kind of like silhouettes, or shadows, but the darkness that constitutes their form seems to have more density to it than a silhouette, or shadow (perhaps semi-solid). They're usually very tall (seven to eight feet tall). They're often described as broad-built. They're usually inanimate: they just stand in one place, motionless. They don't walk, run, or follow people, for instance. They're sometimes described as three dimensional and sometimes only two dimensional. They're sometimes described as wearing long overcoats and wide-brimmed hats. They're usually described as faceless. In fact, they don't seem to have any detailed features at all. They're appearances are usually very brief: two seconds at the most. Interestingly, like you, most people usually detect them with their peripheral vision: "out of the corners of their eyes," as you described. It seems that Shades only want to be noticed, but not by everyone: only to the people to whom they appear, and this is important.

I noticed that you posted this question on 2 January 2010. I may very well be too late in informing you of what you need to look out for. But, I'll tell you anyway just in case I'm not too late and, also, for reference to others who might be experiencing the same thing as you are.

Shades do not appear to everyone. They appear to specific individuals: as if they've chosen the one to whom to appear. And, this is why it might be helpful for you to think of this Shade as your friend. A Shade usually appears to an individual approximately two weeks before a calamity strikes the individual's life. Shades can be thought of as, "warning signs." The appearance of a Shade means to, "proceed with caution."

I don't believe you are in any physical danger, Kitsuyo. So, I think you can relax about that. However, I wouldn't be the least surprised to find that there is a great deal of deceit going on around you. I sincerely hope that you are not participating in such deceit because, in either case, it will cause you a great deal of heartache and misery when it is found out---and it will be found out, as warned by the Shade. Allow me to exemplify:

I make my living as a professional musician. I used to perform dinner music on piano in the restaurant of a local private club. It had been suspected for several years that the restaurant manager along with one of the board members had been stealing money from the club. However, none of the members could prove it. In a personal conversation one day, the manager told me that, as he was walking down the stairs to the restaurant that day, he saw a, "tall, dark, shadowy figure," standing at the foot of the stairs. He said it scared the Hell out of him. Within two weeks, indisputable evidence was found that both the restaurant manager and the board member were, in fact, stealing money from the club. The restaurant manager was fired immediately and the board member was eliminated from the board. Luckily for two of them, the club decided not to press criminal charges against them.

From 1985 to 1992, I cohabited with a woman with whom I was very much in love. I thought that she was very much in love with me, too, which she may well have been in some strange way. However, toward the end of our relationship, I went to spend the holidays with my family in Cincinnati, OH, while she went to spend the holidays with her family in Miami, Florida. I returned to our home in Indiana about a week before she returned. While I was home alone, I awakened one rainy morning to a loud clap of thunder. When I opened my eyes, I saw a, "tall, dark, shadowy figure," standing alongside my bed for just a few seconds. It scared the Hell out of me. Within a few days, I came across a manilla envelope on a bookshelf in our apartment. It was, "chock full," of, "love letters," to my girlfriend, none of which were from me. I use the term, "love letters," loosely. They were all extremely lewd and sexually explicit: from 16 different lovers spanning the entire seven years of our relationship. In fact, two of the letters to her were from other women. I also found out that she was not at all visiting her family in Florida for the holidays as she told me she was. Instead, she was meeting with one of her lovers there at a resort behind my back. For me, it was emotionally devastating. Needless to say, I terminated the relationship.

It is interesting to note that both of these calamities were preceded by the appearances of Shades.

It is very important for you to keep in mind, Kitsuyo, that occult phenomena can often be highly subjective. I am only relating to you what I have studied and what I have experienced, personally. Your experience may very well be altogether different. In fact, for your sake, I hope it is altogether different. The best advice I can give you regarding your Shade is to, "keep your nose clean," at all times. Do not participate in any deceitful behavior...ever...period! As the adage goes, "Honesty is the best policy." Further, keep your eyes opened wide. Make yourself acutely aware of what is going on around you and prioritize your own best interests. Reports of the appearances of Shades are almost always that they precede personal calamities. My experience with these calamities are that they can come up very surprisingly and shockingly. Take a good, honest look at your life and the people involved in your life. If there are any potential calamities, tend to them immediately before they get out of hand.

When helping people with their paranormal experiences, I'm always interested in hearing their outcomes. Please keep me posted as to the outcome of your situation. I would greatly appreciate it. Hope I've helped you.

"Shades" can also be different colors too, right? Because I've heard reports of a "gray" or "green" man that also marked oncoming trouble.

Is there a difference between "shades" and "shadow people"?

And a last note is that whether there's a difference between a shade and a shadow person or not, they're usually THE most frightful of apparitions--even if they turn out to be harmless--because they're dark and you can't make out any features (usually)...as they say, not showing everything in a situation adds to the effect.

Hello Again tviscante. I find your post very interesting. I did not know that Shades come in different colors. In fact, not to sound boastful, but I've studied the occult considerably for a long time. I'm in a habit of collecting and reading books on the occult. My house is full of them. But, I don't recall ever having read in print anything about Shades. I first found out about them from a woman who was half Native American and half Welsh. As a child, she used to spend summers with her grandfather on a Reservation. Her grandfather happened to be the Medicine Man of his particular tribe---Lakota, as I recall. I found her a very interesting woman. She knew a lot about Magic and was very superstitious. The second time I heard about Shades was from one of my piano students, who began studying with me when he was in college. He seemed very knowledgeable about them. I don't know where he got his information. All that I know about Shades has not come from books, but rather from others' accounts of them and from personal experience. I wouldn't say that they appear frequently, but I am surprised at how common they are.

I agree with you that they are very frightening. I think that their size, alone, is intimidating. Also, I find that Shades are one of the very few types of, "entities," that one can actually see. My experience with occult entities is that I can usually, "feel," their presence. They seem to appeal to the, "sixth sense." But, I can count on one hand the number of occult entities I've actually seen. I would need even fewer fingers to count the number of them that others have seen with me. Also, it seems that with most occult entities, there is a, "building up process." I first sense them very faintly. And, then, they, "grow," or, "build up," in my imagination until I have a pretty good handle on what they're all about. But, Shades are different. They seem only to appeal only to the sense of vision. I think that another thing that makes them so frightening is that, ironically, they appear all of a sudden, without warning, and catch one by surprise. It's like you sense something out of the corner of your eye, turn around and, "HOLY S**T!!!!! And, then they're gone in an instant. I don't even know if people actually, "see," them, or not. But, I think it's safe to say that there is something about them that stimulates the optic nerves and sends visual sensory information to the brain. I also think that, "Where there's smoke, there's fire." Enough people have reported about them and have described them consistently that there must be something to them.

As for, "Shades," and, "Shadow People:" I've only heard the term, "Shadow People." But, I don't know anything about them. So, I don't know if Shades and Shadow People are the same, or different. When I think of the word, "people," "social interaction," comes to mind. I don't know why. I just connect the two. I've never heard of, "Groups of Shades." They seem always to appear alone and don't seem to have any social skills. They just stand there motionless and speechless like a sort of, "etheric statue."

At any rate, it would be interesting to find out if there is an NAACP for Shades:):):):):)

Are you familiar with paperback Xerox books that were published in the 1970s? I don't recall what their title was or anything, it was just a line of neat books of short stories I would feverishly read at my library. I loved them.

Anyway, that's where I heard about other colors of 'shades', so I don't know if it's legit or not, fact or fiction. So there's that, how I heard of it, reading one of their books where the subject of the whole thing was the paranormal, and there was a story or two in there about them.

Those were good books for us youngsters to read

No. I'm not familiar with them. But, they sound interesting.

Frater Manifesto-

Thank you so much for posting about this. About two years ago I started to see what I know believe could possibly be a shade. At first I did research and the only thing I could find close to what I saw was "shadow people" or a "shadow man". It sounded similar but there was differences in all the account of shadow people than what I saw. Shadow People most of the time are in groups, are moving towards or away from people, and seem to be trying to communicate in some way. From what I read, one theory on them is that they are a sort of paranormal parasite. If the person seeing them is happy and calm, so are they, if they are frightened, the shadow people become angry and dominating and scary.

For me what I saw was closer to how you explain the shades. First I guess I should explain what I saw. Over the course of a year I saw the same shadowy figure of a man in my bedroom 5 different times. The first time I woke up and looked into my bedroom, it was dark and all the lights were out, I saw the figure of a tall man standing in front of my closet. I made a little half scream noise and quickly turned on my bedside light. As soon as the light came on, the figure was gone. I couldn't make out features but for some reason I knew it was a man. I couldn't see any distinguishing clothes but for some reason I was sure he was wearing a trench coat.

The next time I saw him was a few months later. I woke up in the middle of the night and saw the same shadowy man standing now in the middle of the room. The first two times I saw him were the shortest, and the second time when pretty much the same as the first.

The third time was very different. Again, I woke in the middle of the night to a very very dark room. I looked over to my desk, I had a wooden chair sitting next to my desk agents the wall facing me, and as I looked over I saw the same shadowy man as before, but this time he was sitting in the chair. As I watched he sort of hunched over onto himself, like he was leaning his head down into his lap. This was the first time I had seen him move and it scared me really really bad.

The fourth time, he was standing between my bed and my desk, closer to me then before. And the very last time I saw him, he was standing literally at the foot of my bed staring at me. That was the scariest time, and after that I slept with my light on every night until I moved out of that house. That was two years ago and I haven't seen him since.

It never seemed like he was trying to communicated with me, just that he was watching me. These 5 times took place over a year so I really can't contribute bad things happening after I saw him. If there were I wasn't paying attention at the time. I found out after the 3rd time I saw him that my mother was experiencing the same sort of thing and saw the same man I did. Have you ever heard of a shade appearing to two people in the same house?

Another difference between what I saw and shadow people is that shadow people are usually seen out of the corner of your eye, while I looked my shadow man straight on and he didn't vanish until I turned the light on.

Any incite you have on this would be greatly appreciated. I'd love to know what exactly I saw and why I was seeing it.

Gads...this is the first time I regret reading this forum about half an hour before I'm going to go to bed