Me and my family were kinda homeless, we would travel from hotel to hotel, my dad was on unemployment, me and my brother use to steal food for the family so we can eat..

after a while of being homeless we were put in these apartments, the apartment was full of other peoples clothes,etc.. we went to sleep at night like usual (we all were sleeping in the living room together) i woke up to see everyone sleeping on the floor
(exactly where they were before i went to sleep) then i saw this black shadow… although i didn’t feel any anger or intent from this thing, i was suddenly being choke by it..i fought for my life i believe, it then suddenly disappeared.. i woke up terrified.

But now for some reason after a few other experiences,these things can’t harm me, i don’t fear them at all and if they tried i’ll always fight back..i even seen a Black shadow spider last night climbing on the blinds of the window when i woke up last night, that suddenly disappeared.. i smiled and went back to sleep.

I can draw a few c0onclusions of what i believe these things to be.

1. Evil figures trying to steal your soul or Lost souls that wanna exist.

2. Guardians or Fear inducers, maybe were venturing into a dangerous state… maybe too far mean death. (We see them when we awake while sleeping)

3. There seem to be different types, although they appear all to be Shadows, they always stare directly at us.. maybe not to scare us but to make sure nothing gets to our bodies while we leave them.

Sadly it’s unknown what type thats there with you.. but w/e they are the courage is based on yours, don’t fear them..

My experience was somewhat different. I didnt feel scared, but assured and “strong in conviction” like I was being pumped by my trainer ahead of a game I needed to perform very well in. But ofcourse I was a bit annoyed and currious of why I could not move. The person standing to my left stood out to be very short, he/she/it was holding on to my left leg with the left hand and held the right hand above my head slightly away from my body. There was no heavy breathing that some of you others are talking about, but I heard what I can only interpret as a chant or at least a spoken language/sound I did not understand. Not whispering but rather mumbeling.

I Remeber that I dreamt before the shadow person but I dont remember what. When I woke up I knew instantly what it was, because I watched a documentary about this phenomenon more than 10-15 years back (Sleep paralysis + shadow men). Only thing differing is the fact that I never felt threatened or afraid but rather fullfilled.

When I “woke up” my first instinct was to ask he/she/it to talk to me, for some wierd reason in both languages I speak without thinking about it. I just reacted to it after having said out loud “talk to me” in english and then saying “prata med mig” which is the same in swedish my native language.

When I fell asleep again I went straight into a dream where I could jump in great leaps and bounds without hurting. Jumping around between mountain tops I met a woman who I never had met before/didnt recognice. But I instantly understood her to be my soulmate and I felt that she knew the same about me, I even think she kind of told me and that without opening her mouth. I guess we both opened our minds.

It was all toghether very weird and beautifull.
I really hope that this will come back and that it will be an as positive event following times. Obviously I would want it to be more than a evolutionary pray thing aka Tonic immobility and rather it to be some kind of “contact” over different realms.

Another possible point of interest is that I fairly often (perhaps 1 out of 5) figure out during a dream that it actually is a dream. I then usually start jumping really high or strat flying and then wake up what feels like 20-30 seconds after the reveletion.

I am not religious and I have always had a skeptical mind, always thinking of rational possibilities. I am unclear if the feeling of aprehension or fear is related to the fact that the shadow is not familiar (meaning you dont see this everyday), or if it did incite fear cause of some malice, or just a reaction from primitive instinct.

The shadow would tell me things, force me to answer questions both in my dreams and in my sleep. I never remembered what it would say or even ask. My defense against this scary event was my rational mind. I would tell myself to ignore it, it does not exist if I do not believe. My will is stronger than the shadow and it can not harm me. Dont show fear, be ambivalent. It is a dream, hallucination. Things like that (I was 14yrs old). I was thankful that my brother had witnessed it and so did a close friend. Both had no knowledge of my own encounters.

First, my brother had seen it in his room while I was in there. We were going to watch tv, he had followed me in. He switched on the light but no light came on. We assumed the light bulb had burned out. As he flicked it a couple of times he said he saw a shadow climbing in the window behind me. Finally the light went back on and the shadow disappeared.
The second, a friend had a similar experience. I was in his room listening to music. He came in to check on me. He began to say something to me and then cut himself off and then ordered me out of his room. I was startled and ran out. He had never spoke to me in that form. He stayed in the room for a bit then came out. I asked him why he was upset and yelled at me. At first he didnt want to tell me then he said, I dont ever want you to be in that room alone again. When I pressed for answers, he relented and stated that he had seen a black shadow attempting to climb in the window behind me. When he ordered me out and turned he said it was still standing there, outside. He said it was looking at him and it appeared to be laughing with an”evil grin.” Even then I didnt tell him about the dreams, etc. All these years later I never spoke of it again. I thought he had forgotten. Strangely yesterday I spoke to him (fast forward 20yrs later) and he brought it up. I was stunned. It prompted me to google. and brought me here.

I dont really care too much about it, but if you find a scientific, rational answer, I want to know! I read a lot about noetic science, quantum physics, and things of that nature. I dont think it was a “demon” or anything like that. I am a grad student studying neuropsych. I am a huge fan of the brain and all of its mysteries. So everything in me states that there has to be a rational answer and I would like to know what that is…. I hope you find it and share!

(1) I would wake up in my bed, sit up nice and calm and look at my bedroom door to see a red glowing figure (about 6 feet tall) standing and watching me. It never moved, it never made a noise, it only stood in my door frame staring at me. I did not feel threatened, though it did scare me. The first night it happened I thought it was only a nightmare. However after that night, it began happening every single night to follow. After maybe a week of this re-occuring, I began sleeping in between my parents in their bedroom…but that did not cease the experience. In fact, it stayed exactly the same. The only difference now was I was waking up in my parents bed, sitting up nice and calm in between them, looking to my left and seeing my dad sleeping, looking to my right and seeing my mom sleeping and looking at their door way and seeing the red glowing figure staring directly at me. All I could do is lay back down, pull the covers over my face and drift back to sleep. To this day, I have the image scarred in my memory and I can draw it out exactly as I saw it. My parents dismissed it as night terrors, though I feel like they may believe I was truly awake when this was happening because they had our house blessed with holy water. To me it felt as real as anything else. It finally stopped after about 3-4 months.

(2) I hadnt experienced anything like that again until I was about 19 years old and luckily it was only a single night. I fell asleep next to my girlfriend while watching a movie in my bedroom. This time I couldnt recall how everything looked to me, but I do remember feeling like something was after me. I began thrashing in the bed and moaning like something was hurting me. My girlfriend then was able to awaken me and as I opened my eyes the first and only thing I remember seeing was a dark shadow move quickly up to the corner of the bedroom wall, I looked away in fear and when I looked back, it was gone. My girlfriend said before I began thrashing, I was asking for a Doctor. My heart was racing and I had a thin layer of sweat on my forehead.

(3) My third experence, last night, 3/27/11. I recall everything. Im laying on my back (as I was with my previous experiences), I opened my eyes and got out of bed to the left side. My girlfriend was still sleeping to my right. I stood up next to my bed and took 3 steps towards the dresser to get my phone (I thought it was time to get up and get ready for work), I suddenly got extremely dizzy and turned around and fell on my knees next to the bed. Once my knees met the carpet, the dizziness went away and my eyes focused, and as they did a black shadowy figure about 3 feet tall was staring directly in my face, about 5 inches away. It moved its head quicky towards me and I fell backwards, all I could hear was a loud ruffling/growling noise as I fell back and I began yelling. Thats when my girlfriend shook me and I was laying back in bed breathing very heavily. I scared the sh*t out of her. I couldnt get back to sleep because I felt very uncomfortable and had a feeling like something was watching me.

Ive had my share of nightmares and when I do, I can tell they are nightmares. However, these 3 experiences felt extremely real to me and each and every time, they occur in the same location I indeed fell asleep, wearing the same clothes, next to the same people I fell asleep next to, and they leave me with a very bad feeling. I dont know what it is. I dont know if its my imagination. I dont know how to deal with it. I do believe in God, but I do not practice any religion, my family however is mainly Catholic. I am open to all opinions…scientific or religious. I am also very glad to know other people have experienced something like this.