Shadow People Dr. Sharon Gill For several years now, we have seen a tremendous growth in the interest of ghost, poltergeists, orbs, vortices, haunted houses and places of business, Electronic Voice Phenomenon, Spirit Photography or anything associated with the mysterious unknown. As children, ghosts stories and spooky movies were a big adrenaline rush, exciting beyond belief, but were presented to us as fantasy. "There are no such things as ghosts!" is what I heard a lot as a child. It was okay for entertainment purposes, especially around Halloween, but we were told it wasn't real. The cartoon version of ghosts, was okay as we were less likely to believe in cartoons as being real. But things have changed over the years and people have had real paranormal experiences, they've just had no place to share them. Progress in understanding paranormal activity has been at a snails pace. We, as a society, are much more focused on the physical and what we can do to improve our quality of life. We don't even speak about death, we ignore it at all costs. We don't discuss our own mortality. It might come up in conversation if we lose someone close to us, but overall we avoid the issue. The most we might do is take out life insurance and buy a plot for ourselves in a family plot somewhere, but even that is forgotten until the time that we are put there. People in the old days were at threat of being locked away if they saw or heard anything abnormal and talked about it. If they spoke to someone who wasn't there, whom no one else could see, there were all kinds of repercussions for that kind of behavior. So, people having strange things happen around them or seeing someone vanish before their eyes, or hearing people talking softly or sounds of things moving around a room only to find nothing out of place, well, those things were kept silent. No one wanted to end up in the local mental institution, under sedation. Even mental facilities were different in the old days and they were more difficult to get out of, once admitted into. There are those people who do suffer from emotional and psychological problems who require professional care. That is not to say that everyone who has paranormal experiences is in need of intense group or drug therapy. At times it is difficult to determine the difference when working with people, but after listening to people and hearing of their experiences, circumstances seem to clearly define which cases are paranormal in nature and which are imagined or staged for attention. It takes an experienced researcher to determine the differences by taking the time to listen and evaluate the situation fully. Over the years we have heard all the terms used to describe the spirits who present themselves to us in different ways. Spooks, phantoms, poltergeists, ghosts, dopplegangers, spirits of the dead, and the list goes on. But more recently, a new term has come into being. We are hearing more about the "shadow people" and we get many calls asking about these beings. The biggest concern is whether they are evil beings. The answer is no. Shadow people are nothing more than the spirits people have encountered throughout history. But it is the word "shadow" that throws people a curve and automatically, they think of darkness and what that darkness might hold. As humans we think, many times, in terms of black and white. White of course to us, means light and goodness. It means God whereas darkness would take us to the unknown, evil, demons and anything of a negative connotation we relate to black. For just a moment, think about a dark and stormy night, walking down a dark street or alley, the lights going out in the house, rendering the rooms to total darkness. Think about what emotions that stirs within you as you focus your thoughts on those things. The darkness scares us, overall. It's far easier to walk through a cemetery during the daylight than it is to walk through it in the darkness of night! Imagination really takes over bringing all kinds of horrors to mind. I was talking with a young lady down in St. Augustine this year and she started to relate a story to us about a terrifying experience she had a few years before. She was staying at a beautiful resort hotel, known to be haunted. Everything seemed to be going just fine until she walked upstairs to return to her room and saw, at the end of the hall, a dark misty substance. She suddenly was overcome with the feeling that it was evil and it scared her half to death. The dark mist faded away and nothing transpired to indicate that the mist was demonic in nature. It just left her with the feeling that it was and she swore never to return. When asking her where this had taken place, she told me and what struck me immediately was that there have been many reports of a ghost in the hotel, but no reports that the spirit is evil, demonic or causing negative problems to occur anywhere in the hotel or on the property. In face, every story we have been told has been to the contrary. My evaluation of the situation, and understanding her fear as being a natural reaction, was that because she saw a dark manifestation in the hall, she automatically presumed it to be evil. We are trained to think in terms of black and white, dark and light, evil and good. That is not always the case though and so far, her story about her experience in the hotel is the only one relating the ghost to be evil or demonic. Her perception, however, was due to being indoctrinated to believe that dark is evil. She was trying to understand why it felt so evil to her when she was being taught at a workshop that ghosts are not demonic in nature. Science tells us that there are eleven dimensions around us. New discoveries are being made all the time, but so far, scientists have found eleven different dimensions. We have learned that the spirit realm is in another dimension which, at times, allows interaction between the living and those who have passed on. Sylvia Brown tells us that the next dimension, the spirit dimension can be as close as three feet away from us! At times we hear people talking or music playing but find there is no one around us, at least no one that we can see. There are times, as in the book, Grave's End, when people experience interaction with spirits as they are attempting to let us know they need our help to move on or take care of unresolved issues or even to relay a message to someone for them. There are times when they need our help and to get our attention, they move things or make noise to alert us to their presence Our only problem has been that we've been told "ghosts don't exist" and we lack the knowledge and understanding to react in any way, other than fear. To be honest, we are finding more and more that the spirit dimension isn't as far away as we might think and there is far more interaction than we've been aware of, until recently. Many of you may recall the story we ran a few years ago about our friend and IGHS member in Portugal, Rafael. He consulted with Dave and myself quite often about one place in particular that was known to be haunted. He took his camera and visited this empty manor, several times and felt there was more there than met the eye. When he went with a friend of his, a Realtor preparing to sell the house, he had quite a life changing experience. He saw a shadow along the wall and his friend ran in fear. He started to leave also but remembered what we had told him about communicating with the spirits, asking why they remained and if he could help them. Instead of running, he turned and went back into the house and approached the dark shadow that remained there. He said he was scared half to death, but asked the spirit why it was there and could he do something to help him. To his surprise, the spirit responded by saying that he had been the gardener at the manor and had died suddenly. He never had the chance to tell his daughter he loved her but he wanted her to know. The spirit gave Rafael the information he needed to reach his daughter and Rafael proceeded to contact her. He relayed the message for the spirit, so he could continue his journey into the light. He wrote and told us of this experience to let us know that by overcoming his fears that day, he had helped the spirit of the man, go on to find peace. He was amazed at what had transpired in the old manor. Rather than perceiving the shadow to be evil or demonic, he discovered that wasn't the case at all and he was able to assist the spirit of someone who needed his help. We are not certain why some spirits come to us in the form of a dark mist or a bright white orb. But what we do understand is that what is there, is the energy, the essence of who we are in life, that surpasses death of the physical body and they usually have a purpose for making themselves known to us. If they feel that we are open to them and understand the nature of ghosts, the contact will continue until we, or someone helps them. There are times when there is no dark mist or white orb. Sometimes they let us know they are there by doing something to get our attention. I heard one story, from my daughter, that let her know that her husbands Father is still around. Grandparents, especially those who pass over before the birth of a grandchild, often hang around to see the new grandchild, or just see how things are progressing here in this plane of existence. My grandson, who is now seven years old had gone into the bathroom. As he was using the facilities, suddenly my daughter heard him yell out. She ran in the bathroom to make sure he was okay. He told her he was just standing there when all of a sudden, the roll of toilet paper flew off and hit him on the right side of his behind! The toilet paper was on the left of where he stood, so it was strange that it would go from the left side of the room to hit him on the right side of his bottom. My daughter, who is very open to the fact that her Father-in-law comes around on occasion, felt he was not only there, but let them know by playing a trick on her son. My grandson had told his Mom that he thought his Dad had thrown the roll of paper at him because he saw him walk by the door. But the man had on a red shirt and different clothing than did his Dad that day, so it wasn't his Dad that he had seen walking by the door. Dave and I were visiting the day that this took place and outside of us, there was no one else visiting that day. The boy was quite shaken by it, but maintained it had truly happened. These are just a few examples of ghostly encounters that have taken place. These could be termed "shadow people" which is just another way of expressing that there is a ghostly presence. So should you hear about the "shadow people" you might want to consider that it is just a more recent term for something that has been with us throughout history. We have entered a phase in our lives when things are changing and more research is being done everywhere to discover more about how thin the veil is between dimensions. It doesn't mean that we have more evil in the world now or that spirits are becoming more active than ever before. What it means is that we are becoming more aware of their presence and people are speaking out more openly about their experiences, without fear of being locked away and medicated. It should also be a time of retraining our ways of thinking because the fact is that we are discovering there is more to this physical life than meets the eye. Ghosts are real and they are everywhere. |
