I'm going to preface this by saying that I don't believe in "shadow people". I'm also going to say that I don't have any proof that shadow people DON'T exist. In short...I don't know. When I was a kid, talk of UFO's was absolute silliness and just fun sci fi. Now the government is saying, "oh, ya...we don't really know what it is but there's something." Point is that I don't know what I don't know and I don't even know what I do know anymore. Life was much simpler before the internet...which is when this event occurred.
A little over 30 years ago (sheesh) I was at a friends house enjoying a little pool time. A few friends of mine were renting a house together so I'd go over on occasion to hang. It must be established that there was no drugs or alcohol involved on this particular evening, a few of us were just hanging out in the pool waiting for the third roommate to get home. The backyard was nothing special, just a pretty typical inland Orange County suburban home. I don't know why I shared that part...it's irrelevant. What is relevant is the basic layout which I'm sure you can already imagine. Go out the sliding glass door to the backyard, small sitting area then pool. I remember that it was around dusk because there was still some daylight but the lights inside the house were on so the sitting area was fairly lit up. I was in the shallow end of the pool while my two buddies had just hustled over to the deep end in order to perform some fantastic tandem dive. Another note, if you were on the deep end of the pool, you couldn't see the sliding glass door as a room from the house sort of jutted out into the backyard which made that sitting area kind of an alcove type deal. So, from where I was standing in the pool, only I could see if someone was in the house or coming outside. Just as my two friends make the dive, I see with my peripheral vision that our third friend has come home and is coming outside. Keep in mind that my two friends are underwater at this point. I start to turn to my left to address my friend that's just come out and all I see is this six foot tall shadow that instantly morphs down into this beach chair. This shadow was not my imagination. This "shadow" could be seen quite vividly in my peripheral and, as my head was turning, it very obviously morphed, for lack of a better term. Just then, my two friends popped out of the water, gushing with pride over their tandem dive, when they see me standing there speechless. They both knew by the look on my face that something was amiss but I can't remember if I told them or not. I don't think that I did. Needless to say, friend number three wasn't home yet and whatever I saw, wasn't really there.
At that time, I'd never heard of shadow people. Remember, this was pre-internet so our options were to ask someone you know or go to the library. I did neither and just put it out of my mind as my imagination. It wasn't until around 25 years later that I was listening to one of these paranormal podcasts that I heard about shadow people and figured that must be what I saw...or it was my imagination.
There was something else that kept happening in that house that I only recently discovered is relevant. One of the friends was having repeated sleep paralysis...but he didn't describe it as that. He described a woman that was holding him down during the night, preventing him from moving or yelling out for help. At that time, I wrote it off as sleep paralysis...cuz I'm logical like that. Another side note, I was studying quite a bit of philosophy, logic and critical thinking at the time and really thought I knew a thing or two. I only recently discovered that episodes of sleep paralysis and shadow people sometimes go hand in hand but, at the time, I saw no connection.
So, what do I think now? I don't know. I want to know. I really need to know...but I likely never will. If you forced me into an answer, I'd say it was all in my mind and that my friend was just having sleep paralysis. I've experienced sleep paralysis multiple times and it's absolutely terrifying so it's pretty easy for me to imagine what he was feeling. That said, I've learned to keep my mind open so I'd absolutely love to hear any opinions about this.
