More Eye-Witness "Hat Man" Tales...

 So as I was saying in my last blog, I'm very intrigued about this Shadow dude...(aka "The Hat Man") Until just recently, I dit'n realize that literally thousands of people have seen him, and I just have to wonder, what is UP with that?!?! 


Is it some sort of mass hysteria? 

Some sort of seizure?

Or is this dude really real?

I've added some more "eye-witness accounts" below...the similarities in the stories are uncanny!




I'm a fairly practical person, no doubt somewhat due to my career in computers, and getting used to how they process information - blacks & whites, etc. 

I am not particularly fantasy-prone, and I do not have a penchant for attributing events to the supernatural. 

I understand that this is a standard disclaimer that people who are fantasy prone would say, but please, I ask for the benefit of the doubt; I really mean it. Before anything else, I am a skeptic. 

Consider that I'm posting this in a mental health forum, and not on a message board that deals with the occult or the esoteric. Are we good so far? Good! I hope so.

When I was a child, between the ages of approximately 3 to 10 years old, I used to have a visitor. It was a man that I would see in the living room of our home on a near-daily basis. He would be sitting in the corner. There was no chair there, but nonetheless, there he was in a sitting posture. He was almost completely black, and I always had the impression that he was wearing a long cloak. I could never truly make out his face. At least no specifics. What I recall was that his face was an opaque moonstone-like color; pallid, white, almost translucent, and the shape of his head was almost perfectly round, with very thin lips, if there were any at all. These facial characteristics were almost an afterthought after taking notice of the two physical attributes that were the most identifying. First, his eyes gave the appearance that he was wearing large, completely black sunglasses. I do not know if those were his actual eyes, or if he was actually wearing sunglasses. Truly, I have no idea. But above and beyond all else was the hat. He wore what you might call a bowler or derby hat, or perhaps a gaucho hat, or a hybrid of the two. The top of the hat was completely flat, and the brim was very wide, almost as wide as his shoulders. The hat was, of course, black as well. I don't remember his hands or feet. All he would do was observe me.

The very first time I saw him, I immediately went to my mother and described him to her, and the vocal tone of her response was so passive that I was immediately put at ease. She said "That's just your imagination." At that age, I didn't know what the word "imagination" meant, so I began to call him Imagination. I thought that was his name, and I thought, due to my mother's passiveness in addressing his presence, that he was not only harmless, but a welcome guest in our home.

He would observe me as I would play with my toys on the living room floor, or while I watched television from the couch. I never felt any sense of malice or danger. Rather, he quickly became a part of the living room furniture, almost - the couch, the bookshelf, the man in the hat, the telephone table. I was never afraid. Know that he was not something I would see out of the corner of my eye. If I looked in his exact direction, I would see him sitting in the corner watching me. I could focus on his hat, and then his face, and then his body or cloak, in the same way that I could focus on a book or an album or any other tangible, physical object. This went on for many years. I don't remember when he stopped being there, but he did stop. I believe I was close to 10 years old, perhaps right before puberty hit, but this is purely a guess.

His image has always stayed with me. Over the years, he has become more and more of a childhood fantasy/memory, really, and the longer time drew past, the more I'd recollect him as almost a daydream, and then, eventually, I stopped recollecting him at all until the other night. Some friends and I had engaged in a conversation about "weird stuff" from our childhood, and I had brought this up. This spurred my curiosity, and I ended up doing some internet searches. What I discovered absolutely blew me away. Here is only a small sampling of the first nine links of which there are many, many more:

http://www.ghostlytalk.com/node/502
http://www.documentingreality.com/forum ... man-42338/
http://from-the-shadows.blogspot.com/20 ... t-man.html
http://from-the-shadows.blogspot.com/20 ... t-man.html
http://www.jesusisnojoke.com/theshadowpeople/id19.html
http://memes.org/what-are-shadow-people-and-why-fedora
http://www.democraticunderground.com/di ... g_id=95659
http://the-psychic-detective.com/shadow ... -types.htm
http://paranormal.about.com/od/ghosthun ... l-what.htm

Not only are there SOME reports across the internet, there are HUNDREDS! Possibly thousands! I'm not even done searching or reading yet. Know that I was far too young to have external influences. If I made him up, then so did all of these other people. I don't exactly understand what I'm uncovering here, if anything. What I do know is that people from around the world have described this "hat man" from toe to tip, almost exactly. This gave me chills like you would not believe.

Please be confident that I have no history of mental disorder, nor do I have any sort of strange memories that are similar to this. Aside from a repeated nightmare where dancing owls would come take me away, and aside from several bouts of sleep paralysis (or "hypnagogic hallucinations") coupled with some fairly fierce visuals during those mortifying episodes (I really thought I was going to die during them, but I've found that this is somewhat common, and even had a nickname during the medieval period - "the riding hag"), my childhood was bereft of anything even remotely approaching the scary or supernatural.

I'm posting this here because this is a mental health forum, and that is the angle that I'm trying to approach this from. Instead of saying "I was visited by a shadow person throughout my childhood," I would rather say something else, like "I had a condition, like thousands of others, that caused me to see..." or something along those lines. Is that possible? For instance, every culture around the globe had dragons integrated into their myths. Their appearance varied, but the principle was the same; a gigantic, flying lizard terrorizing society. Even though most of these cultures had absolutely no contact with one another, they still had something common integrated into their individual mythos -- the dragon. Could the "hat man" be born of a similar human carnal source?

Other than that, I do not know what questions to ask. I would like to thank those of you who made it this far down very much for reading this. I am posting for feedback and thoughts. So... what do you think? What does this all mean?

 

 I saw the hat man at the age of 3 or 4 in the Philippines. I was in our living room walking on our couch which was made of bamboo branches. Within the wood grain I saw a man that looked like he was burned into the wood, it was only a silhouette. He had a slightly pointed hat and broad shoulders... the scary part was that his jaw was moving as if he was talking to me. I cried and my mother ran into the room, swept me up into her arms and took me to some house. An elderly woman took a green bottle and rubbed a menthol like liquid on my back. She was speaking in tongues. She lit a candle and took a small bread plate, swirling the bottom of it above the flame. She flipped the plate over and the image of the hat man appeared. From what I remember she explained that this man was a dark spirit who came to children to possess them. I could be wrong about this part since i was too young to remember what was said. I tried asking my mom about it but she refuses to tell me too much detail. She just tells me to forget about it.

I pretty much did forget until I was 12 years old, I was in school during library time. A mysterious gothic girl came up to me and asked me if I was a witch. I coldly said, no and she proceeded to ask me if I've ever heard of shadow people. She told me to look them up online and she left. ( I never saw her again ) I looked them up and found a shadow people website which had "fan art" there, I found a simple pencil outline someone drew of the same hat man I saw... the person wrote that they saw this man when they were six.

I am 23 now and I haven't encountered him since, I don't wish to... but I'm very curious as to who he is.

I was leaving my room to take a shower. It was a little before 11pm. I turned the corner and smack in front of me I saw this pitch black mass in the shape of a person come out of the side wall of the concrete bunker move towards my right and pass behind another row of rooms. It was free floating and had no bottom legs. It's height was about six feet tall and was three dimensional. It ran across an open area that was 12 feet wide in less than ¼ of a second. It made no sound and had no facial features, neck, arms, or legs. The moon was not up for another 30 minutes. I immediately looked behind me, thinking that someone had walked behind me, but there was no one there.
 

I saw something about 5 years ago:It was around 10pm and I was coming out from the subway and into a "driveway" of a community center parking lot. There was moderate light and I was with my friend. We had come back from shopping and I was talking about makeup or clothes and then I saw these two "people" that were kind of block-shaped. They were solid black and kinda jogged past me about 40 feet ahead. I was still rambling on and on about clothes until I realized they disappeared before they hit the grassy area. I hadn't even blinked and both figures just vanished. I stopped talking and kept starring at where they were and I stopped walking. My friend immediately knew I saw something weird and told me to "stop it" because she's scared of "creepy" things. It wasn't really scary but I was confused. The shadows were not against flat surfaces such as walls but I realized shortly after they almost appeared to come out of the wall. They were standing upright and 3-D (according to my eyes) - which made it seem like they had substance. I knew it wasn't coming off a reflection or anything because there were no cars passing by there and the other side of the driveway were train tracks that were dark. They appeared right before my eyes, in front of me and disappeared a few moments later before I could even blink. I'm not a paranormal or supernatural type of person, I'm not religious and I am scientifically-oriented, so I'm not too freaked out about "evil" entities as I don't believe in them and somehow rationalize it to some phenomena of the brain. But I can't really explain what I saw. I came across the term "shadow people" long after I saw them. It appears most people see them from the corner of their eyes so I'm not sure if what I saw really fits into the category of "shadow people".
 
I have also encountered this about 2 months ago, although i did not know what it was at the time. I was at work attending to out-patients. A mother with her baby entered. We greeted and she took a seat. while I finished with the file of the previous patient, I looked up (I was drawn/prompted to look up by an invisible force) and saw this dark, black figure enter the room. It was male, skinny and walked with a slight stoop. I could not see any details of a person - just total black, but I could make out the legs and arms as they were swinging while it walked. It followed the path of the patient and sat directly behind this woman! It was so close to her, it almost touched her! I kept staring, and it made eye contact with me. I did not see any eyes, but felt the intensity of it. I immediately looked away. It felt eerie, but I was definitely not scared. when I looked back, it was gone. I remained calm, as if nothing had happened. What I remember afterwards, was that this woman also saw it, As if she expected it or knew it. I will never forget what I saw.

The first time I saw one of these beings was about nine years ago. At the time of occurrence, I lived in an old school building with my husband and our three children. My mother and siblings lived at the East end while my husband and I along with our three children at the time lived in the West wing. Our kitchen and living was open.

The bedrooms were off to the side, the only entrance from the living room was through an opening in the wall, and otherwise you’d have to go through the hallway. There was no door between the living room and bedrooms, it was completely open at that time. With the bedroom lights off, it looked like a dark void. This particular night, my two girls were visiting with their grandmother at the East wing, my husband at work. I sat on the sofa nursing my son. I liked the quiet, so I had nothing but soft lullaby music playing for his comfort and ease into sleep. There was a sudden disquiet as one may often feel when alone in such a large building. I caught movement from the TV screen across the room, (which was not on) and sat directly in front of me. So I watched the blank dark screen for a minute, and saw a tall black figure walk past and from his stance, I could see he was also looking into the TV screen. Quickly I turned my head to look into the kitchen behind me. Nothing. I glanced down at my now sleeping son and contemplated how far it was from where I sat to the door. I had every intention of running.

I looked back to the screen and watched as the figure moved slowly from one side of the room to the other, again. After gathering up my son, I prepared to flee. It was then I happened to glance at the screen again. This time the shadow stood directly behind me, hands resting on the sofa and staring directly face forward into the black blank TV screen. I froze momentarily, then slowly turned to stare at, nothing. I ran. 

The next occurrence happened once again at night. My husband, my brother and I had just finished playing monopoly. Both my brother and me were beaten badly by my husband, the monopoly champ. (Can’t say he didn’t warn us.) The men went outside to smoke a cig and chat while I volunteered to put away the game. It was a few minutes after they left that I had caught movement out from the corner of my eye. Turning, I saw nothing.

It happened a couple more times- the last being when I saw it enter the bedroom area. OK, fine, I was fed up so I called out loudly, “I know you're there, so stop playing games!” I caught movement and with out turning my head, I watched as a shadow stood just inside the doorway. I ignored it and continued with putting away the monopoly game. I noted it was tall and slender, with the build of a man. Quickly, I turned and faced where it stood. It had its arms crossed, leaning against the doorjamb, legs crossed at the ankles. It seemed to visibly start and then slowly move back into the shadows. This time I felt no fear of it, only a bit of frustration. It’s presence felt very male and non-threatening. I went back to the task of putting away the game. Later I told my mother of what I saw. We moved later, but not because of the shadow. We wanted to be closer to town when our children started school and to also have a place of our own.

The Last time I saw something was about six months ago. I awoke with the feeling of paralysis. Sleeping flat of my back, I couldn’t move. I had the feeling of a slight pressure at the front of my neck, between my collarbones, directly over my pulse. I swallowed and felt the pressure deepen. Opening my eyes, I stared up at the ceiling thinking that I needed my husband to awake and help me. The pressure deepened more. I tried to swallow, but could not. I tried to move my hands and could not. I tried to move my head; anything, but there was no use. I could not move. I could barely breath. The pressure of what felt like someone’s thumb continued to increase pressing into my pulse. I thought if only I could swallow, if only I could take a breath then I could call out for help. At the time, I could not comprehend what was happening. Still today, I don’t quite understand what happened.

Tried to move my head and concentrated with all I could, until finally, I was ably to turn it to my right and then stared into huge cat like eyes that was the color of an orange blaze, almost unreal. The eyes widened as if in shock, their dark pupils enlarged and I felt the pressure on my pulse point lessen. I straightened my head quickly and swallowed, took a deep breath, and screamed. I caught movement and watched it run from my room. It had to duck its head as it ran out the door. It was silent, without a sound. Not once did it run into or trip over anything in its path, which would have been a fan, a desk, a chair, and the bed itself. I sat up in bed and screamed for someone to go after it, pointing directly at it as it fled. Then there was silence. No one stirred except for our dog and it was momentarily.

Everything was as if it had never happened. I listened for a sound, any, but there was not one. Terrified, I laid awake, for how long, I don’t know, just staring at the place where it was crouched next to my bed. Unsure of what happened, I was afraid to move my eyes from that spot. Was it a dream where I was awake yet still caught in the haze of sleep in itself? Or was it real? I don’t know and cannot answer, but it felt real just the same. It was tall, slender, and seemed to be male. It was unlike the shadow before. Where the first and second shadow had more of a build to it, this one was more slender. Tall, but slimmer. The first shadow freaked me out and I did not stop to feel, I only fled. The second had the feeling of protectiveness and curiosity mixed with a slight hint of amusement. The third just flat out freaked the hell out of me! But was it real? I feel crazy even contemplating the idea. I filed it as another mystery of my life-just one more among many, yet to be explained.






My experience stays with me as clear as day. I was in bed with my partner when I awoke to a shadow being standing over the bed. I could not move but was fully awake to see him. He was black, tall, menacing, with red eyes and a large pointy hat. He made me feel fearful of him. This creature was just observing us in bed. But what was extremely weird was that my partner was asleep but laughing at it. He woke up having a dream he was laughing like he was being tickled. A totally different feeling that the creature placed on me. Mine was fearful of my life if I moved. At the time I felt like it was a demon!!! But why me? I've only had the one account and that was a couple of years ago now.

 
I was sitting in my car with a friend in a parking lot. The whole incident probably lasted a total of two minutes. A lady was parked in front of me. She was putting her infant into the baby seat in the back, and there was a male wearing an old fashioned hat sitting in the passenger seat. I don't remember what made me want to be observant about this particular person. I also don't remember seeing any facial details. I do remember thinking that he was looking toward me. Yet, I don't remember making eye contact. So, eventually she got into the drivers seat, we both pulled out of our parking spaces and she reached the stop sign (to pull onto the street) a few seconds ahead of me. I suddenly realized that there was no one in the passenger seat with her. The man could not have gotten out of the car without being noticed. The parking lot is completely open. I asked my friend if she had noticed the male passenger- and she said she had. She even mentioned the hat. But oddly enough, we both couldn't describe any facial features or his appearance. I've never been quite sure what I saw, but it was very strange. I wanted to chase down the lady and tell her what I saw, but she probably would have questioned my sanity.

 

It looks like I'm not crazy after all. I have encountered shadow people when I was very young, possibly at the age of 9. I contracted the flu and had a very high fever. I went into the kitchen to cool myself off with water and when I turned my head right to face the dining room, I saw around 7 to 11 shadow people moving around the table, counter-clockwise at a fast pace. Their appearance is still clear to me. Tall, thin, no feet or facial features, all black, and to say the least, having long top hats. I was then rushed to the hospital for treatment, then brought back home. Years later, I told my younger brother about my experience and to my surprise, he had seen the same thing when he almost died from a fever at the age of 6. I remember the incident but never asked him. The beings were at the living room. This is no joke. Those things are real and are up to no good. Terrifying as hell! 

About ten years ago, I was coming home from work, around 3 or 4 am. I owned a janitorial business, and followed the same route five nights a week.

I was very tired, and believe I was half asleep at the wheel, when all of a sudden, and man dressed totally in black stepped from between two cars on the side of the road.

He wore a black cowboy hat, a long black duster, black pants and shoes. He had no face.

If he hadn't stepped from between the two cars and startled me, I would have rammed into the cars.

This shadow man, with no face, saved my car and possibly my life...or at least saved me from harms way.
When I looked back, there was no one there. This spooked me, yet, kept me alert enough to get home safely five minutes later. I'll always remember this!


When I was younger, maybe 8 or 9, I awoke one night, to a black shadow figure coming from out of my wall, which was about 2-3 feet from the foot of my bed. It was only the top half
of a torso, with arms that where motioning, like to come to it. I jumped out of bed and ran past it to my parents bedroom. My dad was gone, so I crawled into bed with my mom, extremely terrified, but somehow, I managed to go back to sleep. I had a cat at the time, that always slept with me. I awoke to a full formed black shadow person petting my cat; I remember my cat tilting her head while being pet, as if she were enjoying it. I was so scared; all I could do was close my eyes tight and will myself back to sleep. I never saw the images again. My cat always intensely stared at the ceiling, as if she were watching something, which continued until she died.
 

The incident occured around this time last year, in the early hours of the morning . 

I was in bed asleep next to my boyfriend when I suddenly woke up. I was paralysed and had the overwhelming feeling of fear. I was lying on my back when I saw the figure.

It felt like pure evil and had the aura of a male. He was wearing what looked like a long duster jacket with the collar turned up, a old fashioned fedora style hat with wild bushy hair flowing from under it. 

The whole figure was like solid black and he was standing sideways at the end of the bed facing me. 

Then he dissapeared and I felt like something was trying to crawl up my legs, as if it was trying to get to my face. 

I managed to move my hand a little and I touched it, it had hands with really long fingers and nails. It was like it was trying to claw its way up to me. 

At this point, I tried with all my might to move and managed to lightly tap my boyfriend on the back. He turned around and looked at me for a second, then turned back. 

A few seconds later, I was no longer paralysed and quickly woke my boyfriend up. I screamed at him that something was crawling up my legs. He lifted the covers, and it stopped. I was petrified!

After this when I was talking about it with my boyfriend, he said when he lifted the covers, he caught a glimpse of a hand at my ankle, then it disappeared off the end of the bed.

I never slept in my bedroom again, I ended up sleeping in the living room.
 
I moved out of that house 5 months later.




 

 

So you see what I mean? There are so many similarities! 

Every one reports practically the same thing! There's GOT to be something to this! 

I will continue investigating.

If you have any thoughts on what this Hat Man phenomena is all about, I would love to hear them.


But if you have no reason to believe in him..

Consider yourself lucky... 


And pray you never do!