Shadow people

Shadow people can be described as the experience of perceiving patches of shadow in one's peripheral vision or direct line of sight that appear and behave as living, autonomous figures. Due to the unique behavior of these hallucinations, they can be considered a sub-type of autonomous entity.

Untitled by Anonymous - An accurate representation of the experience of shadow people.

Shadow people usually, but not always, begin to appear as initial fleeting images out of the corner of the eyes in the peripheral vision. However, at higher levels of intensity, shadow people may begin to appear in full view in a manner which allows one to look directly at them. At advanced mental states, one is even able to look away from and look back at the entity without a change in the hallucination.

The bodies of these shadow people are usually perceived as a type of blackness that has a sense of depth with few facial or bodily features. The blackness of their bodies often seem almost opaque, as if one is looking into a "black hole" in anthropomorphic form. They may also appear as animal forms, uniform blobs, disembodied body parts, or a myriad of indescribable shapes. They sometimes appear to have faces, eyes, or mouths and are able to move or change shape. The movement exhibited can be normal human movement or it can be faster, slower, or more choppy than a normal person's gait. It is also possible for multiple shadow people to occupy one's field of vision simultaneously while acting autonomously from one another and even interacting with one another.

Shadow people are often accompanied by other coinciding effects such as delirium, paranoia, anxiety, and feelings of impending doom. They are most commonly induced under the influence of heavy dosages of deliriant compounds, such as DPH, datura, and benzydamine. However, they can also occur under the influence of stimulant psychosis, sleep deprivation, and during sleep paralysis.

Multisensory aspects

Although it is not an intrinsic part of this hallucinatory effect, shadow people can potentially be accompanied by other sensory components aside from one's visual perception of them. This is typically infrequent and usually only occurs during very intense states of sleep deprivation, delirium or psychosis. For example, shadow people can potentially have an accompanying "voice", despite the lack of a visible mouth structure. This auditory communication follows an identical leveling system of progressively more detailed and coherent spoken word in the same manner as a generic autonomous entity. Shadow people may converse with the person experiencing them or they may converse amongst each other - sometimes talking about the person going through the experience.

Alongside of accompanying auditory hallucinations, shadow people may also present tactile and gustatory hallucinations. This is even rarer than their potential auditory effects and typically only occurs in particularly intense and advanced hallucinatory states. Their tactile effects can be indistinguishable from a real human touch and generally varied in temperature.They can also even include physical actions such as pulling of clothing, hair, or the skin.

History and culture

This History and culture section is a stub. As a result, it may contain incomplete or wrong information. You can help by expanding it.

Shadow people have been referenced throughout popular culture and time as 'demons' or 'omens', 'ghosts', or even 'inter-dimensional time travelers". This wide recognition of shadow people, combined with their representation in common culture and horror films may contribute to the prevalence of these external hallucinations. From the common internet consensus on shadow people, they are more often thought of as ghosts or real interdimensional beings than simple hallucinations.

The shadow person as an image was portrayed in the 20th-century show "The Twilight Zone", in the appropriately titled episode "The Shadow Man" where a shadow person lives under the main characters' bed. This episode was broadcast nationwide and still remains available, furthering people to exposure of shadow people through second-hand experiences and Hollywood-style manufactured images.

The more an image is spread throughout a culture, the more likely a person will manifest that image in a state such as sleep deprivation, delirium, and stimulant psychosis. The fear instilled by society and the negative connotation portrayed by society may influence the anxiety and feelings of unspeakable horrors when seeing these autonomous entities. This has been investigated in relation to the common appearance of shadow people in sleep deprivation experiences

Due to the cultural influence and the perception that shadow people may in fact be "spooky ghosts", people who experience this external hallucination may attribute it to the paranormal or other irrational causes rather than accepting that it is a natural effect of abnormal brain chemistry levels that may stem from a wide variety of mental states (discussed above). The de-stigmatizing of the shadow person experience and rational discussion of the true origin of these autonomous entities can grant many sufferers relief from paranoia and mental illness stigma.

Psychoactive substances

Compounds within our psychoactive substance index which may cause this effect include:

• Benzydamine
• Datura
• Diphenhydramine
• Ephylone
• Eszopiclone
• Promethazine
• Psilocin
• Zolpidem
• Zopiclone

Experience reports

Anecdotal reports which describe this effect within our experience index include:

• Experience:300mg DPH + 600mg DXM - An Interesting Combo
• Experience:4 Days Sleep Deprivation - Progression of Sleep Deprivation Visuals Over Time
• Experience:550mg-Bugs All Around Me.
• Experience:700mg Diphenhydramine trip
• Experience:Datura & DPH - Results of Experiment by Isopropanol
• Experience:Dem Shadow People and Such (A Retrospective)
• Experience:Sleep paralysis hallucinations
• Experience:Unknown dosage / 1 tab DOC - Psychedelia Turned Into Stimulant Psychosis

See also

• Responsible use
• Subjective effects index
• Deliriants - Subjective effects
• Psychedelics - Subjective effects
• Dissociatives - Subjective effects
• External hallucinations
• Autonomous entities
• Amphetamines

External links

• Shadow person (Wikipedia)