Shadow People: Ghosts or something else?

I dont know, after my experience with it. I thought What are some of your guys's theories on em are.

I believe they are spirits that belong to the living and the dead. I know someone who was visited by a shadow and believes it was his uncle. In my experience I was visited by a shadow that resembled a child. Someone I know who is “spiritually intuned” thinks it was a passed on child who used to live inj my house and needed help to go to the other side.
I think that some of the more malevolent reports of shadows may be living people projecting.
My father-in-law and my mother-in-law have also both had separate experiences with shadows.
I feel that it is one of the more common paranormal experiences.