I saw a 8 foot tall Shadow Thing spying on me in bed. "Top Hat Man"

I know that what I am going to relate to you folks is inexplicable, and that it seemingly breaks the laws of physics as we know them, and that it makes almost no sense at all, but I am still going to tell you what I saw and describe it in detail for this thread. This happened roughly 10 days ago, not sure exactly.

Background. My wife and I are staying temporarily at her parents house with our 2 kids, and all of our belongings are in various relatives storage areas as we are finding a new apartment to live at currently. We will probably be in a new place within 10more days from now.

We are in a very small town with the population of only a few hundred, spread out through this valley deep in the forests of Pennsylvania at the moment. Extremely rural location. All the buildings in this run down little village seem to be 100+ years old, often remodeled or rebuilt many times over the years, and even build on the remains of prior structures.

It's virtually surrounded by heavily forested hills, and swamplands in all directions. There are farms and fields, but they are in limited areas still leaving plenty of dense brush around. It gets super foggy at night here too. Very freaky old town with vast histories. There were events here during the French and Indian War, Revolutionary War, etc in this very location. I do not know what went on, but I am sure you are getting the point.

There are ancient houses around here up in the woods and swamps, that are totally in ruins and dilapidated in the extreme. Completely overgrown forest hiding them from view unless you trek through the woods to find them.

Anyways, now to the story itself of which this thread is about. I just wanted to set the scenery for you of what I am currently going through.

This really old house we are staying at, is very large and 2 stories. Like 4 bedrooms.

My wife and I were suppose to sleep in the upstairs bedroom in the middle of the hallway, which used to be her brothers room. Well we had been sleeping on the couch down on the ground floor a few nights, I guess because we were watching TV down there in the living room.

This night we decided to sleep up in that room on the bed. It was maybe 4am roughly.

As I was falling asleep and losing my awareness of reality, my brain was subtly giving me images of toiletry and my body had an urge to go downstairs and take care of business. So my brain woke itself up in order to visit the toilet and then I planned to come back up to really get to sleep and crash out.

However as I opened my eyes, I saw a bizarre shadow at my downway, as if someone was looking in the room.

I saw it rather clearly, and it was 8 foot tall all the way up to the doorseal at the top. It was outside in the hallway. There was a dim orange-yellow light illuminating the hallway, so I could see out there well.

The way this thing reacted was absolutely perplexing. It was almost as if it was just staring at my wife and I, and once it realized I was laying there staring back at IT, it moved to the side to go away. It like slowly moved to the right and All I saw was it's shoulder-type thing. Then, the shoulder moved away and it was gone. I immediately jumped out of bed and ran to the doorway to see what this thing was. Hoping in my mind it was just my wive's dad checking to see if we were in that room. But no one was there. In fact, her dad was staying out in the camper in the backyard that night.

There were NO sounds in this incident, it was 100% quiet.

When I leaped out of bed to chase this thing, I yelled "What the F was that??!!!!" and my wife woke up instantly freaked out as well asking me what happened.

I told her what I saw, she got up with me and we searched the house etc. Our 2yr old does not want to sleep upstairs so we were worried about him on the couch downstairs by himself. I absolutely refuse to leave my kids alone at night in this house now, and am extremely stressed by my encounter.

I have had prior encounters with the inexplicable in this house before years ago. But what I encountered in the past is what I would term more of a Ghost event. This shadow thing I saw, I just do not think it is a ghost for various reasons.

I have been doing research on the Shadow thing phenomena since this encounter. I have found many interesting theories and stories that correlate exactly to what I witnessed. Other people have seen what I saw the other night, and I almost feel like I have a post trauma stress going on as a result of this totally wacked out encounter with the unknown.

This thread is written in haste, as I have little time this morning to write it. I will continue in the next post.

You're not alone with this! Surprising I have felt similar experiences in my time. Now I'm not going to go all Atheist here. But I have felt strange presences in my time. For some reason they don't harm me in person expect for in my dreams. That's when I can see them better. :/

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/386324b7381b.jpg[/atsimg]

This is a quick paint drawing I created a few minutes ago to show you exactly what I saw.

I was not suffering sleep paralysis at all. After I opened my eyes and saw this thing for a second or two, I leaped out of bed to chase it and hopefully find my wive's father, who was no where to be found.

It was purely shadow and dark. It's eye was an upside down triangle that seemed to be gold-yellow-orange colored, with a small slit of darkness in the middle.

It's shape was Straight Edged. The ONLY rounded part of this shadow was the shoulder, which was perfectly rounded. It's side and head areas were like a straight line.

I only saw half of it's body as the other half was obviously behind the wall-doorway seal.

It was so tall (8 foot + or almost 3 meters) that it reached the top of the door frame.

Also this door frame does not have a door on it, so anyone can stick their head in from the hallway without bothering with a door. It's wide open so I cannot close it as there is no door.

It was 100% silent.
It was gone when I checked for it immedately after I saw it.

I felt like it was just watching us. I don't know WHY. I just know I caught this thing by pure accident and it saw that I saw it and so it jetted asap. I do not think I was meant to see it, and that it was totally a mistake that the "thing" made on it's part by not judging my sleep patterns correctly.

This has led me down a path of countless questions and theories about this event. I will try to get into some of these things. Also what I have found on the Internet has surprised me greatly as it is very similar to my encounter, and many people call it "Top Hat Man". The 8ft tall + shadow thing.

But it was not wearing a hat, there was no brim. There was just a long slender and tall head. With straight edges like it had no neck.

My grandma swears she saw a shadow figure at work and I trust her, I don't know what they are but I too have had some weird expieerences with the unknown.
S&f friend

First of all, I don't think it's a ghost. It's something else probably.

By the shape of this thing, it doesn't look human at all. It is over 8ft tall and has all these straight edges.

It exhibited curiosity, it was merely watching my wife and I sleeping. Observing us.

Why I have no clue. My wife suggested it may be interested in our dreams and can influence them in some fashion, however this is just speculation. She also mentioned perhaps it is some type of psychic vampire leeching off our dreams or something like this. Interesting theories.

She asked me did it seem "alien" and I said no, it felt like something else. Not ghost, not alien. Something else.

But, after thinking about it a bit, it Could be a type of alien technology. And I have seen other like minded people speculate about the alien tech thing too (after I had started researching for answers).

Like maybe this is some sort of ultra-advanced cloaking space-suit that allows it's wearer to instantly disappear or fit into the cracks of the walls and escape through the walls or something.

Also I have seen suggestions saying that they could be demons, and this also seems to fit in it's own way, and yet not fit in other ways.

I did not sense evil from this thing, but rather a perverse curiosity and incredible intrusion of privacy. My mind was shattered by this event, as I never realized these things actually exist apparently somehow. I have no clue how this is even possible or what is going on here, I just know that I saw this thing.

So many questions, so many possibilities here.

Do these things watch everyone in their sleep?
Do they travel around watching many people? Or just stay around certain locations and watch certain people?

What are their origins? Ghost/Alien/Demon/Something else?

Why was it watching us in bed at night? What was it going to gain by watching me lay there motionless? Seems really boring to me!

Was it startled that I caught it by opening my eyes all of the sudden? Did I scare it?

If it is aliens, are they recording all of our dreams/thoughts and processing various science data for their knowledge?

If it is demons, do they prey on us during sleep or something like this?

I just want to know how this thing got into the house, and why it was looking at me and my wife like that at 4am-5am.

There was even a guy who posted that he's going crazy after seeing one of these "top hat men", and he thinks it might hide in the walls of his house during the day time. Which is feasable considering what I saw. He said he wants to tear the walls out looking for it.
'
I am afraid we wouldn't even find it if we tore the walls out. This thing is obviously very stealth, as I have never seen one of them before until now, and I'm 29 yrs old now.

I didn't even know these things existed. I didn't realize that until I saw it.

I can't even post all of my thoughts and questions I have so many on this subject.

The funniest thing about all of it was, despite the following paranoia and terror that I now have in this creeky old house; was the behavior exhibited by this Shadow Thing.

It's like it messed up, and I accidentally caught it.
Like I wasn't suppose to see it.

It almost seems as if it were thinking "DOH" when it realized I was looking right at it.

So it moved away a bit. But stopped and I saw it's shoulder still there. Like it was thinking "crap what do I do now?" Then it left fully, and was gone.

Almost as if this "thing" is going to be in trouble now or something, because it wasn't suppose to be seen by human eyes.

I really don't know what to say. I wish I had posted this thread a week ago and wrote out my thoughts daily as time progresses, I literally have novels on this in my head now. Pondering and seeking answers to my many many questions.

Well, whatever these 8 foot tall shadow things are, they seem to be fallible. They seem to make mistakes or blunders.

It's extremely freaky and yet, somehow a little funny and comical at the same time.

I still get super freaked out at night here though, understandably.
Everything messes with me now. I am truly starting to go nuts a little bit because of that event.

Post trauma stress is no joke. I've been stressed all week. Not in a bad way, just in a freaked out, shaken, confused and wondering for answers kind of way.

Funny you should mention the spot about dreams.

My mom has always had these nightmares where there's a very tall man with a black hat and a black coat and a face cloaked in shadow. The can see his teeth, smiling.

The hat is tophatish but more like the hat of a plague doctor:
www.delpiano.com...

She's had these nightmares since she was a 10 year old kid.


I also had a girlfriend in high school who had panic attacks. When she had these panic attacks she would hallucinate and see someone she described in the exact same way as the description I provided of the nightmare-guy.

I made a thread about it a while back:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

There's also this you may want to look into:
thehatmanproject.com...
A quote from there:
"While reading through “MONSTER! The A-Z Of Zooform Phenomena” by Neil Arnold (HIGHLY recommended, btw!) I found the following entry:

“WATCHERS- spectral figures in hats and cloaks said to haunt the Santa Lucia Mountains. Every time these weird, eerie beings are seen, it is said they always look to the sky.”

reply to post by Mr Headshot


I had recently posted a thread where I had a epic dream of this woman dressed in all black coming after me numerous of times. Maybe we're all just crazy or there is something out there that want's us.

Hell, Cthulhu came out of Lovecraft's dreams.

I hope there's more than meets the eye on this stuff.

Hey muzzleflash.

Your thread triggered a memory for me from my childhood.
I remember being put to bed by mum and then later in the night a tall shadow like what you described would watch over me.....and i remember thinking that this shadow was a soldier (like a little red toy soldier) who was just standing guard.

I think this happened a few times then never again.
Im sure if it were to happen now i would be scared but as a child i felt protected.

A level headed friend of mine saw something very similar in his bedroom one night. As soon as he saw it and realised it wasn't his wife (she was sleeping next to him), he reacted with fear, and the "thing" also seemed to get a fright before it shot up through the roof and vanished.

Same time, I'm having an abduction dream where I'm standing with a little blonde boy wearing glasses. We were at a hospital where greys dressed as nurses were tending to folk. It was a lovely peaceful atmosphere, nice lighting. I says to this very tall grey, "I'm scared" and it replied "we expect that, it's ok", and then these big double doors opened to let us through.

Next morning my friend and I were told that a mutual friend, an artist and ghost researcher, was hit by a car about the same time as our experiences. He was fair-headed and wore glasses. He was taken to the same hospital that I dreamed about and died a few hours later. I know that because my mum was there once and I'd liked the lighting in the wards there. They made it look warm and cosy. Strange, but true.

reply to post by Mr Headshot


Maybe it's not a nightmare. Maybe it's a half-awake vision of a unspeakable reality that none of us have any knowledge about.

There are knowns. Known unknowns. And Unknown unknowns. (Thanks Rummy for the quote)

A few weeks ago this 8foot tall shadow thing was an unknown unknown to me personally. Now it is a known unknown.

There are hundreds of ghost stories from the majority of residents and visitors to this town I am in, but none of the ones I have heard are anything like what I saw that night.

More info I discovered. My wive's cousin told me about some more history of the area, and he claimed he was always really freaked out by this little place and trys to never come out here for obvious reasons. The swamps and woods etc.

Anyways he said that this place is surrounded by like 4 really old cemetaries and even a really old Indian burial ground is neaby not a few hundred feet out into the forest around one of these hills.

The Watcher thing does seem to fit the category well.
It was a specter. It was spectating.

Totally freaky really, considering there is no obvious way to stop these things or keep them out of our houses in the middle of the night.

I saw one years ago I was wide awake but my husband was sleeping having a nightmare he was talking in his sleep screaming' he's coming.he's here ' and then this creepy shadow man in a broad brimmed hat showed up in the bedroom doorway and leaned in and looked at us
I pretended I didn't see him and he left

scared me s*%$less

reply to post by MrsBlonde


Dreams must have something to do with it then. Me, your husband, the other ATS user. Jesus what does this mean?

Originally posted by Romantic_Rebel
reply to post by MrsBlonde

 

Dreams must have something to do with it then. Me, your husband, the other ATS user. Jesus what does this mean?

No clue.

But I am determined to figure this out.

Maybe it's like the "Sand Man" or something?

The sleeping-dreams connection is definately relevant.

I wonder what this thing's capabilities actually are??

Originally posted by MrsBlonde
I saw one years ago I was wide awake but my husband was sleeping having a nightmare he was talking in his sleep screaming' he's coming.he's here ' and then this creepy shadow man in a broad brimmed hat showed up in the bedroom doorway and leaned in and looked at us
I pretended I didn't see him and he left

scared me s*%$less

I know how you feel, although my wife was sleeping and when she woke up due to me leaping out of bed and yelling; she was kinda mad at me because she said she was having a "good dream" about me and her in Tokyo for vacation.

I think your husbands reaction would have made the event 100x more freaky and utterly unbearable.

I am glad there are others who share this confusion and unease about this subject. I am glad you got to see this thing too. Sorry you got so scared. I did too. And I still do....

It doesn't seem to be a murderer type thing though, thankfully.

reply to post by muzzleflash


Who knows? Maybe their are some type of creatures who feed our energies while we sleep.

Originally posted by Romantic_Rebel
reply to post by muzzleflash

 

Who knows? Maybe their are some type of creatures who feed our energies while we sleep.

That was my wive's first reaction pretty much.

I go around in circles with this one haha.

What was it made of? What material composes this "thing's" physical reality?

How does it create a pure black shadowy appearance? What mechanism is this?

I have many questions about the science behind this "thing". I really want to find out some solid answers but they are very hard to come by.

reply to post by muzzleflash


Well in the dream she's always in her parent's house. It's always exactly the same; she's walking down the hallway and he's standing in it, blocking it.

I'm not sure what it is, I really wish I was, but I can say this thing you saw has been seen for years. Literally centuries.

I wouldn't be creeped out too much, there's not much reason for you to be. If you believe in the paranormal then things are already watching you constantly.

reply to post by muzzleflash


Yeah! Maybe look a dream dictionary or mythology. Maybe they spoke about demons in dreams. :/