Dark Shapes

I have a short tale about an experience I had with a dark shape / entity.

About 6 years ago while I was going through a separation I had taken to sleeping in the attic room at the top of our 3 storey house, while I was arranging alternative accommodation. The house was built around the turn of the 20th century and I had discovered some documents and shopping receipts in a tin that had been hidden away above a section of ceiling in the kitchen. I had been doing some refurbishment work on the kitchen and had had to remove the old ceiling to install new lighting cables etc.

Anyway, one particular night I had gone to bed as usual and at some point in the night I had woken, I'm not sure what time to see a pitch-black 'shape' at the foot of my bed. I would estimate it was about 6ft high and about 3ft wide. As a (then) 35yr old man, this was the first, and hopefully, last time that I screamed out loud from fear. At this, the 'shape' seemed to wrap in on itself and disappeared.

I have never experienced anything like this since and I sincerely hope I never have to. I cannot explain what I saw. Although there was no repeat of this, I do not think whatever it was had benevolent intentions; it's form was of absolute blackness. It had no distinct shape that I can describe, it was just 'there' hovering between me and the door. It was only when I screamed that it disappeared.

I'm not asking for explaination, but if anyone else has experienced similar, I'd be interested

I sometimes see crap like that when I am having hypnogogic dreams.

When I finally break out of the dream, whatever oddball thing I'm seeing vanishes in a blink.

The trick if you get repeated episodes, is to pay attention to what's going on and try to sidestep the weird feeling of doom that goes along with a hypnogogic dream sequence. A dead giveaway is the sound of heavy breathing (that's you) or things that are in the room that don't belong there that your mind sticks in to make the logic flow better.

Black figures near the bed aren't nearly as bad as it can get, trust me.

People refer to the phenomenon that you witnessed as "Shadow People, Men, Folk, Beings". The explanation people put forth for this ranges from paranormal causes to conditions like Hypnagogia.

I have been witness to this phenomenon, and I personally believe it is some kind of entity that is intelligent and possesses a "soul".

Did the specter have any definition to it? Could you tell if it had a certain dress? Some sightings describe them as wearing 18th century garb.

To get you started in research on this, try this link.

Edit:

Please describe your experience in more detail, if you would.

Did it move fluidly like a human, or did it "jump" or "hop" across the room? What did you feel (emotion) when you noticed it?

There is a theory that I don't discount: that these might be of extraterrestrial-origin, and what we see is some kind of advanced technology being implemented, such as a cloaking device.