The Strange Phenomenon of the Black Stick Men

Greetings, ATS!

While perusing the Internet, I came across an interesting series of articles describing a relatively new paranormal phenomenon. According to the articles (linked below), people who have encountered these...creatures.....describe seeing a stick figure human, such as a child might draw.

The details, of what little there are, about these creatures/apparitions seem to be consistent from story to story. The appearance usually takes place along a deserted road, or in an alley way, away from bright lights and prying eyes. The person encountering the stick men more times than not report being tired.
The figures move smoothly as if gliding, they do not make any sound although the air around them is reportedly charged with static.

The actual stick men themselves seem indifferent to us unless provoked or if they realize they have been spotted. Then they will flee quickly or in some rare instances will approach quickly in a frightening display of aggravation. However, there have been no reported incidents of anyone being touched or harmed by the mysterious beings.
The only indications of their intent have been reports of vague feelings of malevolence, though some feel this has to do with the disturbances in the atmospheric/barometric pressures that often accompany a sighting.

Are they paranormal? Who is to say? Most of the accounts are not associated with a known haunted spot and most sightings are not tied to any other ghostly phenomenon. They are simply things that exist outside of our realm of the normal. So in that sense, yes, they are paranormal…but not necessarily ghosts of any type.

Okay, frankly that sounds terrifying. The article at link 1 discusses and discounts the possibility of a viral marketing campaign or urban legend, although I suspect urban legend may be the most likely culprit (unless, of course, these things are real). The accounts I read all seemed to indicate something quite different from shadow people. I wonder....could these be some type of alien creature?

So, ATS.....Has anyone encountered anything similar to the Black Stick Men?

link 1

Link 2...Personal Account

Fortean Times personal account

This sounds very much like a variant of the "Slenderman".

The Slenderman was an internet joke; people wanted to see how difficult it was to convince people of the truth of a wildly generic paranormal claim.

His concept was that he was an impossibly tall Tim-burtonesque being that inhabited forests so as to disguise his long limbs as branches, and would sit awaiting unwitting children to abduct.

reply to post by joeraynor


I agree, it does have that Slenderman feel to it.

I've never heard of this before, thought I'd share. I suspect you are right and this is an Internet fueled fabrication.

If not just another hoax I really only have two theories to try to explain it... Well okay, multiple ways to explain it. I suppose we could go through our options:

1. It is noted that the people are tired in a dark place, this fuels a definite trick of the eye. Possibly the people that saw them thought they saw something but just let their environment and level of fatigue play with them.

2. Tulpas. This one is more far fetched. We are imagining up all of these awful terrible monsters and in the process making them more real with our will in our environment. Science fictiony.

3. We are going through some kind of dimensional shift as some have spoken of inviting creatures from other realms into ours like spirits, manitous, stick men, etc. This one is also part of the bizarre but an explanation believable or not.


basically, there are a lot of things that could be said about this but eh... For now I'm going to have to bank with theory number one as it's the most plausible until more information or maybe recounts are gathered such as photo, video ,etc. and NOT blurry like bigfoot or nessie footage.

Interesting. This is my first time hearing of them. Though I would honestly consider them an Urban Legend like the Slender Man. If by some chance they are a real paranormal phenomenon, I would probably consider them a variant of the Shadow People that some people report seeing in haunted locations. Then again, many would equate Shadow People to being a myth.

Interesting nontheless. S+F smyleegrl.

reply to post by smyleegrl


These stick thingies are the reason why I have been locking my bedroom balcony door the last few weeks. I tell myself: C'mon, you are a 40 year old man, bedroom is 3 stories up, with no way in for "bad guys", total secure.. but, I have been having a feeling of dread the last few weeks.

Been living in this house for 2 years now and I have never locked my balcony door. I don't close it either, unless it is raining or when it gets cold.

And the reason why - I keep on remembering that hoaxed photo of a stickman climbing a block of flats i saw more than a year ago. My wife laughed at me for telling her the reason, so I googled and found that photo to show her. She "pfffttt", but she doesn't mind the locked door these days.

I don't believe in them. I will too laugh at myself at times when i feel scared, or things seems eerie when I am outside on the balcony during the early morning hours. Let me just say, In the last few weeks i have wasted a lot of cigarettes. I keep thinking of that stick figure photo I saw more than a year ago. Why is that photo, or stickmen only been bothering me recently? It is not even a photo I took serious. Strange.

Here is the link to the photos i am referring to

www.abovetopsecret.com...

I remember seeing the "stickmen" in the video below on an episode of "Fact or Faked" on the SyFy channel a few years ago. They couldn't figure out what the things were...really creepy looking too.

reply to post by BobM88


Pretty sure that was a hoax (trying to find the page that explains the debunking)

I have come across some aboriginal rock carvings that depict black stick men. The story associated to them was that they are protectors of the area. I have one photo of the carving at www.kwakakev.com...

Originally posted by NarcolepticBuddha
reply to post by BobM88

 

Pretty sure that was a hoax (trying to find the page that explains the debunking)

edit on 13-6-2013 by NarcolepticBuddha because: (no reason given)

Hope you find it because this is seriously creeping me out.

Originally posted by smyleegrl

Originally posted by NarcolepticBuddha
reply to post by BobM88

 

Pretty sure that was a hoax (trying to find the page that explains the debunking)

edit on 13-6-2013 by NarcolepticBuddha because: (no reason given)

Hope you find it because this is seriously creeping me out.

Hoaxes and internet lies shouldn't creep you out. The consensus is calling CGI on the stick-alien vids.

Although, I admit I'm at a loss to find any watertight debunking explanations.

reply to post by NarcolepticBuddha


If you find it, please share, I've wondered what those things could've been since I saw that episode. They were freaky looking things so I'd be happy to know those were hoaxed.

Possible YouTube clips....not a photoshop expert and some look dubious to me. Still, makes for an interesting read late at night. .



Another take...supposedly this might be a creature known as a. night crawler.



Looks like guys on stilts to me.

This is quite a cool video

Here's the Fact or Faked crew, on location where the original video was filmed, working on an explanation. If you're interested in this phenomenon, it's worth the 1/2 hour to watch.

With the stiffness of the walk, the legs not bending and bad quality of the video, this clearly shows people walking with stilts the have bed sheets hanging from them. Definitely a hoax.

Edit: After watching some of the videos, they are most definitely puppets suspended by thin wires. There are many people that are masters with moving puppets with strings attached. Would probably be very easy from them to fake something like this.

Also, small children can be trained to walk with stilts and I am sure some are very good at it.

Originally posted by eManym
With the stiffness of the walk, the legs not bending and bad quality of the video, this clearly shows people walking with stilts the have bed sheets hanging from them. Definitely a hoax.

Yeah, but some people will believe anything and post about it on ATS. In my opinion it looks like a grainy nighttime video that had post-production CGI added in (the Fresno video.)

Originally posted by eManym
With the stiffness of the walk, the legs not bending and bad quality of the video, this clearly shows people walking with stilts the have bed sheets hanging from them. Definitely a hoax.

This was honestly my first thought too...stilt walkers.

reply to post by smyleegrl


And this YouTube channel (sierraparahunters) did the first video as well.

I read it was hoaxed, as I said in my earlier post, but can't remember where as it was some time ago. The video I posted is one i have never seen. Fake, but fun to watch.

@narcoleptic - I didn't post the video cos I believe it

There are Indian legends about the stick men, I heard about it at work from some of the native Americans and read a little bit about it online. I thought they said they were really small though, like a foot or two tall.