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Growing Up With Shadows

 

I'll start off by sharing a little bit about myself. I'm twenty years old, and have been interested in the paranormal for a long time. I have a strong belief in God, have been slain in the spirit while I was an altar server at a Catholic church, and have always done my best to respect the dead; I've never fooled around with an Ouija board, but I do own a pendulum (that I used during high school and have not touched for a few years) and have only used it after saying a protection prayer. I often have lucid dreams, and, occasionally, events in my dreams occur in real life whether it happens days or even months afterwards.

I've lived in the same house my entire life. It's in Connecticut, and has only been around for sixty or seventy years. As I became more interested in the paranormal and learned that spirits can feed off of energy like electricity, I theorized that the electrical plant behind my yard could be the cause of some of the experiences I have been dealing with.

That being said, I've been having experiences since I was very young.

The first experiences I can recall are those I would have when I went into my parents' bedroom in the middle of the night. I would crawl into their bed and peek over the foot of it, watching what looked like the silhouettes of various animals (I specifically remember porcupines) walking along the floor from one corner of the room into their closet. I remember this occurring many times throughout my childhood and not being afraid of the shadows. Sometimes, I would even stand in their way just to see what would happen.

When I was in middle school, I had a very long streak of insomnia that I blamed on the uncomfortable feeling I got from my room and closet. Once again, I encountered the shadows in my parents' room (I slept on their floor when I felt too uneasy in my room). This time, they scared me a little; I would see them follow their usual route and close my eyes, reassuring myself I was just tired. More than the shadow animals, I felt as though something in both the closet in my room and my parents' room was watching me. Sometimes, the feeling came from outside during the night and I would spot a shadowy figure standing in my yard and staring at me with illuminated eyes. It was all very unsettling and messed with me so badly that I would need to skip school at least once a week in order to catch up on all of the sleep I was missing.

From there, isolated events began happening to me: unexplained bangs, touching, whispering and moving shadows. Most notably, there was once a bang in my brother's room (which was separated from mine by a curtain and some furniture) while I was home alone during the day; it startled me but I wanted to make sure nothing had broken. Once I entered the room, I felt extremely cold and as though I was being stared at by something very angry. I turned to leave, and as I did so, something began pushing me out of the room; I tried to resist and put my weight on my heels, but was forced forward until I was out of the room.

Upon entering high school, my parents decided my brother and I needed our own rooms; I was moved into their room. After it was painted, the closet door was removed because it couldn't stand in the frame on its own; it was left open. Now, I had to walk past the shadows every day, and the uneasiness of something watching me was back. More than that, I would often spot a shadowy figure lurking in the frame of the closet (I've asked myself if it is the same figure I used to see outside, but I'm not sure), and, sometimes, I would even see the shadow animals scuttling around that side of the room in the middle of the day.

It was around this time I invested in the pendulum. It is made of quartz and as stated earlier, I never used it without praying beforehand and afterwards as well. I wanted to try to find out a little more about the shadows I'd been seeing my entire life. What I wanted to know most about was the figure that had been watching me for what felt like a very long time; I had already assumed the figure was a man, and, at the time, the pendulum told me his name was Tyler. I never learned much else about him (at least not that I can remember), and never trusted the validity of using the pendulum anyway. Although I found him creepy, I never thought he had malevolent intentions (even if he did freak me out). It was more like he was spectating, maybe waiting for something.

Before another year long streak of insomnia could kick in, my parents gave me a door (by that, I mean a piece of wood intended to be a door) that I could use to cover my closet during the night. The eerie feelings never went away, but it was easier to fall asleep in the middle of the night without having to stare at the figure.

After going to college in Pennsylvania, I thought my paranormal experiences were over, but I was wrong. Sure, my school had many ghost stories of its own, but the school's spirits weren't the ones that were bothering me often. Whether I went to bed before my roommates or after them, there was always a shadowy figure in the doorway; even when I got a boyfriend and slept in his room and moved into a completely different dorm on campus, the shadow was still there, standing in the doorway as I tried to sleep. I assume it was the same shadow from home, but, obviously, I have no proof of this. He startled me at times, but I wasn't as scared of him as I used to be.

When I return home for vacations, the shadow is still in by the closet and the creatures still crawl around my room. I've come to terms with him existing around me, and although he still scares me at times, I wonder what he's doing around here and want to know whether or not he is the one causing the unexplained phenomenon I sometimes encounter and what his connection is with the animals in my room.

If anyone has any idea what my shadow might be, I would really like to know more about it.

Thank you for reading!

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Comments about this paranormal experience

The following comments are submitted by users of this site and are not official positions by yourghoststories.com. Please read our guidelines and the previous posts before posting. The author, Incognito, has the following expectation about your feedback: I will participate in the discussion and I need help with what I have experienced.

horsegal (3 posts)
 
10 years ago (2014-08-15)
Hi. This is a really interesting story. Thanks for sharing 😊. As for the dark shadow I do not think it is there to harm you or anything like that. I experienced somthing similar a while ago. Without the animals. But I always saw a dark shadow man. It actually helped me. I had epilepsy but I couldn't take the medication because it would always make me sick. But one hospital visit and they reviled that I no longer had epilepsy. I then went to a church and we asked about the shadow. They said he was a guardian spirit and would help me when I most needed it. I used to be scared. Dont be scared. If you do not want it there though wear a cross and hold a bible and say. If you are not the lord leave now. But try and find out what it is before you banish from your home. That is what our priest told us. The shadow only appears in my room when I'm worried. Wich doesn't happen very often. Hope this helps explain what it is a little bit. Sorry for such along comment

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