Shadow Man

A splinter in your eye?

You look around, but the darkness remains fixed in one location. “What is that?” A void floating in open day light, the shape of a man. You blink, then He’s gone, disappeared. “What the hell?” You rub your eyes. “Am I having vision problems?”

Where does the Shadow Man go? He travels from mind to mind, brain to brain, human to human. He walks faster than the speed of light, steps ahead of all your thoughts and dreams. He came in through the back door. He’s the curious type, lifting up stacks of mail and catalogues, peaking behind open doors, and snooping through closets. The Shadow Man is on the hunt for your secrets. And before you’re aware of it, He’s come and gone, taking with Him photos and memories of your dirty laundry. Of the assets you cherish. And a firm understanding of your desires. He copies your dreams and stores them, who knows where.

The Shadow Man is a mind-explorer. He’s looking out for uniqueness, individuality, and specialty. Which dark secrets can you offer the Shadow Man? Will He like what He sees, through you? Will He stay, for long, or for longer than the blink of your eye? Sometimes you can catch the Shadow Man in the act. You turn around, randomly, and come face-to-face with Him in your own mind. “How the hell did you get in here!?” You shout within your own mind, at somebody you’ve never met before. How many people have entered your mind before, after all? Is this the first, you wonder?

But the Shadow Man does not answer. He just stands there, silently, blackly, voidly, a mental shadow. He walks, slowly this time, within your mind while you watch, and continues rummaging around. Perhaps He wants to be seen otherwise why would he move so slowly, enough for your mind to track him? “Stop that, you can’t be in here! I don’t know how you got in, but you have to leave, now! This is my mind! You can’t trespass here!” Perhaps the Shadow Man smiles wryly at your impotent aggrevation. You can’t really tell since He has no face nor body but just the form of the shadow of a man. And then He takes something from one of your mental drawers, and slowly walks away. “What is that, what are you taking?! Put that back! Help! Somebody help!” The Shadow Man exits your mind.

How does it feel for your mind to be invaded, walked into, so easily? It’s never happened before? Was this the first time? It was the first time you caught Him, but probably not the first time He visited. Is He malevolent, a danger, a threat? Is He a boon? What are His motivations? Does He return what He takes? Is He a simple thief? All questions with no answers. And who would believe you? You ask others about the Shadow Man, and they think you’re crazy. Maybe they too are being visited, but, haven’t caught Him in the act? Has anybody else? Does anybody else interact with Shadow Man?

It’s an intrusive and violating thought to consider. Your brain is no longer virgin. Your defenses have been penetrated by a home-intruder. Do you feel safe, anymore? The Shadow Man lays on your bed, inside your head, next to you while you sleep, and leaves before you’re awake. What is your relationship with Him? What is your impression? Will you see Him again, or was it just the one, exceptional, chance encounter? Was it random? Or did the Shadow Man want you to see Him? Is it really an accident?

The Shadow Man walks faster than light, which is why He is a shadow. Some people in history have claimed to see Him at the same time, but this isn’t exactly the case. He just walks so fast that it seems to a dozen different people to be simultaneous and instant. He went from one man, to one woman, to one little girl with red hair, to another man who is chinese, to a south american indian living in the brazilian rain forest, within the length of a nanosecond. He travels that fast, probably faster. He is impossible, obviously. He should not exist.

You became curious after your first “sighting”. But it wasn’t really a “sighting” was it? After all, you can’t “see” a shadow. Shadows and darkness are the antithesis of seeing. However you became infatuated and obsessed, with Him. You asked around, and found no relevant information. But then you combed through libraries, and became a theologian. You learned, after years of study, that there are in fact recorded cases of other humans encountering, experiencing, and attempting to explain Him. Many humans, historically, call Him a demon, a dæmon, a “dark force”, a djinn. Others have called Him an angel. Most call Him a “god”. And after learning about this, rekindled your interest in previously “irrational” explanations. Is there something worthwhile in all this mythology and history. Is the Shadow Man mortal or immortal?

What type of entity is He? How unique are you, after all, to have been visited by Him?

“Am I just crazy? Did it really happen?”

It’s a valid self-criticism and self-doubt to have. Maybe you’re just imagining things, and there’s nothing real to the Shadow Man. But, the more you study and learn, peruse history and theology, the more it seems obvious and sensible. Maybe you’re wrong and maybe you’re right. The testimonies lead you to more clues about His existence. You learn how rare it is to have interactions with the Shadow Man. It’s a gift, a “miracle” to see Him. But let’s examine what it means to “see” Him after all.

Because shadows are unseen. Darkness and shadows are not aspects of sight, but the opposite, of being unable to see. And so the brief glimpse you had of the Shadow Man are not really views and interactions with Him, at least not using sight and seeing in the conventional sense. You consider other options, like for example, maybe the Shadow Man is not apprehended through the senses at all, but only through the Mind itself? And by imagining Him, this would construe and equate to “seeing Him”. “That’s it!” you exclaim. That’s your clue, and a key to understanding Him.

He is not an entity of the senses, per se, but an entity of the mind. And the process He must use, to step from mind-to-mind, can be mistaken as “imaginary”. What is imagination except premised upon images, anyway? Is an “image” of the Shadow Man possible? The Shadow Man is an inversion of light, sound, or any other phenomenon. The Shadow Man represents not what is “seen”, observed, casually known, but rather what is unseen, unobserved, unknown. The observations, details, discoveries, of what most humans gloss over as-if they were nothing. People don’t look closely at life and existence, and miss those “mundane” details. Do you see the ants living underneath your floor boards? Do you perceive the minute bacterias, clinging to dust particles, floating in the air around you? How good is human vision? It’s limited. Here then is a postulation. Perhaps the Shadow Man slips through such “cracks” in reality.

The Shadow Man moves through pitch darkness, through all unknowns. These are the back doors of consciousness, many places buried within psyche, that people willingly “forget” about. That one time you were deeply embarrassed when you were seven years old. You tried to forget, and maybe you did. But the experience is still there, its effects, its consequences. You willingly ignored it, pushed it deep into your subconsciousness.

The Shadow Man would thank you for that. He knows. He must have seen it, too.