The Shadow Man Cometh

I'll be the first one to admit that I'm a scaredy-cat. It's never taken much to startle me. Walk around the corner at the right moment and you'll most likely jolt me. I've always been afraid of things. Even to this day, I battle with a moderate fear of the dark. This all started about 2 months ago that one night when I was on mushrooms, I walked out the front door and saw a figure on the sidewalk. All black. It didn't even look like this "person" was wearing clothes necessarily. It looked like the cut out of a human, but with no dimensions. He was all black. Like a walking abyss of nothingness. Basically, this figure acted like he noticed me standing there. It's head turned at me abruptly and then quickly started shuffling its feet and began running toward me. To say the least, I freaked the fuck out and slammed the door shut. Breathing heavy and being scared as shit, I panicked and tried locking the door as quickly as possible. I was actually in such a state of fear, that I really couldn't get the lock to turn over. I stood there, with my hands on the door, holding it shut, breathing hard, my heart pumping rapidly, just hoping this being/figure/man/meth head, whatever it was, didn't try and get in the house. After about 15 seconds, I realized no one was there. I opened the door and saw no one. Not even someone walking down the street. Hands down, one of the scariest things I've ever experienced. The whole situation reminded me of a nightmare. In my dreams, I've always escaped scary situations by curling up in to a ball, which to this day, still wakes me up. A defense mechanism I suppose. But this wasn't a dream. This was reality. This was something occurring in front of my waking eyes.

By the by, I refer to this being as The Shadow Man. It makes the most sense to me. "Shadow Man" also conjures memories of Mega Man. Who fought a master robot with the same name. It just so happens that this character appears in Mega Man 3. Which also was my favorite of the Mega Man series. If that wasn't enough, before I began writing this article, I looked up Shadow Man's level on MM3, on youtube. The video for it is 3:30 minutes long.

So now,  let's talk about Monday, August 20th 2012. Around 6 am, I was dreaming. I was sleeping over at a friend's house, in his brother's room, since he was out and about at the time. Basically, the part of the dream I remembered is when I was standing on grass, looking at a street, with houses behind it. I assumed I was just in a front yard. In front of me, I see someone riding a bicycle. It's the Shadow Man! I shit you not. All black. No clothes. He turned to me, quickly, jumped off the bike and started sprinting toward me. He got so close that I saw him 2 inches away from my face. I was terrified and did what I do best, and curled up in to a ball. I jolted back in to reality. Breathing hard, sweating, thanking the Gods that I got to wake up.

The next day, I told the owner of the room about it. He said, non nonchalantly, "Oh, so you saw the shadow man, huh?" I was confused. I hadn't told him about my past experiences with this shadow being. He explains to me that his room has some weird shit going on in it.  He constantly has strange dreams and even sees shadow beings in his mirror sometimes. Pretty fucking bizarre if you ask me. Even though it was a terrifying dream, the possibility of a room with an invisible power like that intrigued me. I decided to sleep in the room again the next night so I could potentially call upon the shadow man in order to extinguish my fears and confront the demon, so to speak. The second night didn't attract the shadow man, but I did still dream. In fact, I became somewhat lucid in said dream.  Which in itself was rewarding seeing as how I've been attempting to harness the power of lucidity for about 2 decades. Very detailed and very auditory. I heard voices and sounds and I usually don't recall sounds in dreams.

So why is this happening? What is the potential cause of this flux of weird energy? It can't all be in my head, right? Others see shadow men too. Not just my friend.  After this dream, I simply googled, "Shadow Man". The wikipedia page being the first site. The way that people describe their encounters with these beings, is almost word for word how I felt. So no, this is not just in my head. This is not a coincidence.  My main theory is that this figure is either a manifestation of internal fear OR an inter dimensional being that preys on fear.  Whenever this Shadow Man turns and looks at me, it feels like I might be somewhere I'm not supposed to be and this being knows it. Running after me may simply be to chase me out of "his or her" world. I also think that maybe in whatever dimension this figure resides in, perhaps, I appear to him as a shadow man. It's all very intriguing. Only time will tell, but I feel like I haven't seen the last of the Shadow Man.

-Dom

My first lucid dream: A Tale of Fire and Ice

I have always been fascinated by dreams.  I think everyone should be, considering we spend 1/3 of our lives having them.  For the last couple years, I have been trying to induce a lucid dream.  Which in the most basic of terms is being aware of what is happening while in a dream state.  Yesterday morning, I achieved this long time goal and couldn't be happier.

I awoke at 8:30am.  Knowing that I had another hour to sleep in, I decided to nod off to dream land once more.  The following occurred at some point between 8:30am and 9:30am.

I am walking down the main street of my home town of Ripon, California, when all of a sudden, I am "awake". I look at my hands and at my surroundings and realize that I am dreaming.  I decide to put my imagination to the test, seeing as how I could wake up in my bed, at any second.  I look over across the street to see one of the big, caged tow trucks used for transporting multiple cars at a time.  I point my hand toward it in a Magneto-ish fashion and think "BEND THE METAL".  The metal of the truck bends backward.  Then I think to myself, "SPRAY FIRE".  The twisted steel then spews a stream of fire on to the tree next to it.  I am amazed by this.  I decide to go further. I continue walking down the street and see a man selling fruit or trinkets of some kind.  He looks like a less attractive Paul Rudd.  I think to myself, "FREEZE HIM". I point my finger at the stranger and concentrate on an icy mist spraying out of the tip of my pointer finger. At first, nothing happens.  I get closer to him and concentrate harder. A little spray of ice releases.  I get even closer, to the point where I'm inches away from him.  I think to myself again, "FREEZE!". An icy mist comes out and freezes the man in his track.  This is awesome! Anything is possible.  Now it's time to fly.  I run and jump in to the air.  I stay floating for a bit, like I'm on the moon, but eventually float back down to the sidewalk. I try a few more times but can't seem to get off the ground long enough.  Maybe I need to be higher up.  I start to climb a tree in order to get on to the roof of a building.  While I'm doing this, I notice a family in a backyard looking up at me in shock.  It's around this point that I awake.

I can't even begin to describe the feeling of this new found freedom.  I can only hope that it becomes a regular occurrence.  My imagination is a lot bigger than just blazing trees and freezing Paul Rudd look-a-likes.

Another detail to add is that I was waking up at 9:30 to attend a family event.  Keep in mind, at this point, I have not told anyone about my dream.  While there, one of my cousins that I have not seen in 4 months, mentions in passing:

"I have a photo of you on my phone."

Me: "What's the photo of?

"You, climbing a tree."

Dream on, dreamers.

-Dom