Shadow Figure

[H3O]

This happened to me a while back, I still can't find an explanation.
A shadow, the shape of a man, appeared on our floor as if someone was standing a few feet in front of me.
I was watching TV in one of our rooms, it got pretty late so I decided to head to my room to go to sleep. When I stepped into our hallway to head over to my room a shadow appeared on the floor a few feet in front of me, it stood there for about 3 seconds then moved towards our entrance. I checked around to see if it was one of my family members but nobody was around, everyone was asleep. I just kind of shrugged it off and headed to bed, but I still wonder what it was. The only light source was from our bathroom which was in front of me when the shadow appeared so it couldn't have been my shadow because it would be behind me. I don't think it could've been anything e.g a bug because this happened during winter and in my area theres practically no bugs around during winter, even in the summer there isn't much variety of species of bugs around here that are big enough to cast a shadow when landing on a light. Also the angle of the shadow was not the same direction of the light being emitted, if it was anything on the light woundn't the shadow be the same direction as the light.
I made a simple diagram of this to give you a visual of the angle of the light and shadow.

I was watching TV in room 4, when I stepped into the hallway to go to room 3 the shadow appeared, stood there for about 3 seconds then moved towards the entrance. If it was something landing on the light casting a shadow wouldn't it be more angled following the direction the light.
Does anyone have any explanations of what it could've been.

[origin]

It was late at night, you were tired, you had been watching TV, and were in a low light enviroment. Sounds like your eyes were playing tricks on you.

I certainly don't think the invisible man was in your house - so I would go with a trick of the light.

The other thing is that you didn't think much of it at the time - clearly it didn't have much impact. We tend to build up things like this in our minds over time - especially when you tell people the story and your get oohs and aahs.

[H3O]

It was late at night, you were tired, you had been watching TV, and were in a low light enviroment. Sounds like your eyes were playing tricks on you.

I certainly don't think the invisible man was in your house - so I would go with a trick of the light.

Yes, it was pretty late, but I wasn't really tired. I know when some people get tired they can see thing that aren't really there, but I wasn't tired enough where I would start to see things. If I understand you correctly, your saying that because I was watching TV and then entered the hallway the changing light conditions made me see a shadow the shape of a man, is that what your saying? If that was the case wouldn't it be more like a blury image, and remain in my vision for longer, like when you see a bright light then look somwhere else you would still see a blury shadowy image of what you where looking at for a minute or two. When I saw the shadow, it was very clear, I could clearly see the head, neck, torso, arms, and legs, it stood still for about 3 seconds then moved towards the entrance.

The other thing is that you didn't think much of it at the time - clearly it didn't have much impact. We tend to build up things like this in our minds over time - especially when you tell people the story and your get oohs and aahs.

I said I "shrugged it off", it still freaked me out at the time, I just tried not to think about it, I didn't want to believe that I saw a shadow, but I clearly saw it. I'm not telling this to get any "oohs and ahhs" from people I just want to know if theres anybody that could help me find an explanation.
Thanks, this is very good explanation but I don't think the lights were playing tricks on me.

[Fomalhautian]

So, was this shadow upright, on a wall or was it on the floor like in the diagram? Also, did you look directly at it, or was it one of those peripheral sightings. I only ask because as a result of a hard hit I once took playing football in high school, I've developed floaters in my vision. They tend to move around, sometimes in the front..... sometimes in my peripheral. They change shapes and for the most part just annoy me. Like I'll think I see a bug and when I fix my eyes on the location, since it's in my peripheral, it keeps moving away. But every once in a while (like twice in 20 years) the floaters will take an almost human shape and will be in just the right part of my peripheral vision that I looks like a man in a doorway and when I swing my head around he disappears...... so a frantic search ensues around the house and I only figure out it's a floater when I sit back down in the original location and see it again. But for a good two or three minutes, I am convinced somebody is in my house.

[H3O]

So, was this shadow upright, on a wall or was it on the floor like in the diagram? Also, did you look directly at it, or was it one of those peripheral sightings. I only ask because as a result of a hard hit I once took playing football in high school, I've developed floaters in my vision. They tend to move around, sometimes in the front..... sometimes in my peripheral. They change shapes and for the most part just annoy me. Like I'll think I see a bug and when I fix my eyes on the location, since it's in my peripheral, it keeps moving away. But every once in a while (like twice in 20 years) the floaters will take an almost human shape and will be in just the right part of my peripheral vision that I looks like a man in a doorway and when I swing my head around he disappears...... so a frantic search ensues around the house and I only figure out it's a floater when I sit back down in the original location and see it again. But for a good two or three minutes, I am convinced somebody is in my house.

The shadow was on the floor just like in the diagram, and yes I looked directly at it not in my peripheral, I was facing it directly. It was very clear, it stood on the floor in front of me for about 3 seconds, it didn't change shape or anything, then moved towards the entrance.
I know what you mean, I sometimes see "floaters" in my vision, but when ever I see them there not in any particular shape, just squiggly lines. I don't think the shadow I saw was a floater, it was too clear and it didn't move when I examined it, unlike a floater that moves when you try to look at it.

[origin]

I don't know what you are looking for. What you saw was a trick of the light, a shadow from a bug, a floater, a hallucination or what ever. Forget it, it was nothing of consequence.

A science site is going to give you rational non-supernatural reasons for what you saw. If you go to a new age site or something they will give you all kinds of supernatural explanations. I wouldn't worry about it. I would just keep retelling the story around halloween, I think it is a pretty good one.

[H3O]

I don't know what you are looking for. What you saw was a trick of the light, a shadow from a bug, a floater, a hallucination or what ever. Forget it, it was nothing of consequence.

A science site is going to give you rational non-supernatural reasons for what you saw. If you go to a new age site or something they will give you all kinds of supernatural explanations. I wouldn't worry about it. I would just keep retelling the story around halloween, I think it is a pretty good one.

I can't just forget what happened, if you were in my situation I think you'd be looking for answers too. It couldn't have just been a trick of the light, the shadow was very clear and my eyes were adjusted to the light condition. It couldn't have been a shadow from a bug because theres no bugs around in the winter in my area, and I've never had any hallucinations of any kind in my life. I can't find a rational explanation for this.

[origin]

I don't know what you are looking for. What you saw was a trick of the light, a shadow from a bug, a floater, a hallucination or what ever. Forget it, it was nothing of consequence.

A science site is going to give you rational non-supernatural reasons for what you saw. If you go to a new age site or something they will give you all kinds of supernatural explanations. I wouldn't worry about it. I would just keep retelling the story around halloween, I think it is a pretty good one.

I can't just forget what happened, if you were in my situation I think you'd be looking for answers too. It couldn't have just been a trick of the light, the shadow was very clear and my eyes were adjusted to the light condition. It couldn't have been a shadow from a bug because theres no bugs around in the winter in my area, and I've never had any hallucinations of any kind in my life. I can't find a rational explanation for this.

I saw a little munster standing on a beaver lodge in Canada one time. The other guy in the canoe with me also so something that freaked him out. I was absolutely convinced that there was something clearly there. It ended up being a small log sticking up out of the lodge, but I could go round and round looking for a rational explanation why we both had the same visual experience. I chalk it up to the play of light and being deep in the woods for about a week. I don't think it was really a munster. I do however have a great halloween story and camp fire story that seems to get spookier every time I tell it.

So I think I was in a situations similar to you and I just don't believe in munsters, I do believe we are able to scare the bejesus out of ourselves occasionally though!

[H3O]

I saw a little munster standing on a beaver lodge in Canada one time. The other guy in the canoe with me also so something that freaked him out. I was absolutely convinced that there was something clearly there. It ended up being a small log sticking up out of the lodge, but I could go round and round looking for a rational explanation why we both had the same visual experience. I chalk it up to the play of light and being deep in the woods for about a week. I don't think it was really a munster. I do however have a great halloween story and camp fire story that seems to get spookier every time I tell it.

So I think I was in a situations similar to you and I just don't believe in munsters, I do believe we are able to scare the bejesus out of ourselves occasionally though!

Your situation is different from mine, you and your friend saw an actual object (the peice of log sticking up). In my situation there was nothing there to make a shadow eg. a bug, neither was it a trick of light because my eyes were adjusted to the light condition. What happened to me isn't much of a story, it isn't going to get any more or less "spookier" however number of times I tell it.

[a_lost_packet_]

...What happened to me isn't much of a story, it isn't going to get any more or less "spookier" however number of times I tell it.

You may or may not have seen something "real." However, there isn't much of a way to determine that from the evidence presented.

Also, remember your mind is not going to easily accept an "effect" without an identifiable "cause." Your mind, just like mine, likes to fill in the gaps with whatever it can in order to make sense of something. So, things can actually change.. your experience may be remembered differently and little things may start to stand out over time that really didn't happen.

I'm not saying you didn't see anything. I'm saying that we can not always trust what we see, what we remember and what we identify as a cause.

Try not to dwell too much on it. The only way you're going to be able to rationally identify a cause is through repetition. Since the experience doesn't seem likely to re-occur, you may never know exactly what it was you saw. That doesn't mean it wasn't real but it also doesn't mean it was. It's simply an event without explanation at this point.

[a_lost_packet_]

One thing it could be is an afterimage effect. You were watching television. That is a projected light impacting your retinas. If you then moved to a dark or more contrasting area, you could have some slight afterimage illusions that may have contributed to what you saw. As the afterimage faded, it may have been interpreted by you as "movement" especially if you "recognized" the illusion as a human-like shadowy form right off the bat. The initial scare starts your brain pounding to find answers and it assembles whatever evidence it has, no matter if it is true or not, into some sort of explanation. Hey, it's better than getting "Brain Lock" when confronted with something we can't initially explain.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afterimage_effect

I've had that happen several times after watching television in a dimly lit room then moving to a darker one.

[origin]

I saw a little munster standing on a beaver lodge in Canada one time. The other guy in the canoe with me also so something that freaked him out. I was absolutely convinced that there was something clearly there. It ended up being a small log sticking up out of the lodge, but I could go round and round looking for a rational explanation why we both had the same visual experience. I chalk it up to the play of light and being deep in the woods for about a week. I don't think it was really a munster. I do however have a great halloween story and camp fire story that seems to get spookier every time I tell it.

So I think I was in a situations similar to you and I just don't believe in munsters, I do believe we are able to scare the bejesus out of ourselves occasionally though!

Your situation is different from mine, you and your friend saw an actual object (the peice of log sticking up). In my situation there was nothing there to make a shadow eg. a bug, neither was it a trick of light because my eyes were adjusted to the light condition. What happened to me isn't much of a story, it isn't going to get any more or less "spookier" however number of times I tell it.

Fine, fine, your situation was completely different. I now think that you probably saw a demon or a shadow person (which is an entity from a hyper dimension). I also recommend that you take your mind off of your concerns by relaxing and going out to see a movie, I heard that Paranormal is a good movie.

[H3O]

One thing it could be is an afterimage effect. You were watching television. That is a projected light impacting your retinas. If you then moved to a dark or more contrasting area, you could have some slight afterimage illusions that may have contributed to what you saw. As the afterimage faded, it may have been interpreted by you as "movement" especially if you "recognized" the illusion as a human-like shadowy form right off the bat....

There was nothing in my vision while I was leaving the room and around the hallway, if it were an afte image effect would it have been in my vision already? When I stepped into the hallway, I didn't see anything on the floor, walls, etc. then the shadow appeared. Also it didn't move while I was examining it, I looked at it up and down and it was stationary, wouldn't an afterimage be moving with your vision?

[a_lost_packet_]

.. Also it didn't move while I was examining it, I looked at it up and down and it was stationary, wouldn't an afterimage be moving with your vision?

Yes, it should.

The only thing I can say is that sometimes the mind fills in explanations for what it sees. At least, if I was to give support for a mundane cause for what you witnessed. I'm not saying you didn't see "something." Heck, maybe you saw a shadowman, I don't know. But, we can only make comparisons between things we know the attributes of. We don't know the attributes of "shadowmen." They have not been observed, defined, studied and confirmed as natural phenomenon. So, we can only go with those natural phenomenon we have attributes for. Otherwise, what do I compare your experience with?

That's the only angle I'm pursuing here. I simply have no information or help to provide that lies within the realm of the unobserved and supernatural. If I did, I would provide it and make suitable comparisons. /shrug