The Shadow People

Paranormal experiences can occur anywhere and to anyone and the way a narrator interprets it determines how it affects them. Christopher Brown has an experience with shadow beings that influenced the way that he views graveyards along with his views on the supernatural. Experiences like the following greatly influence a person’s beliefs and emotions. Beliefs are change from the experience or the experience shapes their beliefs. Experiences are also sometimes hard to explain, especially when rational explanations fall short. One simple occurrence like Brown’s demonstrates how much goes into interpreting and understanding these events. It all varies based on how a person relates the experience to their beliefs and how they want to explain it.

On March 30th, 2014, I sat down with Brown and discussed his experience with the supernatural. He’s always been a spiritual person but had trouble thinking of experiences of his with supernatural. It wasn’t until I mentioned graveyards and ghost experiences did he finally think of an instance. During the summer in 2011, a few friends and him decided to take a drive and took a wrong turn. They ended up in backwoods North Vernon at a graveyard. As they were driving, they could feel the temperature physically drop and they could see their breath in the middle of the summer. They stepped out of the car and saw what he described as “shadow people”. They weren’t typical shadows or his imagination; all three people in the group all saw the same thing. His voice during the latter of the interview became very soft and timid, showing that he was skeptical that I would believe him and take his story seriously. He wasn’t skeptical of what he saw; he described it as though he knew what it was unlike most ...

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...and a common source for legend tripping, but after so many people do so and take advantage of the opportunity, the spirits become angered and experiences like Brown’s arise. This experience could be taken many other different ways, but Brown took this and understood what happened based on his own beliefs. He tried to reason out what had happened with rational explanations but they all fell short and he made his own conclusions about the incident. Further research about his beliefs could lead him to further support the cultural source hypothesis he participates in. The value a person takes from an experience all depends on how they interpret, understand, and explain it. Each interpretation and explanation all comes together to create memorates that will further go on to influence other people’s beliefs and the way they also interpret their experiences later in life.