I had an unusual experience a few weeks ago. Despite how it might sound no drugs were involved.

I was walking home, past Cypress College in Southern California, and as I passed within 10 feet of a solitary large tree on the corner of the property I saw a jet black silhouette of a man shape (only the shape, no detail) and two bright red eyes like small led lights. It was frozen as if startled and then vanished behind the tree.

It was real enough to make me jump and check behind the tree. It was about 6pm and objects were still clearly visible.

I felt no danger, just surprise.

I was reminded of this two days ago as I walked by the same tree again, at about the same time and felt an unusual feeling. It seemed to be strongest at a particular angle to the tree and as I passed it, the feeling left. I walked back and forth and couldn't explain the difference.

I began musing as I walked (it's a three mile walk from work so I have time to think). There were rail lines recently removed about 15 feet from the tree on one side. This was a passenger line that ran for over 100 years. Could there be some -I don't know, magnetism or or accumulated effect?

Then I thought that since I walk facing traffic, and there are a series of signs and skinny trees, the oncoming car lights flick in and out of visibility causing a strobe like effect at times. Could this have primed my eyes to somehow see something that wasn't there?

Then I wondered if a parallel universe could lie next to this, and if the strobe effect I mentioned could have create an interference pattern of some type (similar to the way moire is produced) allowing me to glimpse some world next to ours that exists in a slightly different wavelength? Could the black man with red eyes be the equivalent of a photo negative of sorts, appearing black only because that was how my eyes interpreted the particular radiation that came through? Did some other guy, in some other place, see a shadowy (or bright) shape and startled wonder what it was?

Ok, chances are my eyes just played tricks on me and suggestibility based on similar conditions triggered the second physical feeling but I figured I'd put it out there since I know there are some science minded types here.

Uh, oh. Looks like I scared everyone. I'm cuckoo! Of course it may just be boring but I'd rather be cuckoo than boring.

Yeah, I wouldn't underestimate how the brain can make you believe in some quite extraordinary illusions when it comes to shapes, forms and so on. We tend to recognize a whole lot of defined shaped in nothing but shadows, clouds and so on.

It doesn't explain the red eyes, but if you saw the image in a flash it might very well be a strobe effect of cars passing by.

I once got scared of my own reflection, I was drinking some soda from a glass, saw a hand rise in the window glass and got freaked out a bit. Then seconds later realized it was nothing more than my own arm and hand.

Pretty freaky, even though it's easy to see the direct link there, right?

I'm thinking we tend to over-think those kinds of events.

Personally I do not believe in 'other worlds' and even though multi-dimensional appearances can't quite be ruled out, I also definitely do not believe in supernatural or ghost-like things. Why should someone's ghost be humanoid or a shadow or some fog with eyes??



Only if you see them on a daily basis, talk with them and drink tea.

Errr... who told you about the tea?

I know that sometimes when we expect to see something we see that - and not what's really there; for instance I've heard of hunters shooting at a fellow hunter and swearing they saw antlers on him.

Conversely, we may not see always see or comprehend something that is there when our mind can't categorize it.

I took a look at this page on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_people (taken with the usual grain of salt). Several factors could have triggered it I guess the lights and shadows, the 3 mile walk (releasing dopamine), electromagnetic radiation. Anyway weird.

Here is the tree in question. Nothing extraordinary.

Google Maps

Aren't those shadow people just the neighborhood perverts? :p

No, seriously, I think a lot of 'strange' sightings are based on unconscious expectations and indeed not being able to categorize what we see internally. I'm sure that until we really find an UFO wreckage, people will keep seeing UFOs according to the 'standard' expectation model of a flying saucer.

Doesn't mean they are real.

Anyways, good post, the human psychology behind illusions and how people react to them interests me a lot.

I can see the ISS passing by some times.
(that spacestation with the non-working Toilet made in the US)

Looks like an UFO to someone who does not know what it is,
as it does not have the position light like a plane and
moves quite differently.

----

The "red eyes" might also have been just a guy smoking a cigarett,
that was lighting up, while he was standing in the shades.
The second "eye"light was maybe a reflection of that cigerett in
his glasses.

The Brain can not nearly process the massive and distorted visual information it gets,
so its heavily filters them, and adds details or
explanation to this highly filtered data.
As it is better to see a predator in a tree-stump, than
a tree-stump in a Lion.

Is the google-tree at roughly the same angle you saw the apparition from?
You may have just seen a normal shadow, and its eyes were car-taillights,
reflected off a car window in the distance, behind the tree.

Next time, Tazer the bugger and dissect it.
And post photos

It's assumed the brain could, but for efficiency's sake and in order to 'keep things realtime' it's obviously a lot more useful to quickly filter out things that get a low priority / relevance factor determined.