I saw a black shadow in my room: what it means and what to do

The short answer

Seeing a black shadow in your room, especially as you fall asleep or wake up, is one of the most common experiences there is, and it has a frequent medical explanation: sleep paralysis, in which the mind wakes up before the body and hallucinations of dark figures, presences and pressure on the chest appear. If it only happens in that moment of transition, that is most likely what it is. If the shadow appears while you are fully awake and conscious, and comes with other signs in the house, the esoteric tradition considers it one of the most common ways low-vibration entities show themselves.

First, the physical

Before thinking about entities, look at these causes:

- **Sleep paralysis and hallucinations as you fall asleep or wake up.** They are very common when you sleep little, keep irregular hours or are going through a lot of stress. - **Extreme fatigue**, which tricks your peripheral vision. - **Moving lights and reflections**: passing cars, the light from a device, a curtain.

If the episodes repeat often, you don't sleep well or you wake up afraid every night, see a doctor. Ruling out the physical takes nothing away from the spiritual: it lets you see clearly what is left.

Shadow people

In modern folklore these figures have a name: Shadow people, completely black human silhouettes with no features, seen out of the corner of your eye, in dark corners or at the foot of the bed, that disappear when you look straight at them. In Latin America, when the figure sits on the sleeper's chest, people say "the dead man climbed on you". Almost every culture has its own version of the same experience, and it almost always happens at night, in the bedroom, at the moment you lower your guard.

What Viresh Kartik says

In his *Energy Protection Manual*, Viresh tells the case of a house where a woman lived with her six- or seven-year-old daughter. At night they heard footsteps; the girl would say: "Mom, there are people in the kitchen". The woman had taken a selfie alone at home, and the photo showed the shadow of a hand.

When Viresh went to work on the house, he found that entity: it had "a semi-human form, a dark silhouette, like a shadow". It was like a soldier someone had sent (the woman had had witchcraft done against her over the house), and it kept two other entities there, two dark, dense clouds. Anyone who walked into the house felt bad, lost energy and got sad for no reason. After the cleansing, the house was at peace.

For Viresh, the bedroom is a special place because sleep is when you are most exposed: when you shift planes as you sleep, if you are not protected, it is easier for something to come near you. He also warns about mirrors: there should be no mirrors in bedrooms, much less one facing you while you sleep, because they are entry portals.

What to do

**1. Ask, without fear.** If you feel a presence or see the shadow, ask calmly and with determination: "Who are you and what do you want?". Ask it three times and wait. According to Viresh, it is almost a spiritual law: the entity usually withdraws. If you ask it with fear, it doesn't work; you have to show that you are facing the situation.

**2. The shield before sleeping.** Every night, the three shields: Clipeum, Clipeum, Clipeum. It is the protection for the moment you shift planes in your dreams.

**3. Close the mirror in your room.** If there is a mirror in your bedroom, close it energetically or take it out.

**4. Smudge the room** with sage, rosemary and rue, especially the corners.

**5. If it doesn't go away:** the book's emergency protocol, step by step.

A warning from the book itself: don't get paranoid either. A shadow you saw once, while tired, is not an attack. But if it repeats and adds up with noises, nightmares and fatigue, don't leave yourself exposed: protect yourself.

The complete exercises (how to make the shield, how to close a mirror and the emergency protocol) are in *The Energy Protection Manual: Defending Yourself Against Entity Attacks*.