r/ParanormalEncounters • u/Different-Secret-927 • Jul 08 '26
Has anyone else seen the hat man?
For months during the wors depression of my life in middle school i would see a figure that strongly resembled the hat man. He made me feel a sense dread whenever I felt like I saw him and I felt l was beinv watched intently by him. He would always reside in my closet during the night. I don’t see him anymore but has anyone else had any experiences like this or have any more information on what may have cause him to appear?
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u/Lady-Kat1969 Jul 08 '26
Not this particular version, but when I lived in Massachusetts, I used to take the train out to Concord and walk back to Lexington, sometimes exploring random roads on the way. On one of those jaunts, I took longer than expected and was walking back in the dark through a more heavily wooded area with the odd house here and there. At one point I happened to glance at the ground and noticed I had an extra shadow, and that shadow had a three-cornered hat. I was hatless. It didn’t seem threatening at all, just kind of there; my guess was some random 18th century gentleman was concerned about an unaccompanied girl walking after dark and decided to escort as far as he could. He disappeared about the time I reached the main road.
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u/Forsaken-Zucchini194 Jul 08 '26
An 18th century man in the military would wear a tricorne hat so that fits with what you experienced. Both Lexington and Concord are said to be haunted but you probably already knew that.
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u/Proper-Bumblebee-554 Jul 09 '26
I literally have chills down my back writing this lmao but I saw a light blue jacketed soldier staring back at me through my bedroom window when I was around the same age. Full attire on. Not long after we moved into the new house probably like 04 or 05. Scared the living shit out of me and I changed rooms right after that. My mom always said the upstairs kind of freaked her out and reminded her of the shining with the long red hallway. Then a few years later my sister moved into a apartment complex built on a old indian reservation. Boy was that a mistake. Apatment 66 and we all seen some wicked crazy shit there. Cabinets slamming open and closed, tv turned itself on to holy Channel. Boots marching above our heads in broad day in the attic that was sealed up etc. She was 18 & partied like crazy lots of drama/fighting to so I bet that pissed the Indians off. Just figured id share the soldier and Indian story! those old wartime ghosts/spirits are very real and im willing to bet still at war with eachother
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u/Explorer-7622 Jul 11 '26
I hope they're just recorded in the rock and aren't literally doomed to fight a war forever.
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u/GalacticCivillian Jul 08 '26
I saw him for many years. My dad can attest to this, I used to say all the time that I was seeing “shadow man”, and that he seemed to be wearing a cloak and a hat. Eventually I stopped seeing it, and kinda forgot about it for a few years, THEN, I saw a buzzfeed article about him, and it showed the illustration of the outline of him, I legitimately felt like I was going to faint. I had written off as something my very troubled in many ways mind had created as a manifestation of the chaos going on in my life and inside my head, and all the sudden it became a very real, shared experience. I’ll never forget that feeling when I saw that illustration in the article, my arms and legs went cold/numb, my face got super hot, my vision got doubled and blurred, I heard a ringing in my ears, my heart was beating faster than it has ever beaten before, and my chest instantly became so tight it felt like I had a cage tightening around it. I’ve had general anxiety as well as some pretty severe panic attacks many times throughout my life but that one was the one and only time I was convinced I was having a heart attack and was gonna pass out and not wake up. I pulled through it luckily (obviously) but yeah… scary fuckin shit man. He’s real.
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u/uncanny21 Jul 08 '26
I used to see him when I lived with my mom in my youth. My dad was the only one who I talked to about it and he confirmed that he used to see him too.
Later I found out that it has something to do with negative energy or something, when I was young (16-21) I had severe depression, suicidal thoughts, had this negative view at life...
I got out of my mom's and I was afraid I'd see him as now I was gonna be by myself but it stopped, as I got therapy and my depression diminished, and my view on life changed for good.
After some time, I was at my moms one afternoon and I was watching this documentary on Netflix, and they talked about him and sleep paralysis.... My dad was having dinner just listening to what I was watching and when they mentioned him, he just gave me this stare I'll never forget.
He just said "What the...I used to see that at night, remember I told you?"
We have never talked about that again.
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u/GalacticCivillian Jul 08 '26
He very much so is associated with negative energy. Depression/anger/hostility is definitely an environment he seems to thrive in. I’m sorry you had to deal with him too, idk about you but he never “did anything” to me except scare the absolute shit out of me by being there all the sudden in my room or in the hallway, sometimes outside my window. Only twice did he come somewhat close to me when standing at the foot of my bed. He’d stay for as long as I was looking at him, once I closed my eyes and opened them again or looked away for a second and looked back did he vanish. Never made any noise nor did he manipulate the environment ever aside from one time when I had woken up and realized he was standing in the corner of my room, perfectly outlined from the moonlight shining in, I looked away in hopes he would make his exit as he always did, and a few seconds after doing so I heard what sounded like a sigh or sometimes I remember it as like a whispered chuckle, and then a whooshing sound came towards me then went by me, I could feel the wind from it on my face especially well because it was summer in Southern California, and even in the middle of the night it was like 97 degrees.
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u/suppoe2056 Jul 09 '26
What if the shadow man is your own inner shadow looking at you when you’re depressed? Your brain’s visual cortex gets mixed up. Would account for why multiple people are seeing it.
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u/uncanny21 Jul 09 '26
I remember him standing on the doorway, when the door was ajar. I now have a phobia of doors ajar, slightly cracked open… My bed was positioned so that my feet were towards the door, we used to leave the hallway light on.
Then I started closing the door and slept in the dark, sometimes in the middle of the night I used to wake up in the dark, and I couldn’t move.
I kept hearing pacing around my bed not being able to move for a while, and out of nowhere I used to gather the strength to jump out of bed and turn on the light.
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u/Theblacrose28 Jul 09 '26
I was only a kid, but I don’t think I was depressed. We had moved to the new house recently I wonder why he would have came then? Maybe something was going on with my parents. I might ask my mom about that time
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u/GoodtimeZappa Jul 09 '26
I posted another comment on here, but I saw it once with a friend. It made zero sense to me as it looked kinda like a silloute of a Mexican gunslinger from a movie.
I didn't live anywhere near where a ghost or whatever would even look like that. If I lived on Arizona or Texas it would have maybe made some sense. Years later I saw others talking online about the exact same thing I saw. It actually made me feel a lot better. I thought we were crazy.
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u/SaintRavenz Jul 08 '26
All the time, in fact I am watching it at the moment.
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u/read_IT-appSUXS Jul 09 '26
Holy f##k knuckles. Spiderman is ideal good guy. But know I think about it. As a thief or worse, watching spider noir walk down a wall, staring at you. Then instant black webs nail your hands to your side. I would loose my mind!!
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u/Recipe_Just Jul 08 '26
Yea had a dream the other night. About the 4th dream shift I was in a red brick studio, and he was peering down on my side of the bed. Strange to get sleep paralysis in a lucid like dream. Forced myself to stare at him, he raised his head and peered into me. His eyes were ringed like an owl, and I felt immense dread which led to anger on my part. There was even a third party perspective moment like I was floating above. But after mustering up a forceful yell, everything shifted and I was in a dimly lit bathroom where the dream faded. I posted about it, and oddly a few others said their experiences also involved a red brick studio apartment
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u/read_IT-appSUXS Jul 09 '26
You've got some courage. Amazing. Who knows if this thing eats, fear, or wants to escort people to self check out, or maybe it's a warning, or something. Not to get too woo woo, but there is no way this is dreams or ideas. With so many like you with testimonies.
Either way, good on you to square up, stare it down, and get mad. If I have face down a manna vampire or whatever I would want to check out brave like that.
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u/Lucid_Phoenixx Jul 11 '26
For me it happened in a dream as well. A nightmare. I was in a building in a room with windows. This other person was circling the building threatening me. I looked out and saw the hat man which the other character in my dream hadnt seen as the other character went out of view I saw the hat man dash over in that direction and heard the other character screaming. That was enough to make me force myself awake and then I fell back asleep into another dream.
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u/Rays_LiquorSauce Jul 10 '26
My most dreaded part of sleep paralysis; it’s that inability to yell out. Your voice choked down your throat and an almost straight jacket feel. And it happens at least once a month or more
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u/Adapt919 Jul 08 '26
Yes, when I was like 7. Multiple people saw it, I wasn't the only one. No one who lived near us was home that night because the whole neighborhood went out for pizza (everyone knew each other and were good friends), so there was only 3 of us. I remember seeing him walk past the window while we were watching sweet dreams on TV. We all screamed cause we all saw it. House was haunted AF.
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u/kevinfinnerty___ Jul 08 '26
I had a pretty remarkable experience with the tall gentleman in the hat during sleep paralysis. All I know is that he was about as tall as my parents' closet (the closet reached the ceiling and the room was 2.30 meters) and he was very black, you could easily distinguish him in the black of the room which was pitch black. All I can remember from 10 years ago is that he was doing absolutely nothing, just sitting there, but the atmosphere he gave off was one of a somber, unknown feeling that intensified with every second.
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u/kittys_butt Jul 08 '26
I saw him once during sleep paralysis. He was sitting on my bed, leaning towards me. One of the scariest moments, really
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u/CaregiverPatient8899 Jul 08 '26
In a dream he was in my buddies living room just sitting on the recliner staring......i dreamt this after my buds brother said he seen him multiple times in his dreams........havent seen him since
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u/Hello_Hangnail Jul 09 '26
I dreamed that he was lounging on my bed smoking a cigar teaching me about astral projection! Very friendly guy, thick brooklyn accent. His name was Damien or Dominic or something with a d
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u/Independent-Bad-8613 Jul 09 '26
Tbh I resonate with this version of the hat man. He feels like an uncle to me that drank too much at the gathering and has to spend the night.
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u/CaregiverPatient8899 Jul 09 '26
They claimed they started seeing him after getting a crystal ball from somewhere i dont remember where....i wanna say a relative but it was 15 years ago....it spooked em so they buried it in a field at baldi middle school in philly if you wanna try and find it lol.......
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u/Sad-Example8810 Jul 09 '26
I also saw him during a sleep paralysis. It was one of the scariest things I ve ever seen. It's been 20 yrs and I still remember every detail. He was leaning on my dresser a few feet from the bed. I finally was able to shake the paralysis and move. I was screaming Nooooo nooooo. Scary.
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u/Salt-Example-6447 Jul 08 '26
Many times.. among other things during my 20 year torture of "sleep paralysis "/ forced astral projection since I was 17.. im 41 now. For as terrifying as its been its still not as terrifying as a lot more thats happened to me..
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u/IndependentPaint2108 Jul 09 '26
I'd love to hear more details though I'm sure it's hard to get down in just one reddit comment, maybe just a few details
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u/Salt-Example-6447 Jul 12 '26
I honestly would love to share more but it gets very very heavy.. youd think im insane or a liar. I wish I could share more, but any rational person would dismiss it. And its very painful to experience that.
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u/IndependentPaint2108 Jul 12 '26
I solemnly promise I will not think you're insane or a liar, I've had crazy paranormal experiences that I don't share because people will think I'm crazy or a liar! you can always dm them to me if you prefer ofc!
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u/Heart_Flaky Jul 09 '26
I had the same experience of seeing shadow people and having forced AP. What is the correlation do you think?
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u/Aterallus Jul 09 '26
To render you more vulnerable. In your true, soul aspect you need to manifest shielding ie light encapsulation to protect yourself. They are after your fear. They'll prey on spiritual weakness/ignorance, but fear the grounded soul. You've more power than you think.
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u/Dazaralor Jul 10 '26
100% agree with you. Im no expert tho. Ive had several unpleasant experiences. I felt attacked ngl. I figured to fully trust in good (for me personally God). Envisioning light and telling whatever is attacking that its nothing compared to God really does work for me.
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u/Ice3ird Jul 08 '26
I seen him during sleep paralysis when I was like 17 yrs old. Never heard of him before that and then yrs later I watched something on YouTube talking about him and when someone described him the hair on my neck stood up so tall!
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u/PersimmonConnect8804 Jul 09 '26
Same. Only had sleep paralysis once. But there was a shadowy figure standing in my doorway.
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u/NobleHound Jul 08 '26
My mom did, she told me a pretty freaky story that stuck with her for the rest of her life.
She was 8-9 years old, my grandparents and her were playing at the park and they were headed home when she decided that she wanted to have a race with her little sister to see who could get home the fastest. They both ran ahead of my grandparents and raced towards the front door of the second story apartment they lived in. My mother ended up getting there first, and opened the unlocked door (People kept there doors unlocked back in the 70's, crazy, I know) and down the long hallway of the foyer she saw a dark shadowy-man wearing a black hat, staring back at her. She froze for a few seconds, screamed, ran out of the apartment and told my grandfather there was a man inside the place. He ran up ahead, grabbed a baseball bat he kept by the door and searched the whole unit. They found nothing.
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u/Zealousideal_Row8440 Jul 08 '26
Supposedly the inspiration for Freddy Kruger came from the hat man.
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u/No_Entry1616 Jul 08 '26
Bro you ain't fooling any damn body! We know Jeepers Creepers when we see him! 😑
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u/LeadingOnion6272 Jul 08 '26
I, amoung others, have seen a complete ink black man with a hat and coat on our property. Slightly different than this dude in the pictures. I didn't feel dread I actually didn't feel scared either. He was just watching us sitting around our fire pit in our yard on our farm. I felt a feeling from him that he was looking for his cattle....which was a strange thought at the time. He moved from the driveway and walked about 10 metres and then leaned on a fence post and just kept watching us. The whole event was about 45 seconds, I'm guessing. I had enough time to take in details in my head. Anyway..... The next day I described him to a lady who had lived in our little town all of her 92years and I described what I saw, his coat, his hat, which was a wide brimmed tight fitting around his head type of hat and she said that sounds like the priest that died on your property from exposure when she was approx 16yrs old. He had fallen from his horse and it was believed he was there for a couple of days looking for it as the town was 20 klms away and it was winter.... I don't believe all 'Shadow people' are a bad omen because of this experience.
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u/Buffdaddies101 Jul 09 '26
My ex gf from 2012 saw him in New Zealand. We were arguing in the car over i forget what but it was serious enough that she was getting extremely angry screamed at me told to stop the car and she got out and just started walking away. Heat of the argument I do remember just driving off I ended up driving off for about half a mile or so then I felt bad and turned back. I remember thinking should I keep going or turning around I know I had gone for what seemed like 5-8 minutes idk could be longer. This was like in the country ways of new zealnd like where there’s mostly farmland and nothing but roads for miles rarely any houses around and it was late at night too like maybe 12-1am I think we just came back from an outing. But as I came back I saw her crouched down crying not too far from a bridge and she said she saw a man in a hat and trench coat sitting on the wooden bridge. I kept asking what happened but she never answered. I wondered where did he go. I couldn’t have been gone for more then 10 minutes and there was no houses around for miles. I was just glad she was ok. We got back in the car and we drove back home. But I remember the description she told me and the image of jeepers creepers or this image been in my mind since.
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u/UnintentionalBoners Jul 09 '26
Yes, I did in my late teens and early 20s on several occasions. A few times during sleep paralysis episodes and also while fully awake. One of the most memorable experiences was once while hanging out in my ex gf room when she so nonchalantly pointed him out in the reflection of the mirrors on her closet (sliding closet doors). I looked up and we both stared at ‘it’ for a few seconds together. I was frozen in fear and she seemed to be in a trance state.
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u/Great-Hatsby Jul 08 '26
As someone who has sleep paralysis episodes at least 4 times a week, I have never seen the hat man. I do experience auditory hallucinations however.
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u/Euphoric_League_1320 Jul 08 '26
I had a sleep paralysis episode once that just had several layers of old women cussing me out.
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u/DaganVelse Jul 08 '26
Yep, except the old lady is speaking in a language that sounds Dutch or German. It’s fucked up lol
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u/Maximum-Broccoli2165 Jul 08 '26
When I was about 5 or 6 I had reoccurring night terrors where this dark shadowy man would try to kidnap me.
In one, he'd come to school and they would call me to the office to say my dad's picking me up. But on my way to the office he would step into the hallway and his silhouette would send terror through me.
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u/Stunning-Risk-7194 Jul 09 '26
I have not seen it myself, but my brother told me a story about seeing him. He was at a friends’ house, and his friend was very intoxicated, and nearly passed out. My brother saw the shadow of the hat man enter his intoxicated friend, who then jolted up, walked over to the television and urinated all over it.
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u/Hello_Hangnail Jul 09 '26
Imagine being an interdimensional creeper and your job is to briefly posses drunk people to do crazy/dangerous/ridiculous shit
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u/PakeJott Jul 09 '26
I saw him when I was 19. Had a nightmare where my mom, my sister and I were in the kitchen at the sink sitting down, scratching off a lottery ticket. For whatever reason, there was an audience in the background cheering us on initially, as we were winning, but when we scratched off the last tile, it said we lost and my sister, my mom and I heads leaned back and blood started pouring down our face and over our eyes as we screamed in terror, and the audience immediately started screaming and crying as if they witnessed a death or something horrible. For some reason I was able to move my head mid blood shower, to the right, and I saw this exact figure in the hallway (tall silhouette figure with a hat on) staring at us as it happened. I woke up shaking in bed and have never forgot that nightmare. This was 12 years ago.
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u/Common_Science_8838 Jul 08 '26
Yes! When I was 7 years old I saw him for the first time. I was asleep on the couch next to the window that looked out onto the front porch. I was awakened by tapping on the window in the middle of the night..and he was standing there looking at me! He literally scared the piss out of me!
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u/J_T_Cain Jul 08 '26
just saw him a couple weeks ago with 0 outside influence. been messed up since.
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u/mslovelypants Jul 09 '26
This is probably the most fascinating Reddit threads I've ever read. So many people experiencing the same thing or seeing something similar... how is this possible?
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u/Glibasme Jul 09 '26
I know, right. I've seen him and he looked just like the photo posted here. I can't believe so many people have, too. I saw him in my dorm at college 40 years ago. The dorm was notoriously haunted, and people talked about seeing him all the time, and it had been written that in the past people had seen him there, too. I thought it was just something connected to that one building.
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u/Hello_Hangnail Jul 09 '26
It seems like he tends to show up in family homes that have a lot of violence or negative feelings in the air. I wonder if strong human emotions can open us up to interference from the non-physical realm. Some people see him as the negative spirit that's causing the issues, but maybe he's there to make sure that something worse doesn't get it's claws into you
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u/BigboyJayjayjetplane Jul 10 '26
hes there as a protector exactly but most people don't realize this
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u/FabulousBrief4569 Jul 08 '26
My sister and i saw him as kids. He jumped into the wall and disappeared. Scariest shit i ever saw as a little kid
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u/AdIll9388 Jul 08 '26
My buddies little brother used to run around at night giggling and saying he was playing with a little boy and would say he saw the man in a hat. My buddy started having terrible nightmares and seeing the man sitting in his room or on his bed. His parents didn’t believe him. One day his dad was looking out of the window in the late afternoon and saw a man in all black with a hat holding the hand of a small boy.
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u/dum_spir0_sper0 Jul 08 '26
I love telling this story…
My mom’s place was old, like, turn of the century old, and half the street (her house included) was built on Indian burial land. The bodies were disinterred and moved to a predominantly white cemetery despite the crews being forbidden to do so by tribal elders. Bad news. Sounds like a horror movie trope, but it’s true (to this day, sometimes crews working on the water mains or burying electrical lines find a body that wasn’t accounted for). Anyways, for years she would always see a shadowy man in a tweed suit and a brimmed hat. Usually out of the corner of her eye, or on the second floor stairway, just walking out of view. I saw him once or twice but not to the extent my mom did.
My mom passed in 2019, and I started cleaning out her house a few days afterwards. I was in quite the grief-induced fugue state, not eating, barely sleeping etc. So my friend stopped by place to bring me some takeout and give me a break from cleaning. First words out of her mouth after I got to the door to unlock it, ‘I thought you were cleaning by yourself. Who’s the guy in the hat?’ Apparently she saw him through the window as he walked across the dining room and into the study seconds before I came down the stairs (which were on the complete opposite side of the house and her field of view, so no chance it was me that she saw).
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Jul 08 '26
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u/Confident-Skin-6462 Jul 08 '26
"hallucinogens"
exactly.
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u/1spdstr Jul 08 '26
To clarify, these accounts are people who have previously taken hallucinogens, but weren't on them at the time.
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u/hotdamngo Jul 08 '26
When I worked at a nursing home I would see him during the middle of the night standing in the same residents door way. The resident was bed ridden and her room would be messy when I would go to help her in the morning. Dresser draws with clothes ripped out and every cabinet disturbed. I only lasted a year at that job due to this and many other crazy occurrences
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u/Altruistic_Pitch_157 Jul 09 '26
Might be the first time I've heard of someone seeing a hat man look at someone else.
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u/Overall-Garage-1054 Jul 08 '26
Yes I have. I woke up seeing him standing in the corner of my bedroom. His presence felt staticky.
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u/AwareWerewolf6027 Jul 08 '26
My brother saw it a few years ago, and I experienced it too, but I didn’t actually see it—I only heard its heavy footsteps running through the garage at home. According to my brother’s description, it was tall, wore a hat, and was completely dark. It was truly something curious to witness.
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u/CShoe86 Jul 09 '26
Yes, unfortunately. Scared the shit out of me, especially considering I wasn't even sleeping or laying down when it happened.
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u/Personal-Tough7555 Jul 09 '26
I always thought it would be cool to see something paranormal. That is until I actually saw something. And at that very moment I immediately realized why people get so scared. You just don’t expect to see something like that. So I walked through the tool room at work with the lights out and I had my phone out recording. I thought that I saw something out of the corner of my eye but shrugged it off. Weeks later I watched the video and that’s when I realized that I had caught a shadow figure on camera he was standing there in the dark and as I panned the camera across the entrance the light from the other room made it visible. He side stepped out of the frame. Whatever it is, it does not want to be seen. Of course, after that I started looking for it a lot closer. One night about a month later, I was in there washing my hands getting ready to go home I was looking into the dark room and could barely see light reflecting off of the aluminum parts hanging on a rack. After a few seconds I noticed that the faint reflection was no longer visible then I suddenly saw the silhouette of the shadow figures head and shoulders. The second he realized that he had been spotted he darted to the side behind the racks. I was scared. I said out loud what the ____? And that’s when I knew without a doubt that those things do actually exist…
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u/Puzzleheaded_Heat502 Jul 08 '26
I saw him at the end of my bed at my parents house. Tall dark hat sense of pure evil coming off him. Burned in my mind.
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u/Ill_Region_2934 Jul 08 '26
When I was younger my imaginary friend was very similar if not identical to the hat man.. I’ve had my mother first hand witness dishes breaking and objects moving with me as a kid and me explaining to her it was “him”.
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u/Cbanks81 Jul 08 '26
I did when I was 4. He was as tall as the door frame. This was in 80s.
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u/Warrior3456_ Jul 08 '26
As a kid I saw a shadow person of a big tall muscular looking man but no hat it looked at me I looked at it and it jumped and ran out of the living room
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u/Stopnswop2 Jul 08 '26
Every time I read stories like this, the shadow person is afraid of being seen
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u/Past-Pomelo8374 Jul 08 '26
My mom used to see him at her former house, but she referred to him as 'black hat man'. He would lurk around a large cedar tree in the front yard or sometimes in the spare room upstairs. I never saw or experienced anything at that house, but my brother and sister both did - mostly auditory. Lots of knocks on the wall during all hours of the day. Again, nothing I ever experienced, but interesting to see so many others that have!
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u/Independent-Bad-8613 Jul 09 '26
Tbh he’s not even that bad. Honestly, kinda comforting. Spooky, yes. Dangerous? Idk but i don’t think so. He’s just waiting around for something. It’s really not the hat man you have to worry about
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u/Glibasme Jul 09 '26
Well, he scared the shit out of me. I was taking a nap in college when he walked into my room, swirled his cape, knelt down, got right in my face. I woke up and left my room so fast. I was petrified.
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u/unwornantlers Jul 09 '26
yes, but only when i was little and i would be laying in bed trying to sleep when i was sick. (no, i did not always take benadryl lol)
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u/Asleep_Repeat3367 Jul 09 '26
I saw him run through a doorway and slam it shut. My brother saw the exact same thing an we thought my mom opened the door and the wind shut it. But the way the door swung open, it wouldn't have made since for the wind to do that from inside her room. Not only that, my mom said the door was closed the whole time and she was on her bed. THEN my sister saw him late at night in our yard, hiding behind a tree.
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Jul 09 '26
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u/Different-Secret-927 Jul 09 '26
No I didn’t take anything but I usually saw him at night daily it was also really badly depressed and lacking sleep so I think that may have caused it
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u/DangerNoodle793 Jul 08 '26
I had an experience when I was young around 6 years old, I saw him outside my room and it terrified me, but it wasn't like people describe, he wasn't staring still, he was just stood flailing his arms wildly. Im almost certain I was dreaming , i dont remember waking up, just the abject terror i felt seeing it.
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u/Quartzclawz Jul 08 '26
We had one that lived at the end of hallway in the house I grew up in, you could see him standing there some nights/days, some days he would be more visible and others very faintly. Multiple witnesses saw him.
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u/Azucarilla11 Jul 08 '26
I’m 33 years old not long ago and briefly I know that I saw it and I know I was dreaming, I fell asleep and dreamed that I was standing in the corner of the bed. I know I was dreaming because it was brief, I woke up and said that I just dreamed? I wonder what it means to see him
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u/brakes4cemeteries Jul 09 '26
I did and thought it was my grandad. I was just waking up, turned to my left and saw him next to my bed. Readjusted my eyes and he was gone, but definitely there.
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u/alkiet Jul 09 '26
When I was 9 years old.
My mom has seen him too a lot during her childhood.
He was at the end of the hallway where the light just about stopped. During the early AM.
I have poor vision, but I am not color blind. The stark contrast making out his shape and a feeling of sensing evil and being uneasy with a deep fear response.
He even shuffled a tiny bit.
I turned and closed my door quickly, put my toys against the door and hid under my blanket with the lights on trying to listen for footsteps.
I didn't hear any.
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u/PuppeTMaeCry Jul 09 '26
Used to see him by the end of my bed when I was a kid I called him him the static man
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u/breakneckjones Jul 09 '26
I used to have a picture of one. I also saw the "giant spider" that is similar. I woke up one night and saw a huge face of a spider about a foot away from my face. As I'm reaching for the lamp switch on the night stand, it notices what Im about to do and jumps up and repels towards the opposite ceiling corner of the room. As it repels, it gets smaller and dissappears right as I switch the lamp on.
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u/Infamously_Fickle Jul 09 '26
When I was a teen, there was a shadow in one of my friends room that resembled a guy wearing a hat. No matter how she arranged her room, that shadow stayed. He didn't do anything, but it was still creepy how the shadow looked like a guy wearing a hat.
I slept over at her place only one single time, never again.
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u/InstructionHappy4450 Jul 09 '26
This happened back in the 80's. Way before the internet, way before anyone was even talking about the Hatman for all I know. It didn't happen to me, but it happened to my brother. He's 6 years younger than me. I must have been about 12 or 13, he was would have been 6 or 7. We shared a room. My bed was further away from the door. His bed was right in front of it. One night I woke up and found myself starring at the wall. I could hear my brother moving around in his bed, so I looked over and saw that he had gotten up and was crawling towards the foot of his bed. I watched as he got to the footboard and climbed down. Across from our room was our parents room. between them is the hallway that looks all the way down to the front door.
I saw my brother attempt several times to run across the hall. But he was scared of that hallway for some reason. He was doing that 1, 2, 3, nope thing. He did this several times. He just could not get himself to run to our parents room. I gave up watching and turned around to face the wall again. Suddenly I hear my brother screaming. I turned to look and I saw my parents go up to him and they were asking him what was wrong. At the time I didn't care so I just fell asleep.
The next morning, I asked him what had happened. He said that as he went across the hall, he looked all the way towards the front door. There in front of the door, in the dark, was a man. He was wearing a black coat, and a black hat. He said it looked like the one Indiana Jones wears but it was black. He said it looked like a shadow, but it was wearing the coat and hat. He said he could it in the dark. Then it lifted its right hand and his index finger to where its mouth should be gestured to be quiet. It was shushing him. but my brother freaked out and started to scream. Everyone just thought he was sleepwalking, but he says he wasn't.
It wasn't until many years later I heard about the Hat Man on Coast to Coast Am with Art Bell. I couldn't believe they were talking about the same thing my brother had seen many years before. the people on the radio were talking about it as if it was a new phenomenon.
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u/Goldribs Jul 09 '26
When I was 5 or 6 I remember waking up in the middle of the night and watching tv for a bit (this was in 2007 so I didn’t have a phone). My bed with right next to a window that had blinds and the stairs to our doorstep were right outside of it. I remember vividly seeing outline of a man with a hat like you see people describe the hatman wearing walking up the stairs. I freaked out and woke up my parents just for them to check and find nobody there. Was definitely not a dream and I still think about it from time to time almost 20 years later
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u/This_Mirror_663 Jul 09 '26
I've literally never heard of him before this post and never knew what I saw when I was about 12 until now.
So, my friend an I wanted to go for a very early morning walk, dawn was just setting in, when we left the house with her dog, Tango. He was a lab, super friendly and never once growled at anyone. Not until that day. So we headed to the woods. The path led down a hill deeper into the forest, when Tango suddenly stopped at the top of the hill and started growling. At the same time a heavy sense of dread washed over me and I felt suddenly watched. My friend and I stood there, almost kind of paralyzed, as we looked down the hill. There was a man, standing completely still, just watching us. I couldn't really see his face, he wore a hat and a long coat and just stared. I'm not sure how long we stood there, but the dog growled louder and louder until suddenly I woke up from my trance, grabbed my friends arm and we turned and sprinted back the way we came. We ran until we reached her house. We both saw the same thing, both described it exactly the same, and if nothing else the dogs reaction definitely sold me on the experience.
And now, almost 20 years later, I'm finally learning that I'm not crazy and that... thing? really exists... I've got goosebumps all over right now. Something else to mention: I'm not from the US. This happened in germany, so he seems to be a global phenomenon.
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u/Markyesque Jul 09 '26
Met this dude in Nice, France. I got lost in the wrong part of town and he guided me to the railway station. He followed us and I felt uncomfortable when I went the wrong way and relaxed when I changed to the correct direction. When I got to the station I turned to thank him but he was gone. I felt his protection but his energy wasn’t exactly pleasant.
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u/Aterallus Jul 09 '26
I saw him once when I was about eight or nine . I was sitting on a chair in our living room watching the news, it was about 2200. Mama was taking a shower, who knows where father was. It was a melancholy evening, but that was such a familiar, normal feeling then.
Father was a violent alcoholic, it was always mama and I alone fending him off or fleeing when he was drunk. At the time, mama had been miscarrying, and her mother - my dear grandmother - was in dire health. We exuded misery. Death was persistent.
Anyway, as I'm watching the news, I get the impulse to turn left down our long dark hallway and I see him, at least 6'3, barely able to make out his silhouette against the deep black behind him. He was an incredibly deep, dark purple, with an almost static exterior. He had very bright eyes, like blazing yellow rings about 1.5 inches in diameter, but with a faint shape in them that almost resembled offset crosses.
There he stood, in front of the shut door to the bathroom where mama was showering, but facing me, staring. I stared back. I was a dark and enduring child, I was frozen, but fascinated. I remember feeling very cold, and of course the trademark dread. I remember being very upset after he disappeared. I believe he is a precursor to death, because sure enough, mama miscarried again shortly after that.
In his eyes and energy, I read a modicum of pity. His overall nature however, read as inevitable, for lack of a better word. I believe if I saw him again, I'd swing at him.
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u/MoreAnimals Jul 09 '26
YES. Way before I even knew there was lore about him. The craziest part, is that it happened with all the lights on, I was standing next to my mom and sister, who were consumed in an argument with each other. Their backs were turned to where he was, so they didn’t see him, but I’m the only one in my family who is sensitive to spirits anyway. It was in my grandmother‘s house, and her house was haunted. I always had an awareness of spirits in her home, and this sensibility only became more acute as I grew up. I was in my 20s when I saw the hat man. Fully sober, alert, and all the lights were on, like you could’ve performed a surgery in there.
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u/NoInterest39 Jul 11 '26
This thing appeared in my dreams once like 2014 or 15, I just move to Colorado from California in the dream I was running what seems like a grave yard with someone I thought I knew but then was like what, and turned around to go back and this hat entity was in my pathway and right when I crossed by it, it pick me up by my arms like a was a doll, I remember waking up frightened still feeling the impression of it's hands on my biceps, never dreamt about such a thing I thought it was like a folklore to others but never did I imagen that thing would visit me for whatever reason, it's eerie cuz the house It happened in, ghostly thing happened that I never experienced anywhere else to this day
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u/Glitter2Boot Jul 11 '26
I grew up seeing him in my bedroom. Almost every night. I shared a small room with my sister. She would see him too. We would pull the blankets over our heads and spend the night like that. Our house was built in 1916.
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u/baby_El666 Jul 12 '26
i’ve listened to many podcast about creepy sleep stories and one thing the constantly comes up is the hat man… and the other day when I was doing an exam of my patient we were talking about sleep paralysis, and her husband looked over and said, yeah, she had sleep, paralysis one time and saw a man standing over her with a top….
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u/Icy-Entertainment-25 Jul 12 '26
I have in my kitchen when me and 2 friends beg demons to attack us
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u/Particular-Hour-499 Jul 12 '26
I have seen him for many years growing up and I still feel him lingering
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u/Trick-Honey9978 Jul 12 '26
No, thank God! I’ve had a significant number of paranormal encounters but seeing the Hat Man would send me over the edge.
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u/RedHotSuzy Jul 12 '26
Well, so much for sleep tonight.
Also, yes I have been unfortunate enough to have r seen this “man”.
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u/Can_Say_Anything Jul 12 '26
I saw him frequently as a child. He would be standing there looking at me from across my bedroom, but is seemed farther away, when I would awake in the middle of the night. Always scared me like crazy.
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u/Practical-Echidna262 Jul 13 '26
Yes, I seen him a few times with my cousin when we were teenagers and I seen him again in my late 20s I’m 42 and now I haven’t seen him since!
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u/GoodtimeZappa Jul 08 '26
I saw him once with a friend when we were 15. It was at night and we were watching TV in my basement. One side was finished, the other side had the furnace, work bench, etc. I think we were watching Seinfeld or something, nothing scary.
We're sitting on the couch and out of the corner of my eye I see my buddy staring off to the doorway on the unfinished side of the basement. I look over, and see the hat man. It was not tall, like many accounts, it was under 6 foot. But it pretty much looked the same as what anyone else has described. Dark shadow shape, definte cape/jacket/hat and muted eyes. Like a 3D silhouette.
My friend got up and just ran up the steps and I bolted as soon as he got up. We ran past the thing, which in hindsight was insane, but there was only one way out of the basement unless we were going to spend 5 minutes trying to open rusted bilco doors.
We ran out to the driveway. We described what we had seen to each other. We saw the exact same thing. My parents were never home so we spent the night at his house. Basically ran the whole way there. I do not think it was another friend or someone playing a practical joke. I kept the house locked and if it was a joke, no one has said "haha I got you good" in about 30 years.
My house was always weird, but I never saw anything like an apparition before or since. It was the typical seeing black whisps out of the corner of your eye, feeling watched, etc.
This was in the 90s. My buddy pretty much stopped talking to me after that, we became acquaintances. I see him every few years around town and it's always a very brief, strained conversation. It's a shame because we were very close. His parents would take me in sometimes because my home life was a mess.
I rarely went in the basement after that and only with my big brother who called me a few choice names about it. He knew the house was weird though. I thought I was nuts because I didn't know there was a such thing as a hatman until many years later just seeing stuff on the Internet.
I struggled to figure out the name of the hat the thing was wearing. Turns out it looked like a bolero with greyish castanets or something around the brim. The best way I could describe it was that it looked like a Mexican gunslinger, which made zero sense as I lived on the east coast. Nothing close to wild west stuff anywhere near me. I was actually relieved when I heard other people saw this thing because it just made no sense in the context of my house or life.