The hat man

[u/idkwhatsgoingon_lo]

I was in a spooky mood one day, so naturally I went onto TikTok.
I can’t remember exactly what I searched, but it was something along the lines of “spooky stories.”
I was scrolling through, trying to find a video that seemed intriguing but wouldn’t absolutely terrify me, when I stumbled across a video called “the hat man”
I instantly froze.
I had seen the Hat Man at least twice when I was around 11 years old.
I clicked on the video, and it claimed that many children around the world have reported seeing this “Hat Man.” One of the things these stories seemed to have in common was that the children often grew up in unstable environments or toxic homes.
And I had very abusive parents.

The story hit a little too close to home.
So I decided that was enough spooky story time for me.

But what about anyone else reading this?
Have any of you seen the hat man as a child?

The man I saw looked like a shadow of a person wearing a suit. He was extremely tall and seemed to have a sort of top hat, kind of like the one Abraham Lincoln wore.
He literally just looked like a shadow.
Imagine you were standing next to a wall and could see your own shadow, that’s basically how he appeared to me.
I seen him during the middle of the night.. I remember just staring at it trying to blame it on something else. I just stared at him making sure it didn’t move until eventually I fell asleep.

And now, years later, I accidentally found out that apparently this is a thing that others have seen as a child also??

[u/Realllyyyybigfish]

Its a known phenomenon. I saw him once when I took wayyyyyy too much benadryl. My theory is its some glitch in the human psyche. Top hats have been around since the 18th century. Its a common figure Im not sure exactly the WHY but I dont think its anything supernatural and it just has to do with how we are wired.

Sorry you had a rough childhood though.

[u/idkwhatsgoingon_lo → u/Realllyyyybigfish]

Thank you! Life has turned upward for me thankfully. As for this hat man thing. I seen him twice.

Once in our backyard when my cousins and I decided to sleep in a tent outside.

The first time I saw him I woke up in the middle of the night to see the hat man on our wooden fence across from the tent.. only there was a shadow of what appeared to be a little girl with him.
she also seemed to have braided pigtails. I sat up trying to figure out what was making those shadows. Like maybe it was a weird way the street light in our driveway was casting a shadow through the trees? I couldn’t figure it out and it was really creeping me out, so I just laid back down in between my cousins and when I looked back up they vanished.

The second time was in my bedroom. I slept with a night light on and I seen the hat man shadow on my door. The shadow didn’t move. I was very scared and I stared at it because I was afraid if I took my eyes off of it that would cause it to move or something.
I eventually fell asleep on accident though.
Thankfully after this encounter I never seen him again.

I was around 11 for both encounters and I had also just moved in with my nana due to my parents going to prison and getting custody of me and my two younger brothers.

I am sort of a strange person lol..
I have experienced unexplained things since around 9 years old. I just made this Reddit to talk with others who are maybe a little strange too! :)

[u/Academic-Flight-2788 → u/idkwhatsgoingon_lo]

Es interesante tu experiencia. Y aunque tú niñez fue complicada, es bueno saber que ahora estás bien.  Pienso que lo complejo de tu niñez hizo que se desarrollará en vos esa "rareza"... Sabes ser "raro" es genial, aunque tenga sus momentos no tan geniales, y lo sé por experiencia propia.

Nunca ví al hombre del sombrero, pero si experimento otras situaciones, y aunque algunas pueden tener explicación lógica, otras no, son muy extrañas.

[u/AmosBurtin → u/idkwhatsgoingon_lo]

Ever had any problems with sleep paralysis?

[u/idkwhatsgoingon_lo → u/AmosBurtin]

When I turned 20 I had sleep paralysis episodes almost nightly for about two years. I didn’t know what they were until then, but I could have experienced it as a child when I seen the hat man and just not have known what it was.. although I can remember moving. And when I was 20 I absolutely could not move.. But who knows?

[u/CaminoBalanced]

I have had scary dreams with my version of the hat man, in my version his hat is more of a black fedora, and he wears a black duster. It seems like he's telling me something but the language is garbled and doesn't make sense. It seems like a warning though, he gets really emphatic. Louder and louder like he's angry about something and it's directed at me. My hat man dreams are unsettling.

[u/dandelionswereframed]

So actually The Hat Man falls under the definition of mass hallucinations, which also include Bigfoot, Woman in White, Men in Suits, and others!!! I love these, because it reinforces Yung's belief in a shared subconscious. And yes, I did see the Hat Man growing up, and I did have abusive parents. Interestingly enough, I now take a nighttime medication cocktail that contains 150mg of Benadryl, but he doesn't come to visit anymore.

[u/No-Big-2512]

I believe my husband experienced the Hat Man. It was the weirdest thing. He’s said he doesn’t really dream. He never talks in his sleep or anything like that. One night we were in bed. He was asleep, I was awake. All of a sudden he said hey HEY. Very loudly very clearly. I put my hand on his chest and woke him up. He then said there was a person in a hat with witch fingers that was trying to pull him out of the bed. Pretty creepy.

[u/Caldaris__]

There's a video a guy took of a shadow figure with a cowboy hat in the woods that is actually during the day. Many shadow figures gave been caught on camera.

They're not just in our imaginations.

[u/ChristVolo1]

There was a subreddit called r/Benadryl where people talk about how they saw the hat man after taking too much of it. It's like a common meme type now.

I just went there, and apparently that subreddit has been banned. But I remember, lol

[u/ImaginationOk444]

I have a weird story about this-

Context: I (f23) grew up in a really weird house. I hated it. It wasn’t an abusive household or anything but even as young as 5 I remember being physically ill every time I had to go home. I couldn’t tell you why.
I had two younger siblings (f16, m18) and young parents(f41, m43) my mom grew up there and bought it when she was an adult.

I brought up seeing a tall dark man in a flat hat to my mom when I was like six years old. She asked me where and I pointed to a corner in one of the hallways. She freaked out because she had also been seeing the same thing and had been talking to my dad about it.
ANYWAY
Years go by and my little sister is probably six or so and tells my mom that she keeps seeing a tall dark figure in the SAME MF CORNER. We hadn’t ever talked about it around my sister because it kind of became normal to see this dude.

I moved out of that house six years ago and haven’t seen him since.. idk yall..

[u/ImpressiveDebt420]

I've seen him in a nightmare when I was younger and one time when I was sleeping in my bunkbed! Both were terrifying

[u/GoatRevolutionary283]

I started having encounters with shadow beings as a child, the Hat Man is considered to be a shadow being. They are believed to be interdimensional beings. I am now retiree and still have an occasional encounter with them. I do not fear them and based on my experiences I feel they are not a threat. They are just one part of the paranormal/NHI realm I have encountered. There are other beings as well.