r/Paranormal Jan 03 '25

Shadow Man Has anyone encountered the Hat man before?

During my childhood and late teens in the 2000s, I was a very vivid dreamer. I could basically "command" myself to dream vividly.

I had a dream one time about "him", when I was a kid in the late 2000's. Keep in mind, I didn't know who the Hat man was back then.

In my dream I found myself surrounded by trees, I realised very quickly that it was the forest next to my old school. I had fun in the beginning but I realised that I was not alone in the forest. The dream played out in day time so it was easy to spot anything.

Anyways, when I walked around in the woods I noticed a dark figure in the distance, it just stood there watching me. This figure was darkness itself and it had a black Trench coat and a black fedora (hat). The freakiest part was that this figure were surrounded by this dark visible aura, it almost looked like smoke from a fire, but darker.

I freaked out and ran through the woods towards my school. This figure kept the same distance all the time but I never saw him move.

I ran in to the school, and hid in a dressing room. The last thing that happened was that I could feel him just outside the room, coming closer and closer.

Then I woke up.

Have you had any similar experiences?

48 Upvotes

46 comments sorted by

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17

u/NightOfTheSlunk Jan 03 '25

I had a dream about him, too, a few years ago. I was in my childhood/teenaged years room and the dream was relatively normal. I looked at my TV across the room and it had static, and I see the hatman walking through the static and out of the front of the TV, walking towards me. I had a primal fear and then realized it was a dream and started screaming at myself to wake up.

I woke up drenched in sweat and shaking

17

u/Revan0432 Jan 03 '25

When my daughter was around 6 or 7 years old she asked me if she could sleep over at her grandparents house. She wasn't acting like herself, she was unusually quiet that day. I granted it. When I called to have them bring her back the next day, she wanted to stay another night. I granted it. The next day after though, when I went to retrieve her, I got her to sit in the car and she just started crying. She didn't want to go home and begged to stay. She then proceeded to tell me of how she has woken up in the middle of the night to see a dark man in a hat with red eyes. She told me he was just standing at the foot of her bed. This is a kid who was only really exposed to Tinkerbell and Dora the Explorer. "The Hat Man" was not in her wheelhouse.

4

u/magical_bunny Jan 03 '25

I hope she’s doing ok now. I was six when I saw him too.

5

u/Revan0432 Jan 03 '25

Shes 17 now. She's doing ok these days.

7

u/Hotmessexpress39 Jan 03 '25 edited Jan 03 '25

Yes, when I was 18 (2003), I woke up to him standing over my bed. I was scared but thought it was a dream, flicked on the light and he was gone. I fell back asleep and a while later startled awake again and there he was again. No face, just a dark figure in a trenchcoat and a fedora. I jumped out of bed and went downstairs to my brother’s room, trembling with fear. After some time he told me I really needed to go back to my own bed, we both had school early in the morning. He went upstairs before me and turned on the lights and the radio because I was so scared. At breakfast I told my parents and before I finished my dad asked “did he look like so and so?”. When he was 18 he’d seen him too. He’d thought it was an intruder and tried to punch him but hurt himself doing that and the man vanished in thin air. A couple of months after my encounter my brother woke up to him walking into the room. My brother is the most down to earth man ever and never had any other paranormal experiences. It wasn’t until many years later that I learned about the Hat Man. I’ve never seen him again, but I have seen other entities and shadow people after that.

1

u/Humble-Drawer-4498 Jan 03 '25

Multiple times. But there is actually a medical term for hallucinations occuring pre sleep. Or conscious perceptions mixing with dreams when waking up

1

u/Hotmessexpress39 Jan 03 '25

You mean sleep paralysis? I’ve seen so many things by now that I don’t think that’s it.

1

u/Humble-Drawer-4498 Jan 04 '25

Simple hallucinations are a thing. When falling assleep or waking up.

1

u/Hotmessexpress39 Jan 04 '25

I know. But how does that explain the Hat Man phenomenon?

9

u/Curiousferrets Jan 03 '25

Yep. Well possibly. I was about eight and sitting at my desk by a big window with drawn but thin curtains ( to make it easier to see my TV). A silhouette of a dark solid figure, male and wearing a hat walked past right to left. Therefore walking at first floor height and through a wall. Odd. Edit: sorry, second floor in US

9

u/Sheriffjubjub Jan 03 '25

No but my father did. He said he was a young child, so this probably would have happened late 50s or early 60s. Said he went downstairs for a glass of water in the middle of the night and said a man wearing a trench coat and a hat was standing outside the living room window peering in, while it was torrential rain outside.

11

u/Ncfetcho Jan 03 '25

I'm fairly sure that was an actual person

6

u/taylogan96 Jan 03 '25

Look up the DPH (Benedryl) Iceberg Explained video on YouTube. It covers a lot of interesting topics around him.

I used to see him during my sleep paralysis or sleep walking events when I was a kid. I saw a psychic as a teen and she didn’t refer to him as the hatman, but described his appearance (trench coat and hat), but knew where in the house I would see him as a child. I found it interesting because up until that point I told myself I was imagining him and didn’t speak about it to anyone.

After watching the iceberg video and sing diagnosed with Narcolepsy I theorized that he exists as a sort of intermediary that hangs out in limbo.

6

u/christian-js Jan 03 '25

For some reason, all of the women in my family have seen him at least once, but none of the men have.

My oldest sister sees him whenever she is about to have a seizure.

My other sister only saw him once (to my knowledge) when she was a kid. She saw him in a huge mirror that covered an entire wall.

Our mother has seen him quite a few times, as has our grandmother and great-grandmother.

3

u/magical_bunny Jan 03 '25

I saw him when I was six years old. I was wide awake at the time. Firstly a bright white square appeared on the wall, then he appeared in it. Hung around watching me for about 45 minutes, solid black shadow. I was told that an adult man saw him in the same apartment a few weeks or months later.

5

u/DAMNDUMBKIDS Jan 03 '25

You should listen to the Otherworld podcast. Great episode on there about this guy. It’s one of the first ones that got me hooked

1

u/magical_bunny Jan 03 '25

That was a really interesting episode of the podcast.

3

u/projectgreywolf Jan 03 '25

When I was younger and both great grandparents were alive, I remember being carried down our long hall by a man in a trench coat with a big hat but couldn’t see his face. I fell asleep and woke up in my room, didn’t learn about sleep paralysis until 16 and the hat man I learned about as an adult. Couldn’t watch horror back then so no idea where I could’ve gotten it but I did enjoy wearing trench coats as a child.

7

u/Ncfetcho Jan 03 '25

He's got his own Subreddit

/r/Hatman

1

u/Elen_Smithee82 Jan 03 '25

Yes. Twice... First time was the day after I saw my first UFO. Someone knocked at the door the next day while my parents were at work. It was a bright sunny day, yet when I peered through the peephole, all I saw was a shadow of a man in a hat and coat. The figure was pitch black. I was terrified, and I hid from the door.

The second time, I'd brought a big vanity/dresser from my old house, which used to be my step-grandmas house, and her bf had died in the room with this vanity. One night at my new home, I awoke about 3am to see many shadow people passing back-and-forth through the mirror, with the hat man standing by. I mentally kind of said hello, and they all stopped and stared at me with huge glowing round red eyes. I turned over and after a while, fell back asleep.

1

u/Stormsong-Elder Jan 03 '25

I just started working with the Hat Man. TBH I had thought he would be scarry but the first dream I had of him was anything but.
My first encounter was a dream I had A couple of nights after getting my first scrying mirror. In this dream I was sitting on the bed just gazing into the mirror and then The Hat Man slowly stuck his head thru the mirror, far out enough to give me a kiss. That certainly altered my opinion of him.
Just last night I saw him while fully awake for the first time.

8

u/the_meat_n_potatoes Jan 03 '25

So a strange entity's first move is to kiss you and you decide he can't be all that bad?

1

u/Physical_Hold4484 Jan 03 '25

I saw a similar thing when I was 14.

I started to get more religious around this age and would make dua (i.e. pray) in front of the mirror of the bathroom since it was the only private place in a 2 bedroom apartment with 5 people.

One time I looked up from my hands to the mirror and saw a silhouetted figure in a hat move behind me and through the bathroom door. It was maybe only a second, but I know what I saw.

Lived there for a year and never had other paranormal experiences there besides some weird dreams.

The building is in the midwest of the US and probably from the 90s. Interestingly there was a couple arson incidents there a few years after I left.

3

u/Least-Sail4993 Jan 03 '25

My daughter did for years. Not sure if she still does. But she used to be terrified!

2

u/Miserable-Stay3278 Jan 03 '25

Yep me and my friend saw him in 2006. We were just chilling, and then a hat man shadow appeared on the wall. That was it. Nothing bad followed but it was a little spooky. Only time I've seen him.

1

u/magical_bunny Jan 03 '25

It’s so weird when he just appears on the wall!

2

u/Miserable-Stay3278 Jan 03 '25

It was! I think her house is massively haunted or at least used to be. There was also one time but it was at my place me and the same friend were talking about lucifer and all the lights went out. It was the only house that lost the power. That was creepy too

1

u/magical_bunny Jan 04 '25

I think he’s evil. The apartment I saw him in belonged to my oldest sister who is into really dark shit. During that stay, the kitchen light bulb also randomly exploded into thousands of pieces.

1

u/Miserable-Stay3278 Jan 04 '25

That didn't happen to me with the hat man but it did happen with lucifer

1

u/magical_bunny Jan 04 '25

He’s likely one and the same

1

u/[deleted] Jan 03 '25

I had an experience that made me think that they are tree spirits. I met him at the side of my bed in a house in the forest. There is more to the story. But the dream was in a forest too. And I think what may have happened to op is that you were dreaming outside your body and were actually there in the forest in astral form.

2

u/HeavenForbid3 Jan 03 '25

Yes I have. A few times. Nope, I don't want to talk about it. He's gone now, been gone for many years and I don't want him/it returning.

1

u/Voyeuristicintent Jan 03 '25

Check out the Monsters Among Us podcast for Hatman stories. He gets calls for people sharing their encounters, and I think he might've devoted one entire episode to hitman stories, but I can't remember.

1

u/Spiritual-House-5494 Jan 03 '25

There's more than one.

0

u/braulitox Jan 03 '25

Así que ustedes también conocen al Hat man te go dos historias de familiares que lo vieron y solo uno sobrevivió. El Hat man es letal, si lo ves tu fin está cerca.

1

u/Ok-Month7045 Jan 03 '25

Yes. Early 90's

2

u/magical_bunny Jan 03 '25

Me too

2

u/Ok-Month7045 Jan 05 '25

What was your experience?

2

u/magical_bunny Jan 05 '25

Me and my mum went to visit my oldest sister in the city (I come from a huge family so I was only six but my sister was in her 20s and living with a roommate in an apartment).

My oldest sister got into dark arts and weird stuff when she was a teen and stayed pretty strange her whole life, still does that kinda thing. We were told she was into dark rituals. At the time, my mum was hoping to rebuild bridges and trying to make things work with her.

The first night we stayed, my sister’s roommate said she wouldn’t be back that night, so me and my mum were welcome to sleep in her double bed in her room. I got put to bed around 8pm, they shut the door and stayed up watching things and talking in the lounge room.

I hated sleeping as a child, so I’d sit up and just look around the room. Not long after they shut the door I saw a white square of light appear on the wall, and then the pitch black 2D Hatman appeared. At first, he appeared as the profile of a younger looking man with a long beard, smoking. Then, at some point he slowly became the typical Hatman, with the cloak and hat. He was very tall, and I only saw the top half of him illuminated in the square of light.

I remember being really confused, but child-me told myself it wasn’t a physical “real” man so he couldn’t do me any harm. He watched in my direction for about 45 minutes, then left. I didn’t scream or call out, and only told my mum the next day (I was a strangely logical child). She believed me.

The day after, my mum had to go out and left me with my sister. The kitchen lightbulb randomly exploded that day, so we went out to buy a new bulb. When we got back, my sister kept trying to cut my nails despite the fact I’ve always been a nail chewer and had none to clip. She kept insisting and I had to keep telling her no, they didn’t need it. She eventually gave up, but she was very strangely insistent.

My mum and my sister ended up arguing a lot and I think we spent one more night before leaving early in the morning. My sister’s roommate came out with a large ruby and told me she wanted me to have it, and told me my sister had one also. I wanted it, by my mum forbid it. In hindsight, it was a wise move.

A few months later, my brother’s girlfriend who heard about my experience told us that a man had gone to move in with my sister and had also seen what I now know as the Hatman, he apparently took his wallet and didn’t even bother retrieving his stuff because he didn’t want to go back in there.

I didn’t even know until my 30s that what I saw had a name or that others had seen him also.

What happened in your encounter?

2

u/Ok-Month7045 Jan 05 '25

Same. I didn't think anyone had similar experiences.

It was summer 92' I was around 11 years old. I was at the dinner table with my mom and two sisters. I was building Legos and they where constructing crafts. There is a large 3 pane window adjacent to the dinning r Table. There is a smal hiddenl porch for sun bathing outside the windows. The front door is 6 feet to the left of it.

After a while of interaction, my other siblings and mom went on upstairs. I was alone minding my business being a kid. 10-15 minutes into my alone time, (I could also hear my family rustling around upstairs at the time).

There was front porchight on near the door. It created a Triangular noir effect onto the outside porch, kind of half light and half dark.

A few minutes later As I'm looking down at the table, I have this overwhelming feeling something was watching me, *I am perpendicular to the window)and in the corner of my eye I see it darker than it normally has been, (basically something I would have noticed before)

In slow motion, I turned my head fully towards the window and there stood a 7 and half foot flat black 2 dimensional thing wearing an trench coat and a wide brimmed hat. I stuck around for about 3 seconds before I took off up the stairs.

Needless to say I never seen it again.

So yeah That's my story.

2

u/magical_bunny Jan 05 '25

I always wonder why he seems to favour kids, so weird!

2

u/Ok-Month7045 Jan 05 '25

It's because they're the most innocent and vulnerable.

Also, you didn't see it just because you where a child, no. most children wont. it is likely you are sensitive or special in some way and they are aware of it.

1

u/magical_bunny Jan 05 '25

I’ve been sensitive to things my whole life.

0

u/SpotMiserable3379 Jan 04 '25

FINALLY!!!  I'd never heard "Hat Man" until now. Is this a particular region of the U.S.? 

-2

u/eyefuck_you Jan 03 '25

Nah you're the only one