Reader Report: Strange Night Noises and the Hat Man

"I had been living with my elderly parents in a very nice home in Bellingham, Washington in 2011," reports Tracy. "I started having 'episodes' at night. I would hear women's voices low-talking as I tried to fall asleep. Then I started to hear a very loud buzzing type noise always coming at me from the left side of the room. These noises would actually enter my body and travel from the tips of my toes all the way up my body, like electricity. Just awful! I could not move during this.

"The scariest thing was waking up and seeing to my right a shadow man with a fedora hat standing next to my bed very close and looking down at me. I was scared sh**less by him. I finally was able to look away and he left. Do many of you have other weird nighttime episodes like mine?"

The first thing you should check for, Tracy, are electromagnetic fields (EMF) in your room. If these fields are strong enough, they can cause all kinds of physical and mental effects, including both visual and auditory hallucinations and possibly even that electric feeling you experienced. These fields can be generated by electric wires in the walls that are not shielded properly and other electronic devices. You can check for these fields, or have an electrician do so for you, with an EMF meter. These meters are often used by paranormal investigators for two reasons: 1) they think that ghosts might generate such fields; and 2) to find the type of household EMF fields I described above in order to debunk paranormal experiences, or at least document them as a possible source of phenomena.

However, there have been many similar sightings of the mysterious "hat man" shadow person who, as you described, appears to be wearing a kind of fedora or a top hat. Check out these stories:

• The Top Hat Man
• Hat Man on the Roof
• Top Hat Man Sighting
• Dark, Wobbling Hat Man
• Shadow Man with Hat
• Top Hat Spectre