I've seen strange things my entire life; ranging from possessed statues to ghostly women, but my most memorable experience was the first time I met the shadow men.
I woke up from my bed and instantly knew it was a dream. I often had night terrors as a child so I quickly learned to lucid dream in order to help fight my nightmares.
I started with a technique I called the "Emergency Exit" in which I would slam my eyes shut and slam them back open in an attempt to shock myself out of my dream. It was fairly effective.
So I got out of my bed and looked out my 2nd storey bedroom window. Below I saw a parade. This was especially odd since we lived on a dead end street but I guess it makes sense because it was a parade of humanity.
At the time I didn't really get it but as my life went on, I discovered I had seen a parade of all the events through history (or at least the important ones [or ones that I'd encounter in my life])
Just as I was about to see how the world dies, I turned to find the shadow man. He was holding a woman hostage. (I didn't know her) I got mad and killed him easily.
Then the woman ran off terrified. I was still in a berserk mood and turned to face the other room that was across the hall from mine.
This room was evil. It was the place that the haunted statue (I'll explain in a different story) my mother bought was kept at the time. It was an empty and evil place. This room was common in my nightmares, even when I didn't dream of my room.
I walked across the hall and into the room. I turned and saw four shadow men playing poker where the T.V. Usually was. (No one lived in that room. I don't know why we had a T.V. There.) Then I turned to my right and saw another one standing there. That's when I woke up.
I saw some other stories on the shadow man here so I thought I'd post mine. I've seen him both in and out of dreams (although most commonly in them). Is it just me or am I the only one that has seen him/them with a dog like a Doberman. I've also had several fights with the dogs.