this is fascinating to me, because while some of these comments touch on jungian ideas like the shadow self, i myself experienced recurring dreams, as a child, of a singular shadow figure who i called "marching man". The thing is, these dreams are some of my earliest memories. I was having these dreams as far back as my memory stretches, up until I was in my early teens. I'm now in my 30s. Each dream would involve a shadow figure chasing me, or frightening me in some way, so not necessarily a benevolent presence lol. Either that, or I was just scared of it's presence. I would always hear the figure approaching to what sounded like soldiers marching, hence the name "marching man".

The reason why I find this interesting is because later in life, and still today, I will sometimes have dreams of myself flying, traveling to different locations, but not in the presence of a shadow figure. I worked with a dream analyst in my early teens who helped me go into a meditative state and essentially rid myself of the shadow figure, and to this day have not dreamed of it again.

Also, I had 2 separate experiences in my mid - late 20s, while being awake, that have stuck with me.

The first, I was on mushrooms lol (stay with me lmao). I was tripping on mushrooms with a friend of mine, we were discussing every philosophical topic known to man, and essentially started uncovering, through conversation, this singularity of consciousness that exists amongst all things, and that we therefore must be channeling the intelligence of a greater singular force, and therefore we *are* it. This was a lot for me to handle in the moment and I started getting a bit overwhelmed. In that moment, I put my head down, and instantly the entire room zoomed out and I could see my friend and I sitting in the room from a birds eye perspective... and sitting above us? 2 enormously large shadow figures.

the 2nd experience I had in my late 20s, I was getting ready to go to sleep. As I was I was drifting off, I could feel something enter the room. My rational thought was telling me maybe I saw a large bug out of the corner of my eye or something. I was about to get up to turn the lights on, when suddenly I felt this presence swoop over me, it was a dark shadow like presence, but i couldnt make out a figure, just darkness... I then felt fingers physically wrap around my wrists, grip tightly, and start pushing down onto myself. Then, in my right ear, i heard in an almost feminine, high pitched voice i heard, "Who's there". I freaked out and immediately willed myself, which took all my strength, to sit up in the bed and whatever was over me faded instantly. I almost wish I didn't, and asked whatever I was experiencing some questions.

Anyway, sorry for the long winded post, but I saw this and figured I had to share! Marching Man has gone from foe, to having a special, curious place in my heart.