The Black Stickman Phenomena | Ep. 90
Welcome to another episode of Believing the Bizarre. This week, we discuss a cryptid, which is what it’s technically known as – but we have our questions, called the Black Stickman Phenomena.
Essentially, this entity is exactly how it sounds, a super tall, stick figure-like entity with no face, eyes, nose, or facial features. Some say they are inter-dimensional beings while some believe they are ancient alien beings.
Whatever they are, they have gathered a lot of encounters over the years.
But, are they believable? Listen now.
The Black Stick Man Phenomenon
Could a cryptid seen today have been seen by our ancestors?
Is it possible for entities to shift between dimensions?
Have you ever witnessed a thin, shadowy figure?
What’s up Bizarros? This week we dive into the Black Stickman Phenomena.
What do the Black Stickmen Look Like?
Before we get into the “what” they may be, let’s discuss how they look.
Well, it’s not that hard to imagine how these guys look because it’s pretty self-explanatory.
These creatures look like the drawings of children. That’s right, stick figures.
Except, instead of a cute stick figure family picture drawn by your 2nd grader, these are real-life entities.
They are described as pitch-black without any facial or body features. No mouth, nose, ears, and typically no eyes.
Some have seen black stickmen that are human-height while others are reported to be incredibly tall. Like 8 to 10 feet tall.
They are incredibly lean and lanky, which is a big separating factor between these black stickmen and typical shadow figures.
These aren’t human shapes in the form of shadows. These cryptids are legitimately shaped like a stick figure.
Another unique physical trait about these black stickmen is the fact that not only are they stick figures in the sense that they look like a child’s drawing, but they have a 2-dimensional quality like a drawn stick figure.
No matter the angle you look at them, it never changes. They are always 2-dimensional.
They cast no shadow. Nor do they make any sound when they walk.
They’re also described as buzzing or having an electrical charge to them, too. Kind of like static electricity.
Some folks claim that they feel light-headed and a little dizzy when these black stickmen are around.
And one final thing about the way their appearance.
If you think back to how Charlie Red Star was described, as kind of like a side view of a drive-in movie screen – that is similar to some reported sightings of the black stickman.
They are kind of out of focus and fuzzy – like they aren’t quite in our dimension or fully here. We’ll be touching more on that shortly.
In addition to that, some people see almost like heat waves coming off these fuzzy black stickmen.
In terms of what they do or what they want when you encounter them, it’s not clear.
They are either just walking by or kind of creeping around.
What Are The Black Stickmen?
What is difficult about the Black Stickmen is that there isn’t a ton known about these things. It’s a lot of speculation and reported sightings.
Sightings started popping up online in 2009 and gained momentum when the black stickmen phenomena were listed on the site List Verse.
They were listed with other phenomena like black-eyed kids, doppelgangers, and the chupacabra.
After the black stick men were discussed in this article it seemed like it inspired a lot of people to detail their encounters with this entity.
While some people claim this is the origin and it’s just as fake as slender man, It’s interesting that so many people have rushed to tell their own black stick man experiences whereas slender man it’s more so understood that most stories are inherently fiction for entertainment.
But, still, the black stickmen phenomena has trouble developing its formidable lore because there isn’t that one famous encounter that people can point to.
Where Slender Man has the event with the young girls, Moth Man has the bridge, Jersey Devil has the birth, Dover Demon has the young boy walking home, there is nothing with the black stickmen that you can point to as an origin story.
Technically they are classified as cryptids, but there are other theories. Some say these are very old, ancient beings and/or aliens.
This is due to cave drawings found across the world in caves and such.
Similar to drawings of space ships and spacemen, people use these drawings to speculate that these black stickmen have been around for a long, long time.
I would argue that it’s also possible that the cave paintings of stick figures were more rudimentary as they didn’t depict as much detail as the other paintings throughout history.
Other’s claim that they might not be aliens, but rather, inter-dimensional travelers. Could they be native to, not necessarily another planet, but a different dimension?
This, of course, opens up the theory that these black stickman are from Earth – or maybe they are from the future and are coming back. Or they co-exist with us all the time and only appear occasionally when they choose to let us see them, kind of like the movie Midnight Special.
One really interesting theory suggests that perhaps a Black Stick Man is merely the manifestation of a person’s psyche (similar to tulpas and Doppelgangers)
Or, of course, it’s possible they aren’t ancient beings, aliens, or inter-dimensional at all. They are just their own cryptids.
Shadow figures have a negative connotation, and while some people claim to feel uneasy and some aggression from the black stick men, they don’t feel inherently violent or unfriendly.
While the shadow figures seem to have intent, these black stickmen seem to just kind of “be”. Like they’re just existing.
Personal Encounters With The Black Stickmen
Let’s take a look at some of the encounters people have had with Black Stickmen.
The first encounter
“I honestly thought I was crazy. I’m 33, level-headed, and while I won’t rule anything out I generally don’t think much of the paranormal.
The other night, I went outside for a smoke. My lawn has a low retaining wall, about bench height, and a long, sloping road down to the creek, noted for its malfunctioning street lights.
I saw something walking down the middle of the road. I have a neighbor who walks at all hours day or night, I didn’t think much of it.
As it got closer, it looked like a pencil-drawn picture of a man done by a kid.
It wasn’t black, so much as it was nebulous, like the static on a TV channel. Grey and black moving in a blur, in the shape of the sign that lets guys know which door to go in.
The street lights flicked on and it stopped, “looked” around (I assume as much, all I saw was its head move), and saw me. As soon as it did, it took off down the road faster than my eyes could follow.
I didn’t tell anyone for a few days, then did the “promise you won’t think I’m crazy” with my girlfriend. She said she had heard of similar stories, and asked it I’d googled it.
I did, and here I am. At least if I’m crazy I’ll have company.”
Second Personal Encounter
“When I got out of bed and opened the door, about 5 feet away from me in the hallway was a tall black slender figure that was very thin, all black, no facial feature, a circled head, the arms, and legs were thin and the fingers looked sharp, it made no sound and was gliding as it walked.
The way it walked was the scariest part for me.
I only saw it for 2 seconds then slammed the door and started whaling and crying.
Minutes pass until my mom shows up to my door and calms me down. I don’t remember mentioning it to her, so she just thought I had a bad dream. She then got a role of blankets and put them on the hallway floor for us to sleep together.
(For some reason, my mom likes to sleep on the floor because she grew up that way.)
My feet ended up being scratched very badly, it couldn’t have been my mom’s nails and I remembered it left a burning sensation.
I’m 18 now and it’s one of the few earliest memories I had. I still live in the same house in Connecticut.”
The Third Personal Encounter
“After a buddy and I finished lowering a trap into the water the atmosphere around us got real heavy.
It felt like it was humid but without the presence of moisture in the air. On top of that our muscles suddenly felt really weak as if we had just run a few miles with weights strapped to our back.
My vision and the vision of my friends went blurry for a moment or two.
When it all cleared up we all noticed that something was not right. Off in the distance, no more than twenty yards away from us was this tall, slender, pitch-black figure.
It looked to be about ten feet tall and its limbs were real skinny looking. It just stood there for a moment, its limbs just movin’ around real slow like as it looked at us.
The creature had a head but no real torso. Its body was as thick as its arms were its legs and it had a really skinny-looking head with two bright white eyes.
It just stared at us for the longest time. It didn’t even make a noise. After a moment or so the thing walked off to the side and as it got farther away from us it got easier to breathe and we were able to move once more.
Naturally, we packed our shit and high-tailed it back home. To this day we don’t speak of what had happened and we never did go back for our traps.”
Cryptids? Inter-dimensional Beings? What Are The Black Stickmen?
What do you think Bizarros? Are these beings coexisting with us and just allow us to see them from time to time? Or are they their own cryptid?
Or do you think it is like slenderman and the Black Stickmen Phenomena was just created by the internet?