Have you ever seen something out of the corner of your eye, a fleeting dark shape that disappears when you turn your head? Or perhaps you've felt a presence in the room, only to wake up and see a shadowy figure looming over you? If so, you're not alone. Our latest episode of Wyrd Wessex, "A Walk in the Shadows with Mike Ricksecker," delves into these unsettling, yet deeply fascinating, phenomena.
We were honoured to host paranormal researcher, author, and television personality Mike Ricksecker. As an "experiencer" himself from a young age, Mike has dedicated his life to exploring the mysteries that lurk just beyond the veil of our everyday reality. What sets Mike apart is his ability to blend personal experience with rigorous research, offering a new perspective on old tales.
Beyond the Ghost: A New Look at Time and Reality
We started our chat by bringing up a long-standing question of our own: what if what we perceive as a residual haunting—like the Roman soldiers sighted in York—is actually a moment in the past bleeding into our present? Mike agreed, expanding on this captivating theory by explaining that while time is a human construct, all moments are here concurrently. He suggests that these are likely time slips, where "every moment in time has its own frequency... well, sometimes two of those moments will resonate the same frequency for a brief moment and they'll overlap and one will be able to see the other." This idea, that a time slip could also explain why we don't find the bodies of creatures like Bigfoot or aliens, adds a fascinating new layer to paranormal research.
The Haunting of the Hat Man
One of the most compelling parts of our conversation was Mike's discussion of shadow people, particularly the infamous Hat Man. Mike's book, A Walk in the Shadows, is a deep dive into this topic, and he makes it clear that there's no single answer. As he put it, "You can't just neatly wrap it in a bow and say, you know, here it is. This is a shadow person." They could be interdimensional beings, human spirits, or even extraterrestrials, but it’s really about "the way that our eyes are perceiving light."
Mike also shed light on why these figures are so often seen in our peripheral vision. As he explained, "we actually take in more light from the sides of our eyes... we see a little bit further into different bands through the sides of our eyes. So yeah, we can catch something out of our periphery. And it's not that it disappears when we turn, it's just the ways that our eyes work." This perfectly explains Craig's own terrifying experience when his two-year-old daughter first saw "the shadow with a hat on it" and later said it was watching them from a window.
Sleep Paralysis: A Separate Phenomenon?
Mike also offered a profound new take on sleep paralysis, often used by the medical community to debunk shadow people sightings. He argues that sleep paralysis and the sighting are two separate phenomena. Challenging the idea that shadow people are hallucinations, Mike pointed out a curious detail: "Why is it always a person that we see... Nobody I haven't had anybody tell me about the big shadowy tree that manifested in their room when they woke up. It's always a person."
Instead, he suggests that a presence's energy wakes us up. "We each have a toroidal field of energy that emanates out from us. And when his energy crossed into mine, my body could sense that somebody is basically in my space and it woke me up." It's our body's natural defensive reaction—the classic feeling of being watched—that is triggered, and the ensuing fear gets wrongly assigned to the figure we see.
From the UK: UFOs, Dowsing Rods, and Folkloric Guardians
Mike's recent trip to the UK provided a great opportunity to talk about local hotspots. He shared a personal UFO sighting he had near the Rollright Stones, a reminder that the inexplicable is all around us. He and his partner also had an incredible experience at West Kennet Long Barrow, where they had the place to themselves and had a unique encounter with two interacting birds and some interesting dowsing rod activity.
This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in stepping outside the box of traditional paranormal research. Mike Ricksecker's theories offer a refreshing and intellectual approach to understanding the unseen world. You can find his books, including A Walk in the Shadows, Travels Through Time, and Portals to the Stars, and other work at mikericksecker.com.
For the full interview check out episode 75 of Wyrd Wessex, available as video on our YouTube channel, or as audio wherever you get your podcasts