The Victims⦻

[Research] Paranomal Pastor (1)

He was officially created in an internet contest when the readers of the "Something Awful" forums were asked to create a paranormal entity in a thread named "Create Paranormal Images". The scheme was to create eerie images and use them to trick people on paranormal forums into thinking they were genuine. Users started photoshopping images by adding fake ghosts and other bizarre figures, usually accompanied by a fake back story to make them seem authentic.

On June 10th of 2009 a user named Victor Surge posted to the thread with 2 photos and an explanation that the entity stalked children.

The myth of Slenderman was born.

The explanation that Victor Surge included with the photos was the haunting detail that the photographs were taken on a day on which fourteen children disappeared. He then further explains that the library where the photo was found burned down a week after the pictures were taken. This Slenderman entity was a shadow creature, overly tall and thin. It had long arms that stretch to inhuman lengths to ensnare its prey. To add to its unearthliness, Slenderman had no face. His primary motivation at first was to kidnap and kill children. Supposedly, he is seen right before the disappearance of a child or even a mass kidnapping of multiple children. He seems to prefer silently stalking in the midst fog enshrouded streets and wooded areas so he can obscure himself from the casual eye. However, children have been able to see him when adults in the vicinity could not. The mythos also states that children also have dreams or nightmares concerning The Slender Man before their disappearance.

Quickly the mythos was expanded. Once Slenderman was seen, he would stalk you for the rest of your life. His goal was to slowly drive you insane by appearing in your periphery, eventuallythreatening you with death. Soon his victims no longer were limited to children but teenagers and adults were soon to become stalked by the tall faceless man. The mythos quickly gained some trappings of Ufology's Men in Black phenomenon as he appeared in a dark modern suit with white shirt and black tie. He also gained added appendages, which sprout from his side like tree limbs. One UFO site adds: "Once his arms are outstretched, Slender Man's victims are put into something of a hypnotized state, where they are utterly helpless to stop themselves from walking into them. Slender Man is also able to create tendrils from his fingers and back that he uses to walk. Whether Slender Man absorbs, kills, or merely takes his victims to an undisclosed location or dimension is also unknown as there are never any body's or evidence left behind in his wake to deduce a definite conclusion."

Soon image board across the web contained threads including original Slenderman art as well as stories. Soon blogs were dedicated to the mythos and Youtube videos chronicled the diabolical entity's torment of a few ill fated individuals. There is even an alternate reality game: Marble Hornets that combines Youtube and twitter accounts to build a narrative surrounding a film student's discovery of horrifying film footage his friend had taken.

Some say the Slenderman myth is inspired by archaic archetypes of folklore, like death stalking the plague riddled inhabitants of Medieval Europe as depicted in Hans Holbein's 16th century woodcuts of the Dance of Death. But recently the mythos and folklore has begun to manifest itself into real life. On November 6th 2009 a young man called Coast to Coast am with an encounter his girlfriend had with an entity resembling Slenderman. It started a flurry of listeners to call, relating their own stories of Slenderman type encounters. Here are the calls.

Some take this call to be a hoax, or the ramblings of some people who mistakenly perceived the game of Marble Hornets to be a real account. Or in the case of the mother who called, (The Buffy episode is called "Hush" which was the 10th episode of the 4th season which aired on December 14, 1999) it is attributed to someone who has inserted a dramatic television show's visual story telling into her past dreams. But I do not think this is what was happening. I too have received stories of various encounters of Slenderman. The first came in August of 2009, from a woman named "JoAnne":