We recently had a question on EWTN’s Wacky Wednesday radio show about a phenomenon known as “black-eyed people sightings.” What are they, and could this be just another manifestation of Satan?

According to Maria Mohsin, writing for The Business Standard, black-eyed people sightings are an urban legend about chance encounters with mostly children between the ages of six and sixteen who all have unnaturally black eyes. These are not just very dark brown or blue eyes. These eyes are entirely black with no white showing. “Their eyes, pure black, from lid-to-lid, dead black orbs devoid of sclera or iris, will [send a] chill up your spine…”

Countless stories abound on the internet about these children being spotted hitchhiking, panhandling, standing on the doorsteps of residential homes. These children with blacked-out eyes “appear at people’s homes or vehicles, knock on the door, and then insist upon getting inside,” Mohsin writes. “Anyone who encountered them has almost immediately felt an overwhelming sense of dread.”

The following stories, captured by Stephen Wagner for the esoteric trivial site liveaboutdotcom.com, tell about people who encountered these creatures, such as a woman named Chris who was traveling with her husband on I-75 in Michigan. The couple stopped at the rest area where Chris came face to face with a thin, dark-haired woman with black eyes who was staring directly at her.

"I instantly felt a terrible sense of dread, as though there was something deeply unnatural about her," Chris says. "The eyes ... were completely black. I saw no color whatsoever and no pupils. I felt an extremely strong need to get away from her as quickly as possible, as there was something quietly threatening about her. Her stare was devoid of any emotion other than something very cold and disconnected…My instant and unwavering feeling during this whole experience was that she was not human."

Another sighting occurred in a Starbucks where a woman named Missy was enjoying a hot cup of tea. when she had an overwhelming feeling of being watched.

"I turned around to give 'whatever' to the perv that I assumed was watching me, and the smart aleck remark died in my mouth as I caught sight of him," Missy remembers. "I did not see anything unusual in his manner of dress. It was the eyes and the aura coming off of him that scared me. The eyes, blacker than black, no white at all, wall-to-wall black, and I just felt a darkness around him, an evil. As I looked in his eyes, I somehow knew that was not a human soul occupying that body… and I felt that he knew that I knew that he was not human."

A woman named Adele was at home reading a book one night when she heard a slow, steady knocking on her front door. Because it was 11:00 pm, she knew to be cautious and looked out her bedroom window to see who was there. To her surprise, it was two children about the age of ten years. She opened the window to ask what they wanted and they demanded to be let in to use the bathroom.

"I was quite shocked that children of about 10 years old wanted to use a stranger's bathroom at this time of night,” Wagner recounts in his article. “I told them no, closed the window, but looked at them through the glass. I glanced at their eyes... and I have never ever seen eyes like them. They were black, completely black. I got the feeling of evil and unhappiness. It surrounded me. It was horrible."

So who are these beings?

“Conspiracy theorists believe that Black-eyed children are aliens trying to reach out to their ‘Earth’,” Mohsin writes. “Demonologists believe they are children of the devil himself and if you let them in, you are allowing the devil to enter your life.”

He goes on to cite an article by Barry Napier of UFO Digest entitled, Black Eyed Kids: A Profile. Napier believes “The black eyes … could be nothing more than contact lenses. (Solid black contacts are available.) The most likely scenario is that the few convincing reports were the results of overactive imaginations and that the string of reports that followed were nothing more than copycat falsified stories used for attention or fun."

But, Napier admits, "most accounts seem to be passionate, and people that have encountered the [black-eyed kids] seem to be genuinely frightened even after the encounter."

Is it possible that these beings are actually demons? Of course! Satan is a preternatural being which means he has the power to appear in a variety of forms, from the figures of Jesus and Mary to animals and “aliens.”

If you should ever encounter one of these beings, the first thing to do is call upon your guardian angel for assistance, then head for the nearest exit.

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