No I didn't.... will know hunt for it.....be right back...Ok it linked me to this most recent post... perhaps you posted this theory on a different forum? Or I'm just badly performing the search function on this site. If you have the link I would like to read it.
I've said it on the forum multiple times, but the search function is a little crappy. I'll restate it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_%28psychology%29
After reading the above link, keep in mind that the Shadow Archetype, according to Jungian Psychology, is essentially the subliminated dark side of the mind. It is not "evil" or "bad", atleast not in an objective sense. It's the part of our minds we regard shamefully or fearfully and try and suppress or forget, even if other people might consider it "good." According to Jung, the Shadow appears in our dreams to try and confront us with the parts we suppress.
James' Shadow would be the fact that he killed Mary, and so Pyramid Head appears to try and force James to realize the truth. Travis's Shadow is up to debate, but the Shadow doesn't have to be a bad deed or a sin. Perhaps Travis just didn't like himself due to having ruined his family just for being alive.
He never had to actually DO anything, but since his mother treated him as a pest, and his father considered him a burden, he might've suppressed all of his unlikable qualities and grew up to be a kind, almost superhumanly sweet person who will literally go through hell for a total stranger. As a result, his Shadow might manifest as a magnified form of all his faults, real or imagined, and thus gives us the Butcher.
And since Butcher and Pyramid Head look similar, I contest that while they are not literally the same being, they are the same TYPE of being, the Shadow.
You can certainly dismiss Helen's visions as schizophrenic, but it's hard to with the similarities. Also to go this route there is no information detailing Travis encountering his mother's more acute schizophrenic claims before reading about them in the Sanitarium. This is merely an assumption in of it's self and Travis goes through the mirror before reading this... if I remember correctly.
He went through the mirror years after he heard it. There's no way Helen never blathered about the mirror nonsense to Travis. She pretty much told him that the people from the mirror world considered him a devil/pest, and that probably stuck with him. And even if that's not the case, since Alessa created the world in the first place and was the one to show Travis how to work the mirrors, she could've used her astral projection abilities to find that note and used it as basis.
Also i forget that people place so much of a "spiritual" aura around the town and it's inhabitants. To me it's much more psychological. I know there is a supernatural element to the world (obviously), but I like to think that these people are broken which creates much of the world. But also going by the fact that it is an otherworld of in of it's self, things will be generated outside of the characters "hands" so to speak. The mention of "the Butcher" you find in the Theater (costume room).
I'm not sure what you're trying to say here. We all know that the Otherworld is a creation of the human mind.
"Since what happened to Tony. I've dreamt about HIM more and more! THE BUTCHER! He looks just like that monster, the Executioner! Now I've seen him when I'm awake. He's at my motel! It's HIM I swear it!"
So by there being others outside of Travis who have encountered the Butcher, and linking it to that motel... you have a couple of Avenues of thought to pursue... that Travis is more in tune with the Butcher (perhaps it being another aspect of Travis) then you suggest. Another idea being that the motel itself has some more dark secrets yet to be reveled.
It's possible that Alessa merely took some guy's unrelated hallucinations and used them to give physical form to Travis's Shadow. Otherwise it'd most likely look like an evil version of himself and kind've botch Alessa's plan. Then, the memetic nature of the Otherworld probably carried the Butcher motif, combined with James' memory of the Executioner, to form Pyramid Head. We already know the Otherworld mixes together aspects of other people's minds if they have things in common.
Honestly the game is at fault... Every game has been vague and left things to interpretation but in this case there are hardly any really intriguing mysteries to discuss... and some of the more intriguing aspects are left far to empty to expound upon and discuss... the relationship with his Father and Mother is so god damn hollow in this game... and I know I'm getting off track, but the game really felt like they weren't sure where to take it whether it should plumb the depths of Travis's psyche or to pursue further the Alessa story.
I disagree. I found lots of emotional depth between Travis and his parents, and the games aren't THAT vague, you just need a good eye for detail. As for the game, it was pursuing both. Travis's psyche was directly correlated to Alessa's plan to use Travis as a conduit for her power.