bit woo- but have you ever met anyone you have felt scared of for no reason?

[crochetmonkey74]

I'm fascinated by stories like this- when you meet someone and they don't necessarily do anything - more that you just feel scared- intuition etc

I'm nearly 50 and it's happened once very strongly (was justified I later came to find out) and once not as strongly - so it's not a regular occurrence, but stories like this really interest me

I also had an eye test where I felt deeply uncomfortable.As a young girl . The room was pitch black and he the optician was getting extremely close and breathing heavily .Put me off going for another eye test for years !
I like Dominic West but didn’t know he was into blood sports so that puts me right off him. Jacob Rees Mogg is like something out of a horror film. A zombie or cold blooded psychopath ! Really gives me the creeps. As a child about 5 I knew there was something very off about Gary Glitter.

Yes once a man we knew vaguely absolutely gave off evil scary vibes. He went on to rape, murder a 14 year and a few years later a six year old.

I suppose that makes sense, I felt that way in my hotel room in Edinburgh and it’s suppose to be one of the most haunted places in UK.

Ex footballer John Terry. I can’t even look at him. He repulses me

When I was a child a friend of my parents at a church activity used to offer all the kids mints . I knew to stay away from
him . He was convicted of child abuse many many years later

It's a primal instinct and should never be ignored, if it doesn't feel right and the hairs on the back of your neck are standing up, get the hell out of there.

Yes.

One of the most senior doctors where I worked in the labour ward really, really bothered me. He was (on the surface) utterly charming, but I felt very uneasy whenever I was near him.

He eventually strangled his wife, threw her out of a window and tried to claim to the police that she had jumped out after trying to strangle herself with a scarf.

Fortunately the jury did not believe this utter nonsense and he got a life sentence from the judge.

It turned out that his poor wife had been beaten by him for many years before he murdered her.

I definitely believe energy can be left in places. Ive felt off for no reason at all when viewing houses.

Had this feeling about a guy on a night out years ago. Just from being in his presence. Turned out it was Dale Creegan

I was shocked to hear Jennifer Saunders does this, it really put me off her.

Nothing really bad, but there's a guy who goes in my local pub who I just have never liked. Everyone else does. I've always felt 'unsafe' in his presence (not that he could do me much harm in a busy public place but...) and just that he has a sinister side. I don't think he treats his girlfriend well either, she always seems unhappy. He also talks about his life and some of it sounds incredibly 'showcase' as if he's made it up or at least exaggerated a lot.

Not long after I'd began feeling this way he stormed over to me in the middle of a crowd of people and was 'squaring up' even though I was sitting down, shouting and balling at me. Transpired that he'd overheard me say something, thinking I was talking about him and also completely mishearing what I'd said. I explained and he just said 'oh, sorry' and went back over to where he'd been.

Yes, nothing harmful BUT, if he thinks that shouting and screaming at a woman in a PUBLIC PLACE, without even making sure he'd understood the situation, is okay? What else is he doing?
That made me trust my instincts more.

I've felt this a few times, and never ignore it. You never really know why or whether it was justified, and tbf I'm sure there are a lot of dangerous people I haven't had that vibe about. I also know that I've had an 'off' feeling about people for the wrong reasons - for example, I once conducted a house viewing for a guy with Tourette's style tics and felt really menaced by him. I'm not proud of it, but I felt how I felt, and frankly couldn't wait to get him out. So I think your primeval brain is wired to avoid anything that's odd or doesn't fit the pattern of how things should be, and that may be justified or it may not. The only time I've ever had a feeling of menace and was able to follow it up by finding out more about the man in question, he turned out to be an off-duty police officer. I think coppers often have that same 'coiled spring' energy that makes our antennae jangle, but whether that's because they're potentially dangerous or whether it's because their own hypervigilance makes them stand out, I wouldn't like to say.

Remembered another one. I used to occasionally dance for a guy when I was stripping 'fulltime'. I always found him a bit sinister, like his eyes said something to me, he was just a bit 'off' and I didn't trust him. He wasn't ever inappropriate with dancers to my knowledge, and I did kind of brush the feeling off.

Saw this a couple of years later.
https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/17847150.it-will-not-define-me-victims-vow-abuser-jailed/

I think our brains take in a process far more information that we can be consciously aware of and so dont believe this is from past lives, but that we are picking up on clues that are fleeting or subtle - it is our survival instinct being right on point.

Never been instinctively afraid of anyone. However I have an unerring radar for users and con artists and people who are just too sweet to be wholesome. Quite a few times in the past I have warned friends and neighbours about someone, been told "Oh no they're a LOVELY person", only to look on later as said friends have their hearts broken and their pockets picked.

One of my children's secondary school teachers absolutely terrified me. I am not easily intimidated and not given to making assumptions about people, but this guy set everything in my body on high alert. It felt like there was a vicious wild animal hiding just below the surface.

I agree Jacob Rees-Mogg has serious Jack the Ripper vibes.

Definitely a couple of people in real life who appear dead behind the eyes. Lots of 'nice' people turned out to be horrid but I had no idea.

Oddly it once happened watching a TV show. Didn't know you could get that strong physical 'run' skin crawling feeling through a TV! Never happened since. It was the restaraunt owner of The Granary on the UK Ramseys Kitchen Nightmares. Looked into it afterwards and there's a whole backstory there.

I thought the same thing about Paul, couldn't stand him from the off, there was something really creepy about him.

In our early 20s my friend and I arrived in a foreign city (maybe Budapest, can't quite remember) late at night and ended up bumping into a local man when we got off the airport bus. Looking back I've no idea how we just ended up walking with him.

He was friendly, well dressed, "normal" looking and said he would show us the way into the centre. I was a bit hesitant but my friend was chatting away to him. I walked a bit behind them. We then came to an entrance to a public park and he suggested we walk through it as a short cut (this was in pitch dark with no lights). At this point I stepped forward and firmly said "(friend) I really think we should make our own way from here." She was a bit confused but agreed and we just walked away and left him behind.

No idea what his intentions were but still stand by my decision 13 years later.

@Bishopsgirl how awful.
And yes, very little children do know. When we've been more socialised over time we learn to ignore those instincts and behave in socially appropriate ways but prior to that we can sense things.
I was always petrified of my uncle (Mum's Sister's Husband) when I was little.I remember once crawling through the serving hatch to get into another room when he came into the kitchen!

He's not done anything especially bad. But he is financially and emotionally abusive to my Aunt, looks down on the whole family, I don't know how he treated my cousins (they're at the other side of the world) but one turned to a cult and one is an alcoholic-which I think is pretty telling.

On holiday in the US 20+ years ago.

Watching our children, then 6,10,13 ish playing in pool from our motel balcony in early evening.

Man comes up talking about car being out of state + children + general other stuff. Just felt uneasy, not an easy conversation. I didn't take my eyes off children at all.

Years later outside shop with my daughter's dogs. Rescue lurchers. Man comes up and starts to talk to me about dogs - no problems there - quite usual.
But when the conversation was erring towards hunting, fighting etc I felt a bit worried that the dogs, and possibly me, were at risk.

Two instances have been with teenagers I taught at secondary school a few years ago. They both terrified me, I just didn't trust them and felt very unsafe around them.

One was murdered when he was 17 due to some involvement with drugs and the other has recently been sent to prison for 12 years for gang related crimes.

Did you miss that the whole thread is literally about being scared of someone for no reason? Or do you actively seek out topics you think are stupid just to make pointless snarky comments like this? How boring of you.

Twice from a stranger. Once on a train. Man kept sidling towards me and massively gave me the creeps. Turned out from his conversation with other passengers he was on his way to see his wife who had taken a turn for the worse in hospital, he was desperately anxious about getting there on time (another passenger who knew the way to the hospital offered to walk him there from the station). I guess his anxiety communicated itself to me as something off.

The second time however was a man who came to do a drain survey, total scammer and I greatly regret not listening to my instincts that time as it cost us £500 which we never managed to get back.

The other time I got that feeling was from my boss who gave me a look of such pure hatred and disgust when I was heavily pregnant that it still makes me shudder to remember. He put me on a disciplinary on trumped up reasons when I was on maternity leave and I ended up resigning.

I'm always surprised by these threads. I've name changed but both my and my husband's family have links to completely separate but very notorious British serial killers.

I can tell you that all of the people that knew probably the most notorious multiple murderer say what a shock it was when he was arrested, he was a polite quiet man. Not one picked up on anything, including people who spent a fair amount of time with him. Some refused to believe it at first.

The other also very high profile murderer was thought odd by the opposite of the family and their acquaintances but not dangerous, just weird.

I'm not sure the gift of fear is necessarily all that reliable given that these men had nearly 30 victims between them and are suspected to have killed many more.