Did you ever get weird vibes from someone and couldn’t explain why?

[Queequeck]

I probably sound totally insane, but I’m hoping that there are others like me so I don’t feel like a total freak.
I have one colleague in my team direct team who somehow gives me the creeps. He hasn’t done anything specific, or made crude comments, or anything but I just can’t help feeling that something is off. I know that this sounds mad because I can’t even explain why, and this is driving me nuts.
It really got to me today and it made me wonder if there is something wrong with me or if other people get these vibes too and if they ever found out what caused their reactions.
I passively commented on it today to someone and I feel like I’ve made a big mistake because I can’t even explain my reasoning and I should have kept my mouth shut but what’s done is done.

I think it's different though. When you get a strong feeling about someone it can be like your whole body goes into high alert as if there's a huge threat, like a tiger lurking or something. It's involuntary. It doesn't happen that often but when it does you really have to trust your instincts. Other times it's like your blood runs cold, or something feels very 'off', though you can't put your finger on what.
I see your point but I think it's possible to train yourself to pay more attention to your subconscious giving you signals. Once I've had that feeling and recognised it, I wouldn't give anyone the opportunity to try prove they were perfectly fine. I'd keep my distance.

Nigel Farage but I think I know why.

I know what you mean @Queequeck - it's like an internal shudder but you don't know why. I've only had it instantly twice. Interestingly, my sister also had the same reaction to one of the men without me saying anything, I don't think she ever met the other one. I keep my distance.

Every time there’s a thread like this, people will pop up claiming that they got weird vibes off someone who everyone else liked and it turned out they were a very famous murderer. Weird how it’s never a non-famous murderer, isn’t it?

Also, I swear to god that if all the people who claim their next door neighbour’s builder was Fred West were telling the truth, Gloucester would need to be the size of New York.

I have absolutely encountered this. The most recent being a man at my daughter’s football club (which we have left!) the chairman of the club, only young, but immediately gave over friendly, cannot pinpoint vibes, also was seen whispering behind his baseball cap to the football mums criticising 7 year old girls playing.

Truly horrifoc

Years ago I was heading to a date. We were meeting for the second time, after a quick coffee a week before that wasn’t particularly memorable. As I got off the bus, and went to turn in the direction of our meeting spot, I was over come with a sense of horror. It felt like an invisible person had jumped in front of me and was screaming no, right in my face. I turned the other way, and a woman grabbed my arm, and steered me to a windowsill to sit down, thinking I was going to faint. I have fainted once and it didn’t feel like that, but I sat down for a few minutes because I felt really shook. I remember thinking that I was going to be late, and pictured him waiting for me and felt freezing cold. After a bit, another bus pulled up, and without really thinking, I just got up and got on, and as soon as it pulled out, everything felt better.

I’ve never seen or heard anything about him since so it’s perfectly possible that he was an entirely normal bloke, and I was just having a weird turn that day, particularly as we had already had a perfectly civil conversation and I hadn’t registered much of an impression one way or another. If anything he’d just been bland.

I get it OP.

Always listen to your gut.

Yes, just to be involved with a group. A new guy joined and seemed perfectly nice and friendly. He worked in a industry where he could access free concerts tickets etc so everyone thought that he was a lovely guy but I just had a bad feeling about him so kept my distance.

A few of the group went away for something. This man started making nasty comments to his girlfriend all evening. Eventually during the night there was a load of noise and he was beating the poor girlfriend up. Took three very strong men to pull him off her. She told us later that this happened loads of times. Thankfully she is no longer with him.

I had an intense dislike for one particular girl from middle school through out high school, teachers and parents would give us lectures to include her in everything because "shes had a hard life" despite the fact when an adult wasnt in ear shot she had a mean streak - often very sly and devious with it, turning friends agaonst each other, hurting people and stealing. My gut would always say "get away from her". Then after school my DH was put on an employability course with the same woman (as soon as he mentioned her name - the same feeling came back). She was arrested a couple of years ago for making indecent images of her children and sending them to men online and for grooming other peoples kids.
It was awful. I hope her children are now safe and shes inside for a long time.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Yes. Once a very strong reaction. Interviewing a man. Who I think was not alright.
He smiled when he saw how uncomfortable he made me feel.

Once or twice and i dont know why, but i stayed far away from them.
Its definitely visceral and very different to taking an "instant dislike".
Quite a feral feeling but one i'd always trust.

Agree.
I experience a lot of first impressions about people - and I do think it’s wise to ‘listen’ to your gut - but, from
personal experience, sometimes your impression can be off because of something happening within you that you may not even be aware of, e.g. hormones subtly altering your perception of a person / vibe / situation.

Exactly.

No, I always know why I get a weird vibe from someone. It's usually something about their demeanour, their tone of voice, the things they say, the way they act...it can be little things, but I don't get these feelings of "something is off" for no reason. At least not so far...

I was listening to a podcast in which an ex-policeman called Paul Fitzharris was talking about his time in child protection. It was fascinating. He had been to countless houses in which a perfectly 'respectable' middle-aged man (a teacher, plumber, etc, happily married, couple of kids, pillar of the community) had been downloading horrific images of child abuse. He also addressed this question about whether you can tell. He said that in the majority of cases, you'd never know what these men were up to. They seemed so ordinary and decent, until you downloaded their files and found thousands of images of babies and the torture of toddlers, etc.

But he also said there were cases in which you just knew something wasn't right. He said the worst human he ever met, in his 20 years of child protection, was an ex-army guy who had been torturing his own kids and even posting in forums about how far you could go with a child without killing them etc. Fitzharris said that when they arrested him he was very polite and articulate and 'normal'. But once they got in the interview room, he said it was like the room grew dark, and he felt almost nauseous. After the interview was over, he had to go for a walk to clear his mind – it was like this man was giving off some dark, satanic energy.

One of DB’s friends (male) used to come onto me and groped me once. Told him to piss off. Years later he’s dating a local woman I know, had an affair with a her sister and got her pregnant, but the woman he was dating, he was being really unpleasant to her girls, so much so that the court got involved somehow. He always gave off a creepy vibe though he was good looking.

How do you know?

I’ve never had it about anyone except the one person who turned out to abuse kids. We’re not all out here getting feelings every other day

Well yes because if they’re not a famous murderer the person wouldn’t have known they were a murderer… you’ve kind of missed the point

Wow! bloody hell 😮😮😮

These are the kinds of threads I find fascinating.
Reading some of the posts about visceral fear really caught my attention because I think I’ve experienced it once myself. It was I think in 2024?. I used to get the bus to work every morning, one day a man got on who I’d never seen before. The moment I saw him, I was hit by this overwhelming wave of panic, nausea and fear. It was almost like the devil incarnate had surged through me or something. It was unlike anything I’d ever experienced. The feeling passed almost as quickly as it came, but it shook me so much that I never got the bus to work again. I switched to the train from that day on because it genuinely terrified me and was scared if I saw him again.
I’ve never told anyone about it up until now, my heart is racing now just thinking about it.

Yes, and no. As a teenager, my friend's stepdad always gave me the creeps, and many years later it turned out he was abusing my friend and her sister, ultimately getting time in jail when my friend told a relative what had happened. Conversely, a colleague was absolutely charming with a lovely family - and turned out to have a computer full of images of child sex abuse and animal cruelty. I was shocked to my core when he appeared in the local paper.

I got off a train once very close to home, but at 10 pm, so it was dark.

A man also got off. I felt immediate fear when I saw him and texted DH to come and get me.

I have no idea if he was a danger to me, but I'm quite sure that he was. I can't explain it. I just knew that he was planning to hurt or rape me.