I get these feelings quite frequently. Sometimes I’m proved right, and sometimes nothing happens to prove the feelings. I’ve never been actually proved wrong though. I tend to get quite a powerful feeling about people soon after I’ve met them, I find that everyone radiates a vibe, be that good, bad or something a bit more complicated. I have had many memorable occasions of intense feeling just after meeting someone - I do believe that some people seem to send out ‘danger’ or alert’ signals while others are just light and good and I implicitly trust them immediately, my DH being the latter.
I’ve had acquaintances that I’ve felt ‘off’ about and distanced myself based purely on strength of feeling. I’ve also acted on instincts about strangers too. I’ve moved away from people on public transport before, and once left a shop because I felt that someone in it just meant me harm. It sounds absolutely ludicrous, I know it does, and I can’t prove that by acting on these feelings that I’ve saved myself from danger or upset. Nevertheless I always trust my instincts about people and situations. In the past when I haven’t I’ve later bitterly regretted it.
I’ve recently been proved right about one, my BIL. I’ve always had a funny feeling about him, just didn’t like him, I felt that he was a liar, cold, and manipulative, and I always wondered what went on in his relationship with sis behind closed doors. I’ve known him years, and I just put it down to him being a bit socially awkward and let DP talk me out of it. We’ve only very recently found out that he’s a serial cheat.
A very memorial one was an ex colleague who made every single one of my instincts scream. I hated being anywhere near him, he actually made me feel nauseous, and looking into his eyes was like looking into the void. He radiated such a dark presence, I’ve never ever had had such a strong reaction to someone. Based on his mannerisms, behaviour, and (lack of) relationships with others I think he’s a psychopath or at the very least has a personality disorder. He would form very surface level attachments and friendships, but they were always with people who fitted the image he was currently trying to project, or were useful to him in some way. He would discard people as soon as they weren’t useful anymore. He would change his look every few months and a whole new set of people would be required to prop it up. He used people like pawns in some elaborate game that only he was playing. He did some very nasty things to his girlfriend at the time, so in a way my instincts were proved right, but I think there’s much more to it than that. I’m certain that he’s capable of awful awful awful things. I fully expect to see those black eyes again on the news one day.