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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Presence of evil

793 replies

beachcitygirl · 17/01/2022 14:03

Aibu to ask if you've ever felt yourself in the presence of evil. Following on from
The intuitiion thread.

I once met a friend of my ex in a coffee shop. The man was nothing but civil & friendly. Soft spoken & was an ex police officer. My then husband was there also.
I went to the loo & spent ages as something about him made me feel afraid. I stress it was just a feeling. Zero untoward behaviour.
Many years later he was arrested & found guilty of violent rape.

Has anyone else ever sensed evil? (For want of a better word)

OP posts:
WabbitsAndWeasels · 17/01/2022 14:41

My mum tells me a story of when I was about 5 years old. We were walking through a schools nature reserve (it was actually what would become my secondary school) and I became inconsolable, refused to walk further and wanted to go home. When the time came for cross country running at secondary she informed the school I had to go around the reserve and not through (they allowed it). There was an extremely violent rape in there when I was about 13. I don't believe in things like this but do believe in gut instinct, I think I just felt the place was unsafe for whatever subconscious reason but as a 5 year old I couldn't communicate it.

woowoowoo100 · 17/01/2022 14:42

I met an evil multiple rapist ( 4 rapes of different women in 6 days ) after he had been released from prison. I knew nothing of his past but he gave me a bad feeling.
He subsequently said to my husband ( who had no idea of his past either )" Your wife doesn't like me."

I found out about his past and the trouble he has caused his neighbours - he moves frequently. Sadly he is still in the area. Gives me the chills when I see him.

theemmadilemma · 17/01/2022 14:43

I had two friends who's houses I refused to stay over at and who's Dad's I actively avoided as a young child. Turns out both were abusing their daughters.

DustyMaiden · 17/01/2022 14:44

Many years ago I served a smart looking man, he touched my hand. I said to my colleagues that I was touching evil. He later went to prison for child sex abuse.

littlebilliie · 17/01/2022 14:47

@beachcitygirl

A few posters have said evil doesn't exist. I myself said I used it for a want of a better wordZ fwiw I still think it's the best for what I mean. But for clarity I suppose I meant what some would call psychopaths or a deadness in the eyes or as others have said, just a gut churning instinct that a person is wrong. I can't describe how cold inside that man made me feel. I've never felt it before or since. Chilling
Our society runs on a belief system. We need to believe in all sorts of things such as justice, kindness and redemption. Evil is a belief and so like other beliefs, it is as real.
bubbleblower85 · 17/01/2022 14:53

Yup, a relative's house. One of the rooms has an evil presence. One night I went to that room and I just felt like something evil was watching me, I quickly left the room and didn't speak to anyone about it. Afterwards one of my sisters went to the same room and she also quickly left the room, later she said to me she felt like there was an evil presence watching her- exactly how I felt, and again I didn't mention my experience to anyone at all.

Tallyhodavey · 17/01/2022 15:01

Yes- someone I met through business. Sadly, I still have to deal with him from time to time, but I try to do so via email, and never in person. I cross the street if I see him in person. I had a bad vibe from him immediately I met him. He is creepy and has no filter. It turned out during his divorce that he was coercively controlling his poor wife, had thrown a brick em through her window, placed a tracker on her car and done other awful things. He is utterly vile- my initial vibe from him was correct.

HappyDays40 · 17/01/2022 15:04

I think I might have put this on before but I moved back in with my mum and dad after a break up, they had some work done on the garden which lasted a few weeks. There was one of the workers who used to be very appropriate and nice but he made my skin crawl. I couldn't even cope with making him a cup of tea.
One day I was working from home and noted an arm coming through the letter box trying the door handle. It was this worker he had his arm stuck through the letter box and couldn't get it out. I let my dog out for a "wee" to scare the shit out of him although she wasn't a biter she kept barking at him while I rang the police. He was literally caught red handed and his arm was in ribbons from getting stuck in the letter box. Turns out he matched the description (and DNA) for a man who had sexually assaulted a woman near my house in the time that the company had done some work the summer before. Fucking knob.

MmeD · 17/01/2022 15:07

A friend of mine talks about the time, years ago, she felt the presence of evil behind her when walking down a street in East London one afternoon. She knew there was someone behind her, that wasn’t the problem, it was the feeling they were giving off. She turned to look and recognised the man from TV - it was Mad Frankie Fraser.

I have no intuition. There was an IT manager I thought really nice at work - quiet and helpful and easy to talk to. He was convicted of child abuse and everyone said they’d felt something off about him - I was the only person who’d liked him 🙁!

Prettybubblesintheair · 17/01/2022 15:12

Could someone link to the intuition thread please? I can’t find it!

ButWhereDidTheWindComeFrom · 17/01/2022 15:13

Years ago I was doing some work experience while at uni. Another classmate and I went to the same office and shook hands with the man organising us. We both experienced exactly the same reaction.... we both had an overwhelming sense of fear and dread, started to shake and felt sick.

We discussed it literally moments after the event, walked out and never went back. i have no idea at all if that person had done or did ever do something awful, but the response to him was completely visceral.

GirlInACountrySong · 17/01/2022 15:17

how does anyone know.....definitively....that something does or doesn't exist??

they don't.....its just a guess

HyacynthBucket · 17/01/2022 15:18

Not a person, but a place. There was something about a particular house in Hove - I was hardly ever in that road but if I did go there, felt I needed to cross over and hurry past. There was something horrible about it.

Lockheart · 17/01/2022 15:19

I spent a lot of time socially with someone who not long after committed a truly awful crime (killed one woman and almost killed another), and I felt bugger all. He was just another friend.

Cam2020 · 17/01/2022 15:19

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn - posted on wrong thread.

Ozanj · 17/01/2022 15:20

@MmeD

A friend of mine talks about the time, years ago, she felt the presence of evil behind her when walking down a street in East London one afternoon. She knew there was someone behind her, that wasn’t the problem, it was the feeling they were giving off. She turned to look and recognised the man from TV - it was Mad Frankie Fraser.

I have no intuition. There was an IT manager I thought really nice at work - quiet and helpful and easy to talk to. He was convicted of child abuse and everyone said they’d felt something off about him - I was the only person who’d liked him 🙁!

My great uncle knew Mad Frankie Fraser’s sister and had met him a few times in social settings. He said he was lovely and was one of the few men of that era who weren’t openly racist to him Confused
OneTimeThrowAway · 17/01/2022 15:21

I don't use the word evil to describe people but I've met some very fucking horrible people yes

IamtheDevilsAvocado · 17/01/2022 15:22

I don't believe in woo woo...

BUT I do believe some people are good at picking up micro signals from people... That they are not ok.

I'm sure others have name checked elsewhere - De Beckers :The gift of Fear and also Blink - by Malcom Gladwell.

Think its called pre (un) conscious processing.... Your body is reacting to signals but often you can't verbalise it more than I don't like /this gives me a bad feeling.

As a small child Savile gave me the utter creeps, couldn't see why anyone would want to be around him... (well apart from being given a show where kids are given their dream experience....). However, I used to think Stuart Hall/Rolf Harris were like my favourite uncles... (wbxuh of course made them so dangerous)

MrsE · 17/01/2022 15:22

I agree with the gas chamber at Auschwitz II. It was not a nice feeling in there, I felt suffocated.

The old prison in Philadelphia was really eerie. There were a couple of cells I went into and the temperature dropped dramatically and I felt trapped. They were used for the insane where they were kept in straight jackets. The whole place was creepy.

Met a couple of people doing the job that I did at the time. They just creeped me out - one was later done as a paedophile and the other was a drug smuggler who was trying to distract me from looking into things too closely

fromdownwest · 17/01/2022 15:23

I viewed a house from an unknown deceased estate.

I filmed the viewing, the toilet under the stairs felt super cold, my phone cut off when viewing it back when I filmed the toilet room.

My DP left and said she felt a presence in the living room when looking at the old sitting chair.

I am not one for mumno jumbo, but even typing this I have goosebumps.

fromdownwest · 17/01/2022 15:24

Forgot the mention that I found out later the husband had been found stabbed in the toilet.

GrendelsGrandma · 17/01/2022 15:24

I've seen TV programmes where they do micro-analysis of interviews of people accused of crime. There are tiny changes in muscles around the face that you wouldn't register consciously but give us a subconscious impression that someone is lying, untrustworthy, hostile etc. I think a lot of this 'sixth sense' stuff can be put down to that.

Also, horrible things tend to happen in particular places, eg dark corners, places with limited visibility, places you can't easily escape from. Our subconscious registers this and picks up on creepy places.

womaninatightspot · 17/01/2022 15:27

@Wreath21

I think some people have more finely-tuned instincts than others so can detect something 'wrong' with certain individuals. Nothing woo about it, just an awareness: it might be a turn of phrase or a look in the eyes; could even be something about the way they smell.

It's a useful survival instinct, really. (I am old enough to remember watching Jim'll Fix It on the telly regularly, and I certainly found Savile, even onscreen, creepy. I might have liked to have certain wishes granted, but I wouldn't have wantedto sit on his knee...)

I was like that about Savile too and the Aussie one. There are people I've met which just are off. I think you should trust your instints. I was once backpacking in Australia and went for a few beers with a new dorm mate and got chatting to people at the bar. A bloke said a group of us were going to move along to the next pub and so I agreed to go along. It turned out it was just us two and then everything felt off. I went in the pub with him, suggested he grab the drinks whilst I went to the loo and instead went back to the hostel. After leaving the pub my memory is a blur, I came to on a toilet floor in my hostel so I must of made it back but I felt terrible all day. I'm sure I was spiked that night and avoided something terrible. I'd only had two beers which worked out to less than a pint.
Butteryflakycrust83 · 17/01/2022 15:29

I had this a few weeks ago, walking with DH and DC in the field behind our house. All of a sudden I felt felt absolute dread and doom, hairs ont he back of my neck went up and my eyes scanned for potential threats - I made my husband leave carrying DC and go home. Just could not shake the feeling and wanted to cry.

CocoDeMere · 17/01/2022 15:29

Many years ago I went to a smart party and met a young couple there. The guy was handsome, charming, funny and outwardly adoring of his lovely fiancée . On being introduced to him, I felt an overpowering feeling of nausea, panic and need to escape. Such strong negative feelings and totally at odds with mutual friends' comments of what a great guy he was. I actually commented quietly to a close friend that night that I found him totally chilling. Some years later he was sent to prison for attempted murder of the same woman. I don't know what sixth sense I had that night but it was spot on.