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AIBU?

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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:
popmimiboo · 18/01/2022 18:07

Twice. One was a man who I interviewed for an entrance exam at the college I teach in. Absolutely gave me the heebie jeebies. I interview up to 100 potential students a year but this one really sticks in my memory. He didn't get taken and I don't recall his name so no idea of my intuition was right though.
The second is a first year student I currently teach. Really creepy vibe. He just makes me uneasy. I've spoken to his tutor who agrees and we're keeping an eye on him around campus.

Evan456 · 18/01/2022 18:10

@MoirasWigStand

The thing is, you may have got "feelings" about a few people, but only remember/confirm them when you later found out what they did. SO it doesn't prove anything.
That’s not true!
crochetmonkey74 · 18/01/2022 18:10

I think I've told this before but my friends baby when he was about 8 months old , very smiley baby not really freaked out by men with beards or hats on or anything like that. Always very pleased to be passed around. We were at a cafe and he saw this man looking at him (we were seated , man was in the queue) The baby went mad and looked terrified, scrabbling to get up by his mums neck, truly frightened. Never seen anything like it before or since despite being around babies a lot.

Allthekittycats · 18/01/2022 18:12

@MoirasWigStand has it. I’ve known far more people that I thought perfectly harmless that turned out to be monsters, than instances of people I had a bad feeling about where I was proved right.

AL75 · 18/01/2022 18:14

I know what you mean. I once met a man who used to cause a knot in my stomach instead of butterflies, couldn’t quite put my finger on it the negative tension and feeling he created. Stupidly I married him and ignored my instincts, turned out to be an abusive narcissist. After 15 years I divorced him!

Dibbydoos · 18/01/2022 18:15

We live on a nature reserve the entrance to which is off our road next to my house. A guy and his dog would be outside my house whenever I got home no matter what day/time it was. He said good morning or hello to me every time. It spooked me, I thought he might be a stalker....

One day I took my big dog, Stormzy, out for a very early walk - he's an all white GSD/Husky cross, so not huge but big enough and very strong.

Coming back home, the guy was over the other side of the water channel on the reserve from us. He spotted me and sped up towards me. He got 10m away and my started growling very low, barring his teeth and pulling on his lead. His dog was off lead not bothering at all, but he looked quite scared, but obvs I took my dog home.

My dog started going to the window to look out after that... I have never seen him on the reserve since....

Staffy1 · 18/01/2022 18:16

But loads of people have the same social influences and environmental issues and not all of them go on to do something despicable. Some choose to be evil and do evil things and some don’t.

Runningupthecurtains · 18/01/2022 18:18

Surely true evil wouldn't be law abiding so when you told it to leave it would shrug it's shoulders and carry on with its evil and intent.

Kanaloa · 18/01/2022 18:20

@Staffy1

But loads of people have the same social influences and environmental issues and not all of them go on to do something despicable. Some choose to be evil and do evil things and some don’t.
It doesn’t work that way. It’s like saying ‘oh lots of people fall down the stairs, why did you break your leg and he didn’t?’

Things affect people differently. Every person is different. Implying that people are born under some ‘evil’ sign and therefore roam around committing evil acts out of their latent evilness is oversimplifying.

I mean look at this thread. People ‘keeping an eye’ on a uni student because he has a ‘creepy vibe.’ Scapegoating a baby because it had ‘evil in its eyes.’

It’s not rational.

FrankieBoyleSezLoveOneAnother · 18/01/2022 18:21

@52andblue - this person is from Sussex, am I right? If it's the guy I'm thinking of, I really would not want to meet him, ever.

Staffy1 · 18/01/2022 18:26

I didn’t suggest anyone was born under an evil sign, but some choose to be evil. The definition of evil, when I look it up is “morally bad, cruel or very unpleasant”, which is what some people are.

MissNowt · 18/01/2022 18:26

There was a shop in the town where I worked in the 80's. The bloke who owned it made my flesh creep - nothing specific but I was so uncomfortable in there. Read in the local paper a few years after I left that he was a predatory paedophile. Never had that feeling before or since.

Staffy1 · 18/01/2022 18:27

And yes, every person is different, some are evil, some aren’t.

Kanaloa · 18/01/2022 18:28

Okay. Well I disagree and don’t believe in the concept of latent evilness. So, I guess we’ll have to disagree.

AnnieSnap · 18/01/2022 18:28

@MaryAndGerryLivingInDerry

Well evil doesn’t exist, so no, but you can certainly form accurate gut instincts about people based on unconscious signs they give off.
This 👆 As a Psychologist, the concept of evil is too woolly for me, but people give all sorts of non-verbal cues that we only pick-up at an unconscious level. The fact that they are not in conscious awareness is why we just ‘get a feeling’, bad or good, about some people.
Fleecy · 18/01/2022 18:29

@MorningStarling

In a tunnel at Newhaven Fort. You walk down steps into the tunnel, fine. Walk along the tunnel, fine until there's a very evil presence. If you walk past it the atmosphere suddenly lightens again, but at some point you have to turn back and walk through it again to get out.
Haven't yet read the full thread (watching to come back and read!) but whenever one of these comes up, I always have a look to see if Newhaven Fort is mentioned and it never is. And here it is! DH and I had exactly the same experience, only I didn't want to go further and left the tunnels instead.
MagicKit · 18/01/2022 18:29

My ex's brother. When he held my newborn DD I snapped at him to give her back to me. Everyone was a bit shocked but exMIL said it's those new mummy hormones and I got sort of dismissed as being over anxious. A few weeks later when he came round he asked if he could take DD out for the afternoon and he stroked her cheek. I instantly said "No fucking way and get your hand off my baby!" He was all offended and stomped off and my ex was cross with me for being so nasty. A year later his brother was arrested, investigated, indicted and imprisoned for a decade for sex crimes against little girls. He confessed to having been glad when I had a daughter as it meant there was potential for further crimes

StellaGibson118 · 18/01/2022 18:30

Evil exists in the same way as love does. In that they are both labels applied to humanity to explain a shared concept.

Belleoverandover · 18/01/2022 18:32

Yes, I got on a bus as a student and a number of people had dumped their bags next to them so you couldn't sit down. An older man well dressed with a suit and an overcoat on had a seat next to him. I asked if the seat was taken he said no and I sat down. He then said it was rare for someone my age to be so polite. I replied it was important to me and that manners cost nothing. He said he was going to a jazz club to meet friends and invited me along. Considering he was older than my Father I found this creepy. I politely declined and said I was meeting friends to study. We continued to chat during the journey but it really made me feel uncomfortable. I saw him on the news many years later accused of murdering various young women.

Cravey · 18/01/2022 18:35

We knew a lady who was involved in a high profile murder case. We had known her years before this happened. She was a tad odd but I didn't get a bad feeling from her. Dh on the other hand said she was bad to the core, she gave him an awful feeling. And he truly believes she was much more involved with the crime than she said she was.

Queenbee77 · 18/01/2022 18:35

Yep.My eldest mer a lad in college. Looked like a model and sounded sweet as pie when he spoke...I didnt like him. I had a chilling feeling about him.
He ended up beating my daughter to a pulp. She didnt tell me how he had beaten her up several times. She had bite marks and was in hospital several days. Evil....

AnnieSnap · 18/01/2022 18:36

@Bobbie1976

How naive do you have to be to say evil doesn’t exist??? Ted Bundy, Rose West, Myra Hindley - ring any bells?
They were/are very bad people- psychopaths, but evil is a spiritual concept. As such, it doesn’t make sense to those who take a scientific approach. This doesn’t mean we don’t see these individuals as ‘beyond the pale’.
Glojo · 18/01/2022 18:37

I visited the new skyscraper in New York The building is beautiful the inside is beautiful with a a vented ceiling white walls with shops running along the side All very tasteful ...BUT i felt a most overwhelming sence of presure I cant really explain but my daughter had to get me out of the place quickly I started hyperventilating and felt i could nt breath Mist extraordinary I wonder if other people have felt the same

Dragonella · 18/01/2022 18:38

Back in early 80''s went to local video store with my then husband.. The owner was standing in the window with the sun behind him.. Dracula popped into my head and I chuckled to myself but felt uneasy... Years later Peter Moore was arrested and charged with serial murders... Now classed as one of most dangerous men in British jail... Will never see freedom again

Harls1969 · 18/01/2022 18:49

Bodmin Gaol creeped me out. Eerie place.