Presence of evil

[beachcitygirl]

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)

Evil doesn't have to mean woo woo.. I believe people can be evil to their core or commit evil acts. I have absolutely been in the company of men who have chilled me to the bone..I'm not necessarily saying they were evil, but absolutely worth watching your back with. Acts committed by sane killers and during wars, eg the Nazis and the Japanese atrocities during WWII are 100% evil human behaviour. No other word for people who commit such barbary against fellow humans. Lots of serial killers start of as children committing evil acts against animals.
And yeah Culloden is sad and creepy. Not evil, just incredibly sad.

When I was 16 I worked on the cream cake counter of BHS (they had food depts. then)
Every Saturday an older gentleman would come in and choose two cakes for him & his mother. He became more & more chatty & would wait until i was free to serve him. (I thought this was because I put two cakes in a box for him, when you were supposed to put 3 in!! I was a young dafty)
Anyhow worked there 2 years, but a few months after I left I bumped into him in the local market. After a polite chat he grabbed my arm and asked if I would meet him, I said no & ran back to work. I don't know about evil but I have never been so frightened. I was terrified of meeting him for years after.

A few times. But once it was incredibly unsettling.

I’d just come back home from a few days away on a doula course and attribute the force of the feeling to being so open. Maybe.

Anyway, I was walking the dog in a park next to our local beach. An older chap walked past me and nodded, I nodded back. And I physically felt a shove happen to my body, away from his. I can still feel it. It shook me to the core.

No idea if he was evil, I didn’t walk there for a while. Never seen him again.

I am a huge believer in trusting your intuition. I think we push it down and lean away from it. We should not.

As a teenager, I moved in to a young person's hostel {Still in existence}, as a ''New'' person, I was placed isn a room smack bang next to the reception area that was supervised 24/7, as there were under 16's there.

On my first night, anxious to be up early next morning for work, I went to bed early, at about 22:30
The green dial of my radio alarm and the faint street light from outside in the 'Yard' was all that illuminated my room.

A man, dressed in an overcoat, leather shoes and a trilby~type hat walked in, my stomach tightened in fear.
He didn't turn on any lights, just walked in to the centre of the room, looked about {I'd put up some posters} and stared down at me.

{The beds in that hostel were floor level}

I couldn't see his face, it was just a pool of darkness.

I remember thinking ''IF you weren't so solid, I'd think you were a ghost''
I was watching him through half closed eyes..
He left the room via the door, {my eyes were closed by this point out of fear}
Next morning, I asked who the man was who had come into my room.

The staff member said ''I have been on duty since 22:00 and no one has been through reception to your room''

I described him, and she said ''The only man here is Eric, and he's away with his wife''
when I saw Eric I knew it wasn't him.

The ''Mystery man'' still remains a mystery...I didn't sense ''Evil'' off him, just a sense of surprise, as if the room had been 'His'' and he'd walked in to find me there.

The hostel was for young people under 22, and I never saw him again, I stayed in that room for well over a year.

Was he a ghost?
Can ghosts look solid?

I definitely wasn't asleep, and it wasn't a waking dream.

@Bobbie1976

How naive do you have to be to say evil doesn’t exist??? Ted Bundy, Rose West, Myra Hindley - ring any bells?

@Bobbie1976 @TeamLorenaBobbitt @Noangelbuthavingfun

When PP are talking about evil not existing, they are talking about evil as a human construct. To my mind (Irish catholic upbringing) the church established very black and white interpretations of 'good and evil' with characters to personify those concepts (god/angels/satan/demons etc.).

I think the thought that humans were capable of such heinous wicked deeds was at odds with religious teaching, ie that we're 'made in His (sic) image' and that no child of god would commit such acts, that in order to be capable of murder, child abuse and so on, there had to be some sort of external invasive 'evil' force at work.

Sure it was very recently that the current pope blamed evil spirits for the deeds of abusive priests/nuns when the church was again coming under scrutiny for child abuse, rather than acknowledging that those crimes were committed by very human men and women who were perfectly in control of their actions.

Humans are very complex, with complex brains, complex social structure etc. A combination of nature and nurture produces the capacity to commit heinous acts. Sometimes, due to genetics or in utero environment or whatever, the wiring of our extremely complex brains gets fucked up.

I don’t think there’s any doubt that Ian Brady for example was clinically psychopathic. I believe he had a brutal childhood (though I may be thinking of someone else). That’s a deadly combination.

The problem is with the concept of ‘evil’. That humans aren’t inherently capable of things that most ‘normal right-thinking’ people know are abhorrent. Some of us are. It doesn’t mean that most people are ‘good’ and some people are ‘evil’.

I once passed a middle aged couple in supermarket and suddenly felt afraid especially of the man. They looked ordinary but there was something really off about them. I watched them all the way around and then sat in the car watching for them when they came out.
Thinking about it now if they had seen me they may have thought I was a bit off for watching them.
It was a very bad feeling and I often think about it.

Yes, walking into a tube station - 2 men walked past me coming out of it and I can't even begin to describe the feeling, except as you say - it was the presence of evil.

Living in London I walk in and out of tube stations all day long, I never really notice anyone unless there's something really 'special' about them, an absolutely beautiful girl, someone wearing unusual clothes, an elderly person or pregnant lady etc etc, but these two weren't remarkable in anyway- probably 25-30 wearing normal clothes but there was just this aura and it set every hair on the back of my neck up.

I just knew they were going to do something really awful, but what could I do - call 999 and say what? Two men walked past me, can you arrest them because I think they're evil.....but I got a sense of dread I've never had walking past someone before.

@ParkheadParadise

Yes, I have. The Evil bastard who murdered my dd. I hated him from the moment I met him. The next girlfriend after dd he killed her dog and left it on her doorstep. Every Cloud, he died 4 years after he Murdered my beautiful girl. Unfortunately, no one murdered him he died of a drug overdose. I hope every day he rots in hell.

This is absolutely awful. My heart really goes out to you @ParkheadParadise. I'm so sorry x

@Celestine70

Another place that freaked me out a little was Bergen-Belsen. I don't think there was evil there but it was eerie and totally quiet. It was summer and warm but the place just had a chill and no birds sang even though it was surrounded by forest.

Oradour-sur-Glanes is like that. Totally bereft of birdsong. It's like places have memories.

@TerraNovaTwo

To those who say evil doesn't exist, that's just your narrow opinion and experience of the world.

There's evil aplenty in this world.

What are concentration camps and genocide? Animal cruelty? Child abuse and infanticide? Psychological abuse? Rape and molestation?

All the things you mention are humans doing bad things. "Evil" is not something that exists as a separate entity from humans. It's us. We're a fucked up species.

People like to believe in "evil" as a force, because it gives them a sense of comfort. Allows them to believe bad human actions are only perpetrated by monsters. I can see the attraction - if all 'evil doers' were as polarised as Lord Voldemort we'd know exactly who to be scared of, & who to avoid. We could keep ourselves safe.
And pretend that we ourselves are free of any propensity to 'evil'.

There's a place called the bridestones on the Cheshire/staffs border, I used to drive past there a lot in my late teens/early twenties. The whole stretch of road always felt very creepy - however, I did drive a lot at night after meeting up with friends. I read more recently that there's a history of UFO sightings and time slips there. But it's a lonely stretch of road and I think I'm attaching too much to my memory of finding it creepy after reading the stories about it.

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/vanessa-guillen-fort-hood-military-abuse-b1993437.html

I just saw this whilst reading this thread

wondering7777

Hahaha! I slept with the landing lamp on last night after reading some of these stories too!

Yes, I had a boyfriend, who had some mates turn up, to our house to see him. I said no he wasn't in and they left.
But I got a bad feeling about them and told boyfriend, not to have them over when I aren't there,He reluctantly agreed.
Turned out, the were nicking stuff from our house, or boyfriend was giving it to them. They pinched a debit card of mine, I had left my new card on the side. I was in a rush and forgot to put it in my wallet. I thought it was safe in our house.
They were arrested, over the card, but I couldn't prove they had taken the other stuff.
I split from the boyfriend, good riddence, I never got any money off him, for the suff he let them pinch, about a grands worth of stuff.

@Celestine70

Another place that freaked me out a little was Bergen-Belsen. I don't think there was evil there but it was eerie and totally quiet. It was summer and warm but the place just had a chill and no birds sang even though it was surrounded by forest.

My dad did part of his National service in the 1950s in Germany and visited Belsen while he was there. He said exactly the same thing - eerily quiet with no birdsong.

There is an historically significant battleground and burial site on the Big Island of Hawaii that DH and I visited. It had a very eerie and strange vibe that has stayed with me. Many died in the battle, which was in 1820.

The Kuamo'o Battlefield and Lekeleke burial ground.

Another is the Place of Refuge, also on the Big Island.

www.nps.gov/puho/index.htm

I felt a very strong vibe when visiting there. It is a beautiful place. We saw many sea turtles in the little lagoon.

I don't believe evil is a separate entity. It's not 'woo' for heinous deeds, considered as such by the majority of humans, to be categorised in some way (evil, vile, scummy, immoral, etc). How else are we to make moral judgements and live fulfilling and righteous lives if we do not demarcate what is right (moral) and what is wrong (evil)? Not doing so would surely lead to anarchy?!

And just using the word heinous to describe a bad feeling or deed already points to the existence of evil. It's almost as if those who deny the presence of evil are trying to detach themselves from it, to remove it from the human experience.

I do not believe in woo in any way. I am terminally rational. That being said, about 10 years ago I went to a wedding with several of my family members. We stayed at a beautiful little 15th century coaching inn, which we’d stayed in several times before and always liked. On this occasion, I was put in a room I’d never stayed in before and it just felt…. awful. The room looked nice - it was massive, with lovely mullioned windows and a huge four poster, but I just had a feeling of pure panic the minute I was on my own in there. I went to my cousin’s room and told him, and he very gallantly agreed to swap with me. He was back within 10 minutes, saying he couldn’t stay there either and that there was something very wrong with that room.

Another one - I was staying at my parents’ house and they were out. I was there with the very soppy and friendly family lab and a workman my dad had booked to do some stuff to the garden arrived, and she just went for him. I caught her before she got to him and shut her in the laundry room and apologised, and he smiled and me and his eyes were just empty. I showed him to the garden and then locked the doors of the house til he was ready to leave. She’s never shown even the tiniest hint of aggression to anyone before or since.

This is awfully sad, but a child I used to teach just gave us all a very unsettling feeling. The only way I can explain it is dead behind the eyes. He had an unwavering fixation with causing pain, and went about it like a science experiment, e.g. stepping very hard upon others’ toes and observing their reactions in a detached kind of way. The family had to have his younger brother sleep in their room for his own protection, lock up the father’s tools and rehome the cat.

He’s at secondary now, and although we referred him to everyone we could think of to help him, nothing ever came of it. CAMHS waiting list just too long, and apparently we managed his needs (ie kept the other children safe) too well to make it an urgent case.

Every time I see anything about a student at X school on the local news site, I cross my fingers that he hasn’t done something terrible.

Yeah, every time I look at those men we elect in parliament. I think they all have a bit of evil in them. Power corrupts the soul, as they say.

The kindest people in one situation can be the most evil in another. Evil is so hard to define in a person, it's easier to know in a deed. Evil is not as I believe we've been conditioned to think it is and I believe it's everywhere, just very hidden as it's such a tabbo subject - it's projected into movies and other less 'developed' countries. It's so unknown to us. I also once had a male client, who had anger, well rage issues, and once he turned his head to look at my long pointy umbrella, and said he was thinking about killing me with it and that it would just be 'so easy'. I felt this coldness come over me. So it's a definite feeling when you come into contact with it - but perhaps some people can also hide it very well also. I believe there are ways to hide it's present so no one would ever know.

I used to do home visits are part of my job years ago.
I had a client I always felt uneasy around. One day I went to a home visit and he kept looking in the corner of the room. When I looked over there was a machete on the floor.
I made my excuses and ran to the car locked myself in and drove as fast as I could back to the office.

I'm not sure really. Once when I was a kid maybe around age 10, I walked out the doctors surgery we had just been for an appointment. My mum was busy talking or sorting something in the waiting room so I went outside (I was a mature 10, it's a safe area generally) . Alongside the doctors car park was a very large, deep fast flowing river (with a high wall but steps down to it nearby). Anyway, there was man there, perhaps middle aged, looked dodgy (I know you can't judge a book by its cover), he started ushering me to go and look at the kayaks or similar in the river. Doesn't seem that bad but he was ushering me to come and stand next to him like he'd lift me up (or Chuck me in or bundle me away!). I could just about reach over to see if I wanted to anyway ( I was pretty tall). He kept ushering me to go stand near him. I quickly went back into the doctors waiting room. My mum come out immediately and he was nowhere to be seen. Who knows. Might have been an innocent man just wanting to look at the kayaks 🤦‍♀️

Plus when I looked there was no kayaks to be seen and you have clear visibility up and down the river!

"It intrigued me whether her was giving off a vibe, or it was my own bias."

Or everybody else knew what the shopkeeper knew.

@52andblue

Yes: 2 people I have met. One (I later learned) has a reputation for being evil, one I knew intimately for a long time. Both were, I believed, in some way 'evi'l. In reality they were both very damaged & sought no resolution for this so continued to damage others (but also took pleasure in that).

Places can feel 'evil' too. In reality, they are probably cold / dark, but also may have some sort of energy left from bad things that happened there? There are sometimes threads on MN about places that feel 'spooky' & there is quite a lot of consensus. Mine are: Kielder Forest, Chillingham Castle, Culloden Moor. And my current house :(

Oh no, your current house? Have you ever seen anything or looked into the history?

DH and I both saw something when we moved into ours - I’d call it a ghost and he refuses to call it that. However, it’s never felt negative or intimidating, and hasn’t appeared for a long time now.