Have you ever felt evil or that something was deeply wrong?

[crochetmonkey74]

Inspired by an experience I had recently that has really rattled me. It's very outing as I've talked to everyone in my real life about it, it bothered me so much so I'll keep it brief.
I met some people I hadn't met before to buy an item from FB marketplace. Its a fairly rare item, and an expensive one so I went off to see if it was the right thing. The house was beautiful, it was a very large manor house that has been turned into huge expensive period flats,the grounds were amazing and the people were nice but a few odd things happened that were boundary testing and also some oddly timed things happened. While I was there I felt OK, it was a beautiful place, very quiet and entrancing but as I drove away I had this overwhelming sense of relief that I was leaving, and I was scanning my brain for any information I'd told them about myself in case they could find me. I am not a scared person or one prone to flights of fancy , this has never happened to me before. I had a physical reaction to the street they live on when I drove past some days later. My brain said "I'm never going up there again" and I keep having that feeling of having been in a bubble, it bursting and me being glad to be away from it. A weird story I know. Anyone had similar? I just know there was something deeply wrong there. I even asked my lovely neighbour to send a prayer up for me to protect me , and I would consider myself a non believer!

@IvorCutler . Get a priest to bless the ring and then sell it.

Some of these stories are terrifying. Particularly the ones where it is clear the person dodged a bullet e.g. seeing the man hiding in the park waiting for you.

I know people like to rubbish these experiences but I think unless you have experienced it, it is hard to explain. It is not about thinking someone is weird, it is knowing viscerally you are in real danger.
I grew up in a very rough area and have known all kinds of people, including people who have been in prison. I only once felt absolutely terrified.

I was phoning round to organise electricians to do some work. I rang one man and as soon as I started talking to him, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I knew instantly I was never letting him in my house. He finished talking about what he thought was the problem and asked for my address so he could come around and have a look. I did not want him to know where I live and just said I would ring him back and finished the phone call. I got the impression in his voice that he sensed my fear and was amused by it. I am not easily spooked and am not at all timid, but I was genuinely terrified.

The only other time was when I was on holiday with DH, pre-kids, and we were travelling by car abroad to the second place we were staying during our trip. We had planned to stop and have lunch in a cafe or restaurant halfway. But after parking and walking to the town centre, we both said there was a really strange tension and we did not want to stay. Everything looked normal, but it did not feel normal. We agreed to just buy a sandwich from a bakery and quickly left. The next day there was a major riot in that very town. All the press said was totally unexpected, but we could just feel something was going to happen.

Sounds very unnerving OP. I can understand why you would want to get out of there.

I've had a couple of experiences of this. The first was in Bayeux. I went to visit with my family and there was a crypt under the cathedral that was open to the public. I walked down into it and the most overwhelming feeling of unease and fear rushed over me. One other member of the family had the same reaction. You could feel the darkness in it.

A second one, I was walking with my young DC through my hometown. Busy familiar area on a bright day. As I walked along a path there was a man walking towards us. There was nothing of note about him looks wise but his eyes met mine and I felt him latch on like a predator. A chill went came over me and I increased my pace. I turned around and he had turned too and was following us. I stepped as if I was going to go one way, waited till he committed to head us off and then moved quickly the other way. He followed again. I eventually turned and faced him and stared him down. We were surrounded by people so he had to move on out of sight. My dc and I ran for the nearest shop and waited. I saw him walking around outside looking for us. After it seemed safe we ran home. I thought it was maybe me being paranoid and then I saw him standing outside my house looking around and called 101. Turns out he was a prolific stalker of women in the area. Horrible.

Not sure why I didn't speak to anyone in the shop. I guess my anxiety made me think it was all in my head and I would be making a scene.

I'm getting swingers vibes from this.. 😣

As a young teen my friend and I used to hang out at a local shopping centre (not UK). One day we met a young guy a bit older than us. He asked me if I would give him a lift home and so my mum drove him to a neighbouring suburb. From then on I recognised him hanging around the same places as we did for a few years. This was the mid-90s so we went to shopping centres, night clubs etc around our city. Fast forward about 8 years and there was a much publicised and absolutely brutal rape and murder of a young girl (18) and he was all over the CCTV footage. I recognised him immediately and was horrified.

I Didn’t get particularly bad vibes from him when younger but did think he was strange as he wasn’t engaging or friendly in any way and never ever hung around with other kids. He was always alone but in public hanging out in crowded places.

An even stranger coincidence was that the person who found the deceased girl’s body was my very close friend’s brother who was driving a bunch of his friends home the morning after the murder. Strange as we lived in a city with over ten million people! we also found out that he had murdered the girl at the same house (his parent’s house) that we had dropped him at many years before. 😞

Apologies, I should have said Robert Brown. Why do so many of these types have very ordinary, forgettable and easily confused names too?

Interesting you should say that. Robert Black was a psychopathic, paedophilic and very dangerous serial killer.

These are precisely the points de Becker makes in 'The Gift of Fear'. We may not have consciously pieced together a series of warnings that a potentially dangerous situation exists, it can happen instantaneously and subliminally, but as the animals we are, those instincts are hard-wired into us for our own self-preservation. The immediate error made by his first case study - ignoring the #1 red flag of a man's refusal to hear 'no' - is what led to the precarious situation that might have rescued her from it in the first place.

I had an experience at a railway station that very nearly mirrors the one recounted by the poster above. Man with a dog, what better excuse for prowling about at night?, looks completely innocent. I was in a deserted station late at night and he was in the adjoining car park with his mutt, circling me like a shark. My alert senses were tingling until he came and stood by me on the platform, at which point I felt relief, assuming he was only waiting for the train as was I. But the platform - long - was deserted and he was standing no farther than 6 feet away. As the panic closed in again I saw, thank the gods, the light of the approaching train.

As the train came in I fully expected creepy guy and dog to board too, and deliberately took a seat near the conductor. But Creep didn't board, and the conductor didn't immediately sound the signal to proceed. He stepped out onto the middle of the platform, clearly watching Creep + Dog walking away. He must have stood there watching for a full minute before reboarding and pressing the buzzer.

That station is the next one down from my village and I usually alight from the London train fairly late at night. Since then I've stopped getting on the branch line in my own village and connecting with the mainline one at that station. I drive to the main one and park there instead.

Nothing in that bloke's demeanour or behaviour screamed anything other than ill-intent. De Becker was in my mind throughout that encounter.

Interesting thread. I can't recall any experiences where I've felt evil and in fact seem to be completely out of tune in that regard. I know of two people who have committed evil acts and I for both people I never got an inkling of anything of untoward about them. Maybe it is because I wasn't in danger from these people.

Being so oblivious though isn't great. I used to walk my then pup/young dog along fairly desolate footpaths and fields while practicing his recall and never felt unnerved. Looking through some old videos recently you can see a (presumably) man hiding in bushes and at one point he peeks out - just as the camera pans round as I was filming the dog. That unsettled me because I was none the wiser. Literally no sense of being watched, no intuition, zilch.

A good few years ago I was walking my dogs while pushing my then 2 year old daughter in her pushchair. We were on National Trust land following a woodland path. It had many twists and turns but we were nearing the end of the trail where it turned towards a very busy main road so we were maybe a 10 minute walk from the road. A man appeared out of nowhere about 10 metres in front of us, I looked at him ready to say ‘good morning’ as I’d done with other walkers but when our eyes met I went cold. There was nothing in his eyes, no warmth, no annoyance, no feeling and I suddenly felt we were in danger. I called the dogs (small, friendly, non threatening) and rushed forward past the man with the dogs in between us and him. As we passed he turned and started to follow, I ran like I’d never run before all the way along the rest of the trail and out onto the main road. Then I ran along the main road around the outside of the woods to get back to my car. I looked back once on the main road and he was following but walking. I got us all in the car and locked the doors before strapping my daughter in. I saw him in my mirror as I pulled away from the car park. I drove for about 15 minutes before I had to stop and calm myself down as I couldn’t stop shaking. I’ve never been back to that place and I’ve not felt comfortable walking alone since although I still do with hyper vigilance. I know he meant us harm.

This is my favourite post on the thread. Wow 🙂

But if he meant you harm
why didn’t he harm
you?

Because she ran away?

Because harm doesn't always happen immediately. The harmful people are presumably also weighing up the likelihood of being able to pull it off etc . Think failed burglary, mugging etc

No one's instincts are failsafe. If they were, the appalling events we read about every day in the news would be far rarer.

But when those instincts do kick in we have far more to lose by ignoring them than listening to them. As far as women are concerned it's our social conditioning, our compulsion to be nice, be kind, be polite, don't on any count give offence if a man decides he has a right to our time and attention, that's the greatest obstacle to this.

Be rude. They're being rude, after all, by causing us to feel threatened or unsafe, or by persisting in a course of action when they've already been politely rebuffed.

But in this sort of instance wouldn’t he be able to chase her at a run. Not slowly walk after her? I’ve read the gift of fear and most posts on this thread are spooky and I can agree with them but this one doesn’t make sense to me as her walking past him alone in the woods - if he wanted to harm her he could have and following her slowly as she ran doesn’t do much

Maybe he was planning to lure her in with conversation. Maybe he didn't want to chase her - would make too much commotion. Lots of reasons why he might not have wanted to run after her and chase her down.

Maybe he didn't have any intention of hurting her but the point is that she felt that he did and so she followed her instinct and got away. Better that than second guessing herself and finding out she was right all along.

So many people on here disputing events they weren't at. This thread is about the weird feeling or intuition that was felt when involved in the moment. To say peoples experience of their own feeling is wrong is strange.

Not sure this is a sense of evil so much as a very strong gut feeling.

Several of my friends houseshared, and a man later moved in who quickly became great friends with all of them. He never said anything out of the ordinary, to me or anyone else and they all seemed to love him. I just had this feeling that something was wrong.

He was always coming on nights out with us and when I heard he was coming I just felt sick and panicky. I really tried to overcome it as he objectively seemed so inoffensive.

One night when I was told he wouldn't be there I was staying in their spare room (first time since this guy had moved in as I was scared to be asleep with him in the house).

Unbeknownst to me, he hadn't gone out after all and was instead in his room drinking and doing ketamine. The next thing I know he came into my room, locked the door behind him and started crawling towards me across the floor (on hands and feet rather than knees) with a contorted look of sheer hatred on his face. I've never had such a surreal yet terrifying experience - it was like a scene from a horror film.

Thankfully my friends heard me screaming and let me out, but they refused to stop bringing him along (saying it was just the drink and drugs that caused it). I didn't see much of them after that (and trust my instincts a bit more)!

Walking to a friend's house. It was bonfire night, loads of fireworks. About half past 7, I was 20. Had my little rescue dog with me. She was really spooked by the fireworks and kept running up to people's front doors (didn't usually need a lead, bless her little cottons).

We turned into friend's road- there were houses along the left and a wall with a railway line behind it on the right .

It was a dead end, and my friend lived near that dead end, at the end of the road. There were a couple of quiet side roads that led into this road.

I'd just crossed the last one and was walking the last section near friend's house when I heard someone call me. Not by name, I can't remember what was said, but I turned round and walking towards me was a lad in his twenties holding a bunch of flowers. Behind him I noticed a car parked in the side road, the passenger door was open and he had a friend in the driving seat. He was just sat there looking at us with the engine on.

In the half a minute it took me to clock all this, the guy with the flowers was walking slowly towards me. His eyes were the most evil thing I've ever seen and I instantly knew he meant me very terrible harm.

I didn't even run straight away, I started panic talking to him I forget the words but the gist was i was asking him, telling him? that he was OK? Didn't mean me harm?

He said nothing, just carried on walking and staring. Then I noticed his other hand was holding something under the bunch of flowers.

I turned and ran, screeching out my dogs name as I did. I didn't look back, hammered on my friends door. I was shaking when I got in there and couldn't stop.

My childhood was neglectful, and I was scared of nothing at that age, despite meeting some dodgy characters and having some things happen.

But never in my life did I encounter evil like that. I usually had my with about me but I think with the fireworks and spooked dog I was distracted and didn't notice them following me.

I think we notice things that aren't right, whether consciously or unconsciously. The speed with which we respond to these 'feelings' or instinct can be life saving.

Any younger women reading this, please listen to that inner voice.

I think we notice things that aren't right, whether consciously or unconsciously. The speed with which we respond to these 'feelings' or instinct can be life saving.

I agree with this. It isn't an aura of evil we really respond to, it is something being off or not quite right. I suspect in your case vintagecream, it was the combination of the flowers and the open car door - both odd things.

I once served a notorious gangster in a shop. His manner and gaze was so chilling and sinister, like he was an empty vessel without a soul.

@Pallisers

Definitely. The scary thing is that I didn't respond straight away. For all the reasons pps have mentioned. How many women did the same, and aren't here anymore. Terrifying.

I phoned the local police afterwards I was that sure they would choose someone else that night and though I may be able to help id them.

A lot of posters have reported this sensation of the people they've encountered as apparently empty shells with nothing behind the façade, and eyes that give a feeling of being lifeless or empty.

I'm not sure I believe in 'evil' as an abstract concept: the instincts described above are mainly the reading of body language and behaviour as an indicator of malintent. But the empty coldness many people are describing is often the mark of a psychopath. I have ample experience of them. My father was one.

A conversation with my trauma therapist sticks out in my mind (my instincts haven't always served me right and I suffered for it, likely as a result of aforementioned psycho dad). I remember commenting to him that it's almost as if they have a textbook only they follow, allowing others confidently and accurately to predict their patterns of abuse. He told me he'd dealt with a good many clients, some of whom were also psychopaths. His experience was that humans, different and uniquely individual though we are, displayed almost identical traits once empathy was removed from the picture.

@Carrieonmywaywardsun I have exactly the same sense! This vague sort of tiny movement in my chest that means, "No."

I've ignored it twice and regretted it. It went away for years after that and I was scared I'd lost it, but it finally came back. It's never wrong!

I also once thought I heard a voice inside my head saying, "Turn back now," when I was on a journey somewhere. I ignored that too, thinking I was imagining things. If I had turned back, many bad things wouldn't have happened to me. For years, I felt that I was living a life adjacent to the one that was meant.

Anyway - just wanted to say that I share your gut feeling.

Shit the actual bed! That's horrific