Have you ever felt the presence of evil?

[Petridish]

I mean, without having any rational reason to feel it? It could be a person or a place.

For me, a friend's father used to really radiate evil - much later, my friend confessed that he had been physically and emotionally abused by his father

I also knew a woman who had a senior job with the police. She was a friend of a friend and I had a bad feeling about her. She eventually got struck off and imprisoned for stealing huge amounts of money from a children's charity she was in charge of.

I googled Kumanthong and it turns out you can buy them on ebay! They are creepy looking but I guess in these cases they are just ornaments, without the spirit aspect. I hope!

I have felt it in a few places.

One is a the area at the bottom of the lane my grandparents' house was on when I was a child. I used to spend every 6 week summer holiday at their house and I was terrified of that area of the lane. At the time, you used to go down the lane and sort of shimmy down a sandy cliff to get to the beach there (the landowner has since closed the fields off so access ends at the bottom of the lane these days) so I would be made to walk through it daily on our way to the beach and would have to close my eyes and run as fast as I could to get into the fields on the other side. As soon as I was past the end of the lane I was absolutely fine, but would have to do the same in reverse on the way home.

Years later my df built his own house on the site of my gp's and my family and I regularly travel over for holidays. I still can't go down there. Dh regularly walks the dogs down there and the dcs often go with him. None of them are remotely bothered by it, but I can feel an overwhelming, almost suffocating sense of evil as soon as I start walking in that direction, that just grows and intensifies as I approach the area. I found out fairly recently that, historically, there was one particularly bad sea disaster close by and the bodies of the dead were brought ashore and laid out at that point before being taken on their final journey.

There was also a small cottage local to the house that used the front room as a shop, selling basics, sweets and cigarettes to the locals, as the nearest town was an hour's bus ride away. Something about the place terrified me, but as the youngest out of my sister and a large group of cousins, I was always laughed at and made to go with them anyway. I would literally shake and start to feel like I was going to be sick as I approached the doorway and once inside felt like I was going to suffocate. The family moved on and sold it years ago and it's now been renovated and is rented out as a holiday home, but I still can't walk the place.

The other, strong feeling I've had was at Keele University. Dh, myself and dh's best friend decided to cross the fields at the back of his halls of residence as a short cut to the bar under Keele Hall. It was night, but a very clear light with strong moonlight that made it easy to see quite a long way. We rounded the corner into the field, which ran alongside a very high stone wall and all three of us stopped dead, looked at each other with eyes like dinner plates and ran as fast as we could back the way we'd come. You don't get many people less woo than dh and his friend was an extremely unshakeable, very strong guy (all long hair, biker gear and heavy rock music). Not one of us could explain what it was, it was just an overwhelming sense of evil that kind of permeated the air and provoked instant panic and need to escape. We'd walked that field before with no issue whatsoever, but after that not one of us ever did again, preferring the longer walk through the campus than risking ever experiencing that again.

As for people. I've met quite a few that have given be a bad vibe and I've later been proven right about, but only two that really gave me a sense of evil. One was one of our primary school teachers. He was young and attractive and everybody seemed to love him, but I couldn't stand being in the same room as him and even seeing him across the playground would make me shudder. He'd only been there a year or so when he suddenly disappeared without warning - he was convicted of abusing the sibling of one of my classmates after setting up a complicated ruse to get them on their own.

The second was one of my secondary school teachers. Strangely enough he lived in the village I grew up in. I didn't know him at all, but he lived a few streets away and I'd seen him around. I only needed to catch a glimpse of him to get an instant wave of nausea and a feeling of panic and needing to run. I was horrified when we moved house, I started secondary and he turned out to be one of my teachers. I completely flunked his subject, because I was so terrified of him, I spent the whole year feeling sick during his lessons and hiding at the back of the class unable to think. He'd never done anything to deserve my reaction to him, it was far more gut/visceral than logical.

I was speaking to my dh about secondary school the other day (dh went to the same school, but was a couple of years below me and we didn't know each other at the time). He was going through various teachers and their foibles etc, then he mentioned this particular teacher and before I said anything myself, described having very similar feelings to me about him. He also said a lot of his friends felt the same (whereas I'd never confided in anyone about it, so I don't know if any of my friends felt the same). As far as I know he's never been in trouble or convicted of anything, so I have no idea if my feelings were justified, although dh said he witnessed him fly into a rage and threaten a pupil with a tool from the woodworking room, so who knows?

At a gym I went to years ago I used to regularly chat to a couple I saw there. She was lovely but although her husband was always nice enough, there was something I always felt was a bit off with him. I moved away from the area and didn't see them anymore, although I heard through the grapevine that they'd moved too and had a baby etc. Then a couple of years ago I had a shock when I opened the newspaper and saw his picture there. He was a stockbroker and had been charged with possessing indecent images of children on his phone and with putting cameras in the ladies' change rooms at his work. However he got away without a jail sentence as the judge didn't think it would help! His poor wife must've been devastated. They are now divorced as far as I know, and if I were her I would be very reluctant to let my child anywhere near him.

The one about the creepy elderly houseguest reminded me of the most obvious one - I haven't even mentioned. (Done a few upthread).

My mother died when I was a kid and my dad remarried with what everyone thought was obscene haste (re-connecting with a childhood sweetheart he'd known before he knew mum, whose husband had also died recently).

I knew why he did it - he had a demanding job and I was only 11 - he had no-one to rely on, to leave me with when he had to work, etc etc. Also I was going off the rails a bit and he probably thought all that guff about female influence. Truth is, I was a grieving little girl and nothing could have stopped that.

Anyway, when we went to meet this woman who it was obvious was about to become my stepmother - I actually wanted to like her. So I tried. But there was summat about her. She was charm itself - buying me little presents, singing silly songs, etc. But fundamentally I didn't quite trust her. I hid it though. I wanted dad to be happy. I wanted to be wrong.

My brother loathed her even more. But he'd run away from home, wasn't going to be around much. Nothing he could do - he was only 16 himself.

I was well behaved around her (not wanting to spoil dad's chances) even though I was a handful at school - super-intelligent with a wicked tongue, habitual truant, etc. The woman's daughters were all my diametric opposite - they liked sewing and dollies and went to church. Anyway this one visit was near xmas - think our parents were engaged (she lived 200 miles away so was a long distance romance). And my soon to be step sister wanted me to go carol singing with her but well, brother and I swore off god when mum who'd been religious) died and I thought it was all nonsense and I think I agreed to go because I wanted to please everyone. Then thought better of it and changed my mind. For some reason this caused the shit to hit the fan and I felt totally hated by these people but stuck to my guns and said I wasn't going. They all seemed a bit worthy and lame, tbh. Not my scene.

Although I was polite as I could be, I don't think I let them know I thought they were lame.

Anyway, the next day or so we went for this walk in the park kind of thing; dad and my brother and me and my soon to be stepmother and stepsisters. And the one my age, got me on my own and said: "Mum says not to have anything to do with you - you're a bad influence" wtf? Their dad had died years ago but my mum was only just dead, and I was coping with that let alone the thought of my dad remarrying and filling the house with these very different people, total strangers. Who I now knew hated me.
So I burst into tears and ran away, really upset. When dad found me, I couldn't tell him what she'd said - thought they wouldn't believe me anyway, as they'd decided I was a liar. My stepmother told everyone the fact I ran off meant I was "nutty-looney" (is that a Bristolian phrase?) and proof I was a horrible kid.

When dad married her, she used that against me constantly. Yet I knew damn well she had known her daughter caused it. It felt unjust and painful at the time, to end up with this label of being a nuts kid - for no real reason. But as an adult I look back and realised how truly evil that woman was, doing that to a recently bereaved child, and driving a wedge between me and my dad that never entirely went away again just for the LOLs.

And it's not the benefit of hindsight or anything - I do distinctly recall sensing this was an evil presence, despite trying so hard to like her and be positive. Irony being, I wasn't at all a bad kid. My brother's reaction to her was even stronger - ever since I have trusted his instincts about people mroe than my own.

My uncle. I never liked him, always felt uneasy around him then one day I was playing with my cousins when he glanced at me and look in his eyes terrified me, I was only 8 and didn't understand.

Many years later i found out that he had been beating my aunt up through out their marridge and that her death in an accident shortly after she left him may not have been accident although nothing could be proven.

My poor cousins had to continue living with him although they both left home as soon as they were old enough and totally disowned him

People? Nope. There are people I feel uncomfortable around but that is usually just because they have odd boundaries or are themselves quite awkward around others.

Places? Often. Places where I get that real hairs on the back of the neck feeling. I walk and run alone quite often (or with dog) so it isn't just a question of being on my own in the middle of nowhere. I just get away asap.

I was in a popular turkish resort with a friend when in late 20's. Pre child/zero sleep I always looked young and was slim and petite. As username suggests i liked a dance and was out on pub crawl along the beach. Crowded area, lots of noise/ etc but outdoor bars. Caught sight of a local guy, late teens/early 20's Completely alone just standing on the beach off the footpath staring at me. Instantly gave me the creeps. Everywhere we went he was there. Just behind a tree or almost out of site. At one point he purposely walked past and bumped into me. Told friend. We casually walked to where the path turned a corner then ran like fuck back to hotel. I don't drink and am always ultra aware especially in unfamiliar places.

tbh I do think that there's a difference between "evil" and someone who is just not pleasant. The people who have had experiences of being in contact with people who later turned out to be murderers and the like have most certainly been in the presence of evil. But e.g. people who found out later that someone cheated on their wife for instance, while I think that it's possible to sense that someone isn't a very nice person or is doing something wrong or the like, it's not the same as evil.

I have certainly met people who I have taken a dislike to despite the fact that others seem to think they're lovely people. And while I haven't sensed that they are evil I have certainly sensed that they are disingenuous and self serving, for instance, and am very rarely wrong on that score.

Wannabe - good point. The question is - is anyone completely bad, that is are they truly evil? Does anyone have no redeeming features?

I think that Stalin was a truly evil man.

I had a nasty, bullying teacher at my school - I don't think she had any redeeming features. She was cruel, nasty and went out of her way to belittle her pupils and abuse her authority. Years after leaving school, I bumped into this woman's former Head of Department and she agreed with me that the woman was thoroughly horrible.

To feel secure in society, do we need to believe in redemption? That wicked people can change?

Or do we only feel secure if and when these people (psychopaths) are locked away?

no I'm not sure that anyone can be entirely bad or entirely evil. Also, much of what is termed as evil is brought about by experience. i.e. many people with attachment disorder have psychopathic tendencies. Interestingly I was reading about attachment disorder last night and apparently saddam Hussain and Jeffrey Daamer were given as two examples of people who had attachment disorder i.e. who for whatever reason, perhaps abuse, perhaps circumstance, had not developed a secure attachment with a primary caregiver during the formative years and had therefore gone on to become the people they became and, well, commit the atrocities they did.

There is no doubt that as adults they were evil, but it is IMO too simplistic to suggest that they were merely born that way. It may be that they were wired in such a way that they were more susceptable to the triggers which led them to do the unspeakable things they did and become the unspeakable people they became,

Also I think it becomes a way of life and someone who commits one atrocious act will become desensitised and find it easier to commit more, until evil outweighs the ability to do good.

I don't think it's about redemption per se, I don't think that someone like Stalin could have been rehabilitated for instance, but I do think that there would be factors somewhere which led to him becoming the person he did.

"I dowsed it"
"I cleansed my aura"

I agree I do not think people are evil or all bad or all good

Some people do some awful things to others and as much as it is hard to accept you will be able to find something in their behaviour which is normal or even nice

Why they harm others so often it's because they have been abused themselves

I think what we pick up on is not evilness but something about their actions and behaviour that are not consciously understanding or do not register

Hello I have a few ,
-When I was around three up until they moved at about 8 I used to hate going upstairs in a family members house. This is one of my strongest memories. There was a certain area on the stairs and landing that felt awful. It was always so dark even with light this area was just off. I found out afterwards it was where my grandfather killed himself there was no way I would have known as he passed before I was born.

-I was sat with my mother in the car and I told her we need to move now. the doors were unlocked. I felt sheer panic, a man walked out of the bushes a bit after we saw as we drove away.

-Our great dane was excellent at picking up on things I felt completely safe with her if she doesn't like someone I don't either. She is yet to be wrong.
A friend of a family member came to the house she growled and barked and would not let him into the house,it turned out later he had been secretly filming and watching female neighbours.

There was also a time she would not let me into the woods to walk she is a big dog and blocked the path and refused to budge. I turned round and went home it was opposite our house. I saw when I was inside a man come out of the wood looking shifty.I tried taking her out again ten minutes later she went happily. Another time I saw a man in the woods and felt sheer dread he was evil. The dog took off as soon as she saw him she was on a lead and I was dragged a long with her we came across him once again and she ran again. I know she has saved me from harm several times

Ooh crazypetlady that has reminded me of something. I was once walked home by a Rottweiler, I left my friends house late one night I was about 16. I was was walking down a main road when a big old Rottweiler came bounding towards me, obviously I shit myself, but it didn't seem aggressive. It walked in front of me a few paces, but if I stopped, it stopped too, I didn't try to pet it or anything because I was a bit terrified. Whilst walking down an alleyway, this dog then ran off, I was like phew, and walked faster, then I heard it barking ferociously. Obviously started to jog at that point. A few minutes later, scary dog rejoins me, still with the walking a few paces ahead and stopping if I stopped, got to the end of my road and dog wanders off without a backward look.

Strangest thing that ever happened to me

How curious!

I would suggest that Michael Gove has attachment disorder also wanna

Gove definitely has the stench of the tomb about him, somehow. I think any career politicians are probably psychopaths of one kind or another, if you applied the usual diagnostic criteria to them. Pretty well the entire tory cabinet, for example, look to be horribly damaged, aggressive and cruel people. But nothing new there - Thatcher's entire cabinet were the same... Thatcher herself always seemed to have something missing. I always think of the cold, dead, manic eyes when she was stabbing bits of rubbish with a pointy stick on the news, once. In the interests of political balance - Blair, too had that shark-eyed blankness. Coupled with the inane, bible-basher's grin it was quite terrifying.

Probably you have to be like that to be a politician;!

After all would any normal sane person want the job?.

My mum used to know this man, He used to babysit me, my brother and my mums friends 3 daughters, we were all young, aged between about 3 and 8. Anyway, he used to volunteer at the local infants where we all went, filming plays etc for them. Everyone thought he was great, you needed an event filming, he was your man. Neither of us liked him, My brother always protested and would kick up a real fuss and run away from him. As we got a little older mum met stepdad and didn't require this guys babysitting services anymore and lost touch with him. Fast forward about 20 years and he turns up randomly where my mum works (family business so not hard to find out) and tells her he has some DVDs for her if she would like them from our parties etc when we were little. She thought it would be lovely and gave him her address. When she got them she brought them round to mine and got my brother over too. It was all nicey nicey (apart from the fact it was fucking weird that he even had these all this time later) until a bit with him chasing my brother around the garden trying to film him and catching him and swinging him round. My brothers face is full of fear, absolutely terrified. We sat there a bit stunned, not knowing what to say and then memories hit me like a tonne of bricks and I blurted out to my mum that he used to put us in the bath and film us. My mum went white and started to cry. My brother left. He's never spoke of it again. Funny how he never gave mum those videos. She did a bit of digging the next day and found out that he was a convicted paedophile. She was in bits telling me and kept asking if he did anything but I honestly don't know if he did or not. I don't know about my brother though as I said he won't talk about it but he hated that man, he was terrified... Truly terrified... We were only very small kids about 3 and 5. I trust my gut now, always, if I decide I don't like someone at a first meeting, that's it, I don't like them. It won't change. I'm usually quite right about things too.

I also remember when I was 18, walking with my baby dd in her pram to the local shop to get some gas and electric. It was cold and wet and the walk was a bit lonely and I had to pass the back of a factory.. Not going to lie, it was a fucking horrible estate but it was Dh and my first home together so we put up with it. I had just left the shop to go home and this big black, blacked out 4x4 cut in front of me, stopped, and a door whipped open. I shit myself. There was a man and he told me in a foreign accent, Russian/Eastern European, that if I went with him, he would give me anything I wanted and make me truly happy. I felt evil ooze off him. I just gripped my pram so hard and ran like the wind without a backward glance until I got home and I beat the door down til Dh answered it looking rather bemused. He was going to traffic us wasn't he? Never. Been. So. Scared.

That's awful, MariaV0nTrapp Terrifying.

I'm really sorry to ask about something so incidental in your post but I am puzzled by going "to the local shop to get some gas and electric" How do you get gas and electricity from a shop?

When I was about 13 I was riding my pony home. I had left my friend and her pony at a junction and set off home down our lane (about a mile from home). We had misjudged the ride and it had gone dark.

In the darkness there was a small amber light, like the glow of a cigarette. My pony stopped and refused to walk forwards. When I pushed him he started to rear up. The person (I presume) with the cigarette never said a word. I got off and tried to lead the pony. He reared and pulled the reins out of my hands, then galloped off in the direction we had come from. Again there was nothing from the orange glow, just silence. I turned and legged it after my pony. My friend caught him, I got back on and we went the long way home avoiding that lane.

I never found out what or who it was, but I find it strange that someone would watch a child struggle and lose her horse without so much as an" are you ok?" Just weird...

Oh and another animal one..

I'd stayed up late finishing The Woman in Black book, hubby had gone to bed. I took the dogs out into the field for a final pee, same as any other night. I've grown up in the dark sticks, so no qualms being on my own in the dark, especially with the dogs. Anyway, in the book the character's dog stands and growls just as The Woman in Black is about to appear. It was a foggy night, and both dogs ran off into the fog, then both stood stock still and started growling! I ran. Left the dogs and ran back to the house! Luckily the dogs came back soon after, and without a woman in black!

Grunt prepayment meters. you put credit on the card at the shop then put the cards in the meters sorry did make me chuckle reading your question.

one thing i love about threads like this is everyone is talking about a shared experience of sorts and they are focussed on what is being talked about rather than arguing and focusing on the poster/style/class 'giveaways' etc.

hence you can have 'family piles' and 'ponies' and 'electric meters' all on one thread without it being remarked on or used against anyone and really see how broad the mn usership is. makes a nice change from arguments and point scoring and class politics