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.

As humans we can sense vibrations. It's a natural instinct, just the same as a gut feeling.

Yes. Many years ago when I was moving house I had tradesmen in and out doing various jobs whilst I was there alone. No problem.

But then this one gas engineer came and I've never felt fear like it. I called my parents and asked my mum to come round ASAP.
They said I was being silly but the vibe I got from him was terrifying. He didn't DO anything. I just got the horrible aura from him. It was the weirdest thing.

Yes my brother when im near him he makes my skin itch i turn quiet and dont even want to look his way.
He has done every bad crime you can think of.
A girl i stupidly went above my gut and she ended up robbing my house and damaging my car. I knew not to let her back jnto my life i knew there was something off about her but i ignored my gut.
My two neighbors knew they were off from the over friendly approach and quuestioning ended trying to bully me.

Never not trust my gut now
I dont care if im rude to the person either my gut never been wring

I have just read through half this thread. So intriguing! I will add my experiences.

I lived in a basement flat once with DP, part of a terrace block in North London. It looked all nice, superficially, alright kitchen, furnished, so we moved in.

I always felt such a feeling of horrible suffocation. When we sat watching telly, I wanted to push the walls out and away from me. I could hear screaming, like a constant ringing in my ears, but never actually heared screaming iykwim. I wanted to push all the walls outwards with my arms and legs, I often couldn't breathe. I honestly felt as though I had woken up finding myself buried alive.
I could sense this screaming, and I actually had a bit of a breakdown in this place. I would scream at the top of my lungs for no reason at my DP, burying myself into the couch or bed... it was so out of character!

Anyway, we moved out quickly and we don't talk about that place at all now.

The only other time I could "hear" similar screaming was in a pub once. It turned out the pub was famously haunted and used to be a site for hangings.

I still shudder thinking about that basement flat, and my behaviour there.

Oooh great thread, I've had a few people that I have just "felt" there was something bad about them but a weird thing happened one night when I worked night shift. The premises was an old army barracks in Scotland, but having worked there for five years I had never felt anything out of the ordinary. One night shift, my colleague and I were late for our meal break and as we did every night shift we went to the bar/lounge and sat down with our food, the tv was on, the gaming machine was on, noise in the back ground so it wasn't quiet IYSWIM, suddenly I felt the sound go funny, I can only describe it as muffled, and the most intense fear came over me, I looked up at my really tough male colleague and he looked at me in utter fear and with no words exchanged we ran out of that part of the building and into a populated area. Before I could speak my colleague said wait, write down what happened, don't tell me. And this was in front of about 10 people wondering why the hell we were as white as sheets, and I wrote what I had felt, he wrote that he had felt I was in danger and when he looked at me he "felt" that someone was behind me with their hands at each side of my head!! I was totally freaked out and didn't go there alone on the night shift ever again, but never ever felt in danger any other time I was in there!!

when I was small my aunt had a boyfriend I couldn't stand.

my family all thought I was being "off" for no reason. I really didn't want to be anywhere near him, didn't want him anywhere near my family. felt like a dark cloud was around him.

She later married him, he was a horrible step father to my cousin, and (as we later found out) was beating her a lot. Including punching her in the stomach to try to make her lose their baby - he didn't succeed.

When she finally fled (with both of my cousins), he turned up at my grandmother's house and beat her up to try to find out where my aunt had gone.

Instincts. I've trusted mine ever since.

I can't go into the parish church here, unless (a) someone is with me and (b) we prop the door open. I have to feel I could 'escape' at any second.

What makes this stranger is the fact my mum's family were here for generations (since 1700, this parish and Tudor times many surrounding ones). So if anyone 'belongs' here - it's me. Me and my kids are probably the only people left here who actually come from here. But still...

I grew up several villages away and within yards of the church and graveyard so these places were always my natural playground, and never felt scared in any church, ever. Just this one.

I found out a few years back, one of my ancestors survived an accident where a number of other parishioners died. And I found a newspaper account of the funeral which said the sobbing of the three survivors was unbearably sad to witness. I knew my ancestor was one of the three.

So I often wonder whether it is something to do with that day, nearly 200 years ago, when my ancestor sat in the church thinking about watching those other people die in front of him. His grandad was the parish clerk.

Many of my family were christened, married and are buried there. No other church scares me. Just this one.

I can get inside it, but the feeling of panic just overwhelms before I've been in there five minutes. I could also take you to the precise spot in there that scares me the most.

This ancestor died many decades later, and was buried in a nearby city in a municipal cemetery. A few years back we went to find his grave (it is unmarked, but the precise site is recorded there). As my husband went to track down the people with the info, I found myself walking through the graveyard til I hit a certain spot (bear in mind it is a large city cemetery and I had never been there in my life). My husband followed along five mins later armed with a description of where the grave is. I was stood next to it.

(Not scared there - just at the parish church here).

The wife of a former colleague was part of the team which looked after Ian Brady.
She said that he exuded evil. His eyes were dead and he was utterly devoid of emotion. She shuddered at the mention of him

Whirliwig, something similar happened to me - for months my baby would only sleep on my chest if I was awake (seriously) and I was so exhausted I was nearly hospitalised for exhaustion and I had to see a psychiatrist. Randomly I would have absolute sheer blinding horrific panic and terror hallucinating my baby's face was actually that of a demon. She would be BFng or sleeping with her beautiful little angel face, and I would become gripped with this terror of her being evil and about to attack me. It was beyond scary.

Jimmy savile.. hear me out...
When I was a child, he was all the rage.
But he and Gary glitter scared me... They were like clowns to me... like they had "funny faces" that didn't match them.
Role Harris didn't freak me out btw... but I couldn't watch Jimll fix it. It was like watching a horror.
Now we know

Lauren and Sophie
I believe it to be a form of psychosis.
I've had it with all 4 of mine. The 2nd being the worst.
I can't watch the keane reeves film..is it devil's advocate... because when his wife is hoapitalised she sees the nurse change into a demon thing in the mirror

NorthernShepherdess, yes, those parts of that movie remind me of it too. Terrifying.

I'm very un-woo, but had the most awful vibes from a work colleague once. He seemed so friendly and nice, a family man with young kids. He offered me a lift home, which I accepted, once I was in the car I couldn't get out fast enough.

The whole atmosphere changed, my spidey sense went berserk. He was asking questions about my husband, when did he go out, what were his hobbies, probably all so innocent, but all I could think was that he was trying to suss out if there was someone in the house who would miss me if I didn't make it in. My hackles were raised so high they were practically out the sunroof. My mind's voice was screaming "he wants to rape you". Very dramatic.

Never experienced anything like it before or since. When I had ds he offered loads of his kid's outgrown things, which I never took him up on - just skirted around availability / times until he stopped asking.

Not thought about it for more than four years!

I didn't realise this thread was still going. That's good news that it is.
I just have a comment to address to

Thatsmyrabbit.

Here's some basic info on dowsing
www.britishdowsers.org/learn/

. Dowsing is another way of getting into your intuition as plenty of people have demonstrated on here their 'gut feeling' or intuition has kept them safe on many an occasion. Some have found the reason why several years later , some don't know why but just feel they have had a lucky escape.

I know it can seem strange and laughable but before our lives became so sophisticated we were in touch with our basic instincts. We to some extent have become divorced from those except some people, in exceptional circumstances have heard the warning bells that have kept them safe.

I know as a child I was much more 'aware' than I am now. My mum didn't understand so I had no one to guide me and help me understand what I was feeling, so rather than help me grow my awareness and understanding, I developed fear instead.

I am pleased to see that there are a couple of dowsers on mumsnet. Elfycat being one. I too, when I have time work to a plan. It's quite a long tiring process so can take me several days or a week if I'm busy and I still haven't got round all the family's houses yet.

Going back to dowsing. The BSD was started by an army major. It's a well known fact that the army uses dowsing . The American soldiers were taught how to dowse to find the Viet cong in the tunnels. Farmers use dowsers to find water in the fields. You can use it for health, Locating archaeological artefacts and I've mentioned before King Richard the thirds body was found by device less dowsing although Philippa didn't realise it at the time.

How Phillips Langley found King Richard the thirds body

Explained in first paragraph

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippa_Langley

Philippa doesn't do many lectures but she decide to speak to the British society of dowsers about her experience in the car park where his body was eventually located.

She literally felt like all the hair on her body stood on end. Her cat feeling she called it. Although she was convinced it was in that area of the car park and despite the fact that they excavated there and found some bones, she was persuaded that it wasn't him and to agree to try in another spot.

Thankfully she managed to persuade them to go back to the original place where more of his body/ bones was retrieved.

Yes there was a man who looked old (I was about 18). I was staying at a friends and used an alleyway as a short cut. He was staring at me. Cold stare really creepy.

My bf told me that a man had molested her (probably same man) a few years ago on way home through alleys but her dps didn't believe her. Think late 70s.

This lady had a lucky escape

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3794707/Seduced-psychopath-Elizabeth-Jane-Howard-welcomed-stranger-home-bed-worried-relatives-discovered-violent-past-realised-novelist-mortal-danger.html

I felt like that in the presence of a colleague of mine. I still have no clue why. He was perfectly pleasant and polite but he creeped me out. I've always felt guilty about it because he's never given me the reason to be wary of him but he was making my skin crawl whenever I was close to him. He moved jobs and we are rarely in touch but even talking online gives me creeps.

I think EJH must have based the character Henry Kent on this person in a later novel. Amazing writer.

I've met a few people who have appeared perfectly pleasant but I've had a very strong negative reaction to.

I think we must pick up on multiple subtle signals - I was once walking down a bike path about 2 in the afternoon. I was a student at the time. Broad daylight, there had been a few folk around but they'd all gone. I saw this young man (mid 20s ish) walking towards me and just had this terrible 'uhoh' feeling.
He walked past me and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I realised a few seconds later he had turned around and was behind me. I crossed the path, he did too. In the end i realised he was going to grab me so o turned round and confronted him. I could actually see him change his mind.
I sprinted straight to the police station which was close and reported it - they showed me photfit images and I picked one out - he was wanted for multiple attacks.

I don't think it's woo - I think we can pick up on tiny subtle visual and perhaps even smell cues. When you see how people like derren brown can manipulate and cold read people you realise how this can happen.
I still think about it, and I always trust my instinct. I often listen to people and think 'lying' for example.

A step dad at work. The first time I saw him I shuddered. He tried to bully the staff. A friend told me that he often beat his partner and that he was furious she had left him and realised what was right for her!

Oh and I met a real life troll who was evil. This look would cross her face and it was a very horrible look like she wasn't the person ranting!

She's done serious damage to our friend group.

Great thread, really fascinating. But what does woo mean? I don't always get the mumsnet references.
I have had the creepy feeling about places many times, especially as a child.
The post about the girl on the bus who just gave off feelings of love and peace reminded me of working in a bookshop in my late twenties and a young woman came to the help desk. She was pretty enough, but not modelly beautiful, and had blonde hair and brown eyes, it was her eyes that fascinated me, they just looked so full of love and goodness that I became distracted and confused about what I was doing and had to ask her to repeat the question a couple of times, she had a sort of amused smile on her face, maybe this happened to her before or maybe it was because I was acting so ditzy, who knows.
I have met many people with beautiful or kind looking eyes before, but it was more than that and the story about the girl on the bus just reminded me.
I wonder if its possible that some people are truly evil, that their opposites exist also, people who are angelic somehow and put here to do good.

I don't want to spoil the 'woo evil' party, and I definitely have had a sense of badness off someone or really disliked them for no reason, but..

Some of the symptoms people are describing in others relate to mental illness. I've seen a relative get those 'black eyes' which really do seem possessed, actually they were having a psychotic episode and once that had passed, their eyes have been normal ever since. I've also seen the black eyes on someone else with a severe mental illness, in his case he was violent during that, I have no idea if he is cured.

Those saying about the baby eyes, I think these type of thoughts about your child being evil are extremely common not just with PND but the psychological disturbance that comes after birth, pregnancy-related psychosis, which may not be full on, also stress/exhaustion/hormones. I know I was utterly mad the few days after birth and believed I would die, didn't see the eyes thing, but it would not be atypical and certainly isn't anything to do with the actual child- it's your own emotional/psychological disturbance.

Blank emotionless faces, yes, it could be linked to being a psychopath, but a relative of mine has epilepsy and these blank faced episodes are really disturbing, it's like you lose them and they almost aren't there at the time, but it's hardly their fault!

True psychopaths are often charming and socially skilled, hence the danger, as in fact, they don't alert the spidey senses.

I'm not dismissing all the episodes here at all, and I do believe in following your intuition and getting out of the way of people that make you feel bad, unsettled and so on. But some of the things people are talking about are really connected with neurological disturbance, illness and so forth which make the brain unable to allow the person to behave in a way we find normal, and there is a long history of miscarriages of justice based on the fact people do bizarre things (confess to things they didn't do) or seem bizarre (are mentally ill or socially isolated), but people 'just knew' they did it.