In The Presence of Evil

Greetings, ATS!

My question for you: have you ever met someone and just knew they were evil?

I have.

It happened when I was in college. I'd gone for a hike at a nearby park with a couple of friends. As we descended the trail, we passed several people; it was a gorgeous day and lots of folks were taking advantage of the weather.

Anyway, we were about a 1/2 mile to our car and completely alone on the trail. We were chattering about cute boys and a party scheduled for that evening when we rounded the last major curve in the trail.

Next to the path was a wooden bench seat made from logs. These were common on the trails, and people would sit to take a break. That's when we saw the man.

He wasn't sitting on the log or hiking on the path. Instead, he was crouched down behind a giant tree behind the log.

When we came around the corner, my eyes met his. I was the only one who saw him, my friends never did. Anyway, he just looked at me, slowly stood up, and smiled.

It was pure evil, that smile. His head was lowered so that he had to look up from underneath his incredibly bushy eyebrows. I could see all his teeth; his mouth was open.

He didn't say anything, didn't move towards us...in fact, he didn't move at all. Just watched. It scared me so badly I had to fight not to run. Instead, I turned so that I was walking sideways and could keep watching him. I don't think we broke eye contact until we were out of his direct line of sight.

This man scared me so badly that everyone else we passed on the way to the car got a warning from me. My friends shrugged it off, but that feeling of....evil otherness....has stayed with me ever since.

Now, I have trust issues with men, especially strangers, due to a traumatic event earlier in my life. Perhaps I was simply paranoid and the guy was harmless. I don't know.

Have you ever encountered someone who immediately gave you the heebie jeebies?

Wow, that must have been dead scary. I cant say ive every met anyone who freaked me out that much, but i havnt met my new back manager yet.

Hows your back by the way?

Yes I have. It's not frequent thank goodness, but I know the feeling well. It has only happened with 2 people in 37 years. I mostly feel it when I am in certain places. It's a feeling that if I don't run/leave the area immediately I might not survive. I know it sounds silly. I always resist the urge to break out in a flat run like you did... but it kind of makes me feel like I would rip my own skin off to get to safety quicker.

I don't scare easily. Movies don't scare me. Stories don't scare me. But this is a whole body experience that brings new meaning to the flight or fight reaction.

I think we should all listen to it when we hear it as well. It's there for a reason and since it happens so rarely, I obey it when I feel it. I just always assumed everyone feels it from time to time.

reply to post by smyleegrl


I have mainly met evil wrapped in smiles and tedious hum drum - such as at work.
I think about 10% of the population are evil - really.

Most evil people do not murder and maim - they just destroy lives with their dramas, lies and insinuations..
some call them sociopaths I guess.

I did once walk through a garage lot at night maybe 2am in sydney, with a friend and there was a tramp [ hobo / bum] sitting on the ground in a bundle of rags - leaning over something. As we walked past he sat up and in his hand was a claw hammer - he said

' are you hookers'

we said ' no' and kept on walking - and thought nothing more of it and continued on to the pub / bar where we met our friends.

I think I was a silly 21 year old - but I have often reflected on that moment and wondered why I did not ring the police and why my friend did not - I mean why did we not alert someone? Mad.

reply to post by smyleegrl

Now, I have trust issues with men, especially strangers, due to a traumatic event earlier in my life. Perhaps I was simply paranoid and the guy was harmless. I don't know.

I think you just solved your own problem. You saw someone you immediately distrusted and due to your past experience you immediately judged him and applied your feelings to the mix.

How about; have you ever been evil? The answer to that for myself is yes.
At one point in my life I was Loki incarnate. I was the epitome of evil thought and action.
Not only pranks, but pain. Not bullying, beyond it. Teenage super-villain.
Some would say rebellious but in hindsight I can recognize it for what it truly was.
It was a choice I made consciously. It began as my defence against a world I knew little about but quickly grew into an offensive mechanism through which I could act devoid of all social laws and customs.

Obviously I learned the hard way in many ways but I took away extremely valuable lessons.

I was never actually caught being evil, it was something I learned on my own to eventually control.
I knew my evil limitations, if you will...How far I was willing to go.

I still have the ability to be evil but in a completely different manner.
I can use evil for good if need be.
That is to say, i'm a good person 99.9% of the time, but the .1% still exists and will continue to deep down until awakened externally. So don't worry, I know that's a lot to take in about my character, but I assure you.

Hows your back by the way

reply to post by thedoctorswife


Much better, thanks! Apparently having a seven year old pounce on your back is a legitimate medical treatment. I don't know what he did, but it worked!

reply to post by smyleegrl


I don't know about evil.

Some people think I'm evil, I'm not just for the record.
In fact I gave $20 to a stranger last night for gas money expecting nothing nor receiving anything in return.

But I encountered a person, about 15 years ago who just struck me as "wrong" i can't put my finger on it, but it was definitely off-putting.

Your experience sounds similar.

I've had many an experience with mean people, but have only came across what I feel was evil very seldom. It's hard not to recognize those kind of........people. There's just something about them that screams "Get Away" and makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck.

Originally posted by lonewolf19792000
reply to post by smyleegrl

 

Now, I have trust issues with men, especially strangers, due to a traumatic event earlier in my life. Perhaps I was simply paranoid and the guy was harmless. I don't know.

I think you just solved your own problem. You saw someone you immediately distrusted and due to your past experience you immediately judged him and applied your feelings to the mix.

You may very well be right. However, I've been in lots of situations when I'm alone with a strange man and didn't get the same feeling. I was nervous and wary, but nothing like what I felt that day.

reply to post by smyleegrl


Seven year old Ponce?? lol, sorry, what is a pounce?
Naughtily off topic. sorry mod.

edit, sorry, now i understand, youve got a seven year old person pouncing on your back. Im having a blond night.

reply to post by smyleegrl
Years ago I was at my mother-in-law's house when one of her girlfriends and her 3 small children came over, bringing her new live-in boyfriend to meet everyone. When I looked at the man's eyes I got a horrible feeling deep in my gut and a shiver went up my spine. I felt this man was just plain evil! I couldn't even stay in the same room with him, so I took my kids and left without even saying goodbye to the inlaws (I caught a lot of flack for that).

Nobody heard from the friend for a few months, until one night we were back at the inlaw's one night late playing cards. She showed up at the door with her kids, and they were all black and blue. Seems her live-in boyfriend was sexually abusing all three of her children, and when she confronted him he severely beat her and all the kids who instinctively had run to their mother's defense. They escaped with only the clothes on their backs and had gone straight to the police, where she learned that his last live-in girlfriend and her children had suffered the same abuse and he had been out on bail awaiting trial for assault and child sexual abuse when he moved her and her children in.

reply to post by smyleegrl


This guy didn't harm you or anything?

I get vibes from certain people that are violent... but not "Evil"

Im not entirely convinced "evil" exists at all actually...

Perhaps it was just your mind playing tricks on you... possibly stemming from an incident from your past?

I travel on public buses. so times with my dog.
two times in 4 years I have seen a man get on.
I look at him and know he is bad/evil.
even my dog barks at him.
and she loves people.

so yes I do believe their are evil people.
maybe they murdered some one at got away with it.
and I dont mean just hit and run.
or some other evil crime.

South Africa is a very evil place for me. I think I've been groomed since as child to be crucified.

Originally posted by smyleegrl

Originally posted by lonewolf19792000
reply to post by smyleegrl

 

Now, I have trust issues with men, especially strangers, due to a traumatic event earlier in my life. Perhaps I was simply paranoid and the guy was harmless. I don't know.

I think you just solved your own problem. You saw someone you immediately distrusted and due to your past experience you immediately judged him and applied your feelings to the mix.

You may very well be right. However, I've been in lots of situations when I'm alone with a strange man and didn't get the same feeling. I was nervous and wary, but nothing like what I felt that day.

Could just be the way you thought he was looking at you, probably thinking he was sizing you up for dinner like a wolf would a lamb. Not hard to give a bad first impression with body language. You could have been wearing something he thought was provocative.

I absolutely know what you are talking about, and, as an empath, have come across it more times in my life than i care to recall.

For anyone who doubts that evil sometimes has a 'look', simply google an image of Jerry Sandusky. No joke.

I can't say I've ever met pure evil in a person. I've met people who weren't all that nice, and I've met sick people in the head, but to say they were the ultimate evil incarnate ... no.

My husband had a friend I got bad vibes from. I didn't like him instinctively which was surprising to my husband, because I'm the sort that looks for the good in everybody. But just something about him screamed, "stay away." So I was always very out of character when I was around him, and uncharacteristically aloof when I went to visit our other friends he was roommates with.

He was staying with a mutual friend of my husbands, and this friend had just moved his girlfriend and four year old daughter in to the home. Well, that guy I just didn't like, he's now in jail for sexual child abuse and that little girl still isn't the same. I'm glad I was able to trust my instincts and keep myself and my children away from the man, but so sad I wasn't able to convince my husbands other friend and his girlfriend to be careful around him. Which I did! I'd warned the mother of the little girl several times I didn't trust their roommate and to keep an eye on him. I couldn't pin-point why I didn't like him, but everyone was aware - that's the ONE person anyone had ever heard me say - I don't like. Her boyfriend, my husbands other friend said I was crazy, he'd known the guy for seven years and was a real nice guy!

I felt awful, when all was said and done - the girl and her boyfriend stopped at the house to relay to us what had happened. She looked at me and said, "I should have listened to you!" Her response to me then was, "You should have insisted, you knew he wasn't right. You could feel it! You should have kept trying to get me to see it to." I didn't know what to say. I was shocked. I DID warn them before it happened. I was told I was wrong, and he was a real good guy.

Sad things to think about.

Cirque

reply to post by smyleegrl

I have had this feeling toward a person before. I felt absolute danger, and evil eminating from him. I have never had this overwhelming terror before, coming from anyone. It scared the mess out of me, and still does.

reply to post by smyleegrl


Oh yeah! Sure have! My first husband.
He wasn't like that when we first met, but he got on drugs after we were married and it was like he was possessed by Satan himself. You could see the evil leaping through his eyes.

He took me out in the car one night and told me he was going to crash the car into a tree, and we would both die.
Then one time he held a gun to my head threatening to shoot me. I got away when he stopped the car and ran in this business and told the owners he was trying to kill me.
He walked in after that looking at me with a grin so evil, I can't begin to describe it.
The owners made him leave, and I called the cops.

He was always doing stuff to mentally abuse me, then he would lean back and laugh a really evil laugh.

I'm convinced he was possessed after he started the drugs. I just thank God I was finally able to get him out of my life! That is another story in itself!