So the other day, I was at Target with my two youngest daughters and my wife. My wife was looking at clothes and I took the kids and made our rounds to the holiday, toy, and electronics sections. My kids were staying pretty close to me, but my five year old wandered ahead about ten feet. She turned into the aisle ahead about two seconds before of me. Then this guy peeks out around the endcap, notices me, makes a funny face, and walks the opposite way from me. I got a really creepy feeling and rushed up to my daughter.
I took the girls and found mom. I started to tell her about this creepy guy and what happened. I did not tell her what he looked like. A few minutes later, we are in an aisle and this guy walks by. My wife only saw him for a split second and said, "that's him". I told her it was and asked her how she knew.
I could be accusing someone who was completely innocent, but this man really creeped us out. I can't explain why I felt this way. It just felt wrong, dark, evil.
Posted by erosomniac (Member # 6834) on :
I can detect evil, but only when I'm playing my cleric.
Posted by Javert (Member # 3076) on :
Well, I think people can sense suspicious behavior, anyway.
Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
One time I saw two guys who froze my blood like ringwraiths. I think it was in their expressions, and their body language, and their general looks, but I felt just like a hobbit with my insides all quivery and trying to pretend to be brave on the outside. So, yes, I think there are times when we can definitely sense evil.
Posted by porcelain girl (Member # 1080) on :
Yes.
Posted by brojack17 (Member # 9189) on :
Javert, I get that with my reaction to him, but how about when my wife saw the same guy.
Posted by Javert (Member # 3076) on :
quote:Originally posted by brojack17: Javert, I get that with my reaction to him, but how about when my wife saw the same guy.
Dunno. It's interesting.
Posted by Saephon (Member # 9623) on :
I think detecting suspicious or dangerous people, even bordering prejudice, has been a part of our evolution and kept us from harm.
Posted by brojack17 (Member # 9189) on :
I thought so. I wanted to follow the guy around to see if he did something wrong, but decided not to because of my kids and I don't want accuse someone who is innocent.
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
I've been in similar situations. I tend to get as far as possible from them in as short a time as possible. I've never regretted doing so, even thoguh I can't think of a time when I found something out about one of them that validated my feelings.
Posted by Mucus (Member # 9735) on :
Saephon: I agree. I would also note that for much of human history (especially when living in small groups), the general rule: "prejudicially treat strangers as suspicious and potentially dangerous until proven otherwise" would more often than not be a decent idea Its not a surprise that the behaviour is still with us. Heck, depending on where you live, it still IS a good idea Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
quote:Originally posted by Saephon: I think detecting suspicious or dangerous people, even bordering prejudice, has been a part of our evolution and kept us from harm.
Agreed. Like when Bean makes snap decisions because he knows something but his brain hasn't quite caught up yet.
I think better safe than sorry works pretty simpy here. If something feels wrong, act on it. Chances are somewhere inside you you're making a connection that hasn't logically caught up yet. I think it's perfectly fine, and I think it's normal.
Posted by Sterling (Member # 8096) on :
There's an old straw about hunches often being conclusions realized through information of which you are not consciously aware.
I'd generally say, be polite (within reason), but trust your gut, especially where the safety of children is involved.
Posted by scholar (Member # 9232) on :
Once, when I was a kid, the tv was on and there was a picture of some guy (sound was turned off) and I shuddered and asked "Who is that? He seems evil." So, we turned on the sound and the guy was a serial killer.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
quote:Originally posted by Sterling: There's an old straw...
Old saw.
Posted by Uprooted (Member # 8353) on :
Then again, there was the magazine cover a few years back with a photo of Osama Bin Laden, and my friend's little girl pointed with obvious delight and exclaimed, "Jesus!"
Posted by Christine (Member # 8594) on :
Honestly, I think you both noticed something a bit off about him and did well to go with your instincts and keep your children away. However, you're probably jumping to conclusions. There is no reason to suspect the man of anything, especially not evil, which is a tough concept to define anyway. I do agree that we are preprogrammed to look for suspicious behavior and, of course, we will always err on the side of caution when it comes to protecting our family.
Evil, though? No. I don't think we sense evil. In fact, I think some of the worst evil in the world comes in pretty packages that we mistakenly trust. Meanwhile, we end up thinking people are evil when they just look a little odd or dress a little differently.
In any care, it's a good thing that God gets the final call on these things because humans suck at figuring out who's good and who's bad.
Posted by Qaz (Member # 10298) on :
I do not believe that you sensed evil, brojack; I think that you took in from your senses (your eyes) something that led you, rightly or wrongly, to believe the man was evil. Something like this has happened to me before: I "sensed" I was being conned. Later I figured out what it was that made me think that, and I was right, but at the moment all I knew was that I was in the presence of a confidence man.
It is hard to distinguish prejudice and projection from intuition sometimes, but I think they are all 3 real, and that intuition is your subconscious reaching a conclusion based on your senses, before your conscious was able to build an explanation.
Posted by pH (Member # 1350) on :
Apparently, my evil radar is totally off. I am still trying to come to terms with it.
-pH
Posted by scifibum (Member # 7625) on :
I feel bad for people who are born with faces that trigger undesirable responses in others. I have a face that, when relaxed, people tend to think looks a little unhappy. It's a minor inconvenience. However, there are people that look angry, surprised, perverted, and utterly hangdog even though they are normal and are also feeling normal. It's gotta suck for them when people react to the way they look.
When it comes to your kid, I understand and approve of being on the cautious side. But regardless, you wouldn't leave your kid alone with a stranger no matter what kind of feeling you had about them would you? Or let them wander the aisles unsupervised?
Posted by Sterling (Member # 8096) on :
quote:Originally posted by Noemon:
quote:Originally posted by Sterling: There's an old straw...
Old saw.
I've heard both. <shrug>
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
Yeah, you hear malapropisms all the time. A coworker of mine keeps talking about his computer not having "internet conductivity". That's my current favorite.
Posted by Samprimary (Member # 8561) on :
You can't detect evil, you can detect 'creepy.'
Detecting the creepy can be helpful but sometimes results in unfair judgement.
Posted by Nathan2006 (Member # 9387) on :
Can we detect suspicious and unusual behavior? Yes.
Evil? I think yes.
But, then again, I'm the freaky pentecostal/charismatic/non-denominational-because-I-don't-like-to-limit-myself-to-any-denominations'-particular-beliefs/not-quite-freaky-enough-to-have-'snake'-services-(indeed I think they're quite stupid)-but-close-enough-to-the-belief-system-that-I-have-distant-relatives-who-do.
Believing that one can sense evil kind of comes with the description.
************Edited to Add*************
That being said, there's no reason to believe the guy is evil (As somebody said, there's difficulty in defining evil). But, better safe than sorry.
Actually, my brother has a face that worries people. There have actually been parents who drew their children away from him, and people at grocery markets stare at him suspciously whenever he leaves the store. As opposed to the way people act around me... I guess I have an 'honest fact'. Somebody has also told him that he looks like a rapist. But my brother is most definently not evil (Or a rapist or thief).
I don't think it's a 'look' attributed to genetics... I think it's the way somebody carries themselves, how they look around, their behavior, etc.
[/rambling] (That's got to be getting old... I think I do that at the end of every post)
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
I'm assuming you were born into that hyphenated faith, Nathan? Posted by brojack17 (Member # 9189) on :
BTW, I am the type of person that assumes people are good. That's why it was so creepy when I got this feeling from this guy. I don't think I have a sixth sense or anything.
Posted by steven (Member # 8099) on :
I had thought Nathan was a Mormon.
Posted by porcelain girl (Member # 1080) on :
I think you are thinking of T-Smith aka Nathan.
Posted by Tresopax (Member # 1063) on :
It used to be lots of people thought they could "sense evil" just by looking at someone's skin color, or listening to their accent, or observing what religion they belonged to. Now we call that racism and bigotry. But what's strange is that many think its wrong to judge people by the color of their skin, yet have no problem with judging them because they smile funny, or look strange, or are too short, or too heavy, or too poor, etc.
The truth is that there are no evil people - but there are plenty of good people who do evil things, and there are certain attributes that people who do evil things tend to have more often than the average person. So I think maybe you can get some sense when one person is more likely to do something evil than another. But is it wise to trust that sense? I'm inclined not to think so. It isn't a very accurate sense, and it certainly isn't a very fair way to judge people.
Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
I completely disagree that there are no evil people in the world. I do believe that most people who do evil things do them for reasons they see as good. However I still believe that there are people who have spent so much time doing evil things they no longer consider doing things that are good. Not that they couldn't, they just won't.
I do believe you can sense evil without sensing it in others. I believe that on occasion you can feel the presence of evil forces around you, I myself have had that happen to me. As a missionary there were a handful of occasions where that happened, since being released as a missionary I have not experienced that particular feeling since then.
I also believe it is possible to see a person, who for all intents and purposes seems normal but feels evil.
My aunt had such an experience with Ted Bundy while he was in Utah. Bundy was effective BECAUSE he appeared intelligent and attractive on the outside, and was quite capable of quickly gaining the confidence of the women he was stalking. He offered my aunt a ride while she was in college and she was about to accept when she felt a strong feeling of caution about Bundy, she rejected his invitation purely on the strength of that feeling not because she didn't trust strangers to give her rides, or because Bundy looked creepy.
Subsequent events would vindicate her decision.
Posted by Morbo (Member # 5309) on :
You're aunt almost got in a car with Bundy??
Blackblade wins the thread.
This thread made me think of Bundy and other sociopaths who are often affable yet dead inside.
Posted by Orincoro (Member # 8854) on :
quote:Originally posted by ketchupqueen: I've been in similar situations. I tend to get as far as possible from them in as short a time as possible. I've never regretted doing so, even thoguh I can't think of a time when I found something out about one of them that validated my feelings.
The real question is: have you ever found something out that invalidated your initial reactions?
I think I tend to be quite good at judging people and understanding what kind of people they are. My friends tell me I am exceptionally good at knowing what kind of person someone is, and they frequently validate my reactions to people whom I have warned them to avoid for some reason or other. I tend to think that you can tell if someone is trouble or a toxic person almost right away, and I've only delt with such people when I've had to for some practical or professional reason. I've never been disproved, but I do realize that my initial reactions color my eventual judgment of the person through further interactions. I also realize that my reactions to people are probably equally visible, and my judgments are probably far from invisible- tending to illicit further negative experiences. This feel like something I can't help, and something I should probably not try to change too much.
Posted by porcelain girl (Member # 1080) on :
When I sense evil, rarely am I taking into account visual cues.
Posted by Mucus (Member # 9735) on :
"When I sense evil" Posted by lynn johnson (Member # 9620) on :
There is a body of research called "person-perception accuracy" that essentially says some people are much better at making all kinds of accurate guesses about others. Sometimes we know a great deal about someone from a glance.
Not the same thing, but what it says is that our ability to perceive may be much deeper and stranger than we think.
Cf: And then there was light, by Jacques Lusseyran. He was blind and could sense "evil" when he talked to people. poreclain girl may have just that ability.
I can see no reason why you wouldn't be able to sense things both by great use of your perception and by extra-sensory perception.
My problem is that I can usually only tell the extrasensory stuff later. I don't notice it at the time, or at least, I feel it is a logical leap. Later I recognize that something was speaking to me.
Posted by Ron Lambert (Member # 2872) on :
Some of what we can sense about others that seems cautionary is the result of unconscious profiling--which more often than not has enough validity to have survival value. The FBI teaches some of its agents to be experts in profiling. It is not necessarily the same thing as stereotyping.
But I also believe that angels exist, both angels of God, and the fallen angels we call devils, and they are with us and around us on this earth. Some people might be aware of the influence of fallen angels attending a serial killer, and be repulsed. More likely we may receive a warning from the angels of God, who know all about the history of some vicious sociopath we are just meeting. They have the ability to pass on thoughts to us subaudibly, warning us to keep away from that person.
There is a spiritual dimension to reality, which it is not wise to ignore. Even humans can exert a spiritual influence--some to the point of being near hypnotic. There are even well-developed methods for influencing people against their will and largely without their knowledge. Advertizers dabble in them a little bit. Some people in spy agencies and charismatic cult leaders are advanced in their knowledge of how to be pied pipers. This is really nothing new. It is a dark science that society has always sought to repress. The human mind does have certain vulnerabilities, that can be taken advantage of.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
Lynn, meet Ron. You're perfect for each other. Posted by theCrowsWife (Member # 8302) on :
quote:Originally posted by BlackBlade: My aunt had such an experience with Ted Bundy while he was in Utah. Bundy was effective BECAUSE he appeared intelligent and attractive on the outside, and was quite capable of quickly gaining the confidence of the women he was stalking. He offered my aunt a ride while she was in college and she was about to accept when she felt a strong feeling of caution about Bundy, she rejected his invitation purely on the strength of that feeling not because she didn't trust strangers to give her rides, or because Bundy looked creepy.
Subsequent events would vindicate her decision.
Huh. My dad lives near SLC, and he knows a woman who almost got into the car with Bundy. I wonder if he knows your aunt, or if there's more than one such near-victim. I'll have to ask him what her name is.
--Mel
Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
quote:Originally posted by theCrowsWife:
quote:Originally posted by BlackBlade: My aunt had such an experience with Ted Bundy while he was in Utah. Bundy was effective BECAUSE he appeared intelligent and attractive on the outside, and was quite capable of quickly gaining the confidence of the women he was stalking. He offered my aunt a ride while she was in college and she was about to accept when she felt a strong feeling of caution about Bundy, she rejected his invitation purely on the strength of that feeling not because she didn't trust strangers to give her rides, or because Bundy looked creepy.
Subsequent events would vindicate her decision.
Huh. My dad lives near SLC, and he knows a woman who almost got into the car with Bundy. I wonder if he knows your aunt, or if there's more than one such near-victim. I'll have to ask him what her name is.
--Mel
I am sure there are at least a handful of women, Bundy was quite prolific of a serial killer. We can only estimate how many women he killed as even he can only guess, he seems to have lost track.
Though his stay in Utah was not as long as Colorado.
Posted by scifibum (Member # 7625) on :
I'd hesitate to believe anyone who claims to have nearly gotten into a car with one of the most infamous serial killers of all time. Of course, if I knew the person making the claim, I might consider her trustworthy.
Posted by pH (Member # 1350) on :
Over a year ago, I had this series of dreams whenever Michael slept over in which I would wake up, roll over, and look at him...and even though his face looked normal on the outside, I could tell inside there was a demon. And then I'd wake up for real, completely freaking out, and I'd wake him up and just stare at him. My therapist remembered me telling her about the dreams when I went to see her today. She said that my subconscious was trying to warn me.
Maybe my EvilSense(tm) isn't off...I just don't pay enough attention to it.
-pH
Posted by steven (Member # 8099) on :
"Lynn, meet Ron. You're perfect for each other. [Smile]"
I think I was thinking the same thing, before Ron even posted.
Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :
I have this one friend who I keep thinking "keep him away from the WMD's"
Posted by brojack17 (Member # 9189) on :
quote:Originally posted by pH: Over a year ago, I had this series of dreams whenever Michael slept over in which I would wake up, roll over, and look at him...and even though his face looked normal on the outside, I could tell inside there was a demon. And then I'd wake up for real, completely freaking out, and I'd wake him up and just stare at him. My therapist remembered me telling her about the dreams when I went to see her today. She said that my subconscious was trying to warn me.
Maybe my EvilSense(tm) isn't off...I just don't pay enough attention to it.
-pH
pH, That's weird. Unfortunately, EvilSense(tm) doesn't always give a clear answer as to what you should do.
Do I have to pay royalties now that I have used the word EvilSense(tm)?
Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on :
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