Get Premium
Dark mode theme is available exclusively for premium users. Learn more about the benefits of subscribing.
Dark Mode 
No fees, cancel anytime 
If there’s one superpower humans have, it must be intuition. First, it’s our moms calling to check up on us in the middle of the night when we spent the night with the neighbors’ kid in our teenage years. Then, it’s us having that “not good feeling” about walking alone from a party.
Sometimes, intuition betrays us, but more often, it protects us from whatever it is that is going to happen. It can also lead us to amazing things, when in life, you decide to follow that instinct that can direct you toward the very best path for you.
But this time, we’re taking a look into real-life examples of our gut telling us more than anyone could ever tell. And what happened when people decided to trust it. “What has been your most spine-tingling, bone-chilling, ‘I have a bad feeling about this’ experience?” asked the Redditor Throwawaystheway1013 and people started sharing their incredible experiences.
Below we collected some of the most interesting ones that show just how important it sometimes is to trust that feeling even if other circumstances tell you differently.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
When my kids went to bed, I used to go out to the barn where I had a bottle of whiskey stashed. I'd have a drink and ponder the day, think about my late wife, and attempt to decompress.
I suffered heavily with PTSD. Add to that, the recent loss of my wife, the stress of raising 2 children that didn't really know me, and intense pain from severe burns I had received before leaving the Marine Corps - it's safe to admit that I was extremely s**cidal.
One particular night, I wrote out a long letter to my family, letters to my children, and placed them along with my will, financial documents, etc., on the kitchen table. I went out to the barn with a .40 caliber pistol and had every intention of getting drunk and eating a round. I was as low as I've ever been in my life.
All of the sudden, my dad walked into the barn. He lived 2 hours away, and we hadn't spoken in a couple of weeks.
He picked up the handgun, cleared it, dropped the magazine without a word. I asked him what he was doing there at 1030pm, and he said: "I had a bad feeling. Lets talk."
That's the one and only time I've ever seen my dad cry. That's the only time we've ever spoken in detail about our individual horrors of combat.
My dad saved my life that night, and I've made sure to live my life in such a way, as to make him proud of everything I do.
In order to find out about the inner workings of the mysterious gut feeling, intuition, and what happens in our minds when we experience it, we spoke with Helen Marlo, a licensed clinical psychologist and Jungian psychoanalyst who provides psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, and consultation. Helen is also a Professor of Clinical Psychology and the Department Chair at Notre Dame de Namur University.
“Intuition perceives possibilities in the present situation, however, it is perceived primarily through the unconscious and not concrete reality. It presents itself as an instinctive apprehension; an insight, with wholeness; and without awareness of how this psychic content appeared. For better and for worse, intuition intrinsically possesses a sense of conviction and certitude,” Helen explained.
#2
This was in the late 80s
I was coming home at about 2 in the morning and was walking home. Across the street, walking in the opposite direction, was a fabulously dressed up drag queen obviously heading home from doing a show. Behind were 6 drunk chads. The energy was just “off”. So I crossed the street, walked up beside her and said hi my name is flamingwhisk and I’ll be escorting you home. We linked arms and strutted back to her place. With the chads making rude comments and threats the whole way. Sadly the next day there were reports of several bashing’s in the “gay village” (the unofficial name of the area).
The person I walked home was my friend for 25 years until their passing. My dad, tough Italian type, absolutely loved Bibi and would often give her rides home after work (he was a musician so had late hours too). In fact when my dad got sick she came and helped my mom look after him. And it was my dad who INSISTED that Bibi came to his funeral in full drag. We giggled the whole time because nobody could figure out how this 6ft2 Irish drag Queen knew my dad. My dad had a really twisted sense of humour. They both did.
Moral of the story - if something feels wrong it probably is
Sarah Parker 2 years ago
This one makes my heart happy. Bless you. Sounds like your dad had a wicked sense of humour. What a really lovely story 💕
#3
Nothing bad actually happened, but… I was 12 or 13 and taking horse-riding lessons. I’d usually be in a class with 2 other girls but this week neither of them were there, no big deal. There was new male instructor who’d take my lesson. Instead of using the rink?(I forget what they’re called) by the stables, we go to the one 5 mins ride away up on a hill, surrounded by trees. I thought it was a bit weird seeing as the usual one was free.
On the ride up, he asked me if I had a boyfriend, if I liked boys, and I’d I liked other 13 year old boys. I was really shy back then and just sort of said that I didn’t have a boyfriend, and shrugged off the other questions.
When we get to the rink, he makes a big deal of my stirrups not being adjusted properly, and although I was pretty experienced and knew them to be fine, he kept readjusting them for me, touching my thighs a bit too much while explaining the position they need to be in. Now normally that’s nothing sinister in horse riding, but I just had a bad feeling and must have been looking uncomfortable and too quiet because he said “you can tell me anything. Anything that happens up here will be our secret,” then he asks me about boys again.
I said the stirrups are fine and I’m ready to start the lesson. I’m going to sound deluded here, but at that very moment, the horse I was on, normally a stubborn old bugger who barely wanted to move, stomped his foot, took off and started walking round the rink, behaving like an angel for the entire lesson, and on the walk back down to the stables, he kept stopping whenever the instructor got too close, and gave little warning “air bites” when he did.
I didn’t say anything but the instructor was gone the next week.
#4
I woke up in a panic early one weekend morning and checked my phone. It was like waking up from a nightmare, I felt prickles and tingles and my heart was racing; woke up from dead sleep to fight-or-flight mode, except I hadn’t been dreaming. Found a suspiciously sentimental text from my best friend sent some hours earlier, in the wee hours of the morning. Raced to his house, walked in to his unlocked front door calling his name; he had attempted the worst. Thank god he was still alive, but I was able to intervene enough that he didn’t succeed in another attempt. He’s doing amazing today, just finished his master’s and is now in medical school.
“Jung identified how individuals have a superior and inferior function within this typological system, which consists of two personality attitudes (introversion and extraversion) and four functions (intuition; sensation; feeling; and thinking) that operate in introverted or extraverted ways,” she said. “The different psychic functions, such as intuition, will be more or less developed, depending on the person, given the combined influence of nature, nurture, and experiences.”
Helen argues that the psychic function of intuition, which varies across humans, influences their awareness of “gut feelings” and the extent that they understand or act upon intuition. “That means intuition has the potential to be both very powerful and very weak depending on the person,” the clinical psychologist added.
#5
So this was my friend's intuition not my own but it for sure saved our lives.
Bout a decade ago, sometime in Jan or Feb, we were standing outside in downtown Chicago smoking a cig. All of a sudden, out of no where, she gets this worried look on her face and says, "I don't like this spot. Come over here." It wasn't three seconds after we took a few steps (no more than 10 feet) that this giant ice block falls off the building and shatters exactly where we had be standing. It would have crushed and k*lled me definitely and her very likely had we not moved.
It was so shocking that everyone on the bustling street just stopped and stared at us mouths agape. You coulda heard a pin drop after that. It was insane. I never looked at her the same either ... she says she doesn't know how but she had some sixth sense thing going on without a doubt.
#6
When I was around 12 I lived in downtown Toronto and I was walking home late at night from the street car stop cause I was coming home from swim practice and both my brothers had hockey in different parts of the city so I was on my own, when I noticed two guys behind me, they were matching my speed and I could hear them talking about my clothes, and I was pretty paranoid so I crossed to the other side of the street, which wasn't very well lit, to see if they actually were following me. they were. My heart just sunk into my stomach. There was a serial rapist running around my neighbourhood at the time who's type was, well me, and women of eastern European descent, also me, had been going missing lately, so I just started running. Full sprint, i didn't even look at the road when I was crossing the street again, but I was 12 and being chased by full grown men and was two blocks from my house. They were getting closer and closer and I was terrified and trying not to cry and just. Keep. Running. I was at the corner where I'd turn onto my street and I could feel one of their hands reach out and brush against my shoulder. Then again by my hair. He grabbed on and started to pull. Before I could even scream the guy who grabbed me was full on tackled by this homeless guy that camped out near the library usually. He sat on the guy who grabbed me and started punching his accomplice, I was scared and confused, I just stood there crying until the homeless guy yelled "RUN KID! DON'T STOP RUNNING!" And that kicked me into gear so I hauled ass home and triple checked that every door and window was locked and kept the lights off until my parents got home. We called the cops, but all the cops in my neighbourhood were either corrupt or incompetent (which is why the serial rapist was never caught, and I suspect the cops were in on the kidnapping and trafficking of Eastern European women) so they didn't do anything.
We (parents and I) found the homeless guy a couple days later and offered him some food and stuff to thank him. We talked a bit and found out he was discharged from the Canadian Armes Forces ans wasn't adjusting well to being back. I saw him around for about a month or so after that and would say hi, maybe give him a juice box or spare change if I had any. But my parents found his family in another city and contacted them, they came and got him. My parents are still in touch with him. It was slow going and there were plenty of set backs, but he's doing really well now and I'm so happy for him. If it wasn't him I would've been r@ped that night, if not worse, I'm so thankful he was there. Also, i wasn't allowed out on my own past 6pm after that and I always had a ride from swim team, whether it be a relative or friend's parent, or family friend.
Edit : I wasn't gonna make an edit, I just came here to share a traumatic experience that happened to me that I can't really talk about with people IRL and leave, but I got a lot of DMs and comments about how there's no human trafficking and people couldn't find info on the serial rapists in my neighbourhood, and how a lot of people think that Toronto is a lot safer than how I was describing it.
Human trafficking is a big problem in Canada, much more than is being reported and covered by Canadian media. It's usually linked to organized crime, and there was organized crime in my neighbourhood. Women were (and still are) going missing and all the cops would do was verify they were missing. They wouldn't investigate much or at all, part of why people think the cops are in on it.
Same thing with the serial rapists, they just didn't do much investigating if they even did any. It's really common, all over the world, for cops to not really care about catching rapists and to blame the victim.
My neighbourhood had a really high crime rate while I was growing up, and that's without a lot of violent crimes being reported because the neighbourhood cops didn't give a damn. The neighbourhood started to get
K Witmer 2 years ago
See women tell their stories and they are not believed and nothing is done and then you get people that actually dispute you and argue w you. This is why we don't come forward then when we feel finally able to talk about it we're told we should've came forward when it happened that we could've saved others the same fate. No matter what we are blamed and tortured. Held responsible for what others have done. This is also why men don't come forward and they're made fun of for different reasons than woman are.
#7
It was about 9 or 10 in the evening and I was heading home from a really bad date. It was a ten minutes walk from where I was to my home and I stopped by a red light and waited. It was in the middle of the week and on the way from my date to the red light I’ve met like one person, so there wasn’t a lot of people out. From nowhere I got a really bad feeling and I KNEW that someone was watching me. I turned around and there was a man right beside me, he stood just a bit to close. He saw that I’ve seen him an started talking about how nice the summer rain was. I ignored him and started walking, although the light still was red. He started walking to. I speeded up for a bit, so did he. My fight, flight or freeze immediately hit and from nowhere I stopped walking. He was caught off guard and took a few more steps before he stopped too. He asked me why I stopped and I almost yelled at him that I didn’t want to speak to him, that his behaviour is freaking me out and told him to keep walking. He started to argue and I yelled “just go”. He started walking slowly. I stood still, watching him as he walked. The feeling in my stomach didn’t leave, it actually was getting worse. He stopped by a bus stop and for a second I breathed out. He was waiting for the bus. Well.. just next to the bus stop was an alley, a really dark alley and behind it a dark parking lot.
He stared at me while he stood there, he was waiting for me. I tried to contact a friend, no answer. I hid behind some construction materials and on the third try I managed to contact a friend. She wasn’t home and couldn’t help me. She asked if there was anyone else there and I said no. Eventually there was a man and two women walking by. She told me to tell them what’s happening.
During this time, the guy hadn’t stop staring at me for a second. When I walked up to the group to ask if I could walk with them. He suddenly started walking away. I was right, he was waiting for me.
I walked with the group for a bit but they were turning left at the next red light and I was going the other side. I thanked them for helping me.
We walked our separate ways and within seconds the guy showed up again. I froze completely and fortunately the group caught it and ran over to me. The guy saw them, turned around and walked away. They walked me to my doorstep and I thanked them over and over again. I am 100% sure that he planed on doing something horrible to me. I am forever thankful for these 3 strangers who might have saved my life that night.
adiiantryx 2 years ago (edited)
interesting fact is that humans have the ability of gaze perception - if someone is watching/staring/looking directly at you, you immediately sense this even if you can't see them. good thing op trusted her intuition here as well!
Having said that, Helen argues that intuition can get mixed up with how we manage anxiety, “that is, our psychological defenses, as well as our issues or traumas, also known as complexes. That can make it easy to mistake a psychological issue—perhaps, a wish, fear, or trauma—for intuition or, conversely, for us to overlook an intuition due to that same psychological wound.” So we should not follow intuition blindly.
And there’s one key challenge that we have to be aware of when addressing an intuitive feeling. Helen explained that it’s that “intuition is learning to discriminate and differentiate what is intuition versus what may be a psychological projection, defense or complex that is shaping and distorting our intuition.”
She continued: “One task for an intuitive person is to ground their intuition with data; to sift through the sea of possibilities with awareness; and to apply discrimination and differentiation to their intuitions. This can be especially challenging with intuition which is often accompanied by charged thoughts, feelings, and sensations that can almost induce action.”
#8
Country lanes in the UK are pretty narrow and have lots of blind bends. I was driving down a lane and there was a cyclist in front of me, in the middle of the road, not wearing a helmet, and heading toward a completely blind bend. I suddenly thought, if a car swings around that bend they are going to smash into the cyclist and pin him to my car. It was like a ‘final destination’ vision. I couldn’t hear or see another car, but I saw this accident so vividly in my mind.
I immediately slammed on my breaks, honked my horn and pulled over. The poor cyclist guy shat himself and stumbled to the hedges. Mere seconds later some idiotic teenager comes speeding out of the blind corner and missed us by inches. If we were still in the road, this guy would have ploughed straight through the cyclist and into my car.
I completely freaked out, to the point the cyclist came over to calm me down. I don’t remember much but I know I was saying ‘you were dead’ over and over again. I’m not a religious person at all, but that’s the closest I’ve come to believing in some kind of divine intervention.
Tiger Pearl 2 years ago
Not saying this is it, but my anxiety has me picturing things like this a lot. I will vividly imagine things that could potentially go wrong in a given situation.
#9
I lived in South Africa where home invasions were pretty brutal. Grew up on a plot and lived in the flat adjacent to the main house. One night I woke up randomly around 2am and had this tingling feeling that something wasn't right.
I opened my flat door to look outside and see if anything was going on. That feeling didn't subside so I decided to get dresses and do a walk around the garden. Before leaving my flat something told me to peep through the door and as I did that I saw some guy walking around the house.
I then phoned my sister who lived in the house but no answer. I then phoned my step mom and after a while my sister answered which was really strange. I told my sister to wake the f up and walk around the house and make sure the doors and windows were closed as there was someone in the garden. She kept trying to blow it off and even said she'd unlock the house door so I could go inside the house. I told her that's a stupid idea and I wasn't going outside. Since usually burglars are armed and dangerous and I had nothing to protect myself with. My sister missed a breath during our call, something that usually happens when one is frightened. So out of instinct I asked her if everything was alright she should say yes twice. She only said it once.
Turns out a group of men had already made it in the house and they had a gun to her head telling her to convince me to leave my flat. A few seconds later the automatic light outside my flat turned on. I then told my sister its OK and I was going to sleep. I then phoned the police and neighbourhood watch which took the longest 30 minutes of my life to show up.
Once I saw the police lights outside I had to make a 100m dash to the gate to open it up for them. I then talked them over what happened and that we should investigate the house. I walked around the perimeter with them until we found where the guys had entered. We entered the house which was totally trashed until we got to the main room where there was a blanket over the bed. I then yanked the blanket off to my find my whole family under there as they were tied up and frightened shirtless. This included my 1yo niece.
If it weren't for my instincts they would not have hesitated to k*ll me and probably do worse to my family, they already poisoned my dogs. Must've been a guardian angel or something looking over my shoulder that night.
Nika De Beer 2 years ago
Fellow South African, almost the exact same thing happened to me...but luckily we followed my friends advice and stopped the robbers from entering our house. Always listen to ur gut
#10
I was walking home from my bus stop one day, listening to music on my headphones, off in my own little world. The battery died halfway home, and suddenly I heard a guy walking behind me, talking about how he can never get women to talk to him. I sneaked a peek over my shoulder, and he was not only alone, he had also got off the same bus. And was twice my size. So he had been following me for about three or four blocks, apparently trying to get my attention. There was no one else around. So, I kept my headphones on, despite lack of music, and just started walking faster. Then he started singing “speak to the girl. You got to, you got to speak to the girl” over and over again, getting louder and louder the further ahead of him I was. I wasn’t sure what to do. If I went home, he would know where I lived. So, I turned a corner towards where there would be more people around, with him still following me, and ducked into a pub. When this creep followed me into the pub, I ran up to the bartender, and begged him to pretend we were friends and keep me company until the creepy guy left. The bartender came around the bar and gave me a big hug, and made a fuss over me until the creep went away and I stopped being quite so shaken up. Not all heroes wear capes.
Helen Marlo, who is a Jungian psychoanalyst, also said that “Jung proposed the psychoid archetype, which refers to the interconnected nature and relationship between our psyche, body, and the physical world—that is, between our body, mind, and matter which can provide another basis for our 'gut feeling' experiences.”
She explained it further by quoting C.G. Jung (On the Nature of Psyche, in the Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche, The Collected Works of C.G. Jung, vol. 8, trans. R.F.C. Hull (London: Routledge, 1960, p. 215.): “Since psyche and matter are contained in one and the same world, and moreover are in continuous contact with one another and ultimately rest on irrepresentable, transcendental factors, it is not only possible but fairly probable, even, that psyche and matter are two different aspects of one and the same thing.”
#11
There have been 2 occasions where someone whom I had mutual friends with just made my skin crawl. I was very open about it to both of the separate groups of friends and got the same response both times "that guys a little weird but he's great. Dunno why you're such a d*ck about it etc." Couldn't explain why I didn't like them specifically so that didn't help my cause.
First guy got caught trying to lure children into his car and arrested.
Second guy got caught soliciting for child porn web cam services and arrested.
BigOrangeTractor 2 years ago
When you know, you know. There were three UK celebrities that, as a young child, I didn't like despite them being very popular in kids' TV: Jimmy Saville, Rolf Harris and Rod Hull. Saville and Harris have both been embroiled in paedophilia scandals; Rod Hull had some accusations flung after his death but I don't know if they stuck. I don't remember ever feeling scared of them, just that they kind of left me cold.
#12
Now I don’t remember this, but my mom does very vividly as you can imagine.
When I was three she and her friends were getting ready to go out to the bar in the next city over. My mom being super young when she had me was often out on the weekends with friends so this wasn’t unusual at all. However, on this night I, a usually super well mannered kid, threw the biggest tantrum of my life. Screaming at the top of my lungs, throwing myself around, throwing things, etc. because she was leaving. She was super mad because she couldn’t leave me with the babysitter like this, especially since she felt something was wrong because this was VERY unlike me as a child. Her friends left and she stayed home with me, still pretty pissed off at toddler me.
The next morning she and I walked to my Grandmas house to use the phone (no cell phones yet), she calls her friend’s house to hear about the night and her friends mom answers. They had been trying to get a hold of my mom all night, as there was a horrific car accident. All of my mom’s friends except for the driver had passed away. Had she gone, there is no way she would have survived in the car.
Still haunts me to think about this day. My mom never really recovered from it.
#13
I do real estate photography. One day I was alone shooting in an empty house, which is quite normal. I had this really uncomfortable feeling that I wasn’t alone. I had already checked the whole house before I started taking photos, but I kept getting the feeling that someone else was there. The feeling was so strong that I had goosebumps and felt nauseous.
I’m not a small guy, but I felt like a little kid scared of the dark. I decided to re-check all the rooms to ease my mind, but didn’t find anything. I checked closets, bathrooms, bedrooms etc but I was definitely the only one there. As I finished shooting the last room in the house, this feeling that someone was with me was so overwhelming that I pretty much sprinted out of the house when I took the last shot. I felt better when I got outside, but I still had an uneasy feeling.
The realtor ended up pulling in the driveway as I was finishing photos of the front of the house and asked if the house cleaner did a good job. I said it looked fine to me, and she went into the house with her husband to prep it for a showing. When I was shooting the backyard, I noticed them both out of the corner of my eye through a back window, but there was a third person with them. I was confused because they came alone without anyone else.
Turns out the house cleaner wasn’t finished before I pulled up and came in. She saw a large guy with tattoos come into the house and panic, so she jumped into the kitchen pantry and hid. By the time she realized I was the photographer, it was too late for her to come out without it being awkward, so she stayed in the pantry the whole time. I’m not sure if maybe I saw her out of the corner of my eye when walking past, or if maybe I smelled her perfume, heard her breathing and didn’t realize it, but my subconscious was screaming at me that someone was there? It was the most uncomfortable I’ve ever been inside a house like that before and made for a funny story after.
I should add that I had headphones on for the majority of the shoot, so it was 100% my fault for not being more aware of everything. I just assumed it was like any other empty house, so I was listening to music right when I came in and didn’t stop until I had the weird feelings.
Serial pacifist 2 years ago
All right, I was ready to call the ghostbusters when the story took an unexpected turn.
According to Helen, even though we often hear, “trust your gut,” she both agrees and disagrees because “this simple statement is usually more complex and often easier said than done! Deciding whether or not to trust a bad gut feeling can be a complex decision.”
“Especially with gut decisions, I feel it is generally better to make them when we are reflective rather than reactive. This is especially true with intuition since it is a strong psychic function that can feel very convincing, true, and powerful in the moment. It can more easily induce us to react rather than act with consciousness,” Helen explained.
She urges us to first understand that intuition is a complex function and be aware that what feels like intuition may include genuine, wise insights but can also be psychological distortions, wounds, projections and defenses. If we do so, “then we are better able to decide if following our gut is wise.”
#14
Okay I have 2 of these but the first is why I'll always trust my gut. When I was little I always used to sleep over at my cousins house who had an awesome wooden bunk bed that I would sleep on the bottom bunk. When I was 7 I went over for another sleep over, we aye Chinese food with my aunt and uncle then me and my cousin stayed up late playing video games before going to bed. When I was little I used to fall asleep right away and sleep deeply. My family still jokes that not even a car going through the house could wake me up. Anyways sometime after I've fallen asleep I wake because I have this ridiculous feeling that I HAVE to roll over. I didn't want to because I was comfortable and sleeping how I normally do in the middle of the bed with my foot hanging off. I kept arguing with what felt like myself over rolling over until finally I did. But apparently it wasn't enough because then I had the urge to literally cuddle as tight as I can against the wall. Since I had already rolled over I figured why not. As I'm trying to press myself as hard as possible against the wall the bunk bed collapses and a broken metal bar goes straight through the bed where I had been sleeping. I was stuck, somehow unharmed, in that little space against the wall until my uncle could cut me out. My cousin had fallen from the top bunk when it collapsed but was also unharmed.
Next happened when I was 16 in the summer. I grew up in a super small town and used to walk or bike everywhere with my dog, and I was usually alone. I had the day off from work so I took a book and walked with my lab 4 miles to one of my favorite lakes and laid down at the beach to read a book and tan while my dog played in the water. After a few hours of being there I noticed a roudy group of guys, one who looked a bit familiar. It was a week day so there was only me, my dog and a fisherman at the landing with these guys. I tried to ignore them but noticed they kept looking over at me a whispering to each other. Then my dog who usually will stay in the water the full time I'm there came over and laid in between me and this group. I got a bad feeling from them and decided to cut my day short and go home. I grabbed my stuff and started to walk out of there like nothing happened and this group starts to follow me. Not only do I have a bad feeling but I can tell my dog is freaked out because she keeps looking behind me and growling. This group is getting louder behind me and somehow keeping up with me which is a feat because I'm a fast walker so I know they're doing this on purpose. I'm trying to think of a way out of this situation knowing in the middle of the week I won't get much help from neighbors and no ones really around so then I start to think on the one kid that looked familiar and it suddenly hits me- I know him. So I suddenly spin around and address him by name and tell him I used to change his diapers which causes his friends to burst out laughing. I allow them close enough to walk with me to try and take control of the situation and ask him about his family and brother. They ask me what I'm doing that day and I still feel super creeped out and my dog still won't come near us so I lie and say my brother is just up the road and I'm going to meet him. And I throw in that I'll hang back and let them walk ahead because my dog is clearly uncomfortable which I lie again and tell them she was abused by a man and hates men. They say they are going back to the beach and turn around and leave. One year later I hear about a gruesome murder the next town over. This kid and his friends broke into his 75 year old grandpa's house, robbed him and brutally beat and tortured him to death. The kid I knew was only 14, the friends he was with ranged from 16-23. I don't know if they were planning on doing anything to me that day but I will always trust my gut and have since.
#15
A coworker who gave off simultaneous kinda friendly/kinda could snap any moment vibes. Kept my distance although he kept trying be friendly and hang out with the rest of us. The guy was just off. A few years later he met a girl on public transportation, talked her into going back to his place, smoked with her and had sex. She woke up at some point and began screaming that he r*ped her. To shut her up, he then k*lled her, r*ped the dead body, put her in a trash bag and dumped the body. Old coworker sent me the link and the details.
#16
I was walking home in the early hours of the morning, a guy came up to me with a baseball bat and walked alongside me. He started making weird conversation, about how 'weirdos come out at this time of night'
He drops a $5 bill on the ground and lowkey dares me to pick it up.
I sped up and made my way away from him, but the vibe was undeniably creepy. I didn't pick up the money.
Moreover, “Exploring internally, for example, how much an intuition is a wise insight, perhaps an expression of the psychoid, versus how much a fear, traumatic memory, or wish is also coloring it, can be helpful in deciding how to act on a 'gut' decision.” Helen concluded that “paradoxically, one of the most and least wise ways to make a decision is by trusting one’s gut” and added that “before deciding to 'trust one’s gut,' I recommend that we also consider our gut’s health in that moment!”
#17
After I graduated high school I worked at a video rental store in a strip mall of a smallish town. We stayed open late and after 9 o’clock or so all of the other businesses in the strip were closed and the strip mall would be dark other than my store which lit up like a beacon. Also, because the store was suffering financially the last two hours of the shift the closer was there alone. I was always afraid someone would try to rob us. I was a 19 year old girl, it would’ve been the easiest score ever. But you know, I just went on.
Anyways, there are apartments behind the store so we had regulars who we were pretty familiar with. They’d cut through the parking lot to go to various places in the mall so it wasn’t uncommon for them to wave or come in and say hi or just browse. It was a laid back place.
One night I was closing the store and I was alone of course, closing the tills and cleaning the store. I walk up front and two guys who were regulars are standing on the other side of the locked entrance. They’re smiling and waving, mouthing hi and stuff. I wave and keep working. I notice they’re not doing anything, just standing there talking, right outside the door. It comes time for me to leave, all my work is done. It’s probably been about 30 minutes and I see these guys on camera just hanging out in the parking lot of nothing but closed businesses. It’s like 11:30 at night, everything is closed. I was really familiar with these guys but I would’ve had to walk past them to get to my car. I just thought let’s play to safe. I called my boyfriend (now husband) and just told him I had a weird feeling and could he come to the store so I could get to my car safely. As soon as he pulls up he gets out and walks up to the store, says hi to the two guys and waits for me. The guys turn around and leave to walk to the apartments behind the store. I thought that was weird but just went home and forgot about it.
About a week later one of the guys was arrested for trying to kidnap a jogger at a park in town, in the bag he had on him at the time was rope, duct tape and a knife. It was huge news. Oh and also he was previously arrested for burning down a historical cabin in town. Which was years prior. The guy he was with was a registered sex offender. It’s probably been like 15 years since then an I shudder to think about what would’ve happened if I didn’t have the feeling in the back of my mind that night.
TLDR: Regular customer watching me work turns out to be attempted rapist.
#18
I was out walking my dog when I got a funny feeling about my dad (he has heart problems and is prone to heart attacks) I called him a few times and he didn't respond so I started to run back and he was slumped infront of the sofa showing all the early signs of a heart attack. I Phone an ambulance and gave him basic treatment and after the paramedics arrived they said if I had been any later he would have died
#19
The one that was the most impactful was the time everything in my body was telling me to go see a sick friend. They’d been diagnosed with cancer, and it wasn’t looking great, but last time we spoke they were getting by. I sat at my desk, gritting my teeth, and then went ‘f*ck it’, and bolted from work. In a house full of people, I was the only one with them when they passed.
Bored Panda also reached out to the Redditor Throwawaystheway1013 who asked “What has been your most spine-tingling, bone-chilling, ‘I have a bad feeling about this’ experience?” on r/AskReddit and received 27.3k upvotes and 6.7k comments.
The Redditor told us that in her family, “some of my extended relatives have had an almost ESP level of intuition about things (deja vu, premonitions, etc.). I was thinking about that one night and figured it might make a decent Reddit topic.”
The author added that she was not surprised by the responses he received, “because nearly every person alive has had an, 'Oh yeah' moment.” She continued: “Intuition is your 'fight or flight' thought process, just 5 steps ahead of your conscious thought process. In other words, trust your gut. That feeling is just waiting for you to catch up. Even atheists trust their gut. What does that say?”
#20
Walked past a parked car not too late at night walking home from the gym. Noticed people inside but didn’t think too much of it. Got this crazy urge to run about 10 seconds later so I ran and then sat down and hid behind a car down a side street. The car screeched out of the carpark, down the street, down my side street and then these guys started yelling telling me to come out and that they’re going to k*ll me. They slowly drove past me with their high beams on and then kept going a bit further before they sped off.
I have no idea what I saw or what was going on in that car - but the whole thing freaks me out to this day.
#21
When I was doing my PhD, I got offered the chance to go to the Central European University summer school programme to do a course that would have been extremely valuable. I even got offered a full scholarship to do the course, and free accommodation etc. A really amazing deal.
Two weeks before I was supposed to leave, I said to my boyfriend at tje time, something is telling me I shouldn't go. And I was like, WTF brain, this is the opportunity of a lifetime. But the 'don't go' feeling kept getting stronger. So I withdrew from the course, feeling stupid for doing it.
The day after I was scheduled to leave, my perfectly healthy mom got sick. A week later she was in a coma, a week later we had to turn off life support. Her funeral was a week after that. I would have been away in her last waking moments.
#22
I was solo backpacking within Inyo National Forest, I had just set up camp and was walking beyond this lake and up above the tree line. After walking about a quarter mile up this meadow the hairs on my neck began to stick straight up, instant chills. Didn’t know what reason but the gut reaction was enough for me to return to camp. Next morning on the way back to the car a Ranger asks me to be careful, Mountain Lion sightings in the area. I think I found out why my internal alarm went off.
#23
I live in LA, and downtown LA isn’t exactly the best place at night.
I was going to a dispensary late at night in 2015, in an area of downtown that’s not heavily lit, and very empty. No cars, no people, just a few run down buildings on Main Street.
It was late, around 11 pm and the dispensary was just closing up. I came out, by myself, and started walking to my car. I was maybe 200 feet from my car, and saw these guys across the street in an a huddle. As I started walking closer to my car, I had this feeling they clearly weren’t up to any good. So I started walking a little faster to my car, and one of the dudes screams over, “why you walking so fast man?” And they started to walk towards me.
Rather than answer and pause, I decided to start running to my car, and unlocked it and got in. As I was starting my car, they had run up to the back of my car and just as I drove off, one of them slashed the back of my bumper with a knife and they screamed “good thing you got those white boy instincts.”
Sometimes it’s literally a matter of one second and making that crucial decision to not stop that saved my life
#24
Not mine, but my mum's. In 2004, she had booked a flight for herself and 9yo me to visit India. For Christmas.
We got to the airport and she started having a panic attack. She's claustrophobic so I assumed she just didn't want to get on the plane, but she was yelling and decided to leave. I kinda dismissed it because I was 9 and more focused on Nintendogs, but I asked her about it a few years later and she said she just had this 'evil feeling' about going.
Turns out we would have been caught in the Tsunami.
#25
A few years ago a group or friends and I went out clubbing. We went into this one bar, and the moment I stepped in the door I felt a sense of dread. Every cell in my body was telling me "Get the hell out of there!" so after about 20 minutes, I convinced my friends that something felt really wrong, so we left and went home.
The next day there was a news story about the club. There had been a shooting on the street in front of it and the people who had committed the shooting had been inside the club while we were there.
#26
London. The day of the terrorist attacks. My best mate and I were on London bridge about 15 mins beforehand. I got the Heebie jeebies and said we had to leave. So we did.
No one ever second guesses my Peter tingle anymore.
ETA 2017 attack
#27
Managing an overnight shift at a mcdonalds, just me and another guy in the store around 2am. I notice a beat up ford falcon with a mismatching bonnet (hood) roll into the carpark; one guy hops out and immediately starts casing the place for camera locations and how many people are inside. This immediately raises my suspicions, but I pretend everythings cool and serve him as normal. They must have got spooked cause they get in the car and drive off after getting their food.
Once they're clear, I called police and told them whats happened along with the numberplate and vehicle description. A few hrs later police come in and say they've pulled the Ford over and found a kilo of meth and several semi auto firearms on board; later on they admitted to scouting the place for another couple to rob us later that night
#28
I was talking to this guy I met on a dating site. We haven't met in person yet. He kept asking and was rather pushy. Something told me not to. I stopped talking to him.
2 months later he was arrested for kidnapping a woman. They found her in his home state. He was originally from down south now living up north.
#29
The time I noticed a three men in a white truck following me. I thought I was being paranoid at first, until I pulled in to a gas station and then out the other side … and they followed me. Even then, I was so used to being told I was overreacting that I didn’t call the cops. I just kept driving - in the opposite direction from the town I lived in - until they got caught at a stop light. I quickly turned in to a neighborhood and took a bunch of random turns and drove around some more before heading home.
#30
Isn't it sad how most of those stories are about a girl or woman being threatened by young men?
Final score:
100points
#31
I had just moved back home from Texas to be with my parents because my Dad was very sick, and being an only child I am there for whatever they need. They lived near a small town where everyone went to the same stores because it was so small. My Mom was taking me around to introduce me. We went into one store and met the male cashier. In his late 20's. As soon as I shook his hand the "hair went up on the back of my neck". My heart started to race and I felt nauseous. I couldn't wait to get away from him. When Mom and I got into the car I told her to stay away from him. If she went in the store and he was there just turn around and leave. She asked me why. He's such a nice guy. I told her that he isn't. He's pure evil. She blew me off. About a year later the police arrested him in the parking lot of the store. Apparently he had been stalking his ex girlfriend. She lived in the house 2 stores down from where he worked. They opened his trunk and found chains, a machete, an axe and duct tape. Off he goes to prison. Years later he got out of prison. I felt sick. A church in town was trying to help him turn his life around. His ex girlfriend still lived in the house. One morning I was driving by the house. Sooo many police cars and the very large forensic van outside the house. He had broken in and drowned her in the bathtub. He then went to where there were train tracks, waited for a train coming and laid down on the tracks and the train ran over him. Good riddance. I now call it "the murder house". I wonder about the house because it has changed hands so many times since then. He had also been stalking customers online. When Mom would come in he would wish her a happy birthday, or tell my Dad happy birthday. Happy anniversary. He had no other way of knowing this, but not one customer had picked up on it until his arrest.
Final score:
84points
Joe Reaves 2 years ago
I get giving people a second chance but the church should have been more concerned about his victim than him. If you pull that kind of s**t you don't get to enjoy your second chance *in the same place your victim lives*. The justice system shouldn't have let him go back there.
#32
Ooh, I have a few.
First one is my dad's story, not mine. He and my mom were in the US Army in the 80s/90s, stationed in Germany. One of their male coworkers used to give him a really bad feeling and he refused to spend time with the man and his wife. Turns out, the coworker was into child porn and molested his own children.
Two happened to me in Madrid, Spain:
First, three friends and I wanted to go to Retiro Park at night. We got off at the Metro stop and were walking up a dimly lit tunnel. There was a group of rowdy guys at the other end who started acting strange. I grabbed the friend closest to me and booked it; the other two girls were ahead of us and only turned back when the guys started yelling.
Second, on a crowded Metro, my friends and I were all crowded together. Suddenly, this dude comes up and trades places with one of the girls next to me, so he's standing directly in front of me. I got the sudden urge to look down and his hand is going into my friend's purse. I scream, "No! You better stop, you crazy fool!" And snatch her purse up. It scared the mess out of him and he tried to apologize the whole rest of the way.
Last story: A new guy started coming to my small church. There was a busy weekend where we were doing several projects/ministries and a group of us basically spent three days together, and he was there. This guy -- who I hadn't ever met -- just gave me weird vibes. Something fell on the floor and I squatted down to get it, and he said under his breath, "yeah, you better get it," and just kind of laughed it off. Later that weekend, he kept shooting me with Nerf guns after I asked him to stop, he asked for my number repeatedly, forced me into a hug, and just kind of followed me around. I talked to 2 leaders about it and they dismissed it, saying he was a new Christian and still learning. I talked to several other women who said he did the same to them; he actually followed one of my best friends home and hung out on her porch until her boyfriend talked to him. Well, in 2020, he was arrested for kidnapping and repeatedly raping his girlfriend. Go figure?
Final score:
82points
Otter 2 years ago (edited)
All the straight men should know that this is why straight women freak out over things that seem tiny during the dating process. The only tells from this seemingly respectable guy were his lack of respect for women's boundaries, so if you show no respect for a woman's boundaries she's going to wonder if you're one of the bad ones, the ones hiding a heart of pure evil under your respectable exterior.
#33
i was at work one day, and i picked up a bottle. it looked "wrong". then i looked up and everything in my vision looked like it was distorted fun-house mirror style. i had no idea what was happening, but knew something was very wrong. i had my friend take me to the hospital. i called my wife, and triede to make it sound like it wasn't a big deal, but i was going to the hospital. a week goes by and i've been in a coma since that day. my odds of coming out of it were slim and they asked her if they should let me go. that was jan 10, 2017. i definitely have some impairments now, but life is great.
on a side note, if you live in the US... try not to have a medical emergency at the start of the year... it sucks.
#34
My university is a beautiful rural campus with rivers running through gorges. Beautiful but also dangerous.
One night in my junior year I had one of the most vivid dreams I ever had in my life. I was stumbling around a wooded area in the dark confused and disoriented. Suddenly I lost my footing and felt myself falling into empty space. I panicked as I fell realising these could be the last moments of my life. Then I landed and I literally dreamt being dead. Just pure dark and nothingness. I panicked and woke up from the dream hence remembering all of it.
The next afternoon the campus newspaper had a story about a student who had got lost in the woods in the middle of thr night and had fallen down a gorge to his death.
Final score:
80points
#35
In college, a friend overdosed on drugs and died. At his wake, a lot of his druggie friends showed up. No harm no foul, whatever, everyone was just mourning. After the wake, we all went to a bar. One of our mutual friends asked me to go to another bar with him and a group. I literally heard a voice in my head say “ just stay here, just stay here”. Obviously, I just stayed there. Turns out, that group got pulled over, one of them was a huge drug dealer with a back pack full of meth. They were going to the next bar to make a deal. Everyone in the car was arrested. Had I been in that car, it would have ruined my career. I was going to school to be a teacher and any drug related offenses automatically disqualify you for student loans. Plus, I’m not sure what I would pass a background check for a job with that on my record.
Final score:
72points
#36
I was riding my motorcycle at 4 PM from my parent's cabin and I noticed a rider like me was behind me. I peek on the mirror and see a guy with his shirtless friend on the back holding a guitar keep staying behind me even though I drive slow and I gave them space to go ahead of me. But something tell me that they are not just simply passing by.
As an ugly person I would never have thought that someone would actually stalk me. Maybe it was my helmet or my mom's perfume but either way I felt annoyed to think whatever kind of stuff that they're trying to pull. The last thing I want was for them to find out where I live.
So I just kept going and bring them to another small town that was opposite way of my home. My gas tank was full and we can do this all day but thankfully they stop and turn back around. Never met them again after that though but I'm glad I didn't go home.
What do you think ?
Josy Bannon 2 years ago
Isn't it sad how most of those stories are about a girl or woman being threatened by young men?
IeabellAlakar@aqueenofaplanet 2 years ago
There we go, you found the comments! Well done!
Load More Replies...
awingard1 2 years ago
When i was around 13 years old, I had a feeling to go and check on my little sister who was outside playing by herself (she was 6 at the time) I saw her running towards a white truck that was parked on our road directly in front of our house. It was a very busy road so very odd to see someone parked on the road. I yelled out "what are you doing"? And the truck drove away with his tires screeching! He was absolutely trying to abduct my baby sister. If I had not walked out to check on her when my gut told me to, she would of been gone.....
Craig Silberman 2 years ago
My instincts haven't always been right, but when I trust them and I'm wrong, it's much better than ignoring them and being wrong. I've rarely ignored my instincts and been happy about the outcome.
Josy Bannon 2 years ago
Isn't it sad how most of those stories are about a girl or woman being threatened by young men?
IeabellAlakar@aqueenofaplanet 2 years ago
There we go, you found the comments! Well done!
Load More Replies... awingard1 2 years ago
When i was around 13 years old, I had a feeling to go and check on my little sister who was outside playing by herself (she was 6 at the time) I saw her running towards a white truck that was parked on our road directly in front of our house. It was a very busy road so very odd to see someone parked on the road. I yelled out "what are you doing"? And the truck drove away with his tires screeching! He was absolutely trying to abduct my baby sister. If I had not walked out to check on her when my gut told me to, she would of been gone.....
Craig Silberman 2 years ago
My instincts haven't always been right, but when I trust them and I'm wrong, it's much better than ignoring them and being wrong. I've rarely ignored my instincts and been happy about the outcome.
Related on Bored Panda
