In The Presence of Evil

Originally posted by NarcolepticBuddha
reply to post by TinkerHaus

 

In my experience, Tink. It's the good-looking ones that are evil. It's they who work so hard to look beautiful because they have something to hide. A pretty appearance is a great way to manipulate people too. Not saying all good-looking people are evil, just that it's a perfect guise because half their work is done just by being good-looking.

Of course, this is just based on MY experience.

edit on 23-6-2013 by NarcolepticBuddha because: (no reason given)

NB, I've also known many good looking folks who were truly awful people on the inside. They know how to manipulate people, and they are good at it. At the same time, I know some unattractive folks who are truly angelic, good-natured, and beautiful on the inside.

reply to post by smyleegrl

never judge a book by its cover ? a wise old saying

Never ignore your instincts, it is possible that occasionally they could be off but in my opinion those feelings can save your life. There are few people I instantly dislike, one that I never knew but shook his hand for an instant at my grandfathers funeral but I had a strong feeling against him. I was thoroughly disgusted while he was consoling my grandmother and wouldn't stop watching him while he was next to her.

I learned later he was accused of molesting and raping minors. His own family warned the place he worked at not to allow him around young female children.

Although personally I have scared a group of women before while I was younger, around 21 or so. I was drunk and basically horny coming home from clubbing all night. There was a group of pretty women about my age, and although I never would have physically hurt them or tried to force anything, my motives were not pure. I could have cared less about them and was completely driven by selfish base motives of achieving my own pleasure if possible.

Somehow that showed in my eyes or they sensed my motives not being the greatest, I could sense and see their fear and uneasiness so even though I was heading in the same direction I stopped by a vending machine to let them get out of sight and ease their concerns before continuing on.

That kind of selfishness I believe is evil even though we all probably have been driven by it at one point or another. There are always things we do not understand, science cannot answer everything yet even though it is our best chance to answer things. Maybe we have more senses than we currently understand because I have had physical feelings that I will not ignore.

One last comment, regarding your encounter I'm guessing it was daylight since you mentioned discussing what you were going to do that evening. Someone crouching behind a tree deliberately trying to keep out of sight, successfully so with your friends, and watching you definitely seems very suspicious on it's own.

He may have been scoping out spots he could lay in wait at night, that situation may have been different if you had not been in a group and if it had been at night. Definitely sounds strange and a situation worthy of extreme caution, whether your instincts turned out to be right or not.

I'd recommend avoiding that place at night.

You know it's strange everyone seems to have a general consensus that animals can sense fear but when we talk about sensing feelings some people view that as crazy talk. We are animals ourselves with a long history of survival instincts we should not ignore.

Originally posted by inquisitive1977
One last comment, regarding your encounter I'm guessing it was daylight since you mentioned discussing what you were going to do that evening. Someone crouching behind a tree deliberately trying to keep out of sight, successfully so with your friends, and watching you definitely seems very suspicious on it's own.

He may have been scoping out spots he could lay in wait at night, that situation may have been different if you had not been in a group and if it had been at night. Definitely sounds strange and a situation worthy of extreme caution, whether your instincts turned out to be right or not.

I'd recommend avoiding that place at night.

You know it's strange everyone seems to have a general consensus that animals can sense fear but when we talk about sensing feelings some people view that as crazy talk. We are animals ourselves with a long history of survival instincts we should not ignore.

I don't live there anymore, so that's not a problem.

I've learned to trust my instincts. I have a theory (completely unscientific) that women are more intuitive than men. Maybe it's part of being the "weaker sex" and constantly aware that most men can easily overpower you. I don't know, but maybe Rees something there.

Originally posted by smyleegrl
listen to your instincts more.

I'm usually the first person to tell people to trust their instincts. I believe intuition is really the sixth sense of human beings. I believe these instincts are really just innate, latent memories (well, isn't that what instincts are really? duh) that guide us to safety.

At the risk of turning this into a sexist issue, perhaps it is easier for some men to ignore their instincts about people because they're not at great risk from predators. There is a potentially greater backlash for a woman who ignores those kinds of instincts. I think, I could be wrong about this.

I say to trust those instincts. Better to be safe than sorry.

P.S. I've come across a couple of truly evil people. You can tell by looking them in the eyes. There is just no life in them. If the eyes are to be the windows to the soul, sometimes there is just nobody home. And everybody can sense it too.

At the risk of turning this into a sexist issue, perhaps it is easier for some men to ignore their instincts about people because they're not at great risk from predators. There is a potentially greater backlash for a woman who ignores those kinds of instincts. I think, I could be wrong about this.

reply to post by NarcolepticBuddha


This isn't sexist at all and quite possibly is the answer.

As a woman, I've always been told to be safe and aware of my surroundings at all times. Women hear this a lot. We see the consequences of what might happen in news stories, movies, etc.

This does not mean that the majority of men are predatory by any means...but that need to be cautious is taught to us perhaps more so than it is to men.

Growing up, my brother, who is two years younger than me, was given more personal freedom b/c of this very reason. I hated it, but now I understand.

Originally posted by smyleegrl
Growing up, my brother, who is two years younger than me, was given more personal freedom b/c of this very reason. I hated it, but now I understand.

This is true across all cultures actually. There is definitely a double standard when it comes to what men and women can and can't do as social norms dictate.

So referring back to my first post, perhaps what is legitimately scary to a woman might not be as much as a threat to a male. I'm not saying men are fearless, but that they're just not afraid of other men in that way.

I wasn't there, so I guess I can't fairly say whether the person in the story was menacing or not. However, I trust that you felt danger for a legitimate reason. I've learned to trust my instincts and the instincts of others. Primates really have to if they want to survive; group think and all.

It was shortsighted of me to mock your encounter. I'm more of a "turn the other cheek" kind of guy, but that's probably easier to do when I'm not in much real danger from strange men out in the woods; a troupe of women might be.

Sorry for my snide remark. It was unbefitting of me, and unbefitting of me as an ATS member.

It was shortsighted of me to mock your encounter. I'm more of a "turn the other cheek" kind of guy, but that's probably easier to do when I'm not in much real danger from strange men out in the woods; a troupe of women might be.

reply to post by NarcolepticBuddha


And with this post you just completely confirmed my suspicions....you really are empathetic. Kudos.

You are probably right that women have better intuition, evolution always allows animals to adapt to compensate for weaknesses in order to survive. Not that women are overall weaker but definitely physically weaker than most men.

Not to mention the male role in the family has almost always been that of protector. Which means in order to protect families men likely more often have forced themselves to ignore or conquer their fears. Otherwise if they give into them and run they normally would be able to run faster than their family but it would leave them vulnerable.

We are always taught to try and conquer our fears and not give in. It's just not "manly" to show fear, so to conquer it we likely have worked on suppressing our inate instincts telling us we should be afraid.

Also I donlt think recognizing actual differences between males and females would generally be considered sexist. When you try and use those to say one group is overall lesser than the other is where I see the problem.

Back in the late 70’s around the age of 7, my mother and I walked to a local convenience store in the mountains of Tennessee to purchase some hamburger meat. Once at the store my mother walked to the rear of the store where the deli department was to order the hamburger meat, and as usual I made a beeline straight for the candy rack. After a few minutes of eyeballing the candy, I proceeded to rondevu with my mother toward the rear of the store, near the meat counter. As I rounded the corner I observed an older man walking up to my mothers left hand side and standing stationary behind the dirty glass meat counter, and slowly turning his head silently to his right to smile at my mother. As he did this my mother gave him a quick inconvenient gesture of a smile, and quickly went back to conversing with the butcher. See my mother did not perceive any danger and went back to business, but for me everything began literally running in slow motion, as I felt the pure essence of evil permeating from this man. His appearance and bad hygiene stopped me dead in my tracks, with his black stringy long hair, and stained wet clothing. It became apparent to me that I was in the position that the man could not see me, and just at that moment he reached under his coat and pulled a long knife from his waistline. This literally scared me to death, and I was absolutely convinced that he was going to stab my mother to death in front of me. The reason I was convinced of this was the way he was tightly gripping the knife, with the blade pointed downwards, and hilt pointing up, in a thrusting manner. I knew that I could not do anything to prevent what was about to happen, so I turned looking in the opposite direction and spoke a bible scripture that I had learned in the small Pentecostal mountain church that me and my mom attended. Zechariah 3:2 “Lord Duth rebuke you Satan”. It was at this time, I turned back to look at the evil looking man when I witnessed him smile once more at my mom with the knife in his hands and then turn to the butcher and forcibly place the knife on the counter top and ask the man if he would be interested in purchasing the blade for his work. The man’s tone appear to be that of a defeated man, and the butcher appeared shocked by this and knew this was out of the norm, and quickly told the man no. I watched the man holster the knife and quickly walk out of the store. As the man left, time appeared to speed back up for me and I clearly remember my mom and the butcher talking about the strange encounter. The butcher said in all of his days, he has never had someone approach him in this manner with this type of proposition. So today I am convinced that there something great behind the curtains pulling the puppet strings, and guiding us through this etheric plane of a mundane human experience.

reply to post by smyleegrl


I used to think I "knew" people by looking at them. But in the end, I tired of being wrong. I found that if I talked to people, open them up a bit, I could peer beyond their appearance to see better who they are, perhaps even make them smile.

It is completely natural to gauge according to appearances, especially if certain experiences prove that fear. But those that are misunderstood are far more plentiful than those that are understood.

Yes, my experience is quite similar to yours.

I was walking back from work, along side a river that goes on for a couple of miles. A few people on bicycles are common along the path but It's rare for people to walk, but I prefer it.

In the distance I could see a hooded figure walking in the other direction towards me. As I got closer I realised that I couldn't make out if it was a man or a woman, not that it matters really, but I decided to look at this person's face as I walked past.

When I we got closer, now I don't scare easily, but we looked at each other and I got the fight or flight response. Like you, I also had to fight the urge to do a runner. The face of this thing was like a mug shot of a murderer, if there could be such a thing. The eyes of this person seemed to pierce my very soul, and there was a malevolent smile also.

Walking away a bit quicker, after having the thoughts of being stabbed for some reason, I turned round to make sure he was walking on, which the person was. A little later a low flying police helicopter flew along the river path and I watched as it went over head.

There was only one reason that the helicopter would fly that path, and that low, and that was if it was looking for somebody. I'm certain that to this day, that the police were hunting the person that I saw on the path home that day. Evil just seems to emanate from some people.

Yeah, because women have such a great history of sensing if someone is good or evil, am I right?

Face it, women have always judged a man's character, based off of his looks.
Just look at these posts....
Most of the posts mentions the man's appearance being bad.

ITT: being ugly in a strange location makes you evil.

Yeah, because women have such a great history of sensing if someone is good or evil, am I right? Face it, women have always judged a man's character, based off of his looks. Just look at these posts.... Most of the posts mentions the man's appearance being bad. ITT: being ugly in a strange location makes you evil. edit on 24-6-2013 by Ghost375 because: (no reason given)

reply to post by Ghost375


Did you read the OP? The man was practically hiding behind a tree...do you not see how this might alarm someone?

Tinkerhauus went out of his/ her way to show that first impressions can be wrong.

ITT: being ugly in a strange location makes you evil.

reply to post by Ghost375


I never said the man was ugly! I described him as having bushy eyebrows, true....but lots of people have bushy eyebrows. To be honest, I don't really remember if he was "attractive" or not....but the vibe I felt was very, very, bad.

Another possible explanation...my attack occurred in the forest. Maybe seeing this guy apparently hiding triggered a flashback....that would make a lot of sense. Can't believe I didn't put that together before now.

I remember seeing an extremely attractive man once, he could've modeled for the cover of a romance novel. I didn't get that sense of "evil" from him by any means, but I did sense a coldness to him. Like he could possibly be very calculating and manipulative. Something about the eyes.

I just passed him on the street and never saw him again, so that first judgement is extremely unfair. He could've been having a bad day, who knows. But I didn't feel threatened at all by him....but it was a busy street in daylight. So who knows.

I do find it interesting that other people share this "experience," though.

many years ago, I was in my twenties I was heading towards the library, this guy ,a stranger ,walked passed, he did't look at me, he wasn't ugly or smelly or anything but I got the STRONGEST feeling , physical reaction to him , just felt this instant overpowering BAD feeling from him.......

Originally posted by research100
many years ago, I was in my twenties I was heading towards the library, this guy ,a stranger ,walked passed, he did't look at me, he wasn't ugly or smelly or anything but I got the STRONGEST feeling , physical reaction to him , just felt this instant overpowering BAD feeling from him.......

This is what I'm talking about...an instant, visceral reaction that makes no sense whatsoever.

Originally posted by inquisitive1977
. I could have cared less about them and was completely driven by selfish base motives of achieving my own pleasure if possible.

Somehow that showed in my eyes or they sensed my motives not being the greatest, : (no reason given)