50 People Who Listened To Their Gut And Ended Up Being Right
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.
#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 suicidal.
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.
#2
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.
Image credits: o-J-A-Y-_-J-A-Y
#3
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.
Image credits: dafante96
#4
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.
Image credits: InsomniacPHD
#5
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
Image credits: lolf*ckno
#6
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.
Image credits: SatoshiFlex
#7
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.
Image credits: knobdog
#8
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.
Image credits: oppapi666
#9
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.
Image credits: ElReyDelMund0
#10
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.
Image credits: pnomsen
#11
This was in the late 80sI 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
#12
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.
Image credits: krwrn89
#13
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.
Image credits: pinkawapuhi
#14
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.
Image credits: miked4o7
#15
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.
Image credits: Awkward_Dog
#16
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.
Image credits: ladyj1182
#17
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
Image credits: allhickup336
#18
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.
Image credits: Hot_potatoos
#19
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.
Image credits: 100aliens
#20
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.
#21
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
Image credits: LitttleSm45H
#22
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
Image credits: samuelson098
#23
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.
Image credits: Trav-Nasty
#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.
Image credits: kwenthryth
#25
I was always uncomfortable around a mutual friend at university. Nothing specific but whenever he was around, the hairs stood up on the back of my neck. He was friendly enough, but always felt off. When there was only a seat left next to him at lunch, I would go eat by myself. He gave me a hug once and it was like touching a dead spider, I felt disgusting afterwards.He ended up being suspended from campus due to sexual assault allegations.
Image credits: manlikerealities
#26
Me and my friends were waiting for a bus when a group of guys came along. One asked us for a dollar (which we gave him) and then they just stayed to chat.They were perfectly nice, but all 3 of us had a really bad feeling. They asked us if we wanted to come to a party with them, we said oh no thanks, gotta get home.
One week later, one of the guys was on the front page of the newspaper. He had just been released from prison for stabbing someone, and had done it again that night.
Image credits: lorealashblonde
#27
Was walking to get groceries and expecting a message from my gf with a shopping list. Felt a phantom vibration from my phone, stopped for a second to check it and right then a chunk of ice the size of a grapefruit smashed into the street directly in front of me, where my head would have been.
Image credits: ToxicosisJones
#28
Not my story but one of my best mates was visiting Tasmania in 1996. They were due to visit Port Arthur but her mum had a terrible gut feeling so they didn’t go. Martin Bryant k*lled 35 people there that day.
Image credits: crammyandelman
#29
When I lived in the Falkland Islands, my family and I would often take trips to a pretty remote area/island where we were the only ones there. The island was pretty dangerous in itself with it's dead-drop cliffs and roaming sealife (seals, penguins, etc).Our bedrooms where all in the attic space.
One night I had a really bad feeling. I couldn't sleep and so I went downstairs. There was a whole ass elephant seal pushed against the front door, trying to get in (it sounded like he was headbutting the door, but I'm not entirely sure). Turned out, a whale had washed up on the beach and had taken up all the space so all the sea/land life came to our little house.
I was so scared lol that thing was MASSIVE
Image credits: wasabiwasabi
#30
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
Image credits: pcbradle
#31
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.
#32
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.
Image credits: Teacher_too
#33
It was the day before my wedding and I went on a walk around my very safe neighborhood. I had my headphones in and the music playing loudly. There were cars parked here and there, up and down the long street. The houses in this neighborhood have relatively large plots of land so there is some space between the houses. About half-way down the street I came to a car that had been sat parked for at least the 5 minutes it took for me to get to it. As I passed it, I noticed there were 4, maybe 5, males in their early 20s. I didn't think anything of it. I walked maybe 50 or so more feet and got this awful feeling in my stomach. I turned around to find that they had crept there car up so that they were literally right behind me-- I hadn't heard the car because my headphones were in. By absolute sheer luck, I spotted an older man and woman working in their garden about 5 houses down (big plots of land so they were a bit away). I booked it to them and asked if I could just wait with them. The older guy went over to the car and asked them what they were doing and they said they were there to do some yard work for one of the neighbors and pointed to the house they were now parked in front of (not the house that they had been sitting in front of before). The guy told them he didn’t believe them and to take a hike or he’d call the police. The guy then told me that the house they had been originally sitting in front of before was of a neighbor who was out of town. Because the were 5 or so houses down, this couple hadn't noticed the car or me before I came running up to them. I often think back on that incident and feel very strongly that had I not gotten that awful feeling that compelled me to turn around, and if that couple had not been in their front yard for me to quickly spot, there would have been a different ending to this story and the day before my wedding at that.
Image credits: mmohaje
#34
I was working as an interpreter for a researcher in one of the most active volcano in the world. At around 16:00, i have a really really bad feeling. I felt so restless, at that time I was around 5km from the peak, and i stayed in the last village before the mountain.Everyone in that village were already evacuated. There were only journalists, photographers, camera person for tv stations and some locals. They all told me to chill, i remember when i decided to leave the area, they were still smoking and drinking coffee and some were eating instant ramen. It was so quiet and calm but i felt so restless.
I left the village at around 16:15. Just few minutes after 17:00, the mountain erupted, sending lava and pyroclastic flow sweeping the whole village.
All of the guys were k*lled instantly.
It still gives me chill until now.
#35
So this was during a holiday in the mountains. We had been staying at a place surrounded by big beautiful red wood trees, and we had decided we'd go to the snow on the second day, me my wife and our two kids, aged 2 & 6. The morning was spent travelling from the house to the car, packing things in the boot, and on one trip I heard a thud/crack type noise, like the sound of someone kicking wood. But I didn't see anyone around, so continued loading the car.So we're all in the car now, in the drive way, and my wife realises we forgot the sunscreen. She grabbed the house keys, got out of the car, and ran into the house. While she was gone, I just had a thought: "I should move the car back. It's too close to the gate, I should move it back so she can get back in"
It makes no sense. She got into and out of the car by herself, so there was enough space. But at the time, I followed the thought, and moved the car back, not very far, less than five metres.
And then shortly after putting the car into park I saw the big redwood tree, whose trunk at its base was around 150cm diameter, taller than a two story house, coming crashing in front of me. The trunk landed right in front of the car, and a brand landed on top of the bonnet and shattered the windscreen. I got out of the car and saw the red wood tree had essentially split at ground level. It demolished the neighbours cast iron fence, and cut off power to multiple homes as it fell. And the bulk of the tree trunk landed right at the centre of where the car had been, until a few minutes previously parked.
We still check the trees whenever we park now. and I'll recognise that thud/crack noise now if I ever hear it again.
#36
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.
#37
I was working on a turtle conservation project in Cyprus several years back. It’s a remote beach, out of the way, and the middle of the night.We’ve got a nest that’s hatching, and all the hatchlings are collected into a bucket. They’re kept in the centre for a year, then released with a much higher chance of survival.
Anyway, I’ve got the full bucket of turtle hatchlings, and they need to get back to the centre. It’s a 20 min walk in the pitch black along the beach. There’s some other nests looking promising, so the other volunteers stick around as I head off.
About halfway along the beach, my head torch dims massively. The batteries are nearly dead. Well, suddenly this beach is much spookier than it was before. Then I hear a noise in the dunes.
I look over, and in the dim light of my torch I see nothing. Then a pair of bright, shining eyes appears at the top of a dune. I can see the silhouette of the dune against the stars, but I can’t see the shape of the thing with the eyes.
Then they start moving down the dune, they don’t move like a human, definitely an animal of some sort. As they get closer these bright white eyes start shining more and more, until I can finally see a huge black shape around them.
My knees have locked, I couldn’t move if I wanted to, and I couldn’t outrun the thing anyway. At this point, I accepted I was about to die.
Finally the monster approaches close enough that I can see it in my tiny bubble of dim glow. It’s a dog. That is not a comfort at this point.
The thing was a huge black Alsatian, but had Husky eyes. If it had been a pet dog, it would have been stunning. But it isn’t. It’s one of the half starved feral dogs that live wild. The thing is more then half my height, and is probably desperate for food. Then I remember that one of the reasons turtle hatchlings do so badly here is that the dogs dig up a lot of nests. I’m basically carrying a bucket of kibble to this monster.
Human brains being what they are, and me being in actual peril of my life for the first time, I decide that, if I’m here to do conservation work, there’s no way this beast is getting my hatchlings.
What you’ve got to appreciate is the timescale over which this is happening. This enormous beast of a canine is running at me, my circle of light only goes about two meters out, so it’s fractions of a second.
And I shout at the beast. I don’t recall what, I don’t know if it was even words. I might have barked at it, but by sheer luck it worked. The thing turned tail and sped back into the dunes.
The rest of the walk back to the centre took far less than the usual ten minutes, and the hairs on my neck were prickling the entire time. I was waiting to hear galloping paws and feel teeth around my throat, but I made it back without incident.
After that, I always had spare batteries for my torch in my bag, and we walked the beaches together, not alone!
#38
When I was a really struggling poor college student, I lived a few miles away from campus where buses didn’t frequently go, so I got very familiar with walking the city. Lots of poverty there so I ended up pretty often in conversation with the homeless.I’d say 80% of them are just gonna chit chat then ask for money, which I often didn’t have but I’d part with a few bucks here and there if they were nice. Some would hassle and be mean about it.
One time though, a guy was hassling me near a burger king when I wasn’t carrying any money at all even, sorry man. He grumbles and I walk off. It’s late afternoon in the dead of summer, I cross the street and to me he’s already old news. Then I hear shouting, look over and it’s him yelling at me from the burger king, but now he’s got his hood up. I continue on my way, I’m used to it. As I’m walking though I just get this horrible anxious feeling, and start thinking I need to go to campus immediately where it’s well lit and safe. I look over my shoulder a few times and don’t see him so I think I’m being kind of a wuss. I pick up the pace anyway.
Eventually I go out of my way and reach campus, not even needing to do anything there. After like 30 yards I turn around and see that dude from the burger king standing exactly at where I was when I entered campus property looking dead at me. Just standing there perfectly framed between the trees, hands in his hoodie pockets with the hood pulled tight to hide his face.
#39
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.
#40
My sister and I were house-sitting for our grandparents. I woke up and she was gone, and I just somehow knew. I just had that bad feeling. So I texted her and texted her until she finally answered. My older cousin had convinced her to go riding in the mountains with him with alcohol. He got drunk, got her tipsy.I had woke up and texted her in the middle of getting sexually assaulted. Our parents didn't even know she was gone. He was only letting her text back so I wouldn't think anything was amiss. But we were able to talk vaguely enough for me to help by pretending to be sick. If I had woken up a little later, I wouldn't have a sister anymore. If I just hadn't gone to sleep and left her alone, she wouldn't have gone through that.
She's in therapy and I still have trouble sleeping and waking up, I have terrible anxiety anytime we're apart. Trust your gut guys.
edit: holy hell i didn't expect this to actually be seen by anyone. normally i just lurk. thanks for all the upvotes everyone, we're fine and live two and a half hours away from all that now. there was never any criminal case because we didn't have any evidence against him. still, thanks for all the concern
#41
Riding my motorbike in the Himalayas, blind corner up ahead…sudden overwhelming sense that I had to get from the middle to the edge-side of the road…massive truck that was going way too fast came about six inches from taking me out. Totally would have pancakes me…further round the bend my riding buddy had stopped and was looking back with sheer terror on his face.#42
In my early twenties I woke up one day with a feeling of absolute dread I could not explain. Called my mom to come over and then called my boyfriend to come drive back home (he was on his way to work). I lost my ability to speak during that second phone call and the whole right side of my face started tingling.I thought I was having a stroke in my early twenties and I was going to die.
Turns out that was to be my first ever migraine with aura with aphasia. When the headache started an our later I wanted to die.
#43
I had just gotten off a train. I was riding alone and the train arrived in my station at dusk. Train station was already closed, and the conductors went home. So we are waiting outside. I walk overall with the other passengers, but it is very clear I am alone. This man starts to follow me, as people disappear, he is lurking closer and closer, and is starting to scope where I am headed. Already, when I got off the train I got a BAD VIBE from this guy. He wasn’t really well dressed, he was just sort of at the train station, wasn’t any of the passengers. This man is in his mid-forties or so, and at the time of the incident I had just turned 22. Everyone was gone, sun was going down. He comes very close to me, and starts to try to talk to me. Asks me if I am saved by Jesus. Tries to ask me things. I step away move to a totally different bench, he moves with me. I am taking to my mom on the phone because she was picking me up, trying to ignore him. He is coming closer to me, continuing to talk. About what? I don’t know, to be honest I was in shock. Now within reaching distance, and even hug distance, he is right on my trail. My mom had just pulled up in literally as I am making my way into a more lit area and I walk towards the car. I get in, you think he would have known me as close as he was to me when I got in the car. As soon as the door shut though, he stared at me. Intensely as he could. I will never forget those eyes. I didn’t have anything to defend myself, and if my mom never arrived, I would have been in really bad shape. Reported him to the Amtrak police.#44
Camping with friends at a lake. Went to a party across the lake; this lake was populated, sparsely, with cabins and campsites.Most of us got drunk, and we lost track of time. By the time we left it was dark and we had absolutely no light to navigate our boat back across the lake. Knowing what we were doing was dangerous and stupid, I was already on edge. But luckily this story isn’t about a boating accident, just a profoundly eerie experience.
We got lost. We spent approximately 8 hours on that lake trying to find our campsite. Multiple times believing we’d found it, getting off the boat, before realizing we were on someone else’s property, or just wandering into the woods.
The eerie chilling feeling got worse and worse. I felt like I was disassociating. I felt like maybe we’d all died and were now spirits haunting this lake. We all felt something like this and psyched ourselves out talking about it. By now we were out of fuel and using ores. Staining our eyes staring into the darkness.
Finally we found our tents. The night had been so alienating though that I was genuinely terrified I was going to open up my tent and a copy of myself would be in there already. Or more like the real me would be in there; I felt like I was the copy. I’ve never felt such a chilling “wrongness”. But we worked up the courage eventually and of course our tents were empty. I’ll never forget that feeling though.
Image credits: Iomena
#45
Not sure if it counts but I work in a bar in Southern California and while I was pouring a beer during the day shift I had this very weird feeling about an earthquake happening. Nothing was shaking or anything...I just got this weird image of everything coming down briefly.7 hours later the shift is over and I'm at home on the couch watching TV (completely forgot about earlier) and WHAM massive earthquake hits and knocks a ton of shit down in my apartment.
Creepy to me!
#46
New years eve many years ago, gf and I went to spend the night at our former roommates new place. They were a gay couple back before it was as accepted as it is today. An hour before midnight I felt a crazy urge to go home and started a fight about it with my gf cause she wanted to stay like we planned. I won the argument and got my way and we left in such a hurry that we forgot our blankets and pillows. Couple hours later in the middle of the night someone came by and set their house on fire and both friends died. I'm still f*cked up about it today cause I know that someone came by that night wanting to buy some kind of pills off one of my friends and was quite rudely turned away. I wasn't paying attention enough to see their face so idk who it was but I know it in my bones that's the guy that did it.#47
was about 15, took my youngest sister on a quad bike ride through some bush tracks in a "shack community". we get to the bottom of a large /, steep hill on the outskirts where I felt i had to stop for some unbeknownst reason. not even 5 seconds after i stop under the hill another quad bike flew over us. the guy landed, hit the brakes and slid into the bushes, jumped off and ran over to us visibly shaken. apologizing profusely. he'd been annoying the rest of the community for a couple weeks with many complaining he is driving the tracks too fast and is being dangerous and reckless. well after this incident he started to drive a bit slower.my parents nearly lost two children that day. I didn't tell them about it until i was in my late 20's.
(Quad bikes are now illegal within that township for unrelated reasons)
#48
For starters, I am in no way a believer of the paranormal. I wouldn't even call myself a skeptic. I straight up don't believe any of that stuff.That being said, we have an old abandoned mental institution in my hometown that is low key infamous for ghost hunter shows (mostly YouTube based ones). Growing up there, you just hear so many stories about it and naturally us teenagers decided to go out there.
It's a big, 4 story (if you count basement) plantation style building in a field at the end of the road. Creepy trees all down the roadside too. It really does look straight out of a horror movie. The road is pretty long too, no lights, so it really builds up that suspense. Except...we went there multiple times and absolutely nothing happened, obviously, and we'd just walk around and check stuff out.
Except the last time I went. I don't know why, but on our tenth-ish visit to the building, every single person in my friend group got a gut wrenching feeling the second we stepped into the road and stared down it into the darkness. We walked about a hundred yards to the first gate and then I said, "Guys... something just feels off." I felt afraid. I felt like there was a very intense evil waiting at the end of that road. I felt like there was someone watching me from the inky darkness that I couldn't see. Every single one of my friends said they felt the same way. We packed it up and left.
A few weeks later, my friends went again but I refused to go. I'd been there and done that and the experience I had had last time was unsettling enough for me to call it quits. They went and they had a ton of very weird sh*t happen to them, including recording what was almost certainly a squatter, running across the floor above them.
Nothing too crazy ended up happening but, to this day, I have never felt a presence like that.