The Sense of Evil.

[bearmgc]

Swampman just stirring up that stuff again. Plain ol' contrary man be he...

[Zulu]

I hear you myronman3!

[Swampman]

Jesus said "why callest thou me good?  There is none good save the Father."  I'm just telling you what he said.  Of course he was asking the question to see if they realized he was the Father.  There are no good men.  Am I wrong or right?

[spikehorn]

I think you all are arguing semantics at this point. Everyone is born a sinner. Doesn't mean that there aren't good men. I've met good men and I've met bad men and I've met bad men that were hidding behind good. I've met good men that weren't saved, doesn't make them bad, just keeps them from having a glorious after life.

[Graybeard]

Enough religious discussion already. Back on topic and no religion ISN'T the topic swampman.

[Oldshooter]

In my own experience, I have had times that I knew I was being watched. My feelings would range from (I knew something was there) TO (an extreme sense of the willies) that I felt once as a fourteen year old returning from
A hunt. (I still think that a large cat was watching me on that one)

Pardner, I have been there! And it wasn't that long ago. I live close to a river bottom and thousands of acres of "the big thicket" of east Texas. One night i was rabbit hunting with a head light(legal here) and all of a sudden the crickets quit chirping, the bull frogs got quite and the hair on my neck stood at attention! Something was watching me! Well "Katie bar the door",  I walked a while lookin everywhere at once, When I could see the house lights, I ran like a shot cat with the light off and the 45 in my hand! the 20 gauge was picked up the next day in broad daylight, with me, and my 308 AR in tow! IN Hawaii the locals call it "chicken skin" ! I think I had it on my finger nails that night! 

[Zulu]

Oldshooter,
I think that was Savage lurking in the bushes.
Zulu

[Oldshooter]

Yea I know he's jealous of my spongebob rod and reel!    Never figgered him fer a stalker though!

[Elwood]

I have noticed since I was a teenager that there are places out in the boondocks that are erie, especially at dusk.  When I feel this way I take time to look around and I realize that I am in a Indian site. This happens almost without exception.
I used to go out hiking at night with friends when we were camping, we would walk many miles in the dark or moonlite (I dont know why we werent snake bit). We would pass through erie places and not worry much about it. One night In the dead of winter My friend Dan and I passed through a most spooky spot. I got terribly cold, scared and I felt a demonic presence. Dan said to me we can stay or leave but we must make up our minds now. I said lets go. later up the road Dan said something about what we saw. I said I didnt see anything, just felt a unholy presence. It turns out that he saw a slightly glowing Viking/Conan type guy on a horse. I felt spooky but saw nothing. When Dan said we can stay or leave but we must make up our minds now he was repeating what the spook on the horse told him. I have been to that spot since then but nothing weird at all. Go figure.

[Huffmanite]

Guess I'll contribute my one sense of evil story, but it is hardly as interesting as those written before me. 

I'm 63 years old, an army vet of Vietnam and I've been in some trying situations during my life.  But, without a doubt, the most fearful time of my life occured when I was around 13 years old.  I was sound asleep one night when I awoke with a start, filled with a dread of someone or something standing behind my bed.  I have no memory of having a bad dream that awoke me, or any dream for that matter.  The only nightmare type dream in my life I can recall was one that reocurred several times in my youth, of driving across a high bridge late at night during a storm, not realizing the center span of the bridge had fallen and me driving off the bridge to the river waiting below.  To this day, I get tense when driving across a high bridge across a river.  Anyway,  the headboard of my bed was against the wall behind me, so no room for anyone to be there.  However, from the second I awoke, I was paralysed by a total fear of an evil presence standing behind me, looking down at me.  I tried to speak/call out, but couldn't make a sound.  I tried to sit up, but couldn't.  Heck, I couldn't even lift one hand off the bed cover, I was so paralysed with fear.  While it was probably only minutes, it took what seemed to me forever, before the sense of evil went away and I was able to get sit up and get out of bed. 
I've never been as afraid or fearful before or since that night.

[trotterlg]

I think this was discussed earlier, "night terror" you brain gets out of sync with the waking up of the mind and the keeping asleep of the body.  The brain works overtime while it keeps the body sleeping and paralized.  It is a well documented occurance over the past thousand years or so.  Larry

[halfbreed]

Larry is correct about the "night terrors", I have had this happen many times. It is truly frightening, I have to talk myself through it. My terrors are usually someone has broken into the house, right on top of the wife and myself, of course i can't get up or grab my 45 right beside me either. Of course there is really nobody there. But it sure is "real" while it is going on. I don't know of any way to prevent it from happening, or what brings it on.
 John

[spikehorn]

It is also called sleep paralissis. I had it happen to me once while I was in the passenger seat of a chevy S10 somewhere in the west. I woke up mentally and was completely aware of what was going on around me, but couldn't move or even open my eyes. All I could think of was that this is what it is like to be a blind quadapeligic.

[All Hawks Kill]

I've had a sense of danger a few times in my life but nothing like what happened to me a few years ago.  At the time I was doing all my hunting in the Sam Houston National Forest and had scouted and hunted the area for many years.  As I did every year I did all my scouting in September mostly during mid day so I didn't distrub the area during prime deer movement times.  I made sure to find at least 4 good stand locations in different areas because this was public hunting land.  That way if opening morning came and there were more hunter than I liked at one of these locations, I could quickly move to another.  Well during my scouting that year I ventured into an area that I had not previously been, coming to a place that gave me a very strange feeling, it was not fear or a feeling of doom, just felt very strange.   The woods didn't look any different or anything and it was within a short distance of the main road.  I ignored the feeling and once further into the woods I felt fine.  I found a very good place to hunt in a creek botton and decided that was where I would be on opening morning.  As I returned to my truck and passed back through that last couple of hundred yards that strange feeling came back to me, but once more I thought little of it and was soon on my way home.

The weeks passed and soon I was pulling up to this location on opening morning of rifle season.  I got my deer cart out of the truck, and loaded my climbing stand onto it.  I normally pulled the cart to within a couple hundred yards of where I hunt then pack the stand the rest of the on my back.  The rules in SHNF are no loaded weapons within 100 yards of the roadways, which never was a problem until I started to enter the woods that morning.  That strange feeling that I had all but forgot about was back.  There weren't any other hunters in this location and the last truck I had seen was over a mile away, so basically I was all alone.  With each step I took, this feeling grew stronger, much stronger than it had been the weeks before and now I felt as though I was being watched.  At this point I igonored the rules and pulled my 44 mag sidearm and loaded it then and there.  It made me feel a little better, but the feeling of imminent danger was still there and getting worse.  Then I heard what sounded like something moving off to my right, and I couldn't really tell how far or close it was.  I was now some distance from my truck, and right in the middle of area I had the feeling during my scouting trip.  I stopped to see if I could tell where and maybe what was off to my right, but I also think I stopped to decide to turn back or go on.  That decision was made for me as there was a terrible scream, or sound like I have never heard before or after.  I can't to this day describe the sound other than to say it was pure evil in source.  I have heard a lot of sounds in the woods, including mountain lions, bobcats and coyotes, which are heart stopping in themselves in the woods at night, but they never put fear in me like this scream.  I knew in my heart at that moment my only chance was to get back to my truck and get out of there.   I didn't even draw my .44 as I somehow knew it would not help me and as I turned and headed back I could now hear the movement, now on my left, more clearly and it was moving with me.  It sounded as though it was getting closer all the time.  Somehow, maybe by the Grace of God as I was praying like I've never prayed before, I made it back to my truck.  My cart and stand were quickly thrown in to the bed and I was in the cab as fast as I could move.  As I tried to get the key in to start the truck, the feeling of danger started to fade, but I was still being watched.  The truck started and I was soon driving as fast as I could to get out of there.  To this day I have never told anyone about what happened nor have I returned, and don't ever plan on going back there.

Derek

[zeke08]

All Hawks thanks for sharing and have you talked to anyone hunting in that area? Would love to know where its at an try to come visit it you can pm oe email me if you dont want to say on here

[All Hawks Kill]

Zeke I sent you a PM.  I hunted the SHNF a couple more years after this happened, but never that area.  Most guys like me wouldn't say anything in camp if something like that happened to them.  I did a little research afterwards about strange happenings in that area and what I found is there have been over 20 Bigfoot sightings in that area.  The SHNF in that area is split between Montgomery and Walker counties and where this happened was pretty close to the county line.  Here is a link to the Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy and you can see that Montgomery has 13 reports and Walker has 7 reports.  http://www.texasbigfoot.org/reports/report/state?state=TX#allRegions=screen

I'm not saying what happened to me has anything to do with Bigfoot, but it is the only thing I could find to help me explain what happened.  Now that I've read through this thread, I see I'm not as alone as I once thought I was.  I also know there are a lot of things out there we can not explain, don't understand or just don't plain know about.

Derek

[Squib]

you can't necessarily find the paranormal but if you look hard enough it might find you

[blind ear]

All Hawks Kill
If you feel there might be something in the woods a 44mg won't take care of you need to give up the woods. You should have hunted it down and killed it and ate it.
 eddiegjr

[All Hawks Kill]

All Hawks Kill
If you feel there might be something in the woods a 44mg won't take care of you need to give up the woods. You should have hunted it down and killed it and ate it.
 eddiegjr

Comments like that is why I had never told this story before!!!  Lets just say it was pitch black in the woods and I was at a disadvantage.  If this would have happened during the light of day I might have had a different reaction.  It is really easy to second guess someone, and say really brave things while sitting in front of a computer, I would have liked to seen your reaction had you been there with me......

[Specklebelly]

AHK

Thank you for sharing as I can't imagine the fear that you felt.   

If it were me, I probably would have ditched the cart and stand until daylight.  But then again, going back would not have been an option either.

[All Hawks Kill]

To this day I don't know why I didn't just ditch the cart and stand, at the time it never occurred to me to let it go.  I may also maybe why I got out of there as it may have made me look bigger than I normally would have.  I do know if I had ditched it I wouldn't have gone back for it anytime soon, if at all.

[blind ear]

All Hawks Kill
If you feel there might be something in the woods a 44mg won't take care of you need to give up the woods. You should have hunted it down and killed it and ate it.
 eddiegjr

Comments like that is why I had never told this story before!!!  Lets just say it was pitch black in the woods and I was at a disadvantage.  If this would have happened during the light of day I might have had a different reaction.  It is really easy to second guess someone, and say really brave things while sitting in front of a computer, I would have liked to seen your reaction had you been there with me......

Aw shoot All Hawks, ever since I was about 10 years old and I thought  bull bellowing was a lion in the woods I haven't believed in spirits or ghosts. I would have  hunted it down and found out what it was to know if I wanted to eat it or take pictures of it or take the hide and hang it on the wall.      eddie

[trotterlg]

It is very easy for fear feed on it's self.  I have had this happen many times, from fears for your health to fears in the woods or at night.  There is a difference to me from being fearful and being scared, I think being scared is healthy, being fearful is not.  These thoughts are not easy to control, but if you know you are the baddest thing out there you can be scared without being in fear.  I am an old guy and have had a lot of interesting experiences, I am kind of done with being fearful of things, now I just get scared.  If you fear something you are believing you cannot best it, if you are scared you know it is bad but that it is something you can beat.  Believe me, there is a difference.  Next time, just slow down, get your crap together and figure out what is really happening (both in you're brain and what is around you) and things will become much better.  Remember, you are the top of the food chain, only a mistake can get you to number two.  Larry

[Graybeard]

Dunno so much about that. If grizzly/brown bears, wolves or cougar are around you are not at the top of the food chain in that area. Now being properly armed can help even the gap it don't necessarily put you on top.

Cougars are so quiet and slow in their movements until they are close enough it's too late to my mind prolly make them the most dangerous but a pack of wolves if they are determined to get you most likely will. I tend to think that if a big bear is surprised at close range and comes for you it's more luck than anything else if you stop it especially if practice at such isn't a regular part of your shooting habits.

I'd venture into territory any of the live if I were hunting of course but if cougars were abundant I'd be really cautious especially at night. I don't see that well in the dark anyway.

[trotterlg]

The only Cougar I have seen sounded like a freight train out of control coming down a hill and on to a logging road I was walking on, I thought it must be a Moose for sure.  If we were not at the top of the food chain then there would be about a trillion bears out there and the Serria Club would not be worried about saving a Wolf.  We are at the top for sure, ony a lack of being prepared (either mentally or physically) can change that.  Larry

[blind ear]

Totterlg, +1, that was my line of thinking. eddie

[All Hawks Kill]

I'll say just one thing, facing something in the light of day and facing it in pitch black of night are totally different.   I know animals see better at night than I do giving them the advantage, no matter how well armed I might be, you can't shoot what you can't see.  So I say go on out and get you some, top of the food chain!

[billy_56081]

Timber wolves are not a quiet predator. They sound like a drunken beef cow wansering through the woods.

[scootrd]

I've posted this once before , but thought it was worth a post again here  -

New England has some very very very old graveyards from settlements long past, and for the most part not even remembered on any maps.  You stumble upon them in deep wood before you really even notice them consciously. They are usually in close proximity to old dilapidated half Buried stone walls that have been overgrown with moss and decay and neglect. . The stones themselves are usually whitish/ grayish  and are covered in black/green mold and are themselves overgrown with weeds and forest floor rot. I have always found them very peaceful however there is one I stumbled upon while remote hiking that just didn't feel right. Maybe it was the sunlight casting shadows through the trees and undergrowth , or maybe it was the right time of day, but when I started walking through it , it seemed everything grew silent  - AND I MEAN EVERYTHING , no forest life no Forest sounds NOTHING ..not a Bird was heard chirping. Not a leaf was rustling in the canopy above .. The slight breeze I had all day ceased and the air took on a cold wet chill . The stream I had been following was about 150 -200 yards away and I didn't even hear the water running over the rocks once I stepped inside the boundaries of the grave yard.  I am definitely not one to scare easy. And I'm not even sure I was scared then , I felt more like an uninvited visitor being tolerated but not wanted. Discretion being the better part of valor that was the only time I literally backed up in my own footprints watching where I tread , and decided to give that place a very wide Birth. I found my way back to the sound of the stream and chirping birds and the occasional chipmunk and squirrel and continued hiking up stream until I was sure I was well past that place.

I do remember when I realized absolute sound had disappeared within the confines of the graveyard the hairs on my arms stood up straight. Not so  much from fear but from something in my inner core telling me you should not tread here.

[scootrd]

Dunno so much about that. If grizzly/brown bears, wolves or cougar are around you are not at the top of the food chain in that area. Now being properly armed can help even the gap it don't necessarily put you on top.

+1

When I was stationed at FT. Huachuca for about 18 months back in the 80's I was able to see 3 Cougars / mountain Lions (I'm an Eastern Boy , don't know the proper term)up close and personal . There was a fire and After the main fire was extinguished , the military was called out to help contain / control any flare ups or reignites that may occur. I was humping water up a firebreak in the Huachuca mountain range and 3 crossed over the break one large and 2 very small from a burned area into an unburned area about a hundred yards or less above my squad. with no weapons , I definitely didn't feel I was "on top of the food chain" .. I was close enough to see the Muscles ripple in the largest one.  even if I had a weapon , I don't think I would have felt like the " Top of the food chain that day"

Below Pic Puts it all in perspective for me .