Ever get that feeling?

[SuperNaut]

From news reports evil is the friendly but quiet neighbor. I'd classify pedophilia as pretty evil, yet Catholic priests and Baptist preachers are able to fool their flock. Additionally your favorite politician didn't get to where he is by being an angel.

Maybe our ability to discern evil isn't as sensitive as we'd like to think?

 

[bogie]

My girlfriend's sister's husband is a critter.

I'm sure you can find the definition. Ask Lawdog.

Anywho, this fellow is also Large, Dumb, and Paranoid. I'm not sure about evil, but you do not wish to be around him at those times when Large, Dumb and Paranoid all come to a biorhythmic crest.

Lots of the critters I've known tend to telegraph their actions via body language. They have to work themselves up to violent acts. They LOOK like they're casing the joint before they steal something... Sheesh. Or maybe I just notice things.

 

[David904]

Every time - and I mean every time - I have ignored the gut feeling that something is wrong, I have regretted it.

Without exception.

It isn't ESP, folks. We are simply hard-wired to pick up on behavioral nuances that telegraph a threat. Due to the civilized environment that we live in, we have unconsciously suppressed or marginalized our attention to these nuances.

And I do believe that there are genuinely evil people in this world. I'm not talking about ther ones that are insane - those folks can be downright disturbing and scary, but there is a difference.

 

[.41Dave]

Question then:

Hitler, Stalin, Mao, etc., and other genocide types I believe were evil clear to the core.

What I don't understand is how they got so many people to do thier bidding? Were there really that many truly evil people as well? Or were there just enough willing followers to make the rest perpetrate unspeakable acts out of fear? Or was it more of a desensitization issue? Where were thier inner voices?

I've been pondering this for a long time.

Read about the Milgram experiments. Human beings are unfortunately tribal creatures, and we readily submit to those with authority even if we think that authority is wrong or evil. Milgram summed up his experiments thus:

"The legal and philosophic aspects of obedience are of enormous importance, but they say very little about how most people behave in concrete situations. I set up a simple experiment at Yale University to test how much pain an ordinary citizen would inflict on another person simply because he was ordered to by an experimental scientist. Stark authority was pitted against the subjects' [participants'] strongest moral imperatives against hurting others, and, with the subjects' [participants'] ears ringing with the screams of the victims, authority won more often than not. The extreme willingness of adults to go to almost any lengths on the command of an authority constitutes the chief finding of the study and the fact most urgently demanding explanation.

Ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process. Moreover, even when the destructive effects of their work become patently clear, and they are asked to carry out actions incompatible with fundamental standards of morality, relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority. "

Or as Voltaire said: "Those that can make you believe in absurdities can also make you commit atrocities."

 

[Shaughn Leayme]

I listen to the voices and if it says there is a threat get out, I am not going to stand around, debating the issue with myself, I will exit the immediate area as quickly as possible.

I was in a store a few years ago and my spouse was paying for our purchases at the till and I was standing near her, just watching people,being aware of my surroundings, when a large group of young people walked into the store, they looked like any average group of young people, nothing obvious, but something about them put me on full alert, to the point, that my spouse, said all she could feel was the need to leave and leave now rolling off me, she finished up her transaction and made her way to the door, she asked me later what I had saw and accepted the explanation that my subconscious mind saw something, but my conscious mind couldn't quantify it.

Yeah, you might feel a little foolish at times, but I will not ignore the voices...well..... at least not the one's who tell me that something is wrong....the other ones.....

 

[hdandb]

New to forum and am really enjoying the readings.

Websters defines EVIL as morally reprehensible, arising from bad character or conduct.
I would imagine that could define all of us at one point in our life, so there would have to be evil people. Most of us slip in and out and the few tend to stay there more. Traffic here in Austin is a nightmare and atleast once a day I AM EVIL. I feel that road-rage qualifies as bad character or conduct.

We all can feel the energy from other people good or bad and we all have been in situations that has made us think...
My wife feels that I am different because I do not make alot of friends or will not talk openly to strangers but I have always looked at things in life by telling myself, that if a room stinks then just leave.
If something does not seem right then it probaly is not.

Off to more threads and will continue to park rear-end first.

 

[another okie]

I think of evil as action, not character.

A person may be prone to evil actions.

Maybe it's a semantic distinction, but if you've ever tried to convince someone that "assault" is an action, not a rifle, or that "guns don't kill people, people kill people" you have experienced what happens when we start to look at the person or the object rather than the action.

 

[JohnKSa]

...you have experienced what happens when we start to look at the person or the object rather than the action.

You're mixing animate and inanimate.

Your point is perfectly valid with respect to inanimate things since they do not DO anything, evil or otherwise. They may be USED for evil but the responsibility falls on the user.

People certainly DO things and when a person is given to doing evil things, it's a serious stretch to say that person is still neutral--it's only the THINGS he does that are evil.

 

[another okie]

"You're mixing animate and inanimate."

I'm well aware of that. But in the course of a discussion about gun rights that point is going to seem irrelevant to an anti. This is the voice of experience.

 

[ms.k]

I've had that feeling a couple times and couldn't shake it. It's usually a piercing stare. Maybe some people just pick up on the spiritual essence of a person more(yea, I know that sounds cheesy)

Then again, I was duped right before my attack and thought he was a nice guy...but he wasn't, he was pure evil!

 

[justashooter]

Hitler, Stalin, Mao, etc., and other genocide types I believe were evil clear to the core.

What I don't understand is how they got so many people to do thier bidding? Were there really that many truly evil people as well? Or were there just enough willing followers to make the rest perpetrate unspeakable acts out of fear? Or was it more of a desensitization issue? Where were thier inner voices?

none of those fellows were evil. they were just ruthless to individuals they regarded as threats or below themselves. they believed that absolute power belonged to them on the basis of their having earned it, and all acted in the interests of their nation, rather than themselves.

the people who did the actual executions, were just following orders.

 

[entropy]

In answer to the question; "Ever get that feeling?" Yes, I have. There are truly evil people, and there are 'evil posers'. The gut feeling you get is what helps dicern the two. Whether a level of actual possession or demonic 'control' is invoved, the presence of a truly evil soul will trip all the 'red flags' for me. When I was into New Age beliefs, I could actually see the dark aura surrounding them. Ironically, such people are to be found amongst the New Agers as well as among 'churchgoing' people. I still can sense the 'level' of evil within a person, and like Anikan Skywalker's sword changing colors, I have 'seen' (more correctly, felt), some acquaintances' souls becoming more evil. Often, they realize it, and reverse the process, but some don't notice it until reversal is all but impossible. Unless you are firmly rooted as a 'positive energy' person, when you recognize a truly evil person, your best defense is avoidance. If you are well rooted, acknowledging them as evil (it is done on a non-verbal level) and then avoiding them is advised. There is usually a 'respect' of knowing you are cognisent of them. One must be very firmly rooted before attempting spiritual warfare.

 

[gaucho1]

Here on planet moron the primates with concept befuddled minds
regularly ignore the prime reality of being mammals.

Intuition is simple and accurate if not covered by dullness,complacency,
belief and habit.But this is planet moron.

I really enjoy hearing from people who have to some degree
awakened from the common stupor.

Thank You for the intelligent and clearly articulated posts.

Your fellow mammal and experienced moron.

 

[toemag]

Great thread

I believe that evil exists in varying degrees, I have known evil people and had my fill of them.

In the meantime I'm learning to deal with a sociopath, he will be cut out of my life in the near future, the lies that he has been putting out to other's of influence are getting a bit much, the saddest thing is that the people who he is telling them too are for want of better word's in love with him and his personality. I may have made a mistake and treid to warn a few of them off, but they have just shrugged it off as me being the one with a problem. He will fall in the end as the most of them always do, but the momentary damage done to other's never seem's to be sorted out in the aftermath. There will allway's be that rift.

Oh well we live and learn.

@ fredno,

I followed your link and was amazed that nearly all of the bases on the list could be applied to the person in question, having said that a third of them apply to the most of us, that think that we are normal , What is normal???