When we are faced with difficult decisions, we always hope that we can take a methodical approach to determine what move we'd like to take. Unfortunately, sometimes we do not have that luxury and we are forced to listen to what our instinct is telling us to do. The following stories by real people tell of times when gut feelings helped them get out of a sticky situation or even saved them from a horrible fate. Read on for some pretty juicy tales:
#1 A Mother's Intuition
My mom dropped my three-year-old brother off at daycare before she had to work in the morning. When she got to work, she had this terrible feeling something was wrong with him. She ended up leaving work and drove back to the daycare. She found the daycare lady inside sleeping while the daycare kids (including my brother) were running around the pool. My brother never went back to that daycare again.
#2 Lucky Cellphone
I had a gut feeling I should pull my wallet and phone out of my purse. Not even 20 seconds later, I get mugged. The man dragged me across the sidewalk and stole my purse BUT all he ended up getting was a juice box and my birth control. An hour later, I got a call from a lady a few blocks away who found my purse and random items scattered across her lawn.
#3 Two Choices
About 10 years ago, I was working security at a site about 50 miles from home. I got off shift at midnight and didn't bother to change out of uniform because I was only going to stop for gas. Two stations were open after midnight, but it slipped my mind as I drove past the first one. I pulled into the other, (same brand, same gas price, same sort of dump entirely) and just didn't like something about it. There was nobody else around but the clerk that I could see, but I decided to go back to the other one.
I topped off and headed back out of town. I got close to that station again. Three city cop cars, two deputies and a state trooper were outside blocking the road. It turned out, a city cop walked in on a robbery. The store owner knocked the robber out cold with a bat before the cop could recover enough. That would have been me, in a uniform with a nice shiny badge, but no body armor.
#4 Thanks, Doc
I went to the hospital with shortness of breath and my heart racing. They did a chest X-ray, a blood test for blood clots, an ECG, and a few other tests but they all came back normal. After observing me overnight, everything still looked good: oxygen saturation was perfect, my heart rate was still a bit elevated but nothing too crazy, and it seemed that it was likely leftover symptoms from a bad virus that I'd had a week or so earlier.
The ER doctor asked me how I would feel if they sent me home and I just had a bad feeling about it all. I told him as such and that I had no real basis for it except that I just felt off about it. He said: "Fair enough, let's try one more test and if that comes back negative, then we'll send you up to General Medicine and see if they can track something down."
That test was a VQ scan that found despite all other tests showing no results for blood clots, I actually had a whole bunch of them in both lungs. I ended up with a diagnosis of unprovoked bilateral pulmonary embolisms and I am on blood thinners for life. Super grateful both for the bad feeling and the ER doctor who was willing to listen to it!
#5 Sense Of Impending Doom
There is a legit nursing diagnosis called "Sense of Impending Doom: that is in reference to a gut feeling. Someone can't explain what is wrong and there's nothing obvious, but we need to take it seriously. The body somehow feels something wrong when the brain can't find the words. I've found this to be very common with pulmonary emboli, heart attacks, and strokes. The body is so weird...
#6 Fire Safety
I smelled burning plastic early in the morning at my family cottage and almost went back to sleep, but I got up to investigate instead. A socket on the outside of the building had caught fire and flames were shooting up the wall. The rest of my family was still sleeping and there wasn’t enough smoke for the alarms to go off. I got the fire extinguisher, got my dad up, put it in his hands and pointed him towards the fire. He stopped it and called the fire department.
#7 Burning Blueberries
About six years ago, I was up having coffee very early one summer. My husband and I heard an explosion and my neighbor screamed. He ran out back to see what was up. The guy was using M80s and a blow torch to get the blackberries out of his back yard. He thought it was AWESOME. I’m happy he didn’t burn my house down. We live in a downtown area where houses are detached but very close to each other.
#8 A Phone Call Away
My aunt told me a story about my dad, who greatly dislikes his sister and is an all-around jerk 98% of the time. He called her out of the blue one night while she was in college. She answered and he said he didn’t know why but he had this urge to call her to make sure she was okay. She told him she was fine and thanked him for calling to check on her. She never told anyone else except me, and hopefully a therapist or two, but she was planning to end it all right when he called her. Twenty-some years later and she’s very happy with her decision to live.
#9 Voices In The Dark
I was going to meet up with someone from the marketplace to buy a phone. The feeling hit me, so I called the woman and a man answered trying to play off the fact he’s a man. I passed by where we were meeting and it was dark. I heard voices in the background on the phone call as well. I never stopped the car and kept going. I’m pretty sure I saved myself from at the very least a mugging but learned a good lesson, always meet in a public place.
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#10 Last-Minute Decision
In 2004, on Boxing Day, I was about to go on a family trip that included all of my cousins and extended family on my dad’s side. We were going to visit the coastal South of Sri Lanka on vacation, as a group of about 20 people in all. It was a well-planned trip, but at the last moment, my mother didn’t want to go. No reason at all.
None of us could get her to explain why but she refused to go. So we went inland on a different trip to see some other relatives. Around midday, the entire extended family now on both sides were sitting shocked in front of the television watching the very same hotel we booked being washed away live by the tsunami. To this day, she still can’t explain what she felt.
#11 Don't Freaking Do It
I just refer to that as the "don't freaking do it" feeling and I've felt it a lot in my life. Most notably was the time my mother wanted to go for a bike ride with me when I was little. We were on a usual path, nothing strange. There's this park we often went to, but we decided to skip visiting it that day. It just so happened that a car caught fire at that park and a huge fireball explosion occurred next to my favorite slide right before we got there. I would have been on or near that slide when it was basically melted.
#12 Eternally Grateful
My mother saved my grandfather’s life when he had a stroke in his chair in their living room. We had all started to walk around the development, when my mother, after about 50 to 75 meters from the house said, “I am going to go back and check on Dad.” I went with her, and I nearly witnessed my grandfather lose his life. He was on the chair, conscious, but unable to move or talk… Just looking at my mother with bulging eyes.
She called 911 once, then twice when she felt that they were running late. The ambulance came, got him on the stretcher, but it was too wide to fit out the door. We ended up tearing the door frame off to get him out. Because he was conscious, he actually remembers the ride to the hospital.
He told us later that he heard the driver or someone say, there is not a chance that this guy lives. That was when I was around five years old. He is still alive to this day, more than a decade later. At my mother’s funeral, part of his speech was about how, without my mother’s actions, he would not have been able to spend time with her during her final years of life. And for that, he is eternally grateful.
#13 A Scary Moment
A big group of friends and I were walking home from an event in a town we weren't used to. It was at night, and hardly anyone was around. We were walking down a sidewalk that had high fences next to it; whatever was around it was out of sight. One of the girls fell behind (distracted by her phone, I think) and I noticed, so I started drifting behind as well to become a sort of midway point between her in the group.
Soon, we were nearing where we were staying, and the group rounded a corner. They started making their way into the yard where our living quarters were. I saw a car drive past us, then turn the corner down the street that the girl was still on. As soon as I saw it, I suddenly got this suspicious, awful feeling, so I stopped and went back to the corner to keep an eye on the friend.
The car drove past her, stopped, did a complete U-turn, and slowly started creeping up alongside her. She was still on her phone and she didn't notice a thing. I stepped out from behind the corner and started walking towards her. The car sped off quickly as soon as the driver saw me.
It scares me that someone could have grabbed her, and none of us would have seen a thing. It would have just been one of those cliche movie moments where you turn around and realize a member of the group is missing. To compound that potential tragedy, she'd just gotten engaged a few weeks prior.
I think the fact that we had worked with some safe houses in the area that discussed human trafficking probably aided in me being on high alert, and the area we were in was known for that sort of thing.
#14 A Suspicious Feeling
I was 15 years old and my mom dropped me off at McDonald’s to get breakfast while she went across the street to get Starbucks. It was a shopping mall in suburbia and we were on the way to pick up a new kitten a few hours away. Instead of walking the 100 yards to my mom, I sat outside waiting for her to pick me up. Teenagers, I guess.
As I was standing there, a guy in an old station wagon with two kids in the back started talking to me. He asked me if I wanted to get a ride. I told him no since my mom was across the street but he still came closer to me. My gut was saying something was off, so I said someone random who was walking out of Starbucks was my mom. He freaked out and left really quick. I still remember those two kids in the backseat. They looked so off. I wonder to this day if they are okay.
#15 Always Listen To Dad
I was downstairs helping my dad with some woodworking when I was 10 or 11. He ran a 2 x 4 through the table saw when he noticed I was at his elbow rather than behind him. He stopped and told me to never stand behind the board when it is going through the saw in case it gets thrown. I thought he was being overly cautious and I didn’t have as good of a view from behind him, but whatever, I got behind him. He flipped on the saw and ran the board through. He only got a third of the way through, though, when the blade hit a knot and flung the 2 x 4 hard enough to crash against the wall 10 feet behind. If I hadn’t moved it would’ve hit me square in the chest and it could’ve killed me.
#16 Saved By Accident
My former boss had a board kick out and hit him in the chest or stomach in his late 60s. They did an MRI (or CAT scan, I never remember the correct terminology) to check for internal bleeding. No injury was found, but they did uncover 11 aneurysms in his chest, stomach, and legs. He had surgery quickly after to repair the worst and then multiple surgeries to repair the rest over the eight years we worked together. An accident literally saved his life.
#17 Flying Saw
I had a teacher who was teaching in a class next to a woodwork class. The wall between the classes was very thin. When he was teaching, he had a feeling somethings not right, so he moved away from where he was standing. Not a second later, some shrapnels cut through the wall and flew pass where his head was in the original spot. It turned out, it was some kid using the circular saw and the tip of it flew off. If he hadn’t moved he wouldn’t be teaching today.
#18 A Cry For Help
I was an unpopular kid and I always wanted to go on sleepovers, but it rarely happened. In sixth or seventh grade, I got invited to this girl's house for a birthday party. I was friendly with her but not close. I went to her house and I felt weird right away. Her mom and stepdad were sitting in the living room, but being perfectly friendly.
The whole night, I couldn't shake this feeling of oppressiveness, despair, and danger. I spent the evening keeping my guard up and keeping an eye out for the entire family, without any idea why. At night, the girl begged me to spend the night. Even though it hurt to say no when I could tell she was desperate, I lied and told her my parents wouldn't let me.
A couple of months later, a student told me she had left the school and moved because her stepfather hurt her. I think of her often, and I hope she wasn't hurt that night. I'm glad I got out.
#19 A Twist Of Fate
My dad had to go to court to settle a way overdue payment for the place he worked at. He was going to take me with him so I can be more exposed to the adult world, so to speak. However, that meant he would have to leave the office back door unlocked so the rest of the staff could clock in. He suddenly didn’t feel right about it and decided to have me look after the office instead. He got T-boned outside the courthouse on the passenger side of the car that day. The car was totaled and I would have gotten severely hurt if I was there.
#20 It Could Have Been Me
My mom, my sister and I were going to drive into the city to go to a show for my sister's birthday, but I (being a temperamental teenager at the time) had decided at the last minute that I did not want to go. Normally when in the car, I sit behind the driver's seat. As they were going down a multi-lane highway at 100 km/h, a car a few lanes over overtook another car but clipped the car next to my mom's car.
It was so abrupt that they were T-boned right in the rear driver's side door... where I would have been. My mom's car spun several times but miraculously didn't hit anyone else and ended up on the side of the highway. The car was written off, but thankfully no one was injured beyond some minor superficial injuries.
#21 Trust Your Gut
I was president of a club and a guy who’d recently joined just set off my alarm bells, but he never did anything wrong. I still couldn’t shake the feeling he was off. I asked my best friend, a pretty burly guy, to just keep an eye on him during a conference we went to. Most of the club, except for me, went to a party at the conference. My best friend kept an eye on the weird guy for most of the night and ended up stopping him from taking home a passed out tipsy girl. I pretty much always trust my gut feeling now.
#22 Quick Thinking
I was falling asleep in the car. My friend was driving. All of a sudden, he stopped talking and I thought to myself, “What the heck? Something's not right.” I opened my eyes and turned over. The dude was having a seizure. His legs were stiff as heck and his foot was on the gas. We were going downhill towards a busy intersection. We had a red light coming up. I slammed the car in park and pulled the keys out.
The car started rattling making a weird noise but it had gained so much momentum it was still rolling down. I grabbed the steering wheel and veered us off the road into the side of an abandoned building. I opened his door and climbed over him. I was able to get him out and turn him on his side. The police officer that showed up was like: “You couldn’t have done this in a safer fashion?” I just said, “Sorry,” but inside I was like “Screw you.”
#23 My Boss Is Psychic
It was any old day at work. It was about to be the dinner rush and I was tired. As usual, I was about to go to the dollar store to get some RedBull. I asked my manager if he wanted to split it because they were two for $5... He initially said no, but as soon as I reached the door, he said wait. I asked him what was wrong and he said I should go later.
He didn't give me a reason. The restaurant wasn't too busy anymore, so I told him to screw off. As soon as I pushed the door, I heard the sound of something BREAKING. Whatever it was, it was broken, that's all I knew. It turned out, an SUV drove straight into that dollar store's front door and their red bull fridge. My manager has annoyed me like that a million times, but I'll never forget the time he saved my life with his nonsense.
#24 Dodging A Financial Bullet
We were looking at houses a while back and found one that was a great location. It would have been the perfect size for us and it didn’t appear to need any work other than a new carpet. I just had a nagging feeling about it, and my husband agreed. As much as we loved it, something was off with it.
I actually thought there was a ghost or something silly like that. We ended up passing on it. I was still kicking myself about it until a few months later when it had a major electrical fire. The whole house and everything in it was a total loss, and the family that lived there barely got out alive.
#25 Out In Time
I had mentioned to someone at the local plasma place that I wanted extra dough so I could go back to college. He invited me to a seminar for a program he did in his free time to earn extra cash. I went, brought a notepad to take notes, but quickly realized I something was off.
The presenter made it sound like it was easy to get people to buy $200 worth of stuff a month and only a few out of the crowd actually sold this stuff. Everyone else was supposed to be a new downline for whoever invited them. I felt a lot of pressure to join but ultimately I was so creeped out that I declined.
I didn't know what an MLM was, but now that I know, I narrowly avoided joining one. It would've sucked too since the starter pack was like $200, which is not something I could just toss out.
#26 Seatbelt Safety
I used to never wear my seatbelt. This was before they were annoying if you didn’t put it on. One time, I was sitting in the passenger seat of a car and had a gut feeling to put it on. Not even a minute later, we were hit by someone doing about 60 miles per hour. The cop said if I didn’t have on my seatbelt, I would have gone through the windshield. I always wear my seatbelt now.
#27 Stranger Danger
One time, when my little sister and I wandered off in the superstore, a strange man was standing behind us in the toy aisle. I was getting super weird vibes about him. He also looked super shady; he had a big hoodie dark sunglasses, you name it. So obviously, my first thought was to just move away from him because we could just look at different toys anyway.
Nope, apparently not. He just kept following us but maintaining a small distance at the same time. Eventually, I whispered to my sister that a man was following and we started walking in circles around different aisles to lose him until we found our dad. I remember how he looked at us one last time before walking away. I was scared of strangers for a while after that even though I was really outgoing as a kid. I was afraid he’d followed us home for some reason.
#28 Survivor's Guilt
My former high school teacher told me this story. He and his friends were bar hopping. They were all underage and traveling to a bar about 45 minutes away. It wasn’t like this was the first time they did this or anything. All of a sudden, he got a really bad feeling and started panicking. His friends made fun of him and wouldn’t let him out of the car, but it got so bad that they had to dump him in this small town in the middle of nowhere.
He used a payphone and called a cab home. The next morning, he saw that his friends had been in a car accident, obviously due to tipsy driving. Most of his friends didn't make it. Only one survived with a severe brain injury. His life was saved all because of a gut feeling. Sometimes, he has survivor's guilt now.
#29 Iced Out
I was driving and it started to snow. I noticed that I was going a bit fast and strongly sensed I should slow down. I did and a couple of seconds later, I came up around a bend with the road suddenly being covered in ice. I started to fishtail while sliding directly towards two people standing outside their car.
They had wrecked in the same manner that I was about to do and were standing outside their car, with me heading straight for them. I quickly thought of my options and ended up doing a hard right straight into the highway barrier. I slid nearly 100+ feet dragging the front of my car to slow it down.
Because I had decided to slow down, I was able to give the two guys enough time to get out of the way before I slammed into their cars. Even though I totaled my car, which was sad, I did not end up ending two people that night. The police did not end up ticketing anyone thankfully and they finally sanded the road AFTER we had all wrecked. Snow while driving still scares me to this day.
#30 Bad Teacher
I was learning violin when I was about 10 years old from an instructor at my local music shop. I got the weirdest feeling from him even though he didn’t do anything out of the ordinary. I wanted to vomit every time I looked at him, especially his hands. After four lessons I told my parents that I had a terrible feeling about him and I never wanted to go back. Luckily, they listened and didn’t make me ever go to him again. A few years later he was arrested for improper conduct. I have no idea how I knew something was off. He never did or said anything but I just felt it.
#31 A Turkish Thriller
A few years ago, I was 19 and studying abroad in Europe and my friend and I decided to go to Turkey. It was our first time really traveling on our own without a group and we decided to walk around the square outside of the Blue Mosque. We felt very safe during the day and decided to see the city at night with the lights.
As we were in the square, we were hounded by the typical store owners trying to sell us something. Finally, most went away and as we were going back to our hotel, a younger guy approached us. He said he had a shop on the corner with lots of souvenirs including carpets. I grew up with a lot of handmade, woven carpets from my parents' travels to the Middle East and Asia. I decided I could get them a nice gift. So we followed him.
We started to walk in and he told us his shop was not that one, it was the one around the corner. We poked our heads around and sure enough, we saw a store, only selling carpets. I started to get a slightly strange feeling but nothing overwhelming, so we continued to follow him. When we walked in, about 13 to 15 other men were in the shop.
They were pointing out carpets and I started to get really uncomfortable. My friend seemed completely at ease, so we followed the group around the bend to the other part of the store. In Turkey, it is common to be offered tea, so that part is not particularly odd, but the men, who were now circling us, were insistent that we have tea with them in the basement.
I kept saying no but they were leading us towards steps, completely surrounding us. We got to the steps and my friend started walking down. My body began to sweat, my heart went crazy, and I never had such an overwhelming fear. I kept trying to think of how we could overpower these men. I grabbed my phone, stopped in my tracks, and gasped. "We need to go right now. My mom just texted me asking why we aren't back at the hotel yet cause the map shows we're at this store. We're supposed to Facetime with them in 10 minutes."
The men kind of looked around and told us we can have tea in less than that amount of time. I kept insisting that my parents were freaking out because they could tell we were in the carpet store and not the hotel. I said that they would likely contact the embassy if we didn't get going. They continued blocking the staircase. I told them that we would come for tea in the morning as I still really wanted a carpet. It took a little persuading but they eventually opened a path for us to go to the door. One of them followed us back to the square insisting that we return to see them. Of course, we didn't.
I have no idea if they were completely harmless or not but I had never had such an overwhelming feeling. They easily could've knocked us out, placed us in carpets, and taken us out. My parents didn't actually have our location as my phone was on airplane mode... Who actually knows. On the other hand, I might've been paranoid, but it wasn't a situation I ever wanted to be in again. Once we were back at the hotel, she told me she was really scared too but that she thought I was fine so she went with it.
#32 Staying Home
A few years back, I went to university in Brussels. I would always take the train to get there. One morning, I just woke up and didn’t feel great at all. Keep in mind I have had a horrible flare-up of Crohn’s for the last weeks. But this felt different. Guess it was my gut. So instead of pushing through it as I did with Crohn’s, I decided to stay home for once. This was the only day out of two that I ever stayed home from university. That day, the attack happened on the train that I usually ride to get to university.
#33 Missed Flight
I had an important meeting in another city. I fly a lot but I had a nagging feeling about the three-hour flight I needed to take to get to the meeting. Two nights in a row before the flight, I dreamt that the right engine would flame out, causing the plane to crash. In the morning, I dawdled enough that I missed flight CP414. The plane made it just fine and I got fired. I got a better job two weeks later, so my gut feeling saved me.
#34 In The Nick Of Time
My boyfriend and I were visiting friends for a week in Phoenix. The girls were lounging at the pool while the guys were flexing their grilling skills. My boyfriend paused for a moment, stood very still then told me to go get dressed. We had to go. Right now. I wanted to fuss but something told me not to.
We drove straight through to San Antonio right to his parents' very rural house. Seconds before we arrived, his little sister had jumped off of a rain barrel and landed on a metal spike that went straight up through her foot and into her leg. His dad was at work so there was no car available there. She was bleeding like crazy and his mother had just walked out and found her. I don’t know what spoke to him in Phoenix, but it would have been all bad if we had not arrived exactly when we did.
#35 Don't Forget The Dog
I woke up from a deep sleep at 2 a.m. during a winter storm. Something wasn’t right… I immediately went looking for my senior dog and couldn’t find her anywhere in the house. My roommates had a tendency to let her out for a walk and forget about her, closing the door. I ran to the front of the house and found her laying on the welcome mat. She was hardly breathing and covered in snow… She had been outside alone for at the very least five hours. I moved out shortly after.
#36 A Literal Gut Feeling
I was walking to the barbershop, and for some reason, everything just felt off. I ignored the feeling but every step I took just made me feel like something wasn’t right, so I decided to just go grab some food and come back. While I was eating, I saw police cars and ambulances driving to around where I was before, it turns out there was a homicide. Now I always listen to my gut feeling.
#37 A Christmas Scare
It was Christmas Eve in my childhood house (not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse), and my mom had gotten a large TV for my dad and hid it in my closet along with some other presents. At one point in the night, she had come back into my room to retrieve one of the smaller items and ended up moving the TV right in front of my wall heater without putting it back.
I didn't notice and went to sleep a little later. I don't know if it was the smell or a gut instinct, but thank God I woke up because that night, I woke up to find my room filled with smoke and a nice orange glow coming from the back of the TV box. Luckily, no large flames had formed yet and I was able to stop it simply by moving the box out of the way. I turned off the heater and evacuated the room. The smoke wasn't super bad so the house didn't get too much, and my room eventually stopped smelling of it.
#38 Two Extra Seconds
There's a very fun road that gets you from Niederndorf to Vach in Germany. You can go 50 or 60 clicks along smooth tight turns and little rolling hills. All around it for acres and acres are fields of whatever's in season and there are no intersections for several kilometers. It's a very fun road to go fast on. This day, I couldn't see around the corners, but I knew the road well and was staying in my lane. I was going fast and smiling.
About halfway in, I heard a voice in my head as clear as if the speaker were sitting next to me and it said, "You need to slow down." It was startling and I braked immediately. Two seconds later, I came through one of the turns and into the end of a combine taking up both lanes and moving slowly. I barely stopped in time. Those extra two seconds of brake time saved a Volvo at least, but I'm pretty sure they saved my life too.
#39 Listen To Your Heart
I was offered a dream job at almost double my salary in a different city. It was only two hours away, but something told me not to take the job. I had a number of people tell me I would never have another opportunity like this, and my fear of leaving my hometown was holding me back.
Two months after I turned it down, that division of the company was sold, and everyone in that department lost their job. I’d have been stuck in a new city with no friends or family nearby, and no job prospects.
#40 Disaster Averted
My dad was driving to a client’s office to do some IT work for them. He left the house without his coffee mug so he thought about stopping to get coffee. Then, he just got a weird feeling and decided not to. He got to the office and went inside, and two minutes later, there was a massive crash outside. Some guy was driving down the street and had a seizure, causing him to veer into the parking lot at near highway speeds. Had he stopped for coffee, he likely would’ve just been getting out of the car at that moment.
#41 Rollercoaster Fears
I'm afraid of rollercoasters (mostly heights, but they go hand in hand). My friends and I went to a theme park and went on one that was in the darkness as it went underground. I rode it once, sitting in the back, and really enjoyed it surprisingly. When we reached the start again, there was no line (as it was the end of the day) so they asked if we wanted a final go before they shut down. Something in my gut told me not to go on so, despite my friends nagging.
My friends came back around a few minutes later white as a sheet. About three-fourths of the way through the ride, there's a big drop, then it goes fast. Just before that, my friend in the back's bar had risen up. Apparently, they had to grip onto her for the rest of the ride whilst trying to push the bar back down.
#42 Saved By A Ghost
My mom used to work in one of the buildings in Manchester (in an office) and one day, she got a gut feeling to move away from her desk because she thought she saw her deceased father waving her over. She moved away from her cubicle and soon after that, the building shook like crazy. Glass went shooting around the room due to a car exploding that day. When she returned to her seat, she found a huge piece of glass sticking through her chair which would have definitely hurt her.
#43 Thanks, But No Thanks
I was in the Amazon as the end of a three-month solo trip around Latin America. I wanted to enjoy one last walk through the jungle before leaving so I left my jungle lodge around 8 a.m. to walk down to a small river nearby. I stopped and closed my eyes to listen to the sounds of the jungle. It was always super loud with crickets, birds, insects, etc. Almost immediately, I got a weird feeling and felt really uncomfortable.
It was weird because up until then, I'd only felt peaceful and happy. When I opened my eyes, I realized everything had gone completely quiet, which was definitely NOT normal and not something I had experienced in other rain forests I'd been to. It was bizarre. I immediately felt that I had to leave and fast.
After I dipped and got back to the jungle lodge, I told the tour guide what happened and he said it usually only gets quiet when there is a big predator close by... Thanks but no thanks!
#44 Sparing Bambi
I used to just drive around country roads when I would feel stressed out or sad as a way to just get away and listen to music. One evening, I was driving with my best friend in the car and we were on a gravel road that had a huge hill. We were driving towards the sunset, but it was winter and the light was fading fast.
As the car started down the hill, I had this moment where I thought to myself: "My brights should be on," so I flicked them on. At the bottom of this super steep hill stood six deer on the road. I slammed on the brakes and the car turned sideways, skidding to a stop like four feet from the deer.
Those stupid deer didn't even move, they just stared into the passenger side of my car and my best friend pointed at them and said: "Hey, deer." The car was fine, we were fine, and Bambi was all good. I don't drive around like that anymore.
#45 A Lucky Nap
When I was in college, I struggled with bad depression and took a nap in the middle of the afternoon. I woke up to text messages from my roommates asking if I was okay and to stay away from the apartment complex. Apparently, a guy went on a rampage at a neighborhood birthday party less than a hundred feet from our door. My roommates were luckily at school, and I somehow slept through all the screaming, shots, and sirens.
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#46 Asleep At The Wheel
When I was 14, I was traveling in the car with some relatives on the highway. We were on the way back home from an early morning wedding ceremony. I was in the front passenger seat, and I turned back to see my aunt, uncle, and cousin fast asleep. Suddenly, I felt a strong disturbance in the force.
I turned my head to see my other cousin (the driver) fast asleep too, and the barrier alongside the shoulder getting closer. I quickly grabbed the steering wheel and jerked the car back into the lane. I gave them quite the rude awakening and cussed out my cousin for falling asleep.
#47 Keep Away
Well… when I was 13, a group of adult guys in a car pulled up next to me and asked me for directions. I kept my distance but answered their questions. They asked me to come closer, and a couple of them shouted that I should get in. I said no and walked away quickly into a bank. They drove off. I mean, maybe they were nice guys… but I always felt like I avoided some horrible fate that day.
#48 Dad's A Hero
My mom and her entire family were saved from carbon monoxide poisoning by her dad. He left for work, but he got a weird feeling and drove back home. Everyone in the house was unconscious, and he had to drag or carry them all outside one by one. They all survived. When it comes to situations like that, it’s always best to check your gut instinct… you’ll never know what you’ll find.
#49 Keep An Eye Out
I had a man follow me when I was in Istanbul. I noticed he was watching me and I went back and circled the block, he still attempted to attack me, but I was prepared and was able to get into an elevator quickly. It’s incredibly important to watch while you are walking, especially in a foreign country. You never know what characters you’ll run into.
#50 Almost Fried
I was sitting on one of those metal cylindrical electricity boxes outside my house when there was a blackout. Electricity was slightly flickering in my house, and no other houses had a blackout. I looked down at what I was sitting on and I was like: “Uhh, maybe this is the source of the problem.” I stood up and stepped away from it. Two seconds later, it freaking exploded. Like a pillar of flame shot out above it for almost a full minute. It was basically a gigantic Bunsen burner and I was a few seconds short of physically getting fried.
