Some people refuse to trust their intuition. They don't believe that their gut feelings can trump simple logic and observation. Other people, however, trust their gut implicitly, even against their own better judgment and the advice of those who know them best.
This list contains stories, shared by average internet users, about a time that they got the feeling that something was very wrong and their gut turned out to be absolutely right.
Don't forget to check the comment section below the article for more interesting stories!
#1 Like A Bolt Of Lightning
My dad was six years old when he heard a clap of thunder and immediately told the babysitter to call someone. “My dad's been struck by lightning,” he said in a panic.
My grandfather had, in fact, been struck directly by lightning while play golf with my grandmother. The electricity entered his shoulder and out his ankle. My grandmother resuscitated my grandfather and he lived to be over 90.
#2 Best Friend Intuition
I woke up one morning and the dog that slept every night on the bed with us wasn't next to me. I felt a stab of panic that I tried to rationalize but it wouldn't go away.
I got up and found him lying on the patio. That evening, he wouldn't eat. A couple of hours later, the vet suspected meningitis or something similar and we had to say goodbye. Such a gut punch, even still.
#3 That Sinking Feeling
I befriended an elderly man after a middle school project about WWII (he served on the USS San Francisco) and I continued to visit with him weekly all the way through high school.
His house was on the way home from school and I would often call to tell him I was coming. Being a 92-year-old man, he didn’t have a ton going on, but occasionally had appointments and such that took him out of the house.
One day, I called and he didn’t pick up the phone. I just had this sinking feeling in my chest that no matter how long I waited, he wasn't going to pick up the phone.
I got a call the next day from my middle school teacher (who also regularly checked in with him) telling me that he had passed away.
I got to speak at his service and I’ll always remember our time together.
#4 No Cruise For Kitty
I went on a cruise with my family when I was 23. Before I left, I was saying goodbye to my cats. The older one was 18 but in good health. As I was saying goodbye to her though, something inside me felt like I knew this the last time I would see her.
A couple of days later, I got a call from my friend who was watching my cats. The old cat had started puking up blood, so she was put down. I wept pretty hard that day, but I was grateful that a part of me knew to say goodbye like it was the last time.
#5 Grandma's Experience
My grandma and I were in the Corolla. She was driving. When the light turned green at a traffic light stop, she paused for about four seconds, enough to get the car behind us to honk. When I told her to go, she told me to wait, something felt out of place. Then, out of the blue, an Impala blasted through the intersection. Had we actually gone when the light turned green, the Impala would have T-boned us. Apparently, my grandma first learned to ride a boat, then a moped, and then a car. A huge part of driving a boat is to have foresight because boats don't stop as quickly as a car. It made her a wonderful driver. Unlike most grandmas, she's not a slow-poke driver, just cautious and super predictable of others.
#6 Pending Disasters
My wife and I were renting for a few years when we decided to take the steps to buy our own home. We had enough for a deposit, so we got a mortgage quote arranged. We went to look at a number of homes and found one that we really liked, so we decided to put our offer in. We were told that this was most likely going to be accepted but they were going to wait a couple of days before deciding.
That evening, I sat in bed reading when I had a horrible feeling that something wasn’t right. The next day, I told my wife that I wasn’t sure about it and convinced her that we needed to retract our offer, so we did.
The next two weeks were a nightmare. Within two days of pulling out of this offer, my wife was made redundant (totally by surprise) and she hadn’t been working at the company long enough to get much of a payout. A week later, our car broke down and was beyond repair (barring spending more than the car was worth). We really struggled for the next year or so and would never have been able to pay off a mortgage.
#7 A Best Friend Knows
I was walking back to my dorm from class and had a gut feeling that I needed to see my friend right away. I walked into his dorm room and found him on the floor seizing. He is fine now but it was still weird that I just knew something was wrong before I had seen him that day.
#8 Mammy And Daddy
When I was little, my cousin who lived 30 minutes away was my best friend. Our parents used to meet up at my grandmother's house every week just so that we could play together. Occasionally, I would go on sleepovers to her house. One weekend, when I was staying over with them, it was almost bedtime and I had a really weird feeling. I just wanted to go home. I was crying hysterically and my uncle brought me home.
Only this year I found out that my dad had planned on leaving my mother that night. Because I was crying for my mom and dad, he changed his mind. My mother doesn't know this, nor any of my siblings. My dad told me one night while we were out at a bar and he was tipsy.
#9 Gran's Last Kiss
When I was very little, I used to go visit my great grandmother every week. One day, as we said goodbye, I kissed her on the cheek and a thought came through my mind that this was probably the last kiss I'd ever give her. I shook it off but then she passed away before our next visit. I haven't thought about it too hard for years but reading everyone else's stories just brought it back. Nothing similar has ever happened again.
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#10 I Should've Ignored Her
I came down to my kitchen to find my mom's cup of tea sitting on the counter, full and ice cold. She was sitting at the bottom of the steps to her room and she didn’t look good. She told me she just got dizzy and needed to sit down. The more I pestered her, the more she told me not to worry; she just needed to lie down for a bit. When I checked on her a couple of hours later, she’d died in her sleep. I know something happened when she was making her tea. I just don’t know what. But seeing it sitting there gave me a panicky feeling. I wish I’d ignored her when she said, “I’m fine. I’m fine. Just let me lay down for a little bit.”
#11 Intuition At The Movie
The year that X-Men movie came out, I went to go see it with my best friend. About two-thirds through, I felt the most off I'd ever felt—sick, chills, feverish, gut drop, time-warped, everything. I peeked at my phone and I had dozens of texts, missed calls, and voicemails.
My dad had passed away.
#12 Mother-Daughter Intuition
My mom called me when I was out with a friend. She told me my brother didn't come home last night. She was very worried even though this is not the weirdest thing for a 21-year-old. I went straight home and we both felt like something bad had happened. At home, his phone was on the couch in the living room so we couldn't contact him. We called the police, etc. A week of investigation later, his body was found. He had drowned himself in a nearby lake. I miss him every day.
#13 Like A "Final Destination" Movie
The other four starters on my basketball team and our coach died in a car accident 22 years ago,
In the week leading up to the trip, we all had some sort of Final Destination-style premonition that something was going to happen.
I was ill the morning they left, so I wasn't in the car with them.
I went to school and traveled with other friends instead. About 25 minutes later, we hit a traffic jam and my friend's dad said: "It looks like someone's had an accident. I hope everyone is okay." I will never forget the moment of absolute terror when I saw my coach's 4WD obliterated by a big semi, head-on. It's etched in my memory forever.
#13 Don't Stand There
We had this regular customer who was very weird. I worked in an auto wrecking yard and he always came in. Anywho, a new guy and I were loading some stuff into the back of this guy's van. He got in to leave and the new guy was standing behind the van next to the building. I said: "Hey, I wouldn't stand there.." The new guy looked at me puzzled and moved. Sure enough, the weird customer put the car in reverse and punched it. He backed right through the wall of our office.
#15 Cheating Dread
My ex-girlfriend didn't come to bed at a normal time, but I knew she was still in the house; just in a different room watching some TV or something. This was a somewhat common occurrence and I usually just went straight to sleep, but this time I had a sense of dread. I had about an hour of fitful sleep and woke up to her still not there. The sound of loading screen music was coming from the other room so I got up to check it out. Sure enough, I heard a very faint sound coming from the basement and, long story short, she was hooking up with this guy who I considered a friend in the basement. I sat there for five minutes at the top of the stairs listening to them talk about their dirty little secret.
#16 No Happy Behavior
When I let my dog back inside from our walk, she walked right past me with no tail wagging or a happy smile. He went to the kitchen without wanting a treat, and then straight to her doggy bed. I knew something wasn't right, and within 10 minutes we were in the car to the emergency vet. She had a tumor rupture, apparently. It was clear what needed to be done. Still breaks my heart.
#17 Funeral Clothes
A year ago, my dad was in the hospital for a seemingly easy heart operation. My grandma at the time had just sewed me an outfit that was black. I had a feeling that my dad was going to pass away and that I would be wearing that outfit to his funeral. Three days later I did wear it to his funeral.
#18 Do Not Disturb, Disturbed
It was a little bit after midnight and I had just gotten off of FaceTime with my girlfriend. I put my phone on Do Not Disturb like I do every night, plugged it in, and went to sleep. About half an hour later, I popped awake and felt like I needed to look at my phone. I was glad I did. A very good friend of mine had called me. Instantly, I knew something was very wrong. In the years we’d known each other, she had only physically called me once or twice before that. She left me a voicemail saying to call her back as soon as I got her message. Her mom died of a heart attack that night and she wanted to tell me.
#19 Bad Poker Face
At a family reunion, I met my uncle's new wife for the first time. When I first saw her face, a very cold feeling ran through me. My father looked at me like, "What the heck dude?" Guess my poker face was weak.
Two months later, she died due to a traveling blood clot from her hip surgery. It was so sad as she was so excited and happy—a new love, a new lease on life from her hip surgery, etc. My uncle was crushed as you'd imagine.
#20 Don't Have Dinner Here
I went to go eat at a restaurant with my toddler, but something told me not to eat there. I decided to just go home and make a meal. The restaurant was on the news later because it caught on fire.
#21 Believe The Child
I woke up one morning with a sinking, panicky feeling. I knew my grandmother was going to die, I just couldn’t get anyone to believe me. I was young, so I lost it in the school lobby, screaming at my mom that I couldn’t go to class because my nana was going to die. Everyone assured me that she was stable and that I should go to class anyway.
She died that afternoon.
#22 Saved A Life
I work as an ER nurse and I looked after a patient who had a little dizziness, nausea and a swollen abdomen. She was fairly bright and able to talk, so nothing seemed too horrific. But she was slowly turning a grim grey color.
Our average wait time that day was two hours. I could have put her back in the queue and moved on, but I had a little dark feeling that there was something sinister happening here. So I called our most senior doctor out of a consultation and asked him to see her immediately.
Turns out, she had an abdominal aortic aneurysm. One of her biggest arteries had burst.
I’ve never seen one before. Within five minutes, she was barely responding. Within ten, her blood pressure had dropped to a barely sustainable level. Within twenty minutes, I was pouring blood into her and eight people were around the bed. Within an hour, she was on an operating table clinging to life.
Because I raised the alarm, that woman is still somehow alive. Feels good, man.
#23 Never Made It Off The Runway
I’m a nervous flyer. One time, I was taking a flight from Phoenix to Vegas and when the engines started up, all of the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I could swear that the engine on my side of the plane sounded funny. Just as we started to taxi, the engine blew up. Flames and thick black smoke started coming out of it. They shut down the engines and had us disembark. They offered us an alternate flight. I walked as fast as I could to the rental car counter.
#24 In Her Wedding Dress
I came home and my mom wasn't there. She was supposedly out for a walk, but my little brother was worried because it had been a while since she left and she hadn’t come back yet.
When I noticed her keys were hanging up, I got a sinking feeling that something wasn’t right.
Anyway, long story short. She hadn’t gone for a walk. She instead locked her self in a back room in our guesthouse which could only be unlocked from the inside. She wanted to hurt herself.
She survived.
#25 Climbing Over A Grave
As I climbed out onto a cliff to get a picture of a cave in the middle of a waterfall, something felt weird. I then began sliding down the cliff. I barely caught myself on a fracture in the rock, and eventually got my feet back on solid ground.
The next day, my sister had the news on and they found a body under that cliff. He'd been missing for a few days.
#26 A Second Opinion
I hadn't been feeling well for a few weeks. I had a shortness of breath despite being pretty athletic. I saw my doctor who suggested it was anxiety. He prescribed some meds and sent me on my way.
But I just had this feeling. A few days later, I woke up and had trouble walking to the bathroom without losing my breath. I don't know why it came to mind but all I could think was, "Something is wrong. This isn't anxiety. I need to go to the ER."
So I walked myself to the hospital and asked if it was possible that I had a blood clot. I was reassured that if it was a clot in my lung there was no way I could have walked to the hospital. I convinced them to test me anyway and it was a pulmonary embolism.
#27 Goodbye Kettle
One day, I was boiling the kettle to make tea and suddenly thought, "What would I do if my kettle broke? I don't have a spare..." The thing is, I was instantly freaked out because it felt like it wasn't my thought. That's the only way I know how to describe it; such an anodyne thing to think but it was like an external thought had been placed in my head from somewhere else. It made me really uncomfortable; such a strange sensation. Several hours later when I was making tea again, as the kettle was boiling, a blue spark suddenly flew out of the base and it died. I had to buy a new one the next day.
#28 Tingly Molars
When I was in 6th grade, I got a weird tingly feeling in my molars and felt like something was just off about my day. The feeling was really strong around the recess period.
When the school day ended, I got picked up by my dad but not my mom, which was unusual. We headed to the hospital where my brother had been hospitalized with a pretty nasty double break in his left arm. I asked what happened and was told that he broke his arm at recess that morning and had been brought in for surgery.
Years later, I got the same feeling and for some reason thought of my father. Thankfully, he was only in a fender bender that day.
#29 Enough To Make Me Wonder
I was driving home late one evening, and I had the strongest feeling that something was wrong. I took a longer way home for some reason.
Next morning, it turns out a tipsy driver caused a huge multi-car accident in the exact stretch of road I would have been driving on. The driver and two others didn't make it, along with another five or more who were injured. I'm not a superstitious person by any means, but this is always something that's made me wonder.
#30 I'm Really Tired, Human
One of my dogs was outside. It was late so I called him over, but he barely moved. He just kind of looked at me. My husband said something wasn't right.
We got him inside. He was acting weird. He didn't eat that day, but I didn't think too much of it at the time because he was still acting normal. We took him to the emergency vet. He had an enlarged heart and liver.
They said they couldn't do anything. We took him home that night. At around 9 a.m. the next day, we took him to our primary vet to be euthanized. He died while waiting at my husband's feet.
I had my hand on his chest, and I felt his lastheartbeatt. I still cry every time I think about it. I think it's only been a little over a month, but it's so hard.
#31 Bombing Avoided
We have this annual water festival event and our family friend bought tickets for a stand. It was on the side of the street among many similar stands. We were to splash water on the people walking along the streets from above. On the last day of the event, the family friend suddenly had to cancel. We decided not to go either.
The stand was bombed that day. So many died. We could've too.
#32 Alligator Alley
I was surveying solo checkpoints in an expansive swamp. I pulled up my truck up to this long earthen berm that I could either drive or walk on. The weather was beautiful, and I wasn’t in a rush, so I started gathering my gear to walk on it. Then, something told me in my head that I should drive instead. Half a mile down that skinny berm, I drove past a family of gators sunning themselves on the sides. If I had walked, I wouldn’t have seen them until it was too late for me to decide if I was on their menu.
I think of this instance whenever I feel like shrugging off that voice.
#33 A Narrow Escape
I was with a large group of friends including my brother, and we were playing man hunt outside at night. For those who don’t know, man hunt is just like hide and seek but it’s played outside and is a little more complicated.
My brother and his friend decided to go into a snowmobile trailer to hide. I told them I’d hide under the trailer. Little did I know, the trailer was balancing on two wheels. As I was under the trailer, I suddenly got the worst feeling that I needed to get out of there. Seconds after I got up, they made the trailer unbalanced by getting inside and it crashed exactly where I just was. There’s no doubt it would’ve ended me in seconds. I stood there in complete shock.
#34 The Worst Present
I was home from my freshman year of college for the winter holidays. The vibe in the house had been really strange and tense since I got back. On Christmas morning, my mom gave my dad a really heartfelt, personalized present. My dad gave my mom an expensive but generic-looking bracelet with some diamonds in it. She started openly weeping. Something was not right.
He told us he was leaving the next day. He moved out immediately, into the house of the coworker he had been sleeping with. It was not a good time.
#35 Odd Feeling Ignored
I got home from work and was parked at my gate which was broken at the time. I saw three guys walking down the road and had an odd feeling about them, but I brushed it off.
They were on the opposite side of the road from me. When they had finally gotten to the point where my car was parked, I hopped out to unlock the padlock on the gate. As I put the key in, I saw one of the guys running across the road. My mind immediately jumped to the conclusion that he was coming to ask for money until I saw he had a knife in his hand.
They ended up hijacking me. They took my wallet, phone, and brand new gaming laptop. Thankfully, I took all my bank cards and licenses out of my wallet before giving it to them and the car was recovered by my dad about 30 minutes later.
#36 Worse Than I Imagined
I distinctly remember waking up one morning and preparing for the drive to work, feeling a little odd.
Three minutes into that drive, my stomach suddenly got that awful feeling, that "something is very, very wrong" feeling. Mind you, my drive took exactly seven minutes—not a lot of time to think about anything. When I got to work, everyone was... oddly quiet. Really off, and solemn.
A couple of minutes later, I found out that one of the supervisors that a lot of people really loved, who was personable with both employees and guests, had passed away that morning.
I trust my gut.
#37 There's Food At Home
A few years back, I was coming home from university and decided to go to the store for some food. While walking towards the store, which was three minutes away from my house, I got the feeling that I shouldn't be out so late. I turned around and immediately walked home.
About two hours later, the roof of the store collapsed. 54 people had been inside.
#38 Crashing Down
I asked my dad to drive me to a friend's house for a gathering, but he refused. I normally would have kicked up a bit of a fuss, but I calmly accepted that he wouldn’t be driving me.
There was an air show happening that day. An airplane engine failed mid-performance and crashed onto the road. I would have been on that exact strip of the road at the very moment the engine failed if my dad had driven me.
#39 Bad Uncle
My brother said he was going to a friend's house. Three hours later, my mom had a gut feeling that she needed to find him. Turns out, he was passed out at my step-uncle's house. My step-uncle accidentally fed him something that he was allergic to and was too scared to tell anyone about it. Luckily, we arrived at the house early enough to call the paramedics.
#40 Two Accidents In A Row
Last winter during a really bad snow storm, my truck hit a patch of ice and slid off the road. I ended up hitting a tree. Luckily, my three-year-old son and I were uninjured, and the truck was still running with the heat on. I went out to check the damage when my stomach turned and I got this overwhelming feeling that something bad was about to happen. I grabbed my son and ran as far away from the truck as I could. Within less than two minutes, an 18 wheeler hit the same patch of ice and slid sideways into the truck, wrapping it completely around the tree. If I didn't have that situational awareness, my son and I would not be here today. Luckily, nobody got injured and the trucking company actually paid for the majority of my new truck.
#41 Criminal Vibes
My sister always got a weird vibe from her friend's dad when they were in high school.
A couple of years after she left school, everyone found out that he was a criminal. Her friend's family had known the entire time and helped him cover up some of the things he had done.
#42 Just Go!
My husband and I were on the highway with our two toddlers. We were in the center lane and almost directly next to us, in the right lane, was a black Jeep. We both had to be doing at least 70 mph. Suddenly, something came over me... I told my husband to speed up as much as possible and get in the left lane. I was overcome with this urgent feeling that we were in danger.
Sure enough, as soon as he changed lanes, the black Jeep came to a full stop on the highway and the orange pick up truck behind him smashed into him so hard, he fishtailed right into the lane we were previously occupying seconds before. Large chunks of both cars were flying everywhere. If my husband didn’t speed up at that moment, we would have been hit for sure. To this day, he asks me how I knew. I have no idea, I just did.
#43 We All Knew
We were on a trip with my family to a cousin’s wedding. I had a bad feeling about the whole thing but stayed quiet. I sent my best friend a message to let her know we were on the road and it felt like a goodbye message. Two hours later, a llama ran onto the road and crashed against us. A couple of minor injuries were sustained, but we were alive. Turns out, we all had the same bad feeling about the trip but we didn't want to disturb anyone.
#44 Mall Brawl
On a Friday night, my mom did a total 180 and wouldn't take me to the mall after saying she would just hours earlier. She wouldn't explain why, only that she wanted us to stay home that night. I was bummed, but whatever. The next morning, we found out that there was a massive brawl the night before that shut down the mall. Had she dropped me off as planned, I would've been caught in the middle of it.
#45 A Horrible Transcription
My grandma was the person who transcribed court proceedings. One day, when she was dropping my five-year-old mom off at the bus stop, she got an uneasy feeling about just leaving her there and decided to wait with her until she was safely on the bus.
Well, a few weeks later she was in court and a man was confessing to kidnappings. He admitted that he was planning on taking another child, but the child’s mom was waiting with her that day.
Then he described my mother, right down to her lunchbox.
