70 People Open Up About Times When Trusting Their Gut Literally Saved Their Lives

You know when you just “have a bad feeling,” pandas? Intuition, a sign from the divine, a gut instinct, or an angel reaching out, regardless of what we choose to call this inexplicable feeling, it has managed to save many people’s lives.

One curious Reddit user recently asked readers to open up about times when trusting their gut managed to keep them alive, and they did not hold back. Below, you’ll find some of the most chilling stories where people narrowly avoided dangerous situations, so enjoy reading through these roller coaster rides and be sure to upvote the accounts that convince you to always follow your own intuition.

#1

I realized in my 39th week of pregnancy that my baby hadn't been moving as much for the past 36 hours. I decided it was best to make sure everything was all right, so we went to the ER. Turns out I was having preeclampsia, and he had the umbilical cord around his neck and was swimming in meconium. They put me on magnesium sulfate to bring my blood pressure down, and they gave me an emergency C-section. I and my son needed a few days to recover, but we're alive and well now. If I had decided to keep waiting and seeing, both of us might be dead.

Image credits: JessonBI89

#2

I almost drove through a big patch of tall grass on my dirt bike just for fun, but at the last second hit the brakes and turned around. Didn't know why. Next time I went there, turns out there's a 75 foot cliff over a river right behind it that I would have just flew off at top speed. Because of the scenery, you couldn't tell at all looking head on to it. I still don't know what made me stop back then.

Image credits: Quiet_Stranger_5622

#3

One time I was hiking after a storm and my intuition told me to freeze. I listened and a large tree just fell down across the trail in front of me, right where I would have been if I didn't stop.

Image credits: LogicalFallacyCat

#4

A few years ago I had a (rare) day off work and decided to get some Christmas shopping done. It was late November and the mall near me was having some really good sales. But as I was driving there I started having this weird anxious feeling. Like the closer I got the more anxious and uneasy I felt. So instead of going right to the mall I stopped at Dunkin Donuts for a drink and snack. I couldn’t shake the anxiety so I sat in the parking lot for a bit while I ate and drank. I opened up the news on my phone and the first thing that pops up is a shooting at the mall I was headed to. Obviously I went straight home. Did all of my Christmas shopping online that year.

Image credits: NoSleepNoCoffee1

#5

I was casually walking home and then a drop of water fell on my head.

My first thought was “Is it raining?”

And my gut was all like, “Run.”

So, naturally, I ran, and a whole f*****g air conditioner crashed down at the exact spot where I was standing.

Image credits: rhuwiwhx

#6

Offshore fishing, wanted to jump in to cool off but felt something...off. Just then the shark fin surfaced, and a nice-sized great white circled the boat a couple times and disappeared.

To be fair, I'd probably be fine, but I was done with the water for a day.

Image credits: Quirky-One-8900

#7

I had a sense something was wrong in my house but no reason why. I went around looking but couldn’t find anything wrong or anyone in there. Felt so freaked I stayed at a friends place. Ended up being a carbon monoxide leak—could’ve saved my life.

Image credits: Responsible-Bet-7485

#8

I was supposed to be going into a friends home (also a neighbor) daily when they were on vacation to put in their mail, etc. I just felt weird going in there for some reason, which was odd because I’ve spent tons of time in there. So I just put it off for a few days. On like the third day we caught someone moving stuff out of the front door in the middle of the night - turns out someone was watching the house, broke a back window and was squatting in the house. By the state of the house, I’d say he was in there as soon as they left. Local police rolled up and caught him in the front yard, as he ran from them he chucked a gun. Safe to say I was really glad I put off putting the mail on the counter.

Image credits: UglyBirdsAreCool

#9

When Ted Bundy asked me & my gal pal in 1975 to help him get his VW out of a ditch about mile down the road.
Seriously! He was early 30ish. This was at a rural county fair in WA State when we’re both 15-16 years old. It made no sense a well-dressed man of that age would ask young girls when male police officers & guys older than us were all over. We didn’t know who he was then. But that made no sense —so we told him to get lost & went to tell a police officer this guy was asking this of us of teenagers.

I later discovered who he was when at 21, I went to work for the same county’s Sheriff’s Dept & Bundy’s picture was posted everywhere. By then, they also know he tracked a local Nurse from the UW to her home town where this fair was located. Not a single doubt in my mind it was him! I see that clear as day every day in my mind’s eye memory.
I’m 64. I can only tell you, predators are everywhere! You must pay attention! Watch Dateline if you think it’s rare. It’s not. It’s an endemic! Pay f*****g attention young ones!
-signed Mim!

Image credits: CharacterRest7829

#10

When I lived in Toronto I was about to cross Dufferin. I'd only looked to my right, not my left. I took a step onto the street when I felt this feeling like I needed to go back onto the sidewalk immediately. I took a step back onto the sidewalk and about a foot off the street, and then a city bus hurtles past my face at what felt like super speed.

Image credits: Ellidyre

#11

My first boy friend ever and this was years back. We lived in a medium ish town in Midwest and I was a painfully shy girl. I was head over heels for him. He had a fetish for red stilettos and I wanted to impress and bought a pair. I was a gawky girl and didn’t have the dress sense to even match those stilettos lol. He loved them that I wore them to a lot of places. We used to have lots of picnics in woods and another place where we had to take a small boat across a river. This particular weekend, I just wasn’t feeling him at all and something felt really off. He was a bit older than me (think 15 and 19) but I literally worshipped the ground he walked on. Not that Friday though and the more he begged me to go to one of our picnics the more I refused. My stomach was in knots and finally I vomited on our porch (where we were arguing) and he left. Over the next week, people discovered a random red stiletto floating in the river and then a body was fished out. My bf had another girl on the side (or May be I was the side, lol), and he killed her sometime on that weekend. They apparently did the same “picnics” that we did. He was on drugs and not sure what else happened, but I could have been in that girl’s place.

Image credits: fuggystudent18

#12

Not my life but my brothers, when I was younger our family went to the local swimming hole and we were unpacking I was facing the tables while my little brother was by the edge, and he fell in he was about 2 so wasn’t very good at swimming I had feeling to turn around at that moment and saw my brother fall into the swimming hole I yelled for my parents and my dad dived I. And managed to save him. A couple of years later we were at the river and I saw a little girl stand on a large rock in the river and I had a feeling to jump into the river and I did, she slipped and started to go down stream and couldn’t get up, but because I jumped in when I did I managed to save her.

Image credits: QueenRhubarb

#13

When I was 10, I was walking to my friends house. A van stopped me to ask for directions to the park. A man was driving and a woman was passenger and she's the one who spoke to me. We had been taught in school (and by my parents) that adults should never ask kids for directions. In school, they told us if anyone ever stops you, take a giant step back before running away (so they can't grab you). So I take a step back and tell them I don't know where the park is. The lady said "I can't hear you, come closer" and I knew in my gut something was wrong. Out of fear, I almost listened to her but then the sliding door on the van started to open and I took off running faster than I've ever ran in my life. Ran all the way to my friends house.
I told her parents everything and they called my parents and the police. The police came to her house and talked to me and said that 2 other kids in our neighbourhood reported the same van stopping and trying to talk to them.
It was weird because before the van even stopped beside me, I had this sick feeling in my gut. As soon as it started rolling down the street, I knew something bad was about to happen. It was a couple of months before I had the guts to walk to my friends house again.

Image credits: shadowball46

#14

I was walking home during the summer as a hurricane was starting. I was crossing a neighbor's lawn to get to my best friend's driveway, and something told me "hurry up". I walked a little faster, and suddenly I heard an explosion above me. A power line had snapped from the wind and fell on the ground where I was standing, lighting the lawn on fire and missing me by inches. If I hadn't sped up, I would have been hit, no question.

Image credits: paperfairy

#15

I got a really weird feeling sitting in my car before I decided to drive home from college so I called my dad for a bit and just talked to him about whatever before I came home.

Driving home there was a car wreck ahead of me due to something in the road and I think someone got seriously hurt

Ever since then I've always had a feeling that would've been me had I not just taken it slow and made that phone call

After that if I ever get a weird feeling when I'm about to do something or go somewhere I'll sit down and wait till the feeling passes, most of the time I'll call my dad or someone else just to talk.

Image credits: tetsuneda

#16

My ex and I were snorkelling. We were on holidays and spent most days at the beach snorkelling without incident. But this day was different, we were snorkelling along a rocky area near a drop off. I had this horrible feeling that we were being watched and felt really uneasy. I signalled to my ex to surface and I told him I felt weird and we needed to go back to the beach. He protested because he was having fun, but I was adamant. Low and behold, we get to the beach and everyone is standing and pointing to the water. We look back to see a large bull shark coming close to the shore. Not long after a helicopter was seen tracking it down the coast. My ex never questioned my intuition again!

Image credits: Different-Escape-440

#17

I was working in the sales office at an engineering company. I was asked to record the serial numbers off a stack of large steel plates on the shop floor. I had to get someone with crane operating experience to lift the top plate so I could read the one underneath. The guy lifted it directly upwards about 6ft. I was just about to lean underneath the plate when a little voice inside my head said "don't do that mate, get him to move the overhead plate to one side". Just as I thought that, the clamp holding the plate failed and it fell to the ground, just in front of me. It must've weighed about a tonne. If it'd fallen on my head, I'd have been killed instantly.

Image credits: dineramallama

#18

In my teens - friend was driving me home once and as we were exiting the highway I looked over at her and thought, “damn she’s a crazy driver.” I then put my seatbelt on without even thinking about it. Not even 10 seconds later she made a left hand turn on a green and a car going at least 80KM hit us on my side and we went flying. The bruise on my chest from the seat belt was terrible so I knew I would have also gone flying if it wasn’t for the gut feeling.

Image credits: Flashy_Remove_3830

#19

This happened when I was a teenager and first learning how to drive but still creeps me out to think about. I was at an intersection where a lot of accidents happen (it is poorly timed and people try to run the yellow light a lot). For some reason, one day, even though the light turned green, I hesitated for just a bit longer than normal before proceeding into the intersection. Sure enough, about 3 seconds later, someone going way over the speed limit ran the red light for the intersection. I'm almost positive I would've been killed instantly due to being t-boned super hard, as their timing would've been right on target to have collided, head-on, with my driver's side door (in a small sedan, no less).

Image credits: Euphoric-Willow-1120

#20

I was in high school and visiting my grandparents. My grandmother had a standard transmission pickup truck she was driving at the time. She said something was wrong with it and told my grandfather to take it to get looked at. He drove it and said nothing was wrong but he was mostly deaf so I was elected to ride with him and listen to if there were any weird sounds there was a really loud sound from under the hood and it freaked me out. I got the feeling something bad was going to happen so I begged my grandfather not to drive the two last feet to the mechanic shop. He obliged and the mechanic came over and drove the truck the last little way. Just as he pulled into the parking lot something broke lose and flew up through the hood and into the passenger side of the truck seat right where I had been sitting no doubt it would have killed me if I had still been sitting there. According to the mechanic it was a 1 in a million occurrence

Image credits: tweetybirdlover

#21

Back in 2012 I was living in Spain with my best friend whilst we studied spanish.
One evening, we were feeling sluggish and a bit off after eating dinner. We barely made it through half a movie before we looked at each other and discussed wether we were becoming sick, and should just call it an early evening and head to bed.
We quickly got ready for bed, feeling sickish, and I was turning off the lights in the living room when I had a lightbulb moment of checking out the gas, but we were using a gas stove where you had to turn the gas thingy on and off upon using the stove itself (we never use this in our home country so we were just getting used to it). Turns out the gas was still on after we turned the stove off after cooking, and it was leaking gas into the small appartment we lived in, the entire evening.
If we would have gone to sleep, we would have never woken up again.

Image credits: rando_bowner

#22

My GF met up with a work friend at a bar. This girl was with a guy who gave me seriously bad vibes. He was fake friendly but his eyes were crazy. My GF didn't see it. I wasn't having it. I told her I was leaving, and she really needed to come. We fought, I left, she came running after.

Next morning, we find out the guy stabbed someone in the chest and killed the guy. I straight up said I told you so. He was f*****g crazy. Gfs friend spent the night in holding too.

I don't know if it saved my life but it saved me one helluva bad time.

#23

Atlanta MRTA rail transit. Headed to convention/training center. Shady character comes strutting in from another car into my car in dark sunglasses looking around, right hand in his jacket pocket, his left hand carrying a white plastic bag.

I’m sitting by the automatic doors (middle of the car), a girl I don’t know is sitting across from me. There’s nobody else in this car but the three of us.

Shady character strolls to the end of our car and sits for a few stops.

He eventually gets up and sits near the girl. Now both are opposite of me.

I have two pieces of expensive luggage and an expensive laptop bag, I obviously wasn’t from the area.

Shady character never removes his right hand from his jacket pocket. He doesn’t know I can see his eyes through his sunglasses and he’s sizing up my gear, me, and looking around.

I can now see through his plastic bag he has a change of clothes.

He talks to the girl but she’s uninterested, and they obviously don’t know each other.

The whole time he’s talking to her, I can see through his sunglasses his eyes are fixed on me, and my gear.

Eventually it occurs to me I have a choice to make:
A) Ignore the yellow/red flags that tell me my destination stop is going to be more eventful than I like after I exit, or…

B) somehow lose this guy.

For the next few stops I calculate the average number of seconds the automatic doors are open before they close, and see that my stop is coming up in a few stops. I need to make my move…

We stop…automatic doors open, shady character is still chatting up the girl and he shows no interest in exiting, and I start my internal clock “1, 2, 3, 4, 5…showtime…”.

I get up, and make my very short way to the automatic doors (I’m practically sitting next to them) immediately causing the shady character to stop his conversation with the girl, saying, “gotta go”.

Just when I would normally go through the automatic doors, I act confused needing to “adjust something” with my luggage straps, and wave him on ahead of me.

I then acted as if I was going to exit behind him, but at the precise moment he passed through the doors, they close and he stops his strutting, and I watch him through the glass as he turns around looking for me in all directions.

I sit back down in my original seat, heart racing, and I asked the girl if she knew him. “No idea who he is, but thanks for getting rid of him.”

TLDR; I faked out a guy who was going to jump me after my rail transit stop on the Atlanta MRTA.

Stay safe out there,
Dirk
[edit: fix typo for “Atlanta”]

#24

I had my gallbladder removed and it didn’t feel quite right afterwards. I was told that I was overreacting to normal pain at the hospital but was still uneasy and went to another afterwards against my surgeon’s recommendation (he also thought I was overreacting.) I ended up having an extra bile duct that wasn’t closed and was emptying into my abdomen. I was admitted for a while while they fixed it and then dealt with pancreatic issues that popped up from the damage.

#25

Driving on a freeway and SUV pulling a trailer with a king mattress got on and cut me off to get around a slow car. I instantly had a Final Destination moment flash and backed wayyyy off. For safe driving, they recommend 4 sec gap, I breaked and was about 6 secs. A car got mad that I slowed down and was tailgating me angrily. It was super windy, and I saw the mattress start to flap. I put my hazards on to warn the a*****e behind me, but he decided to race fast around me and flick me off. While flicking me off, the mattress flew up about 30ft in the air and landed right in the middle of the road. I have a tiny car and would probably be dead if I didn't back off far enough AND I saved the a******s life. We both calmly served onto the shoulders on both sides since we had enough space to be able to react.

#26

Finding a lump thinking it was a cyst, turned out to be a Cancerous Tumour. Highest grade (fast growing/aggressive) but lowest stage (1a) due to finding it early. Thankfully it didn’t spread because of my quick thinking to get it checked straight away. If I left it a few weeks longer, I might not even be here today!

#27

In high school, we had an unhealthy preoccupation with making small explosives from model rocket engine powder. In this case, we used a spent CO2 cartridge packed full of the powder, with a short mortar fuse, stuffed inside a crab trap buoy. A monument to terrible decisions.

I held the bomb as it was lit, intending to throw it, but the fuse burned out. “Maybe we should relight it?” My friend said.

“F**k it!” I yelled, as I threw it as hard and as far as I possibly could. The styrofoam buoy landed some distance away, bounced once, and exploded with what sounded like a shotgun blast. There wasn’t a piece of that buoy left larger than a crumb, and the blast radius was wide.

If I’d held on to that thing, best case scenario is that I wouldn’t have a right hand. Given the proximity to my face, it would likely have been much, much worse.

For anyone reading this, do not do this. This was a terrible idea and me and my friends are lucky to have survived to adults.

#28

When I was 16 I was asked out by a guy who gave me the creeps. I told him no repeatedly and eventually he began stalking me. I moved out of state for school and then found out he’d murdered two women who had rejected him.

#29

I was 9 at my brothers ultimate frisbee game where my dad was a coach of the team. (If this changes the story at all I was born a girl and since I was 9 at the time still presented and identified as a girl) I was with my dog and for context this was a large field with a fence around it so I was standing on the outside of the fence. My dog is a black lab and quite possibly the most friendly dog in the world like I have never even seen her growl so not a very good dog for protection. I was alone waiting for the game to start with my dog while the team was warming up on the field. A man comes up to me and starts petting my dog and asking me questions about me and her. He asked if my parents were here and I said my mom wasn’t but didn’t mention my dad was on the field. Since there were a lot of parents around watching their kids I didn’t think much of it and kept talking to him and answering the questions. He eventually asked if me and him could walk around the park for a bit while giving the excuse that he wanted to show me a good area for dogs. To a nine year old this was a perfectly reasonable explanation but something felt off about the man. He kept insisting that I follow him to a relatively secluded area of the park and I kept saying I wasn’t sure. He kept pushing harder and harder for me to follow him and I remembered my dad was on the field and told him I’d ask my dad. He got an oh s**t look on his face as I guess he hadn’t realized that my parents were here at all and so I went to my dad and my dad ran at him but couldn’t catch up. I stayed on the field for the rest of the game. A few months later I saw his mugshot on tv for kidnapping and murdering a child he abducted at that same park. So yeah I almost got kidnapped and would have almost certainly died if it weren’t for my weird gut feeling of something that wouldn’t normally set off alarms for me

#30

Not my gut feeling but my ex-girlfriends.

Years ago I was in between houses. Had a new place lined up but it wasn't ready for about 6 weeks. My little sister lives in the area so I decided to crash on her couch for the time.

My ex and I have been broken up for about 6 months at this point. Decently amicable breakup; We were still in the same friend group and got along. Then one night she calls me up crying saying she just has a feeling something bad is going to happen and will I please come spend the night with her. So at like midnight on a weekday I get in my car drive over calm her down and spend the night. No sexy times were had; We fell asleep watching The princess Bride

The next morning I drive back over to my little sister's house and find the're cops all up and down the street. Some idiot had gone cruising randomly shooting at people's houses. My sister was fine; her room was in the back of the house. But the couch I stayed on backed up against the front wall right next to the front door.

Sure enough, there were three bullet holes in the couch. Knowing how I like to sleep I think all three of them would have hit me.

#31

Was taking a dump in mall bathroom stall, mall was closing. All of a sudden guy comes into bathroom then walks right up to my stall and stands there even after I say “someone’s in here.” He doesn’t say anything and just goes to the sinks and starts talking to himself while the water is on. Literally starts talking about stabbing people. And he starts acting even more crazy. I think about trying to talk to him but then say F it, I finish up…don’t flush.. then open the stall door quietly and run out while he’s still talking to himself by the sinks. I run out of the bathroom and out of the mall. Hours after I get home I see on the news 2 ppl were stabbed by random guy in the mall parking lot.

#32

Back as an apprentice I had to take the first train to work (at 5 in the morning).
On my way to the train station on a Saturday I noticed I was being followed and unfortunately had nowhere to run to because everything was closed and I couldn't think of a safe place. So I decided to confront them.
I stopped, turned and saw two men following me.
Don't know if it was my imagination, but I thought they were menacing. I acted nonchalant and tried to make an assessment on the situation.
My gut told me they wanted to rob me.
So while I tried to come up with something I greeted them.
They seemed surprised and greeted me back.
I had some groceries in a bag with me (wanted to make a sandwich on my break) so I spun a story about me being in my way to my sick mother to bring her some groceries. I asked if they could please tell me the time, because I had to take a train to get to her and bring her the groceries and couldn't miss it.
The bigger one complied and told me it was ten to five. I had a five minute walk ahead and ten minutes to spare.
Then I acted as if I had forgotten some groceries home and had to check. I pulled the bread out and rummaged in my bag, then muttered that I had forgotten the cheese home and had no time to go back and no money left for this month to buy it because I was an apprentice and my wage was so low. It was kind of half lie because I was an apprentice with a really low income and had a sick mother, but she just had the flu.
Well, they looked me up and down while I tried to appear as broke as I possibly could and not worth the trouble.
And they kind of seemed unsure, so I plastered a half smile, wished them a nice day, turned and left for my train. After some steps I half turned and checked if they were following me and saw how the smaller one pocketed a knife. That's when I started to shake and everything seemed to blur.
I got to the train station and made it to my train safely.
God, I shook really bad and couldn't do anything for nearly half an hour.
Then I had to change the train and snapped out of it. On my next train I called the police to report everything but the man didn't believe me and discouraged me from coming in and report the incident because it was like out of a storybook and it seemed to him that I was lying.

Well, on Wednesday I read in the news that on Monday a man was robbed on his way to work by two men and he was wounded with a knife (!!!) because he didn't comply.
But the criminals were cought pretty quick.
I just sat there and stared.
That stupid policeman didn't believe me!!!

#33

This happened years ago.

I was tasked by my mother to get groceries from a shop.( it was about 3 to 4 blocks down where I was) About 15 feet or 5 metres near the shop, I saw my best friend's father's vehicle ( His occupation: Police force) I knew from experience that sometimes bad sht happens when the Police force use private-owned vehicles, and my *Gut instinct* told me to leave immediately. While walking back home(also forgetting the groceries) I had gunshots from the distances. Later that day, local news reported that very shop was getting robbed but Police force intervene and shot 4 of the 5 arm-robbers and stray bullets injured 3 pedestrians that's the statement my best friend's father told the reporter.
My mother hugged me and was thankful I came back home.
Ps: Yes, they got the fifth robber and is currently serving time behind bars.

#34

TW: the bottom does involve death and PTSD so don’t read if that makes you uncomfortable (not graphic but it is mentioned)

When I was 20 I visited my friend in Austin for New Year’s Eve. He threw a party at his apartment and it was a great night and we were the last two standing. We looked around and noted all the comfy spaces to sleep were taken up and people had already fallen asleep in his bed. He looked at me and said “I can wake them up or I have my brother’s apartment key because he’s out of town and I’m watching his place. He wouldn’t care if we crashed there” and it was a very distinct feeling of “choose the brother’s place” and even though I normally probably would have chosen that option so as to not perform the impossible task of waking drunk people up, it was more a “don’t sleep in this apartment tonight” feeling. And I trusted all those people so it wasn’t a case of someone being creepy or anything.

Well we sleep in and wake up around 10/11ish and we’re both like…. It’s really weird we haven’t heard from anyone yet because surely they would have woken up and realized we’re gone and been slightly concerned?? So we start calling people and no one is answering. We go back to his apartment and everyone is gone and we’re like wtf surely they didn’t go to brunch without us and are now just not answering phones? Finally one of the girls called me and they were all at the hospital because a guy broke into the apartment and attacked my friends roommate in her sleep (strangled her and left her for dead but basically her being so drunk is what saved her is what the hospital basically said because her body didn’t tense up the same way it would have and it probably helped her appear more dead when the guy thought he was successful) he also cut another girl’s shirt off with some scissors which woke her up and that for some reason scared him and he ran off. He was successful in killing two other women in the neighborhood that night. It came out later he was a solider with ptsd and once his composite photos started circulating he realized it was him so I guess he was blacking out and attacking women during those periods. He unalived himself amongst a bunch of his composite photos and that’s how his roommate got home and found him (we only know this because my friends roommate was told by the cops that this was definitely the man that strangled her).

So yeah definitely luck and coincidence that me and my friend were just the last ones standing at the end of the night and had a second place to go but still would have been completely in my friends right to kick the people out of his bed but I didn’t even try to have the “well it’s your place totally up to you” I went straight to “yeah let’s get out of here”

#35

In third grade, my class took a late springtime field trip to a famous museum on the east coast. We all went outside to grab our lunches from the bus and eat on the concrete stairs that led to the entrance of the museum. I wasn't very hungry and finished early. The student:teacher ratio was about 20:1, so we weren't well chaperoned. As others continued to eat their lunch, I decided to look around and kept walking until I found the side of the museum. It led to an empty alley. I looked for no more than two seconds before deciding there was nothing interesting. As soon as I turned around, my eyes met those of a man in his early thirties that was walking toward me. His eyes shifted and I immediately started running back toward the group, shouting the name of my teacher that was not even in sight. The man immediately turned around and sped walked back into the crowd of passerbys on the sidewalk.

As an adult, I believe the man thought I was going to continue into the alley, upon which time he most likely would have attempted to abduct me. I saw evil in his face and his quick and fluid decision to retreat makes me think he had established a set of rules or had experience with how to mitigate risk during his hunt. I know this sounds a bit extreme, but I felt (and feel) in my bones that I was his target and that he had been stalking me, unnoticed, since we began eating our lunches; most likely observing my entire class, wating for someone to become separated.

He seemed very surprised that I immediately sensed danger. It felt like he knew that I knew. I have little doubt that I would have gone missing if I decided to explore that alley.

#36

I started showing symptoms of having problems. Serious health problems; passing out, seizures etc. Went to a neurologist who sent me to one single MRI and deemed the mass in my brain to be 'nothing'.



My gut told me to not trust it. So I went to my doctor and asked for a second opinion, got sent to a neurosurgeon who put me through a bunch of tests and procedures. I just found out a couple days ago that not only is it a brain tumour, but it's turning into something dangerous. It has the same mutation cells found only in cancer cells and in the big brain cancer that has a low survival rate. I don't know if my gut feeling saved my life because I could very well die from this in the end, but my gut feeling has given me a chance.

#37

There was a guy I had my eye on at the gym. We became “friends” and one night he called me super drunk, I drove him home as I was sober. We ended up having sex. In the middle of it he slapped my face, hard, and then gave a gleeful little laugh. I couldn’t get out of there soon enough. It chilled me to the bone, that laugh. He got married and ended up beating his wife to death.

#38

When we were dating, we were on our way to the movies. Something about the car next to us was just bothering me. So I said so. And I got into a different lane. A few yards down the highway, the hubcap came off said car and went flying into the space we had just occupied.

Spouse still bringing that event up today, 13 years later.

#39

When my bestfriend and I(about 12yrs old) lived close to each other we would take a shortcut behind my house's street that was no more than an empty dirt lot that the developers used to store extra materials. Now that it was empty and connected to desert land all types of people would walk through. One night we noticed a stray large dog to the distance and at first paid no mind because coyotes don't really come up to humans or even stalk people near by. Nope, it was a giant German Shepard and before either one of us could really register that it wasn't a coyote we booked it full speed to my house and realized it was charging us. After we got into the house and she caught her breath she tells me she also saw a man that had been walking that dog around our neighborhood earlier that week and that's what set her into the sprint (I ran because I already didn't really trust larger dogs at the time and we had that instinctual pause before the flight response) she never saw him again and we never saw the dog again. We learned our lesson and had our dads drive us back and forth or only walk during the day on the sidewalks.

#40

Refusing to travel in a car that my gut instinct and years of dreams were telling me to get far away from.

All 3 occupants the driver, his best friends sister and her child died less than 10 mins after I walked away. He was discovered to have consumed a significant quantity of cocaine that night.

#41

I have many stories because my gut instinct is strong, but I thought I'd share one about one of my cats. At the time, I had two 1 ½ yr old bonded siblings from a local rescue as well as a 6 month old.

I was giving my 3 cats supervised outside time. It was just before noon on a sunny day, which is a nice break from the fog we normally have. The cats were chasing butterflies, chattering at birds, eating catgrass, and getting intoxicated on the catnip I grew for them. I was relaxing in my patio chair reading a book when suddenly I got this sense that something was amiss so I looked up from my book and out the corner of my eye I thought I saw a flash of red and dark brown in a blurred reflection on the window of my sunroom. I just knew something was about to happen if i didn't act. I quickly made the noise I use to get their attention and I called for my older cats to go inside, which they were trained to listen to, so they immediately ran inside, then I looked over to the little one who was rolling around on a patch of warm cement just soaking up all the sun. The youngling, has a fiery spirit and hadn't learned inside means to go in yet, so I walked over to them and stood above them when suddenly a gorgeous red-tailed hawk had just circled around the corner of the house and was coming in hot they were close enough to me to touch had I been inclined to. The hawk, having realized I moved and was now guarding the kitten, quickly aborted its attempt to snatch up the meal it so desired. Had my gut instinct not alerted me to the danger me and my older cats would have surely been grieving over a much different story.

Edit: some photos of the kitties in case anyone wants them. [Kitten](https://ift.tt/efplItm) [Kitties](https://ift.tt/BV8c1MW) [blep](https://ift.tt/FA0f1rw)

#42

was at a party saw a guy dressed like he was a spy from a 90s movie (on halloween) didn't like the look of him was being a jerk to everyone that night i was gonna confront him but i looked at him and i just froze terror like i never felt coarsed through my body he locked eyes with me i swear time slowed down he looked at me a second and said something i dont remember i got my friends and few days later on the news i see that he killed 3 people and put the bodys in a wood chipper two of the people he killed were at that party all people that tried to make him leave

#43

I was 36 weeks pregnant. I wanted to skip my appointment and sleep, but my mom made me get up. In the bathroom, I just had a gut feeling something was wrong. I rushed to get dressed as fast as my pregnant body could.

Turns out my blood pressure was dangerously high. I had my daughter within 24 hours via emergency c section after a failed induction where she went into distress.

#44

Didn't save my life but my girlfriend's.

My girlfriend (at the time) and I had returned to our hotel room from a long night out bar hopping searching for a place to celebrate NYE the next night. This was the drunkest I've ever seen my ex. She was completely annihilated, I would later learn she was blackout drunk at this point.

My girlfriend wanted to take a shower before going to bed, and I sat on the edge of the bed, laid back, and fell asleep. Something to know about me: if I am very intoxicated, once I'm asleep I will not be waking up for the next 4 hours minimum. Like I'm completely dead to the world.

However, this night was different. I was RIPPED awake out of nowhere with a horrible feeling in my gut. Something was VERY WRONG. I immediately run to bathroom, where I see the tub overflowing and my ex, completely naked, with her lips and nose floating millimeters above the surface of the water in the tub.

I immediately grab her up, and notice her foot and leg had stopped the drain and emergency drain. She was barely conscious, as I dried her off and put her to bed. I then cleaned up the mess in the bathroom. When we woke up in the morning, she remembered nothing.

If I hadn't grabbed her up I'm certain she would have drowned. I am also very certain that my subconscious or "god" intervened to prevent my girlfriend from drowning in the tub. That feeling I felt waking up is the most terrifying feeling I've ever felt.

#45

Was walking home from uni one night and there were two different ways I could take. I debated with myself for a minute and decided to take the straight through road since there weren't a whole lot of cars out.

The next day the whole school got a crime alert for a shooting that happened while I was heading home. It was at the time I was out and happened on the road I decided not to take. The attack was random, so there's a chance I might not have been the victim even if I had walked down that street, I am very grateful I didn't go that way.

#46

I (then 38F) was on a day hike alone on a trail that had many options to branch off to. There was only one I had not done yet that went over a steep slope and took you to the edge of a cliff with a view of the ocean. I was super excited to try this route. I built my whole day around it.

I arrived to the fork in the trail that would have led me there, and started off on that path. I immediately felt like I was being watched. I walked for about 2-3 minutes when a rush of fear came over me and I turned around and went back the way I came. When I got back to the fork and looked back to see where I had just come from, a man was standing about 100 yards away staring at me. I did the awkward wave and said, “hi” in hope that he was just another hiker feeling awkward to suddenly see another human but he just kept staring silently. My gut said HELL NO, and I knew it was time to go. Instead of going right to head back toward my car (5 miles away) I decided to go left take the short one mile trail to a nearby lighthouse where I knew I would run into tourists.

As I started the walk I looked back toward the man and he was MUCH closer than before- as though he started running and soon as I turned my back to him. That’s when I started running too. Luckily the path toward the lighthouse was down hill so I flew to the bottom without looking back. I ran out into the parking lot filled with cars and people and found a nice woman who i asked for a ride to my car at the other trailhead because I was too scared to even hike back along the highway.

Luckily she believed my story and told me to get in. As we were pulling away I saw the man standing at the top of the hill......and he waved back at me while watching me drive away.

That moment still haunts me to this day.

I was dropped off at my car and let me tell you, I have never driven the f**k out of anywhere so fast.

Had I gone down that trail I had planned to, I don’t think I would have come back out.

#47

Not my life, but a life nonetheless.
Driving home through a residential area. No other car’s driving on the road, but some parked on the side. Got a strong impression that something was wrong, so I slowed down and became hyper aware. I see a door a house up slam open and a panicked man run out. I slammed my brakes and came within inches of hitting a puppy that ran out our his house.

#48

I was working for an oilfield company and we were doing some maintenance on a hydraulic pump jack. I had to be lifted in a basket about twenty feet in the air by the crane I was working on and loosen a couple of nuts so we could remove a part to lift some components. Once I got up there I took my hard hat off because it was so hot out and I figured hey what could possibly drop on my head when I'm higher up than anything around me. I loosened the first nut and then thought about how mad my mom would be (she's a nurse and never really like me working in the oilfield because of how dangerous it was) so I put my hardhat back on. When I loosened the last nut the pump jack shot up because the operator hadn't depressurized like he said he had. This massive nut flew straight up in the air and before I could figure out what was happening it landed square on my hard hat. The force made me drop to my knees. The guy operating the crane saw me drop and immediately lowered the basket to the ground. I walked away with a kink in my neck and a huge dent in my hardhat, I often think about what would have happened if I hadn't put it back on, thanks Mom

#49

My boyfriend at the time and I were house sitting for his uncle. My boyfriend was at work and I was bathing our son before bed.
I had the bathroom window (facing the backyard) very slightly cracked, and heard a cough from outside.
This house was in a residential neighborhood so it could have been a neighbor, but I suddenly felt anxious and scared and something told me to go make sure the back door was locked.
I left my two year old son alone in a towel in the bathroom and ran to the back door. As i placed my hand on the doorknob locking it, I came face to face with someone through the glass, who had his hand on the outside doorknob.
He started pounding on the door and juggling the doorknob saying he was looking for someone and i just told him no, they're not here. he kept jiggling the doorknob and i ran to my son and grabbed my cell phone to call for help.
Remember Im house sitting tho, and this was in 2004/2005 when they had those flip open phones, not a smart phone where you can just look at a map.
So i had no idea what the address was, or where the house phone was. Anyways, i call 911 from the bathroom on my cell, while hearing loud pounding on the back door.
The dispatchers tells me to find a house phone, piece of mail anything with address. I locate the house phone and call 911 from that.
so have no idea how police got there so quickly, but just as I hear the back door glass break, the guy on the phone tells me to cover my sons head with a blanket and run out the front door into the backseat of the police car .
I ran out the front door and saw 6 or more police cars all with guns drawn and straight into the waiting cruiser.

After they arrested the guy, they ask me if the machete on the back porch belonged to the owners of the house.
The guy had a machete and had I not trusted my gut that the cough sounded a little to close, and to check the back door, he would've walked right into an unlocked house to a 19 year old female and her young son alone.

Turns out he had been robbing houses and had a backpack full of stolen things, and was high on meth.

Anyways, super glad so followed my gut on that one.

#50

A couple of years ago, we had a ton of snow and a delayed Spring. When the snow finally started to melt, it was very rapid. So much that some areas had little creeks forming. My Dad and I were on a walk on a trail and stopped to admire a culvert that got torn apart by the newly formed river.

A large tree had already fallen down onto the path because the ground had completely eroded at the base. I was looking at another tree near the riverbank and thought it was likely going to fall in a day or two. "That tree is going to fall too I bet" I told him. I watched it swaying slightly for a moment. Then it stopped swaying, and I just stared at it for a couple seconds before I went into full panic.

"Oh s**t, run! Run!" We just ran without looking back while several trees all started coming down in a chain reaction. The tree I was mesmerized by struck right where we were standing. I think my brain realized that the tree stopped swaying because it was starting to fall down.

#51

Who knows but.. A couple weeks into recovering from a fractured hip I noticed my calf/foot turning red when standing up. A day or so later it felt like a minor muscle cramp in my calf and my foot maybe a little clammy. My mom said I was overthinking it, I knew something was wrong and went to the ER anyway where I was diagnosed with a DVT then 5 days later had a pulmonary embolism. Had I not gotten it checked out as quick as I did, the clot could have continued to grow which would only increase its potential danger. Thankfully the clot was small and the damage minimal all things considered!

#52

I was at a party off campus with a very f*****g annoying friend of my then girlfriend, now my wife. We were waiting for my girlfriend and another of her friends to show up. The guys hosting the party were sketchy looking and I had a “drink a beer and jet out” vibe. I was talking to someone I knew from class and I turned around and saw my wife’s friend who was sober ten minutes ago stumbling and slurring while some dude was walking her to the basement. I ran over, told him to get the f**k off my girlfriend and suddenly I was surrounded by three guys, telling me to f**k off and they were all partying downstairs. The guy who I was talking to walked over with some of his friends and I took the opportunity to get her the hell out of the party and called my girlfriend and told her not to go. We met up at the local Waffle House, and we fed her friend , gave her coffee and got her to her room. I later found out another girl wasn’t as lucky. The guys held her in the basement for three days, and she was repeatedly raped. The guys didn’t do a day in prison, because the girl left town and never came back as soon as she could and refused to testify. I always felt guilty about it, although I still don’t know what I could have done differently.

#53

My sister and I went to the city for our birthday. We stayed in a hotel downtown, and since we were so close, we decided to walk to the bar. We get there, we're have a great time, but it's getting late. Last call rolls around, and I decided to get us one more drink each. A man was at the bar we made conversation, he said he was alone, and so I invited him to our table. When we get to our table, a man is standing there talking to my sister. The men claim to not know each other, stating that their from completely different states, but they seem quite chummy. Also, the men were quite insistent that they needed to walk us to our hotel room. It hit me, I knew something wasn't right. I asked my sister to come to the bathroom with me, I informed her that I felt something was off, but she just thought I was overreacting. I told her we couldn't walk, we had to get an Uber or lyft. The last call came, and the staff told us we needed leave, but I asked them to please give us some time, we were trying to get a ride back to the hotel. For whatever reason, I could not get the Uber or lyft app to work. The staff told us they'd ask the guys to leave, we could wait a few minutes, but then we had to go too. My sister still thinks nothing is wrong until we go to leave, and both men are standing by the doors waiting on us. The staff tells us we can't stay any longer, but we can go out the back doors, we do just that. We begin walking down the alley, we get to the sidewalk that'll lead us back to our hotel, but we'd have to walk under this super sketchy and dimly lit bridge. My sister said if we run we can make it to the hotel, I told her no, because we didn't know where the men were at. I spotted a night shift city worker, we approached him, and I explained the situation. We're still trying to get a ride, but it's still not working, even when my sister attempted on her phone. As we stood there with the city worker, the two men came walking around the corner together, and they headed straight for us. The man that I was talking to at the bar got in my face and said, "What's wrong, Sarah? You didn't want us to walk you, Sarah?" The tone and the body language, it makes me uncomfortable to even think about it. I already had my pepperspray in hand, aiming. I told him, "Get the f*ck away from us." he repeated the same questions while he stepped closer. I told that m**o again with my finger on the trigger of the pepperspray and a loud, stern voice to "GET THE F*CK OUT OF MY FACE AND AWAY FROM MY SISTER." they both walked away while glaring at us. We continued to stand with the city worker while we tried to get a ride, but it still wouldn't work. A group of military men came strolling down the sidewalk, I asked them to walk us, and they did all the way to the hotel. I'm very thankful for them, I'm thankful that I didn't leave my pepperspray, and I'm thankful that my sister is safe. I don't know if it actually saved our lives, but there's no telling what could've happened. Next time, the ride situation will be figured out before we ever start drinking.

#54

It was my mom’s gut feeling for me. I was always an A student, skipped a grade, good kid, she knew all of my friends. I asked to go on a small road trip with a friend my senior year to see a college plus go to a party there the friend knew about. Mama agreed; i’d never given her trouble.

Suddenly, like on Thursday or Friday before the weekend trip, she just says NO i don’t want you to go. It doesn’t feel right! I’m like wtf? I want to have fun with my friends! Why NOT? No reason besides NO! I’m so furious at her as my friend leaves and i know she’ll have so much fun with cute college boys and touring the campus.

She barely made it an hour away and her car was T-boned by a truck, destroying the passenger side where I would have been and died.

#55

I was walking to a place where I was planning to submit a job application. I was in my first year of college, at the time. I came across 3 men- 2 were obviously coworkers or friends, the other was separate. To my right (where the 2 were presumably working), there was undeveloped field. I was on a street with no sidewalk, and I was following directions from a Bing map. For reference, I was an 18 year old girl.

The following occurred:

Me: Do any of you guys know where 700 Moore Street is?

Lone guy: No, I don't.

Group Guy 1: No, sorry.

Group Guy 2: No, I don't. Sorry.

LG: You're not from around here, huh?

Me: No, I live in the dorms.

LG: Yeah, but you don't really know anyone here. Right?

Me: I know plenty of people.

LG: Well if you get in my truck, I'll take you there.

Me: No, I'm good.

I then walked off into the field where construction was happening, because he wouldn't have been able to follow me, given everything in the area. It was Texas, so the probability that there were rattlesnakes was high. But the probability that this guy wanted to make me the latest installation in his cadaver doll museum, felt higher.

I don't think those 2 guys would have done anything, if he'd tried to force me in his truck. But their presence was probably a big deterrent.

I don't know for a fact that listening to my gut saved my life. But it feels pretty likely.

#56

When I was 15-16 years old (89-90). I was riding my bike home from somewhere, and I was almost home. I just had to ride down the hill, but I fell once riding down the hill, so I walked my bike instead. About a quarter of the way down, a small silver sedan pulled up beside me. The gentleman driving rolled down his window and asked me if I knew where a certain street was. I gave him directions and started to walk away. He pulled up again and told me he had been driving up and down the road for a while, then he asked me if I could hop in his car and just drive with him to show him. I looked at my bike and then looked up at him and said what about my bike, and he said he would put it in the trunk since it wasn't so far it would be okay. Something just felt wrong, and I looked at him and said just turn around and drive 2 blocks and you will find it and jumped on my bike and pedaled fast.

#57

Appendicitis. I diagnosed it myself even though the doctor initially thought it was nothing. My gut was very, very clear about it.

#58

Well, not my life, but my husband's. It was after a long day about an hour from home Halloween night. It was late when we finally got home, I was exhausted, fell asleep immediately, a few hours later, my husband woke me up, having intense stomach pain. I ruled out food poisoning because we had eaten the same thing that day, so I took him to the hospital because I knew him, this wasn't something simple. We sat in ER for hours, the just kept us waiting. I kept going up to the desk and said please. My husband us doubled over in intense pain! Finally they took him back, ran tests, including ct scan. Found nothing said we should go home until it "passes" . I said NO! SOMETHING IS DESPERATELY WRONG! They rolled their eyes, I said call his primary, he knows my husband us not an alarmist. My husband's primary ordered a surgeon to go in and see the problem. They took him in, came out and said his gall bladder was gangrenous and it would have burst and he would have died from sepsis. The surgeon clamped it off and removed it, said he would not have seen the morning had I not insisted something be done. Needless to say, I scratched that hospital off my list to EVER step foot in again.

#59

Got into a car accident. Hit my head but not too bad. Kept feeling like I should ask for an MRI even though my head looked fine. Turned out I had a huge brain tumor. This was later removed. Always trust your gut.

#60

My leg was in an insane amount of pain and I couldn't put any weight on it. Scared, I went straight to the ER. Turned out I had a blood clot the size of my closed fist in that leg. It was the biggest the hemotologist had ever seen without it causing someone's death. I was half a heartbeat from the unspeakable and I was kept in the hospital for a week under observation while I was given bloodthinners through an IV. That was almost 10 years ago and I'll be turning 30 next year. Had I not paid attention, it could've cost my father's life too since it's a genetic problem and my daughter wouldn't exist. I'm grateful every day of my life I went to the ER over leg pain.

#61

I had planned to have my second child at a birthing center with a midwife. When you go into labor you don't go to the hospital or birthing center (at least in America) until your contractions are a certain number of minutes apart. So I start labor at home and when it's time we go to the birth center. After about four hour of true laboring, pushing and all, they ask to check my cervix because I'm not making any progress. They tell me my cervix isnt all the way dilated. I tell them it's time to go to hospital and request a c-section. They tell me it's fine and my cervix will eventually dilate. I insist and they prepare my transfer. At the hospital I tell them, or more like scream at them between contractions, that I need a c-section. They assure me im fine and as I'm pushing there's talk amongst themselves about how the baby should be here any minute and there's no way I'm getting a c-section. No less then twenty minutes later they can't find the babies heartbeat and when they do its heart rate is dropping rapidly and my heart rate is suddenly spiking to dangerous levels. The rest is a blur, everyone is yelling, I'm being pulled on to a bed a wheeled into the OR, my surgeon is getting my consent verbally and then they tell me they are sorry but they have to put the catheter in while I'm still conscious. The last thing I remember is my husband being pushed out of the OR and me saying just go, I'm going to be okay. Next thing I know I'm waking up to my husband holding our beautiful daughter, healthy and just the most adorable a shriveled prune of a human can look. If I hadn't gone to the hospital and listened to the midwife instead, my daughter and I might have both died that night.

#62

I was at my friend's sister's quinceanera and this one dude was giving me the creeps, (I myself was 14 at the time) and when I tell you this dude was creepy I mean it, he had all black on and had a big, puffy, black vest on, in the middle of July.

Most of the party he was just sitting in the corner, apparently he was my friend's uncle. But he was watching everything I did like a f*****g hawk. This dude was definitely a stalker. (Mind you he's like 46)

Well I had enough of this s**t and I told my friend and her sister I couldn't stay as my stomach was not agreeing with how many tamales I had. Luckily they bought it, so I wished them fare well, called an Uber, and got the f**k out of there.

Sure enough the next day my friend texts me saying, "Your so lucky you left, my uncle legitimately stabbed a girl after she refused his affection. According to the police he was also an addict."

Yeah, I'm glad I trusted my gut.

#63

Leaving the bar once I was the DD ( so I didn't drink at all) , my friend asked for me to wait so he could get this girls number, I said no because I got a bad vibe from her.
Found out later she had a man with her at the bar. He shot a guy in the face when he asked for her number and shot his friend in the stomach.

#64

Last fall, I was having a lot of congestion and a wicked cough for like a week, to the point that my ribs hurt. My doctor thought it was just a sinus infection that was draining into my ears and chest. Finally, I had called out of work one day, and my pain started to get worse. I figured it was just muscle soreness from all of the coughing I was doing, but something in my gut said to call 911. By the time the ambulance got to me a couple minutes later, I was barely able to breathe. It turned out that I had an abscess in my lung which had ruptured. The accumulated pus and fluid had collapsed my lung, and I was in the first stages of sepsis.

#65

I *assume* it saved our lives, but it was about 10pm in St. Lious and we were stopped at a light. I was a passenger in my friend's dad's car and a seemingly homeless person started calling out to us on the street. Claimed he didn't have a cell phone and someone was dying of an overdose. He came up to the car and asked us to come out and call for help. My friend's dad seemed like he was about to get out to help when I told him not to. I've volunteered at Detriot soup kitchens before. My parents used to live there. I've been to Baltimore too. I've seen and heard a bunch of shady things.
This all felt very, very wrong.
We ended up driving off but my friend's dad said "someone else will call for them," so I don't think he was convinced it was a trick. But why did the man ephasize coming out of the car to call for help? We could have called from inside too. It just didn't feel right.

#66

Not my life but my brother’s life.

Had my younger brother visit me in college, we had somewhat of a party house, so we’re all having fun playing drinking games, you know, the usual Midwest college experience.

We all pass out late at night after some rounds of Beerio Kart, I go to my bedroom and my brother falls asleep on the couch. The rest of the partiers are sleeping on couches, the floor, empty bedrooms.

I pass out around 1am, full deep drunk sleep, when all of a sudden I wake up. It’s about 3am, and I look around wondering what woke me up. Usually I’d turn over, fall back asleep in seconds, the classic college hit-the-snooze routine.

But this felt weird, I was wide awake, looking around my dark room, something definitely off. I get up and open the door, slipping out into the living room to investigate.

Nothing unusual, I step into the living room, see my brother sleeping on his back on the couch, head cocked up nestled over the arm of the couch. I look around for a sec, nothing odd about the front door, nothing out the windows.

Then, mere moments after entering that room, my brother stars gurgling, dry heaving, making those familiar sounds, and begins to vomit. I rush over to him, turning him over onto his side, making sure it’s all coming out onto the floor.

I shake him awake, clean him up, assure him it’s fine, and wait for him to fall back asleep. I clean up the floor and couch, and then proceed to sit and watch him for the rest of the night.

That was the night I trusted my gut, and I’m glad I didn’t go back to bed. It’s definitely instilled some belief in the metaphysical powers that be, and I’ll always keep a look out for the signs.

#67

I was in the army, and working a late night in November. It was maybe past 9pm. The road I would take back was a back road, which was fine to drive during the day, but there were zero streetlights, so I only had headlights to see the road. It was also a heavily wooded area.

I told myself to drive below the speed limit in case a deer might pop out. Right when I had the instinct, a bear cub ran right across the road. If I had been maintaining speed, I'd have hit the thing. Perhaps the cub would have gotten injured, but where there's a cub, there's bound to be its mother.

#68

I was driving home from a friends house late one night, I was probably 16-17 years old and had a mustang so I was getting it down a back road when I heard this loud “SLOW DOWN NOW” in my head, louder than the music I had cranked up. I immediately slowed down to well below the speed limit and when I came around then next turn there was a train coming across the unmarked tracks.

There were warning signs about the tracks, I knew they were there as I had traveled that road many times, but there were no lights or cross arms and I had never seen a train on those tracks before. Add that to the fact that there are woods on either side of the road so it would be almost impossible to know if a train was coming at night.

#69

When I was 8 years old we had a “special” quiz in school. It was worth a small amount of our grade but the rule was that we only got the points if we took it home, showed our parents, had them sign it, and return it the next day. This was the 80s and I’m now 99% sure it was to ding my grades in class because I aced everything but had wicked ADHD.

Anyway, we lived a 40 minute drive from school because America and about halfway there I started having a panic attack and I didn’t know why. We were between these two semi trucks, a gasoline tanker and a cement truck. My mom pulled over so we could talk it out and then I remembered my quiz! We were going to be there early so we sped home, grabbed the quiz, and headed back to school.

As we got about two miles past where my mom had pulled off the road to talk to me we saw that the cement truck had rear-ended the gas tanker, which then exploded. The charred remains of both trucks, dozens of emergency vehicles of all kinds, and a huge swath of melted asphalt and burnt grass around the road told the story. Our little 1984 made subcompact would have been sandwiched right in the middle.

My mom turned to me and said “you should trust your panic attacks” which turned into a lifelong anxiety disorder, but hey, it saved me once.

#70

Not necessarily saved my life, but saved me from getting seriously hurt. I was a temp worker at a warehouse, worst 9 months of my life, I wanted to die. One day, my boss who had no training on the forklift told me to climb up on a ladder and move something out of the way of the forklift, and my gut said "tell her to turn the forklift off first" so I did. She scoffed and said it was unnecessary so she got this other guy to do it because I was being "difficult"

Well, she moved the fork up and smashed his fingers against the ceiling breaking every finger on his hand besides his thumb. The badass just went "ow!" and was like eh, bout time i retire anyways, huh? (he was like 70.)

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