11 People Who Trusted Their Gut Feeling and Saved Lives

Ever had a feeling deep down that something is the right choice? That’s your intuition, often called a hunch or a gut feeling. The advice to “trust your gut” means paying attention to these flashes of insight. It’s about following your instincts and staying true to yourself, which can often lead you down the best path. These 11 people are living proof that trusting their gut has saved lives.

• My brother and I were kids, playing hide and seek in the front yard of our house. My brother was 3, and I was 6. My brother was supposed to be counting and finding me, but he was taking forever, so I peeked around the side of the house to see what was taking so long. He had lost interest in the game and was standing near the front gate, which led to the street.
  As I looked, I saw a brown car pull up with two men inside. The car wasn’t familiar, and neither were the men. They both got out of the car and approached my brother. They started asking him questions and moving closer to him. I remember feeling panicked. I had learned about stranger danger in school and knew this wasn’t right.
  I ran around the side of the house, flew through the back door, and screamed, “Someone is trying to kidnap Steve!” My dad didn’t hesitate. He got up and flew through the front door. When the men saw my dad coming, they bolted and peeled out. From that day forward, we weren’t allowed to play in the front yard anymore. It’s a really scary memory for me. Ambam3434 / Reddit

• When I was about 12, my mum randomly woke up one night and suddenly had the urge to check on me for no reason whatsoever. I had just woken up with nausea and stomach pains when she came into the room, but I hadn’t made any noise or called out. We went straight to the hospital where I was in surgery, having my appendix out within two hours. Mum’s intuition is weird and real!
  El_Sidgio / Reddit

• There’s something about the air before a tornado. I was in HS, babysitting two young girls. We were in their living room playing next to a big picture window, and I remember looking outside, noticing how it suddenly became very dark and still. I moved them to the other room without windows so they wouldn’t get worried.
  Five minutes later, my mom texted to make sure we were inside. The sirens were going off in her hometown, about 20 miles away. It was being obliterated. 200-year-old brick churches torn in half. Thankfully, all the damage was material. slay_la_vie / Reddit

• When I was a teenager, me and some friends were hanging out around midnight. A caravan drives past slowly with a few people looking out the windows, we all look at each other quiet, and the caravan pulls into a nearby parking space. We all get up and walk to our bikes because something feels really off.
  A few minutes later we hear someone shout and as I turned around there was about 5 or 6 people getting out with metal pipes and other things in hands. We ran so fast, nothing happened, but I’m 99% sure we were about to get beaten and robbed. Took2mush / Reddit

• My husband used to say I’m crazy that I do loops around our area if there’s a car behind me when I turn off the main road to our little road. I tell him I’m not having some weirdo follow me home. He got followed by some crazy road rager once with our son in the car and had to pull a couple u turns to lose him. He doesn’t think I’m crazy anymore. People are. AgonisingAunt / Reddit

• Sitting in my friends’ backyard with their two kids, my husband, and another friend, enjoying pizza that my host made. It was a beautiful, clear day with no real wind. We were having a great time, just out of the pool and hungry for pizza, when I suddenly felt on edge. I looked straight at the kids (about 8 and 10 years old) and just said, “Get in the house.”
  We all scrambled, and a second later, we heard creaking. About 5 seconds after it started, a big branch fell off their pine tree onto the table where we were sitting. Thankfully, no one was hurt, besides having to pick pine needles out of our pizza. I can only assume that I subconsciously heard the branch starting to give. tomyownrhythm / Reddit

• I was hammock camping while riding my motorcycle through Arkansas. I had a dream that I was getting pulled over by the cops on my bike. The flashing lights were super bright in my eyes. As I woke from my dream, I noticed my blue hammock tent lighting up like flashing police lights!
  I immediately felt an adrenaline spike and went into full flight mode. I packed my stuff up faster than I could even put my boots on. I hopped on my bike in my underwear and rode a mile to the top of the campground where the showers were.
  The second I stepped into the shower cabin, the sky opened up and cloud-to-ground lightning started striking trees in the campground every 10–15 seconds. I could have been royally messed up by a lightning strike had I stayed sleeping between two of them. Doctor_Spacemann / Reddit

• Years ago, when I was still living at home with my parents, I drove home around 2 a.m. As I parked my car, I noticed a man walking down the street. I decided to wait until he passed my car and was far enough away for me to get out.
  However, instead, he passed my car and hid behind the van that was parked directly behind me. I guess he did not think I was paying attention to him. So, I called my dad, who was asleep, to come down and get me. He did, and when the guy saw my dad, he immediately ran away. I was lucky. Silvercitymtl / Reddit

• A shady-looking guy told me to “come here” when I was waiting for my mom under the apartment building. I was about 10. I ran upstairs immediately without looking back.
  Looking back as a 25-year-old, I can’t imagine why any normal adult would need to speak to a random ten-year-old unless the kid looks lost or is doing something dangerous. Glad I bolted. mac_128 / Reddit

• We had a lemonade stand set up at the end of our driveway, I was maybe 3, but my cousin was in her teens and my older brother was also with us. Some weird dude stopped for lemonade, he seemed friendly but made a weird comment about “seeing the engine in his car” and tried to get me to come to his car door.
  My cousin picked me up and ran us right back to the house and my mom. Ironically enough, I lived in a small town and my mom was actually having coffee with one of the local police officers in our home. The guy peeled off before we even got down the driveway, but he definitely picked the wrong house that day. MyToothEnts / Reddit

• During a Wednesday midday run along a beautiful river pathway near my apartment block, about 1km in, I felt people watching me and directly turned around and ran home (even though I did NOT see anybody!). I closed the two magnetic gates leading up to my door and didn’t see anybody around or following me.
  About 10 minutes later, two guys were at my front door trying to push it in. Luckily, I was on the other side of the door at that moment and pushed it back closed with all my force and began screaming. I managed to security lock the front door and text my apartment block for help.
  I was on the second floor, and they obviously watched which apartment I went into. Looking back at the apartment’s security cameras, they were able to see the two guys pull apart the magnetic security gates, two of them! The block then quickly changed the gates to a mechanical lock that cannot be pulled apart. Odd_Llama800 / Reddit

When you know, you know. 10 other people shared their stories of how their instincts guided them to escape from really bad situations.