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Posted: 14-07-2013 11:44 Post subject: In the Air Tonight

No, not the Phil Collins song. Or not exactly...

I went into town earlier this evening, and right after leaving the house I felt there was "something in the air", an uneasiness that was impossible to shake. In town, people seemed tense. I had a vague, hard-to-pin down sense of waiting for something to happen. Eventually, someone shouted something rude, so I scurried home, telling myself to check the news just in case something was wrong. Arriving home, I found the verdict in the Zimmerman trial had just come in.
http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1336327#1336327

In light of this, the sense of tension and uneasiness makes perfect sense.
But I'd been avoiding the news for a while (trying to lower my anxiety level) so wasn't expecting it. The tension from people in town could be picked up by reading body language and facial expression, but I was sensing it long before I'd arrived there or seen anyone, with no external cues I can think of. The source of what was wrong was unclear, but the feeling (maybe "mood" is a better word) was plenty clear, it seemed to permeate everything.

I would bet many people here have experienced something similar. The fact that the phrase "something in the air" exists to describe it denotes how common it is. My question is, what exactly are we sensing in these cases, and how?

This experience brought to mind the times when I was living in a less-than-safe neighborhood. We would almost always know when there was going to be a shooting or some police activity. We could feel it coming. I'm not the most social person, so wasn't always up on the neighborhood gossip, nor in the know about what the gangsters were doing, but it was something we all talked about on occasion, that we could just feel the atmosphere in the neighborhood getting heavier and heavier leading up to an incident.

I've also had positive experiences with "something in the air", it's just the negative ones tend to be more dramatic and therefore easier to remember.

So, any theories as to how this happens? Comments or your personal stories? It would be fascinating to hear them.

(note to the mods - I did a search for a subject like this and couldn't find one, but if there is one I missed, please move to the appropriate place.)

Posted: 14-07-2013 20:03 Post subject:

I think if a group of people are tense or on edge, it's very easy to pick up on their mood even if they don't shout something rude at you. I don't think it's supernatural or psychic, it could be a matter of noticing quirks in body language or verbal language, even if you're not fully conscious of it.

Posted: 16-07-2013 17:03 Post subject:

I know what you mean. I've "felt" moods in the air, too. Often before a heavy bout of snow i find people to be ruder. Something in the weather maybe?

Posted: 17-07-2013 22:16 Post subject:

I recall how it felt when I walked through Brighton on the morning of Millennium Eve. It felt very tense. Everyone was waiting for something but no one quite knew what. As it was it was an anti climax from what I could tell.