Bizarre Feeling of Extreme Evil in Los Angeles (San Francisco, Pasadena: apartment, crime)

[chilbrensbrarbher]

Hi everybody!

I'm Eddie.

This is my first post on this forum although I've been lurking for quite some time. As a frequent traveler who has moved a few times, I find this place to be a great resource to prepare for a new city. Since there are so many knowledgeable souls on here, I felt it might be a good place to ask a rather strange question that might sound stupid to some people. It's been stuck in my craw for over a decade now, though, so here goes.

I was perusing the Data Lounge forums earlier and I stumbled upon what seemed a standard boiler plate hate thread about Los Angeles, and, as someone who spent most of his childhood and adolescence in Pasadena, I felt compelled to read what the OP had to say (for the yuks). It was all quite boring and typical, but then I came across one comment that worded a feeling I have had since I was very young in a way that sent chills up my spine.

Anonymous said: "Whenever I've been in LA, I always feel an unnatural - almost supernatural - undercurrent of evil. I'm serious. Maybe I'm just paranoid but I don't feel it in any other city."

Now I've been to every major city in the US and am familiar with many of them (currently residing in San Francisco cause work), and I totally agree with this guy. I feel like someone put some sort of a hex on the area. Especially LA proper, which has an almost mystical satanic-dystopia vibe about it (from my POV, at least). I don't know why, but the Grove has always caused my geiger counter of evil to go haywire.

I went to college in the Midwest for four years (yuck! sorry Midwesterners, not a fan ) and I will never forget the day I rolled back into LA for as long as I live. I didn't even have to get all the way into town before the evil vibes came rushing back--I could feel them from the freeway. It was like coming up on one of those really bad acid trips that you know is going to be awful before it even starts.

These vibes don't exist in any other place I've been, they have a very distinct flavor. I'd say Las Vegas and NYC are the only cities that sort of compare, but they are still not on the same level. Not the same particular, desperate sort of sadness.

I have a theory that all of the broken dreams and sad stories (looking at you, Hollywood) have coagulated into a massive occlusion which has shadowed the city, but then again that sounds completely insane! This all sounds completely insane, but I promise I'm not crazy. I tried really, really hard to ignore it while I lived there but deep down I couldn't deny it. It was the definition of a vibration, impossible to ignore, innate, resonant...the feelings were involuntary and I was therefore unable to completely discount them, try as I did.

Now, does anyone relate, even a little bit, to what I am saying? I have felt this way for years and have never spoken up about it, since I had to live with my parents as a kid I had no choice but to force myself to ignore it. Also, defensive LA people, I am not trying to crap on LA. I know people do that a lot and you don't like it. I just want to know if it's just me or there really is something strange under the floorboards of the City of Angels.

Also, here's a link to the page I found the original comment on FYI, refer to reply number 45:

[mod]link removed[/mod]

[sheena12]

Originally Posted by chilbrensbrarbher

Hi everybody!

I'm Eddie.

This is my first post on this forum although I've been lurking for quite some time. As a frequent traveler who has moved a few times, I find this place to be a great resource to prepare for a new city. Since there are so many knowledgeable souls on here, I felt it might be a good place to ask a rather strange question that might sound stupid to some people. It's been stuck in my craw for over a decade now, though, so here goes.

I was perusing the Data Lounge forums earlier and I stumbled upon what seemed a standard boiler plate hate thread about Los Angeles, and, as someone who spent most of his childhood and adolescence in Pasadena, I felt compelled to read what the OP had to say (for the yuks). It was all quite boring and typical, but then I came across one comment that worded a feeling I have had since I was very young in a way that sent chills up my spine.

Anonymous said: "Whenever I've been in LA, I always feel an unnatural - almost supernatural - undercurrent of evil. I'm serious. Maybe I'm just paranoid but I don't feel it in any other city."

Now I've been to every major city in the US and am familiar with many of them (currently residing in San Francisco cause work), and I totally agree with this guy. I feel like someone put some sort of a hex on the area. Especially LA proper, which has an almost mystical satanic-dystopia vibe about it (from my POV, at least). I don't know why, but the Grove has always caused my geiger counter of evil to go haywire.

I went to college in the Midwest for four years (yuck! sorry Midwesterners, not a fan ) and I will never forget the day I rolled back into LA for as long as I live. I didn't even have to get all the way into town before the evil vibes came rushing back--I could feel them from the freeway. It was like coming up on one of those really bad acid trips that you know is going to be awful before it even starts.

These vibes don't exist in any other place I've been, they have a very distinct flavor. I'd say Las Vegas and NYC are the only cities that sort of compare, but they are still not on the same level. Not the same particular, desperate sort of sadness.

I have a theory that all of the broken dreams and sad stories (looking at you, Hollywood) have coagulated into a massive occlusion which has shadowed the city, but then again that sounds completely insane! This all sounds completely insane, but I promise I'm not crazy. I tried really, really hard to ignore it while I lived there but deep down I couldn't deny it. It was the definition of a vibration, impossible to ignore, innate, resonant...the feelings were involuntary and I was therefore unable to completely discount them, try as I did.

Now, does anyone relate, even a little bit, to what I am saying? I have felt this way for years and have never spoken up about it, since I had to live with my parents as a kid I had no choice but to force myself to ignore it. Also, defensive LA people, I am not trying to crap on LA. I know people do that a lot and you don't like it. I just want to know if it's just me or there really is something strange under the floorboards of the City of Angels.

Also, here's a link to the page I found the original comment on FYI, refer to reply number 45:

https://www.datalounge.com/thread/10...f-los-angeles-

Strangely, I do understand what you are talking about.

My background - grew up in the suburbs of NYC in the 60s. Went to college in New England where I felt incredible peace. Left for a while because my mother was ill. Lived in NYC East Village, involved in the CBGBs Maxs Kansas City Punk scene.

In 78 I had the opportunity to travel to LA. I was a rock writer and critic.

I felt a strange feeling of murder and danger when I was there. Everything seemed tinged with sleaze and death. I had read "Hollywood Babylon" and I knew about the Black Dahlia, which I found disturbing.

Remember NYC, especially The East Village was pretty rough them. But I never felt nervous or in danger.

The music scene in LA was non existent. I mean there was the Masque and the Whiskey. But unlike NYC, the music fans were more involved for the clothes and the possibility of meeting someone famous. And sleeping with them.

I had a job as a waitress and nearly every night some middle aged man was asking me to come up to Topanga Canyon - or somewhere, because he wanted me to model. In exchange he would give me a portfolio of pictures. Of course I never went. I thought this was a sure ticket to my murder, No matter how many times I told these men that I was not an aspiring model or actress, the weird requests kept coming.

I also stayed in a strange hotel or furnished apartment with friends, I can't think of the name of it was famous because several young starlets had lived there. All of them had untimely deaths.

The six months that I lived there were some sort of very bright Kodachrome Film Noir type experience. The whole place felt falsely cheerful, but tragic and paved with broken dreams.

And yes, and undercurrent of evil.

ETA - I like to visit California, and I have friends who live there. I don't feel the evil vibes on the beach. But in the city of LA and Hollywood? All the time.

[theraven24]

I've never felt an evil presence throughout Los Angeles, the way you're describing it. Fun fact, I grew up and still live just a few minutes away from where Elizabeth Short's, aka the "Black Dahlia," dismembered and mutilated body was found in the 1940's. Her ghost has never haunted me nor my family.

There is evil everywhere, whether you feel it or not.

[LuvSouthOC]

LA is an evil dystopia? Are you delusional? LA is almost surreal in its aesthetics and vibe: the mountains, the bright sun, the beaches, the tall buildings downtown (and a few other places) and that electric feeling one feels in its hip areas (especially at night). I will grant that there is immense poverty in the greater LA area, but it's not the city's fault. LA is a victim of its own success. It is LA's beauty and fame that have drawn legions of poor people.

[NewbieHere]

If crime equals evil then yes. In general, I try to get the hell out of LA if I can.

[Parker501]

Besides being in a beautiful setting (surrounded by mountains, beaches, flowering plants) I actually feel like LA has more positive energy and vibrancy than most other cities I've been to throughout N America and Europe. To me the people here are more friendly and outgoing than other places, and seem to be overall more happy.
I'm from Toronto and recently made a trip home - I saw lots of people getting angry on the freeways, yelling at each other, lots of horns going. Its not often I see that in LA (maybe I'm lucky). My first week living here, a woman stopped at an intersection and hung her head out the window to tell me how cute my dog was and what his name was; I remember thinking 'this would never happen back home'. I used to think to myself how naïve everyone seemed here because they were just too happy and never really had to go through tough situations in their lives - now I just think its the carefree vibe that LA puts out.
Regardless, your comment made me think of an interesting movie I saw recently called Starry Eyes; its about a wannabe actress trying to make it in LA. But instead of making LA look beautiful and sunny; then whole movie depicts it as a dark gloomy place... it was kind of a cool aesthetic. Its a bit of a gorey horror movie; if you're into that its worth watching just to see LA in a different/evil way.

[theraven24]

Originally Posted by NewbieHere

If crime equals evil then yes. In general, u try to get the hell out of LA if I can.

This doesn't make sense.

[SoCal25]

I've been to many cities all over the country. I feel the sun, warmth, cold, wind etc. There are smells and general activity levels that you could call energy. Some are more open feeling others are more closed in. None of them have any sort of supernatural vibe of evil or broken dreams outside of one's own imagination.

[nightlysparrow]

Originally Posted by sheena12

In 78 I had the opportunity to travel to LA...The six months that I lived there...

You're basing opinions on "feelings" and experiences you had at least 37 years ago?

[LuvSouthOC]

Man, now that I have had a nice long breakfast and a nice cup of brew, I might have to head up to 'evil' LA.


First, must wax the German machine.