Baby Monitor Hauntings

Baby monitors are often depicted as portals to the other worldly.  In films such as Insidious,  they pick up the voices of the ghosts haunting their house.  In movies like Signs,  they pick up Alien voices as the aliens plan an invasion.   Baby monitors are natural receivers and many believe they pick up more than the sweet voices of the babies they are designed to monitor.

Last night I tucked my baby in early.  I turned on the baby monitor and in my exhaustion, I fell asleep beside him.   I didn't notice my husband come home late.  He didn't notice the monitor was still on.  He sat down in the den next to the other end of the monitor and began working on his dictations.   Suddenly, the baby monitor exploded in a cacophony of noise and chaos.  He turned it off, but it got me thinking  about baby monitors.

A quick search of the Internet will reveal thousands of stories of hauntings and baby monitors.  In one single forum, I found hundreds of stories of people who heard ghosts through a baby's monitor.  Phantom voices drift over the monitors and video baby monitors expose strange black fogs wandering through nurseries.  One woman described hearing her dead father-in-laws voice over the monitor.  He was softly comforting her weeping baby.   Many stories are like this. They hear the ghost comforting weeping babies or see the ghosts hovering over the baby's crib.

Most theorists believe that baby monitors act in the same way EVP recorders do.  EVPs or electronic voice phenomena are voices picked up over recording devices.  Phantom voices that aren't heard  with the naked ear are recorded and heard on playback.   Those who believe, think that baby monitors receive in the same way other EVPs are recorded.  EVPs are heard on the receiving end of the baby monitor.   The voices of ghosts can be heard the same way audio playback reveals EVPs.

Other theorists believe that children and animals are more open to the spirit world.  Animals and young children can see and feel ghosts in the ways that adults can not.  According to these theories, baby nurseries would draw ghosts who want to interact with the living.  Most of the stories about nurseries and ghosts are pleasant.  People hear the ghosts of loved ones whispering to the babies.   It is away for the deceased to interact with their family when they are gone.

So it is possible that the baby monitor beside my son's bassinet picked up something unworldly. Maybe my mother-in-law came to sing to her grandson or my father-in-law came by to whisper to him in French.   Perhaps when my son looks behind me and laughs at the darkness over my shoulder he is seeing the friendly face of someone who has gone before us.   Of course, there is no way to be sure and much of this could just be attributed to electronic glitches that quickly resolve.   Either way, I'm bringing my baby monitor with me on my next over night at a haunted hotel. 

Spam on a Spam Blog

Yeah, it happens. I got multiple blog comment posts for Craig Delsack's website. For more on comment spam and how much the blogging community loves it, you can view this link from Popehat. Below is one of the three emails Craig left for me. I assure you the post, or any of our posts, have anything to do with his comments. 


A few years back I rented my house to a person, unfortunately the deed between us has been misplaced. Then my tenant started try to pretending that he was the real owner of the property, means I had sold out the house not rented it to him. Then my real worry started and I tried to find a loyal and professional layers. During online research regarding this I found the contact corporate lawyer New York , I called them and got solutions in a right way and right time. on Real Estate Transaction

At least the email includes the word "spam" in the subject line.

From: Hillary Tiachi.

Subject: ***SPAM*** Re: Divorce Settlement Agreement

Date: January 23, 2012

Reply-To: hillary.tiachi@msn.com

Dear Counsel

My name is Hillary Tiachi. I am contacting your firm in regards to a divorce settlement with my ex husband McConnell Tiachi who resides in your jurisdiction.

I am currently on assignment in South Korea. We had an out of court agreement for him to pay $496.500.00 plus legal fees. He has only paid me $183,000.00 since.

I am hereby seeking your firm`s assistance in collecting the balance from him or litigate this matter if he fails to pay as promised because He has delayed for too long. If you are in the position to represent me at the moment kindly advice immediately.

Your's Truly,

Hillary Tiachi.

A Pact with The Devil

This story came to me by way of people I know.  It is a story with a loop.  It looped back to a story I have blogged about before. It was a true story about a young man involved with Satanism who ended up hurting his family.  I am not going to say any names here to protect the confidentiality of those involved, but I couldn't help but write about it.  The story was too sad and seemed like it needed to be told.

Some time ago, on a Friday 13th,  a man walked into his living room with his wife and daughter.  He shot himself.   This was devastating for his family in every way imaginable.  It was tragic and wrong.   The man had been depressed and his behavior had been increasingly more erratic since his father has passed away two years earlier, but no one had imagined he would hurt himself. 

In time, the family moved on.  Wounds healed, but were never forgotten.  Sorrow remained part of life.  One day, the wife was told a story about her husband.  She found out that he had been best friends with an infamous Satanist.  A Satanist that had ended up committing terrible atrocities.  This made the wife remember a story her husband had told her.  Her husband has told her that when he was a teen he had loved a girl more than anything.  Sadly, she hadn't even know he existed.   He told his wife he made a pact.  He had made a pact that he would give something up is he could just have this girl.  The wife hadn't asked for details about who the pact was with, but the man had said he had made the pact on Friday the 13th.   The pact was made and the man got the girl.   She dated him and for a while it seemed worthwhile.   Ten years later, his father died on Friday the 13th.  After that, the man was never the same.  He steadily became worse and worse until his suicide on the same day.

It is now the wife's belief that the pact the man made was with the devil.   It could be argued that the devil gave him what he wanted in exchange for his father's life and his own soul.   That is certainly an aura that hangs around the case.  It could also be said that the man attributed his father's death to the devil and thus was driven mad by his own belief.   Either way, it was that pact that lead to his decline and demise and the story will haunt his family.

Final semester

I don't really have very much to write right now, although I expect all of that to change in the next few days since school is starting. I've got some difficult classes that I may or may not be looking forward to, and am taking a vow to read ALL THE CASES.

I don't know how long that will last, particularly since I don't even have any  all of the books for my classes. I'm also going to use my planner every.single.day. This will happen folks, because I have a B-E-A-utiful planner just begging for my handwriting. I'm also going to attempt to use technology to schedule my life. Since technology hates me, however, I may be better off sticking to handwriting.

Other than that, I've got an excellent schedule, a reasonably clean house, and fun activities in the next few weeks.

And by fun, I mean soul-sucking, legal-related stuff from which I will probably not derive any pleasure.

Sixth semester= sixth circle of Hell. I'd say Dante's description of the Sixth Circle suits the last semester of law school to a tee--"a vast landscape rife with distress and wretched punishment."

Yep. That about sums it up. Distress and punishment.

How wonderfully divine.

Mylings: The Ghosts of Lost Children

The Myling is a Scandinavian ghost.   It is the ghost of an unbaptized child that is seeking solace.  The old Catholics used to say that unbaptized children couldn't be buried in holy ground and couldn't find solace in heaven.  This belief seems to have given birth to the folklore that the Myling springs from.   The Myling is the spirit of an unbaptized child that is trying to find a living soul to bring it to hollowed ground.  The usually hunt for their victims amongst those who wander in the woods.  Their faces are the name for terror in the dark places of old forests.

The Myling is also known as utburd, which means "that which is taken outside."  Mylings are most often the ghosts of children that were taken to the forest to die.  Like Hansel and Gretel in the old fairy tale, Mylings were drug into the forest and left to starve in the dark.  They grew lost and angry and often suffered terrible deaths.  They were unwanted and unbaptized.  The ghosts of such children are angry and large and they are said to grow larger as the unfortunate soul they have latched onto comes closer to the graveyard.  The myling attacks wanders and grabs onto their backs.  They force the wanderer to take them to a cemetery where the myling might find peace.  However, they grow so heavy as the wanderer approaches the graveyard that the wanderer often can't continue carrying the myling or sinks into the soil.  If the wanderer can't get the myling to its goal, the myling devours the wanderer.  The myling is considered to be one of the most terrifying ghosts in Scandinavian folklore.

The Unlucky History of Friday the 13th

This post has become an annual tradition for me.   Those of you who have been following my blog for a while will recognize this post from past Friday the 13ths. I like Friday the 13th and this is my way of celebrating the 13th and its long history.  Friday the 13ths is considered the most unlucky day of the year. Most people aren't entirely sure where this bad luck comes from, but fear of Friday the 13th can affect as many as 1 in 4 people. The fear of Friday the 13th is known as triskaidekaphobia.


"It's been estimated that [U.S] $800 or $900 million is lost in business on this day because people will not fly or do business they would normally do," said Donald Dossey, founder of the Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in Asheville, North Carolina.

So where does this fear that can cripple a nation come from? There really seems to be no consensus on the origin of Friday the 13th. Everyone has a story, but most of them are different. The fear comes from an unknown source. Here's a look at a few of the Friday the 13th origin stories I've found.

One folklorist traces the origins back to Norse mythology. There were 12 gods who had a dinner party in Valhalla. A 13th guest, Loki, was uninvited. Always the trickster, Loki tricked the god of darkness, Hoder, into shooting Balder, the god of joy. Balder died and darkness descended on the earth. Joy was lost to man and from then on 13 was considered unlucky.

In 1307, on October 13, 1307, King Phillip IV of France ordered every member of the order of the Knights Templar executed on charges of high treason and heresy. King Phillip owed the Templar's a good deal of money and they had amassed an enormous amount of wealth on their crusades. It is thought that the order was actually to strip the Templar's of their wealth. The Templar's were tortured horribly and forced to confess to crimes they didn't commit. They all died, but as the grandmaster died he cursed King Phillip and the day making Friday the 13th unlucky for future generations to come.

Many believe the fear comes from the number 13 itself. According to numerologist, the number 12 is associated with completeness. There are 12 months in a year, 12 zodiac signs, 12 apostles, 12 Olympian gods, 12 tribes of Israel, 12 hours in the clock, 12 labors of Hercules. The list goes on and on. The addition of the 13 ruins perfection is utterly bad and unlucky. In many stories, the 13th guest is always a bad sign. Think Judas at the last supper and Loki in the above story. It is the number 13 that lends the curse to Friday the 13th. Combine that with the unlucky Friday, when Jesus was crucifies and Adam tempted Eve and you have a recipe for an unlucky day.

It is clear there are many reasons to fear the dreaded Friday the 13th, but for me Friday the 13ths have always been lucky. So have a happy Friday the 13th, watch one of the 12 million Friday the 13th movies (I like the one in space), and wish me luck on my lucky day