There were seven of us at the s\u00e9ance: the medium and six visitors. Between the six of us there was everything from a hardened sceptic to a passionate believer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My frame of mind at the start was inquisitive and \u2026 definitely open to see what might happen. If I had been asked for an opinion about seances just a week earlier, I would not<\/em> have been described that way. I was much more of a sceptic. But not today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What changed me? I\u2019d had a very vivid dream just a few nights prior to this meeting. The dream had bothered me so much that I felt I had to attend this particular s\u00e9ance and at least \u2018give it a go\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So here I was, attending my first ever s\u00e9ance \u2013 and with a relatively open mind. Who would\u2019ve picked that to ever happen!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I looked around the room. The lights were dimmed and the room heavily curtained on every wall. The guests were showing a full range of emotions, and there was some soft chatter between people who knew each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The medium was a Ms Bristol. She insisted we call her Patricia. She welcomed us and invited each person to introduce themselves. We were to speak to the rest of the group, and to briefly say why we were there. My response was succinct. I simply said I was wanting to have an open mind and that I was visiting a s\u00e9ance for the first time. I said nothing to anyone about my dream, or that I had been instructed in that dream to speak with a deceased author, Jacob Higgins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the s\u00e9ance began, we were asked to hold hands around the table. Patricia tilted her head back and half closed her eyes. Her long silk scarf dropped backwards as she drifted into a trance of some kind. After a minute or more, she spoke. It was not to any of us around the table though. Rather she spoke to\u2026 others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIs there anyone needing to communicate with us tonight?\u201d she asked. \u201cYes\u2026I see you. I can see that you are insistent that you should go first. Alright. You may speak through me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her body jerked and she looked straight at me. It was still her voice, but it was harsher now. Angry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou!\u201d she said staring with wide opened eyes that pierced straight into my heart. \u201cYou slander my name!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWho are you?\u201d I asked \u2013 already knowing the answer. But I wanted to hear Patricia say it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou know who I am. I\u2019m Jacob, and you have slandered my name.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A shiver when down my spine. How could she know? It seemed she must be genuine. The spirit that visited me in the dream had said as much: \u201cIt has to be Ms Bristol the medium, no one else. There are a lot of phonies out there, but she can really reach through to connect with our side.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I sensed my breathing pace had become faster, and despite it not being a particularly warm night, I felt a bead of sweat slowly moving down my face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite how strange and disturbing this all was I was determined to give the appearance of being in control. \u201cHow did I slander you?\u201d I responded confident of my argument. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t slander, Jacob: you actually did<\/em> commit plagiarism. Surely you can\u2019t keep denying that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI will<\/em> answer you and I\u2019ll explain why you\u2019re wrong,\u201d he said loudly but still very matter-of-factly. \u201cBut first tell me: why are you even here?\u201d His volume got even louder and more intimidating. \u201cI\u2019m so angry with you!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n There was a sudden shaking of the table we were all sitting around. It only lasted a second or so, but everyone jumped, (except Patricia).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jacob continued. \u201cI can\u2019t settle fully into this new realm while I\u2019m so agitated and aggrieved. It has to be remedied before I can be fully immersed into the light.\u201d Patricia\u2019s head turned and looked up at nothing \u2013 at least nothing we could see but she (or Jacob) seemed to be focused on something very specific.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I became the focus again, and Jacob continued. \u201cYou decided after my death, to write an unkind article about me and my works. I was barely cold in the grave and you took advantage of that to write a piece on me? And mock me?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I could not totally disagree with his comments about my timing. Nevertheless, I made my defence: \u201cI wrote the article, partly because you did<\/em> suicide. I was not happy to hear of your death. I was well aware of the likelihood that that articles like the one I was then writing, probably contributed to your decision to kill yourself. But in a way it was because<\/em> you had suicided, that I felt compelled to write. The natural sympathy that comes from such tragic news might have softened people\u2019s attitudes to the very real unethical behaviour you demonstrated in your acts of plagiarism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Patricia \u2013 or rather Jacob – let out a frustrated groan. \u201cYou\u2019re wrong! You think I plagiarised? No! Plagiarism? What a stupid word. There\u2019s no such thing as Plagiarism. It\u2019s a term invented by immature minds – people who pretend their own work it original.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo, it\u2019s a term for when people like you, take other writers\u2019 works, and use them in your own work, and then pretend it\u2019s your own creation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat\u2019s not what I claim to do. I am just more honest that the rest of you! Everyone who writes, plagiarises. Everyone. Most are in denial. But everything we have read over the course of our lives, is buried deep in our minds. Everything. When we write it is a combination and reordering of all that has gone in before that: all that we have read, all that we have seen, and all that we have ever experienced. Some words and phrases are identical to what we have read elsewhere. Sometimes whole sentences are.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut not whole paragraphs and whole sections of material. That\u2019s not subconscious memory, that<\/em> is conscious copying.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt is a mere step along the spectrum of a continuum which suddenly become \u2018plagiarism\u2019 to you and others like you. But it is a part of the continuum. It is utterly arbitrary to draw a point on that endless line of actions and influences, and say, \u2018Here is the point where it is wrong to be influenced by the works of others\u2019!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our argument \u2013 for that it what it was: I was arguing with a dead man \u2013 went on for at least fifteen minutes. Jacob was adamant he was simply an honest creative writer utilizing all the available tools and resources that were legitimately available to him. I was sure he had broken a well-known and well-established convention that he was certainly aware of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The disagreement did soften a bit as the conversation continued. I became less dogmatic as he kept emphasising his \u2018relativist\u2019 position, and Jacob became less loud as I listened to him more. In the end I acknowledged he could well argue as he had, even if I still personally disagreed. He said I was entitled to my opinion even if it was not fully fleshed out and therefore mistaken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As it neared its natural end, Jacob asked me if I would write another article to share his philosophy as I heard it from him. He wanted a more balanced piece: one that at least offered his views for consideration. I promised I would, even though my own position on plagiarism was still more strict than his. He even said \u201cthank you,\u201d in a softer voice. And then words that all of us at the table were glad to hear: \u201cNow I can go.\u201d (I assume he meant into the light he had referred to earlier.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n The s\u00e9ance went on for another hour or so, but to be honest I can\u2019t remember much more about it. Different spirits spoke to different people there, but my head was swimming with the conversation I had had with Jacob Higgins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I did keep my promise to Jacob. Hence my second article that was published yesterday. Perhaps I should not have shared the way I found out his more detailed defence. Perhaps I should have left out that part about the s\u00e9ance. But it seemed necessary to me to give the full context of my material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since that second article, I have had no end of phone calls, a few from sympathetic \u2018believers\u2019, but mostly from sceptics and rationalists, who are now certain I am either crazy or a conman. Some compared me to Jacob: he was a plagiarist, and I was a deceiver who fabricated stories and pretended they were true. Some even suggested I was in league with Ms Bristol to help her scam more people!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I had interviewed a dead man. I know I\u2019m no conman. But maybe I have lost my mind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There were seven of us at the s\u00e9ance: the medium and six visitors. Between the six of us there was everything from a hardened sceptic …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":3378,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[296,102,8,303,304,11,10],"class_list":["post-3377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-interview","tag-jim-reiher","tag-mountain-ash-chapter","tag-plagiarism","tag-seance","tag-story","tag-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pff1uY-St","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3855,"url":"https:\/\/mountainashchapter.com.au\/?p=3855","url_meta":{"origin":3377,"position":0},"title":"Dream Train","author":"Helen Jahn","date":"September 22, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Steam lifts from the station\u2019s faded, pockmarked platformSweat prickles around my templesI boardTrain movement lethargic on a warm dayLike meNo relief after the stormI doze Memories of past times dance with present concernsIt\u2019s a nonsensical mind storylinePart of me smiles, enjoys the rideThe ride within a rideMy temple taps out\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Poetry"","block_context":{"text":"Poetry","link":"https:\/\/mountainashchapter.com.au\/?cat=19"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mountainashchapter.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/jordan-steranka-x26Rojv0GoA-unsplash-scaled.jpg?fit=800%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mountainashchapter.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/jordan-steranka-x26Rojv0GoA-unsplash-scaled.jpg?fit=800%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mountainashchapter.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/jordan-steranka-x26Rojv0GoA-unsplash-scaled.jpg?fit=800%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mountainashchapter.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/jordan-steranka-x26Rojv0GoA-unsplash-scaled.jpg?fit=800%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3342,"url":"https:\/\/mountainashchapter.com.au\/?p=3342","url_meta":{"origin":3377,"position":1},"title":"Dirt","author":"Kel White","date":"March 14, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"I wring out the tightness in my hands, push my thumb into the meat of my palm, then pick up my pen. Having spent the evening digging before this interview, I hope my hand will even cooperate.\u00a0 I'm nervous, naturally, not to mention I'm out-of-practice handwriting. 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