Dictionary-Definition.com :: Spiritualism definition

Definition of 'spiritualism'

noun

(theology) any doctrine that asserts the separate existence of God

noun

The belief that the spirits of dead people can communicate with people who are still alive (especially via a medium)

noun

Concern with things of the spirit [syn: spirituality, spiritualism, spiritism, otherworldliness] [ant: worldliness]

From: GCIDE

Spiritualism \Spir"it*u*al*ism\, n.
1. The quality or state of being spiritual. [1913 Webster]
2. (Physiol.) The doctrine, in opposition to the materialists, that all which exists is spirit, or soul -- that what is called the external world is either a succession of notions impressed on the mind by the Deity, as maintained by Berkeley, or else the mere educt of the mind itself, as taught by Fichte. [1913 Webster]
3. A belief that departed spirits hold intercourse with mortals by means of physical phenomena, as by rapping, or during abnormal mental states, as in trances, or the like, commonly manifested through a person of special susceptibility, called a medium; spiritism; the doctrines and practices of spiritualists. [1913 Webster]
What is called spiritualism should, I think, be called a mental species of materialism. --R. H. Hutton. [1913 Webster]