From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [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 rappng, 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]
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
spiritualism
n 1: (theology) any doctrine that asserts the separate existence
of God
2: the belief that the spirits of dead people can communicate
with people who are still alive (especially via a medium)
3: concern with things of the spirit [syn: {spirituality},
{spiritualism}, {spiritism}, {otherworldliness}] [ant:
{worldliness}]
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