Category:Spiritualism

Spir"it*u*al*ism, n.

1. The quality or state of being spiritual.

2. (physiol.)

Defn: 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.

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. What is called spiritualism should, i think, be called a mental Species of materialism. R. H. Hutton.