spiritualism

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The belief that the dead communicate with the living, as through a medium.
2. n. The practices or doctrines of those holding such a belief.
3. n. A philosophy, doctrine, or religion emphasizing the spiritual aspect of being.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The state of being spiritual; spiritual character.
2. n. In philosophy, the doctrine of the existence of spirit as distinct from matter, or as the only reality: opposed to materialism.
3. n. The belief that disembodied spirits can and do communicate with the living, especially through the agency of a person particularly susceptible to spiritualistic influences, called a medium; also, the various doctrines and theories, collectively, founded upon this belief. In its modern form, spiritualism originated in the State of New York in the year 1848, and since that time has extended over the United States and Europe. The mediums through whom the supposed communications take place are of various kinds, no fewer than twenty-four different classes being mentioned in the books explanatory of spiritualism. Among the chief methods of communication are rappings, table-tippings, writing, and speaking; in the latter forms of communication the medium is supposed to be fully possessed by the spirit for the time being. Spiritualism has no formal system of theology, and it is contended by many of its advocates that it is not necessarily inconsistent with the maintenance of a faith otherwise Christian, and that spirit-communications are providential interventions for the purpose of inculcating the doctrine of immortality, and counteracting the material tendencies of the age. The meetings for spiritualistic communications are commonly called séances. Also spiritism.

Wiktionary

1. n. A philosophic doctrine, opposing materialism, that claims transcendency of the divine being, the altogether spiritual character of reality and the value of inwardness of consciousness.
2. n. A belief that the dead communicate with the living through a medium having special powers.
3. n. The quality or state of being spiritual.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The quality or state of being spiritual.
2. n. (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.
3. n. 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.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. concern with things of the spirit
2. n. the belief that the spirits of dead people can communicate with people who are still alive (especially via a medium)
3. n. (theology) any doctrine that asserts the separate existence of God