spir⋅it⋅u⋅al⋅ism
[spir-i-choo-uh-liz-uh
m] 
| 1. | the belief or doctrine that the spirits of the dead, surviving after the mortal life, can and do communicate with the living, esp. through a person (a medium) particularly susceptible to their influence. |
| 2. | the practices or phenomena associated with this belief. |
| 3. | the belief that all reality is spiritual. |
| 4. | Metaphysics. any of various doctrines maintaining that the ultimate reality is spirit or mind. |
| 5. | spiritual quality or tendency. |
| 6. | insistence on the spiritual side of things, as in philosophy or religion. |
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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| spir·i·tu·al·ism (spĭr'ĭ-chōō-ə-lĭz'əm) n.
|
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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Spiritualism
Spir"it*u*al*ism\, n. 1. The quality or state of being spiritual. 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. 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.Cite This Source
spiritualism
in philosophy, a characteristic of any system of thought that affirms the existence of immaterial reality imperceptible to the senses. So defined, spiritualism embraces a vast array of highly diversified philosophical views. Most patently, it applies to any philosophy accepting the notion of an infinite, personal God, the immortality of the soul, or the immateriality of the intellect and will. Less obviously, it includes belief in such ideas as finite cosmic forces or a universal mind, provided that they transcend the limits of gross Materialistic interpretation. Spiritualism as such says nothing about matter, the nature of a supreme being or a universal force, or the precise nature of spiritual reality itself.
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