SPIRITUALISM • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Spiritualism

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/spˈɪrɪtʃəwəlɪzm/ /spˈɪrɪtʃwəlˌɪzm/ Listen

noun

Spiritualism n.

The quality or state of being spiritual.

(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.

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."

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Etymology of 'Spiritualism'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Spiritualism" Quotes from Famous Books

... soothing when sung over a cradle, or another paints a pleasant little genre sketch which will hang appropriately in some quiet corner and rest and refresh eyes that are weary with gazing at the sublime spiritualism of Fra Bartolomeo, or the gloomy grandeur of Salvator Rosa. If you have any short articles that you desire to see in print, you may forward them, and I will select any for publication, which I think you will not blush to acknowledge in ...

— St. Elmo • Augusta J. Evans

... entirely to Natural History. He explored the Valley of the Amazon and Rio Negro, 1848-52, and travelled in the Malay Archipelago and Papua, 1854-62, publishing the results of his explorations later on. He also wrote "Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection," "Miracles and Modern Spiritualism," "Geographical Distribution of Animals," "Tropical ...

— Young Folks' Library, Volume XI (of 20) - Wonders of Earth, Sea and Sky • Various

... materialist in the wider sense, of explaining higher phenomena by lower ones, and leaving the destinies of the world at the mercy of its blinder parts and forces. It is in this wider sense of the word that materialism is opposed to spiritualism or theism. The laws of physical nature are what run things, materialism says. The highest productions of human genius might be ciphered by one who had complete acquaintance with the facts, out of their physiological conditions, regardless whether nature ...

— Pragmatism - A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking • William James

... and has begun the adaptation of the new photography to brain study. The relation of the new rays to thought rays is being eagerly discussed in what may be called the non-exact circles and journals; and all that numerous group of inquirers into the occult, the believers in clairvoyance, spiritualism, telepathy, and kindred orders of alleged phenomena, are confident of finding in the new force long-sought facts in proof of their claims. Professor Neusser in Vienna has photographed gallstones in the liver of one patient (the stone showing snow-white in the negative), and ...

— Little Masterpieces of Science: - Invention and Discovery • Various

... lady, you certainly are not lacking in confidence, but you must realize that I cannot advise a treatment for Mrs. Wells that involves the use of spiritualistic agencies when I do not believe in spiritualism. In ...

— Possessed • Cleveland Moffett

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