spiritualism Hear it!

spiritualism Definition

spir·itu·al·ism (-iz′əm)

noun

  1. ☆
    1. the belief that the dead survive as spirits that can communicate with the living, esp. with the help of a third party (medium)
    2. any practice arising from this belief
  2. the philosophical doctrine that all reality is in essence spiritual; idealism
  3. spirituality; spiritual quality

spiritualism Related Forms
spir′·itu·al·ist noun spir′·itu·al·is′·tic adjective spir′·itu·al·is′·ti·cally adverb
spiritualism Synonyms

spiritualism

n.

  1. Occultism

    necromancy, mysticism, cabalism, supernaturalism, theosophy.

  2. Idealism

    insubstantiality, metaphysics, immateriality; see idealism 2.

spiritualism Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • concern: The following year Massey did expand the address into a small book Concerning Spiritualism, published by James Burns.
  • call: She had sought him out in the first instance, she observed, because she was a believer in what is called spiritualism.
  • investigate: Sir William Crookes was probably the first major figure to investigate spiritualism.
  • make: The suggestion does not make spiritualism in abstract logic any more improbable.
  • destroy: Gradually over the years the powerful establishment propaganda machine has managed to destroy the word spiritualism.
  • discover: Inquirers into spiritualism discovered that the human organism is in some mysterious way bound up with the séance room phenomena.

Adjective modifier

  • modern: One of the first recorded incidents of materialization took place in America during 1860 by the Fox sisters, founders of modern spiritualism.
  • philosophical: Against this tradition of philosophical spiritualism in France stand two movements.
  • early: The earlier spiritualism was founded upon facts in nature, which did not need the desperate expedient of a miracle to explain.
  • Gnostic: We see from the Epistle of John how mortally afraid of Gnostic Spiritualism were the founders of the historical fraud.

Noun used with modifier

  • word: Strictly speaking, the word spiritualism is not mentioned in the Bible.