spiritualism Meaning, Definition & Usage

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

WordNet

Spir"it*u*al*ism noun
Definitions
  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.

Webster 1913