Definition
From the Latin 'spiritus'. Most basically, spiritualism is the belief that spirits are able to communicate with the living by agency of a medium. The earliest recorded use of the word is 1796 and it was used by the prominent 18th-century spiritualist Emanuel Swedenborg. The term "spiritualism" has come to have different meanings. A broad working definition of the term would include; the multi-faceted belief in a vital principle within living beings, a supernatural or paranormal, divine, incorporeal being–force, spirit–animas animating bodies etc. Adherents of spiritualistic movements believe that the spirits of the dead survive mortal life, and that sentient beings from "spiritual worlds", can and do communicate with the living. Since ancient times, this has been an element in traditional indigenous religions. In today's world, it is a growing phenomenon manifesting itself in traditional indigenous religiosity on all continents through non-aligned spiritualistic groups and many syncretistic movements and within elements of orthodox religions by which it is still seen as a challenge.
Many reference works also use the term spiritism to mean the same thing as "spiritualism" but Spiritism is more accurately used to mean Kardecist spiritism. Central to adherents' faith is a belief that spirits of the dead communicate with the living usually through a medium.
The word also takes on specific alternative meanings in various differing fields of academia, see below.
Read more about this topic: Spiritualism (beliefs)
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