Spiritualism

(spirit-u-al-izm.) [From L. spiritus, an e ence.] (Phil.) As distinguished from Materialism, that system which supposes everything real, to be spirit; what is called the external world being a succe ion of notions impre ed on the mind by the Deity -which was the opinion of Berkeley; or a mere edu ct of the mind-which was that of Fichte.- Of late, however, the term S. has been almost exclusively applied, at least in America, to a faith in the frequent communications of intelligence from the spirit-world, by the agency of physical phenomena, usually manifested through a person po e ing peculiar susceptibility, called a medium-which faith is called Spiritism in continental Europe. By the raps and tapping of tables, and by the control of the medium's organs to write and speak, the spirits are supposed to expre their own peculiar intelligence in a degree of perfection proportioned to the development and pa ivity of the medium; and it is averred that persons while under the spiritual afflatus have often spoken in foreign tongues which they had never learned; and writings in languages to them unknown have, in a few instances, been produced in their presence, as we are told, by invisible hands. S. originated in America in about 1848; but it was in 1855 and following years that it made considerable progre , both in the U. States and Europe, owing to the wonderful performances of the celebrated American medium Daniel D. Home. The reader who wishes to learn more of S. may consult the following works: Modern Spiritualism, its Facts and Fanaticisms, Boston, 1855; Incidents in my Life, by D. D. Home (1863); From Matter to Spirit, London, 1865; Le Livre des Esprits, and Le Livre des Médiums, by Alain Kardec, Paris, 1861-2. Also the publications of the " American A ociation of Spiritualists." [s. 847]