spiritualism

The belief that the dead communicate with the living, as through a medium.

The practices or doctrines of those holding such a belief.

A philosophy, doctrine, or religion emphasizing the spiritual aspect of being.

The state of being spiritual; spiritual character.

In philosophy, the doctrine of the existence of spirit as distinct from matter, or as the only reality: opposed to materialism.

The belief that disembodied spirits can and do communicate with the living, especially through the agency of a person particularly susceptible to spiritualistic influences, called a medium; also, the various doctrines and theories, collectively, founded upon this belief.

The quality or state of being spiritual.

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.