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Spiritualism - Dictionary Definition and Overview |
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Spiritualism : (noun) 1: (theology) any doctrine that asserts the separate existence
of God
2: the belief that the spirits of dead people can communicate
with people who are still alive (especially via a medium)
3: concern with things of the spirit [syn: spirituality, otherworldliness]
Based on WordNet 2.0
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Spiritualism : \Spir"it*u*al*ism\, n.
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.
Based on WordNet (r) 2.0 (August 2003)
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