Spiritualism (beliefs)
Encyclopedia
Spiritualism is a dualist
metaphysical
belief
that the world is made up of at least two fundamental substances, matter
and spirit
. This very broad metaphysical
distinction is further developed into many and various forms by the inclusion of details about what spiritual entities exist such as a soul
, the afterlife
, spirits of the dead, deities and mediums
; as well as details about the nature of the relationship between spirit and matter. It may also refer to the philosophy
, doctrine, or religion
pertaining to a spiritual aspect of existence.
It is also a term commonly used for various psychic
or paranormal
practices and beliefs recorded throughout humanity's history and in a variety of cultures.
Spiritualistic traditions appear deeply rooted in shamanism
and, as such, are perhaps the oldest forms of religion. Mediumship
is a modern form of shamanism and such ideas are very much like those developed by Edward Burnett Tylor
in his theory of animism
, where there are other worlds parallel to our own, though invisible to us and not accessible to us in our state. The connecting link between these worlds is the psychic
. A person endowed with exceptional sensitivity to the occult
dimension, who experiences visions and revelations. Only a few individuals are said to have this capacity.
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
–anima
s 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 religion
s. 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 http://www.onelook.com/?w=spiritism&ls=a 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.
Foremost in the movement towards Christian Spiritualism in the United Kingdom was one of the leading pioneers in the spiritualism movement, medium and Reverend William Stainton Moses
. He was a member of the BNAS (British National Association of Spiritualists), vice-president of the Society for Psychic Research and launched the London Spiritualist Alliance which later became the College of Psychic Studies.
Contemporary Christian Spiritualist denominations also include those within the American Spiritual Church Movement
pioneered by Leafy Anderson
, such as the Metropolitan Spiritual Churches of Christ, founded in 1925, Pentecostal Spiritual Assemblies of Christ Worldwide, founded in 1938, whose motto is "Pentecostal by Birth, Spiritual by Lifestyle, Apostolic by Experience, and Christian by Demand. A Spiritual Church... On a Spiritual Foundation... Walking in the Supernatural...," and Universal Hagar's Spiritual Church, founded in the 1920s.
; popular throughout France and Latin American countries.
Spiritualist beliefs are found from time to time in the early literature of the French "magnetists
". As early as 1787 M. Tardy de Montravel wrote that in the trance the soul of the "somnambule" became freed from its body and was able to intercourse with other spirits. Dr G.P. Billot, and J. P. F. Deleuze and recorded discussing and documenting seances from the 1820s.
Of the early French Spiritualist, Alphonse Cahagnet, publisher of spirit messages such as "Arcanes de la vie future devoiles" (1848), is one of its foremost cases. Familiar with the teachings of Swedenborg, and interest evoked by contemporary German clairvoyants, in Paris of his day Cahagnet stood almost alone belonging to no school. For the advent of Modern Spiritualism in America, Cahagnet would have found few readers but his documentation of his work with the medium Adele Maginot were at once amongst the most remarkable and the best-attested documents on which the early case for Spiritualism depended.
and Jamake Highwater
. Several Native Americans have also sought to exploit interest in native American spiritualism, writing distortions of indigenous spiritual practices and knowledge for consumption in the mass market. This situation has been attacked by legitimate Indian scholars and by activists such as the American Indian Movement
, Survival of American Indians and the late Gerald Wilkenson, head of the National Indian Youth Council.
In Cuba
, for instance, two fundamental variants of espiritism exist:
La Mesa Blanca Spiritualism is the type of Espiritismo
that made its way to US. The old line Eggungun form of service has not made much headway on the mainland. Séances, in Latino cultures, are called misas. Santería
, more properly called La Regla Lucumi (as the Yoruba
were called in Cuba) is famous for its "magic" based on a knowledge of spirits and how to interact with them.
by the Roman Catholic Church
a period of syncretism commenced that included the introduction of images of the saints present in the churches presenting a new look for repressors behind which the Africans worshipped their gods and ancestors. This process of merger continued with the introduction of Kardecist spiritism and includes spiritualists.
From: 'Channellers, Cowries and Conversations with the Gods: explaining multiple divination
methods in an Afro-Brazilian religious tradition'.
In Puerto Rico, trance mediums feature in is spiritism and in Cuba, syncretic spiritualistic practises similar to Santería are called Santerfa and enjoy an estimated five million Hispanic American followers.
divides by way of ritual, and exists in a variety of mediumship cults.
In 'A Tale of goddesses, money, and other terribly wonderful things: spirit possession, commodity fetishism, and the narrative of capitalism in Rajasthan', anthropologist J.G. Snodgrass explores the use of spiritualism amongst Rajasthani performing communities arguing for an appreciation of the way religious forms, and particularly the use of spiritual possessions, represent a form of language. Rajasthanis are possessed by a range of spiritual entities. Some of these are judged good and beneficial, some evil.
Trance mediumship and channelling
are also practised by the UN related new religious movement
called, the Brahma Kumaris who have their headquarters in the state.
went to length to draw correlations between Eastern spiritualistic practises and Modern Spiritualism.
sects claim to represent a way (Tao) that transcends and unites all other religions. Explicit syncretism is a noticeable feature of these groups who claim that their teachings aim to unify the "Three Religions" (Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism), the "Five Religions" or even the former three plus Christianity and Islam. Most Hsien-tien Tao groups rely heavily on spirit-writing as a means of communicating with "the Mother" as well as lower-ranking deities. Amongst practitioners, the T'zu-hui Tang differ from the other Hsien-t'ien Tao sects, which were all originally based on the Chinese mainland, in that it originated in Taiwan in post-World War II years. It was founded in 1949, when the "Golden Mother of the Jasper Pool" revealed herself through a medium
in the northeastern Taiwanese city of Hualien. The cults influence reaches to Malaysia.
Mesmerism, Planchette, and Spiritualism have also been noted in China, soon after the start of spiritualism in the West.
, relating to Kami
, or spirits, psychical research typical of the West was introduced to Japan by Wasaburou Asano (1874–1937). Wasaburou established the Society for Spiritual Science Research in Japan and is recognized as creating modern Japanese Spiritualism. His successor Takeo Waki further developing the movement. Later Hiroyoshi Kuwahara created Neo Spiritualism which combined Japanese Spiritualism with the content of British spirit messages.
Japan Psychic Science Association (JPSA) was started in December 1946 promotes spiritualism and conducts psychical research. It provides members with the opportunities for psychic reading
s and healings and promotes scientific research by a team of scientists and engineers.
Recently widespread popular interest was inspired by Hiroyuki Ehara, a self-professed spiritual counselor who hosts a weekly television show Aura no Izumi where he looks into celebrities' past lives and reads their "auras". Spiritual reading
are known as Seishin Touitshuka. Other notable spiritualists include, Fukurai Tomokichi (1869–1952) Japanese pioneer of parapsychology
, Mifune Chizuko (1886–1911), a clairvoyant. Mita Koichi (1885–1943), a psychic and Deguchi Onisaburo (1871–1948) Leader of Ohmoto, a Japanese Shinto sect who practised channelling known as Chinkon-kijin. Japan also has its own traditional form or table turning or ouija
called kokkuri
and spirits beings
are called yokai
in its folklore.
Other Japanese religious leaders claiming to channel spirits include Ryuho Okawa
of the Japanese new religious movement Kofuku-no-Kagaku, or Happy Science, who claims to channeled the spirits of Muhammad
, Christ
, Buddha
, and Confucious.
.
In Micronesia
, recently deceased kin often appear as spirit visitors and possess female relatives in order to provide comfort and guidance. Identically to Anglo-American practises, they deliver important messages from beyond the grave. These spirits are fully sentient beings who retain social and emotional ties with their earthly homes and families. They occupy a liminal space between this world and the afterlife.
During this liminal period, spirits must learn how to "be dead", while the living struggle to reconcile themselves to the corporeal death and new spiritual life of the departed. Spirit possession and other forms of spirit communication, including the popular use of ouija
boards, help to facilitate the process of "becoming dead" on both sides of the cosmological divide. Spiritualistic practices play an important role in helping individuals to understand death as a journey when it is also marked by social rupture and the problems of grief and attachment.
tribes in Victoria called spirits Mrarts, understood to be the souls of "Black Fellows dead and gone", not demons unattached. The mediums, now very scarce, are Birraarks who were consulted as to matters present and future, whose practises include the 'spirit-rapping' known to the Modern Spiritualists and whistles, heard in certain Brazilian séances. The Māoris' specialty was 'trance utterance', the Tohungas being mediums.
Kubandwa is a spirit possession cult spread all over the Great Lakes region of Africa (Rwanda, Burundi, north-western Tanzania, Uganda, Eastern Congo) past women have played an important role in kubandwa, both as mediums and spirits. Tromba mediumship features in Madagascar.
cult of North Africa (Sudan, Egypt) and the Middle East (Iran).
, clairaudience, gift of tongues, laying on of hands, healing, visions, trance, apports, revelations, raps, levitation, automatic and independent writing and painting, photography, materialization, psychometry, direct and independent voice, and any other manifestation which proves the continuity of life after death.
Such universal practises and the giving of spiritual guidance, the different manifestation of spiritualistic activities were categorised by Sir William Crookes, a highly distinguished British physicist and chemist, as being;
Historically, the majority of mediums for tromba spirits amongst the Sakalava
have also been adult women, usually in their forties or older and is likewise associated with female status. In general, a Sakalava ritual in which the spirits must be fed, cannot be performed if the two are not present and represented.
, popular in Francophone
and Latin nations.
.
professor and author best known for his work in the fields of comparative religion.
's doctoral dissertation was not medical research but the investigation of a medium, his maternal cousin, Hélène Preiswerk. His mother, Emilie Preiswerk, was born into a family that regularly practised Spiritualism. The daughter of a man who held weekly seances with his dead first wife who instructed young Emilie to stand behind his chair to discourage ghosts. Jung showed a willingness to take Spiritualism seriously at this formative stage in his life and the early experiences with Hélène Preiswerk suggest a credence of Spiritualism as possible evidence of the supernatural.
The spiritualist narrative in Jung's personal life reached a climax in 1916 when he became convinced that his house was crammed with spirits. He practised a typically mediumistic activity of ‘spirit-directed
' writing.
Dualism
Dualism denotes a state of two parts. The term 'dualism' was originally coined to denote co-eternal binary opposition, a meaning that is preserved in metaphysical and philosophical duality discourse but has been diluted in general or common usages. Dualism can refer to moral dualism, Dualism (from...
metaphysical
Metaphysics
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:...
belief
Belief
Belief is the psychological state in which an individual holds a proposition or premise to be true.-Belief, knowledge and epistemology:The terms belief and knowledge are used differently in philosophy....
that the world is made up of at least two fundamental substances, matter
Matter (philosophy)
Matter is the substrate from which physical existence is derived, remaining more or less constant amid changes. anything that occupies space and has mass and weight...
and spirit
Spirit
The English word spirit has many differing meanings and connotations, most of them relating to a non-corporeal substance contrasted with the material body.The spirit of a living thing usually refers to or explains its consciousness.The notions of a person's "spirit" and "soul" often also overlap,...
. This very broad metaphysical
Metaphysics
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:...
distinction is further developed into many and various forms by the inclusion of details about what spiritual entities exist such as a soul
Soul
A soul in certain spiritual, philosophical, and psychological traditions is the incorporeal essence of a person or living thing or object. Many philosophical and spiritual systems teach that humans have souls, and others teach that all living things and even inanimate objects have souls. The...
, the afterlife
Afterlife
The afterlife is the belief that a part of, or essence of, or soul of an individual, which carries with it and confers personal identity, survives the death of the body of this world and this lifetime, by natural or supernatural means, in contrast to the belief in eternal...
, spirits of the dead, deities and mediums
Mediumship
Mediumship is described as a form of communication with spirits. It is a practice in religious beliefs such as Spiritualism, Spiritism, Espiritismo, Candomblé, Voodoo and Umbanda.- Concept :...
; as well as details about the nature of the relationship between spirit and matter. It may also refer to the philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
, doctrine, or religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
pertaining to a spiritual aspect of existence.
It is also a term commonly used for various psychic
Psychic
A psychic is a person who professes an ability to perceive information hidden from the normal senses through extrasensory perception , or is said by others to have such abilities. It is also used to describe theatrical performers who use techniques such as prestidigitation, cold reading, and hot...
or paranormal
Paranormal
Paranormal is a general term that designates experiences that lie outside "the range of normal experience or scientific explanation" or that indicates phenomena understood to be outside of science's current ability to explain or measure...
practices and beliefs recorded throughout humanity's history and in a variety of cultures.
Spiritualistic traditions appear deeply rooted in shamanism
Shamanism
Shamanism is an anthropological term referencing a range of beliefs and practices regarding communication with the spiritual world. To quote Eliade: "A first definition of this complex phenomenon, and perhaps the least hazardous, will be: shamanism = technique of ecstasy." Shamanism encompasses the...
and, as such, are perhaps the oldest forms of religion. Mediumship
Mediumship
Mediumship is described as a form of communication with spirits. It is a practice in religious beliefs such as Spiritualism, Spiritism, Espiritismo, Candomblé, Voodoo and Umbanda.- Concept :...
is a modern form of shamanism and such ideas are very much like those developed by Edward Burnett Tylor
Edward Burnett Tylor
Sir Edward Burnett Tylor , was an English anthropologist.Tylor is representative of cultural evolutionism. In his works Primitive Culture and Anthropology, he defined the context of the scientific study of anthropology, based on the evolutionary theories of Charles Lyell...
in his theory of animism
Animism
Animism refers to the belief that non-human entities are spiritual beings, or at least embody some kind of life-principle....
, where there are other worlds parallel to our own, though invisible to us and not accessible to us in our state. The connecting link between these worlds is the psychic
Psychic
A psychic is a person who professes an ability to perceive information hidden from the normal senses through extrasensory perception , or is said by others to have such abilities. It is also used to describe theatrical performers who use techniques such as prestidigitation, cold reading, and hot...
. A person endowed with exceptional sensitivity to the occult
Occult
The word occult comes from the Latin word occultus , referring to "knowledge of the hidden". In the medical sense it is used to refer to a structure or process that is hidden, e.g...
dimension, who experiences visions and revelations. Only a few individuals are said to have this capacity.
Definition
From the Latin 'spiritus'. Most basically, spiritualism is the belief that spiritsSoul
A soul in certain spiritual, philosophical, and psychological traditions is the incorporeal essence of a person or living thing or object. Many philosophical and spiritual systems teach that humans have souls, and others teach that all living things and even inanimate objects have souls. The...
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
Emanuel Swedenborg
was a Swedish scientist, philosopher, and theologian. He has been termed a Christian mystic by some sources, including the Encyclopædia Britannica online version, and the Encyclopedia of Religion , which starts its article with the description that he was a "Swedish scientist and mystic." Others...
. 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
Supernatural
The supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...
or paranormal
Paranormal
Paranormal is a general term that designates experiences that lie outside "the range of normal experience or scientific explanation" or that indicates phenomena understood to be outside of science's current ability to explain or measure...
, divine
Divinity
Divinity and divine are broadly applied but loosely defined terms, used variously within different faiths and belief systems — and even by different individuals within a given faith — to refer to some transcendent or transcendental power or deity, or its attributes or manifestations in...
, incorporeal being–force, spirit
Spirit
The English word spirit has many differing meanings and connotations, most of them relating to a non-corporeal substance contrasted with the material body.The spirit of a living thing usually refers to or explains its consciousness.The notions of a person's "spirit" and "soul" often also overlap,...
–anima
Anima
Anima may refer to:*the Latin term for the "animating principle", see vitalism**the Latin translation of Greek psyche**in Christian contexts, the soul**see also spirit...
s animating bodies etc. Adherents of spiritualistic movements believe that the spirits of the dead survive mortal life, and that sentient beings from "spiritual worlds
Spirit world (spiritualism)
The spirit world, according to Spiritualism, is the world inhabited by spirits. Though a concept of a spirit world is in the constitution of most religions, it is not "itself the religion". Whereas religion regards an inner life, the spirit world is regarded as an external environment for spirits...
", can and do communicate with the living. Since ancient times, this has been an element in traditional indigenous religion
Indigenous religion
Indigenous religion refers to those religions which are native to indigenous peoples around the world. They are one of the three broad divisions into which religions are categorised, along with world religions and new religious movements. The majority of the world's many thousands of religions fit...
s. 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 http://www.onelook.com/?w=spiritism&ls=a also use the term spiritism
Spiritism
Spiritism is a loose corpus of religious faiths having in common the general belief in the survival of a spirit after death. In a stricter sense, it is the religion, beliefs and practices of the people affiliated to the International Spiritist Union, based on the works of Allan Kardec and others...
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
Mediumship
Mediumship is described as a form of communication with spirits. It is a practice in religious beliefs such as Spiritualism, Spiritism, Espiritismo, Candomblé, Voodoo and Umbanda.- Concept :...
.
The word also takes on specific alternative meanings in various differing fields of academia
Academia
Academia is the community of students and scholars engaged in higher education and research.-Etymology:The word comes from the akademeia in ancient Greece. Outside the city walls of Athens, the gymnasium was made famous by Plato as a center of learning...
, see below.
Usage
Spiritualism is used in English to mean either;- 1) (Religion) – the belief that people can and do communicate with dead people and the practices and doctrines of people with this belief.
- 2) (Philosophy) – In a philosophical doctrinePhilosophyPhilosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
or religious beliefs emphasising that spiritSpiritThe English word spirit has many differing meanings and connotations, most of them relating to a non-corporeal substance contrasted with the material body.The spirit of a living thing usually refers to or explains its consciousness.The notions of a person's "spirit" and "soul" often also overlap,...
s and soulSoulA soul in certain spiritual, philosophical, and psychological traditions is the incorporeal essence of a person or living thing or object. Many philosophical and spiritual systems teach that humans have souls, and others teach that all living things and even inanimate objects have souls. The...
s exist or that all reality is spiritual, not material. - 3) (Metaphysics) – various doctrines maintaining that the ultimate reality is spirit or mind.
- 4) (Ethics) – the view that spiritual concerns are more important than this-worldly concerns (a kind of idealismIdealismIn philosophy, idealism is the family of views which assert that reality, or reality as we can know it, is fundamentally mental, mentally constructed, or otherwise immaterial. Epistemologically, idealism manifests as a skepticism about the possibility of knowing any mind-independent thing...
or asceticismAsceticismAsceticism describes a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from various sorts of worldly pleasures often with the aim of pursuing religious and spiritual goals...
that is opposed to secularismSecularismSecularism is the principle of separation between government institutions and the persons mandated to represent the State from religious institutions and religious dignitaries...
).
- 5) (Epistemology) – another term for mysticismMysticismMysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...
.
- 6) (Art) – "Abstract Spiritualism", a term coined by Gerard Tempest, friend of the renowned surrealist Giorgio de ChiricoGiorgio de ChiricoGiorgio de Chirico was a pre-Surrealist and then Surrealist Italian painter born in Volos, Greece, to a Genovese mother and a Sicilian father. He founded the scuola metafisica art movement...
in the 1950s to describe his "landscapes of the mind's eye." A recurring theme begun in 1953 and continuing throughout the 1990s.
Modern Spiritualism
"Modern Spiritualism", or "Modern American Spiritualism" is used to refer to an Anglo-American religious movement having its golden age between the 1840s and 1920s but which continues on to this day.Christian Spiritualism
Spiritualism has been related to the practises of early Christianity and has developed into an additional form of Christian Spiritualism, e.g. the still active First Spiritual Temple in the USA founded in 1883 and the Greater World Christian Spiritualist League (later to become the Greater World Christian Spiritualist Association) in the UK which was founded in 1931.Foremost in the movement towards Christian Spiritualism in the United Kingdom was one of the leading pioneers in the spiritualism movement, medium and Reverend William Stainton Moses
William Stainton Moses
The Reverend William Stainton Moses , was an English clergyman and Spiritualist.Educated at Bedford School, University College School, London and Exeter College, Oxford, he was ordained as a priest of the Church of England by Bishop Samuel Wilberforce in 1870.He attended his first séance with Miss...
. He was a member of the BNAS (British National Association of Spiritualists), vice-president of the Society for Psychic Research and launched the London Spiritualist Alliance which later became the College of Psychic Studies.
Contemporary Christian Spiritualist denominations also include those within the American Spiritual Church Movement
Spiritual church movement
The spiritual church movement is an informal name for a group of loosely allied and also independent Spiritualist churches and Spiritualist denominations that have in common the fact that they have been historically based in the African American community. Many of them owe their origin to the...
pioneered by Leafy Anderson
Leafy Anderson
Mother Leafy Anderson was born in Wisconsin in the 19th century. She was a Spiritualist, and her mediumship included contact with the spirit of the Native American war chief Black Hawk, who had lived in Illinois and Wisconsin, Anderson's home state.She was the founder of the Spiritual Church...
, such as the Metropolitan Spiritual Churches of Christ, founded in 1925, Pentecostal Spiritual Assemblies of Christ Worldwide, founded in 1938, whose motto is "Pentecostal by Birth, Spiritual by Lifestyle, Apostolic by Experience, and Christian by Demand. A Spiritual Church... On a Spiritual Foundation... Walking in the Supernatural...," and Universal Hagar's Spiritual Church, founded in the 1920s.
France Pre-1848
French spiritualism, better known as SpiritismSpiritism
Spiritism is a loose corpus of religious faiths having in common the general belief in the survival of a spirit after death. In a stricter sense, it is the religion, beliefs and practices of the people affiliated to the International Spiritist Union, based on the works of Allan Kardec and others...
; popular throughout France and Latin American countries.
Spiritualist beliefs are found from time to time in the early literature of the French "magnetists
Animal magnetism
Animal magnetism , in modern usage, refers to a person's sexual attractiveness or raw charisma. As postulated by Franz Mesmer in the 18th century, the term referred to a supposed magnetic fluid or ethereal medium believed to reside in the bodies of animate beings...
". As early as 1787 M. Tardy de Montravel wrote that in the trance the soul of the "somnambule" became freed from its body and was able to intercourse with other spirits. Dr G.P. Billot, and J. P. F. Deleuze and recorded discussing and documenting seances from the 1820s.
Of the early French Spiritualist, Alphonse Cahagnet, publisher of spirit messages such as "Arcanes de la vie future devoiles" (1848), is one of its foremost cases. Familiar with the teachings of Swedenborg, and interest evoked by contemporary German clairvoyants, in Paris of his day Cahagnet stood almost alone belonging to no school. For the advent of Modern Spiritualism in America, Cahagnet would have found few readers but his documentation of his work with the medium Adele Maginot were at once amongst the most remarkable and the best-attested documents on which the early case for Spiritualism depended.
Native American spiritualism
Representations of Native Americans images have played a significant role in nineteenth and twentieth century spiritualism although in reality Natives and their tradition have suffered considerably under the influences of competing Christian churches . Since 1970, there have been a number of individuals purporting to sell native American spiritualism, sometimes called '"American Indian Spiritualism." The spread of these beliefs began with a number of literary hoaxes undertaken by non-Indians such as Carlos CastanedaCarlos Castaneda
Carlos Castaneda was a Peruvian-born American anthropologist and author....
and Jamake Highwater
Jamake Highwater
Jamake Highwater was an US writer and journalist who claimed Native American ancestry.-Earlier life as Jay Marks:The exact date of Highwater's birth is unknown but it might be any time between 1923-1933...
. Several Native Americans have also sought to exploit interest in native American spiritualism, writing distortions of indigenous spiritual practices and knowledge for consumption in the mass market. This situation has been attacked by legitimate Indian scholars and by activists such as the American Indian Movement
American Indian Movement
The American Indian Movement is a Native American activist organization in the United States, founded in 1968 in Minneapolis, Minnesota by urban Native Americans. The national AIM agenda focuses on spirituality, leadership, and sovereignty...
, Survival of American Indians and the late Gerald Wilkenson, head of the National Indian Youth Council.
The Caribbean
Spiritualism in the Caribbean has taken different roads of expression based on its contact with other religious systems. In urban areas, for example, Spiritualists were highly literate and more apt to indulge the concepts of foreign authors. In the rural areas, however, illiteracy was widespread and practitioners held a diverse array of beliefs and practices.In Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
, for instance, two fundamental variants of espiritism exist:
- La Mesa Blanca Spiritualism is form of practice is highly colonialized, meaning the European influence is quite evident. Catholicism, Native and African meld together into a syncretic belief system. This variant is designated by the use of La Mesa Blanca or "White Table".
- EgungunEgungunEgungun is a part of the Yoruba pantheon of divinities. In the indeginous religious system of the West African tribe of that name, the spirit is of central importance...
Spiritualism is form of spiritism that has strong KongoKongo peopleThe Bakongo or the Kongo people , also sometimes referred to as Kongolese or Congolese, is a Bantu ethnic group which lives along the Atlantic coast of Africa from Pointe-Noire to Luanda, Angola...
–Bantu roots. Elements from Lucumi/Regla de Ocha are evident. This type of practice, designated by the use of chants and dancing (performed by the mediums) in a line or chain to the beat of songs, hymns and invocations that ultimately lead to a state of trance or possession by the SpiritSpiritThe English word spirit has many differing meanings and connotations, most of them relating to a non-corporeal substance contrasted with the material body.The spirit of a living thing usually refers to or explains its consciousness.The notions of a person's "spirit" and "soul" often also overlap,...
, is seen in rural areas and in the province of SantiagoSantiago de Cuba ProvinceSantiago de Cuba Province is the second most populated province in the island of Cuba. The largest city Santiago de Cuba is the main administrative center...
.
La Mesa Blanca Spiritualism is the type of Espiritismo
Espiritismo
Espiritismo is the Latin American and Caribbean belief that good and evil spirits can affect health, luck and other elements of human life....
that made its way to US. The old line Eggungun form of service has not made much headway on the mainland. Séances, in Latino cultures, are called misas. Santería
Santería
Santería is a syncretic religion of West African and Caribbean origin influenced by Roman Catholic Christianity, also known as Regla de Ocha, La Regla Lucumi, or Lukumi. Its liturgical language, a dialect of Yoruba, is also known as Lucumi....
, more properly called La Regla Lucumi (as the Yoruba
Yoruba people
The Yoruba people are one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa. The majority of the Yoruba speak the Yoruba language...
were called in Cuba) is famous for its "magic" based on a knowledge of spirits and how to interact with them.
South America
Definitions of spirit possession, channelling and mediumship within the Brazilian 'cultos' is recognised to correspond with what appears to be the majority view as described by ethnographers of spirit possession worldwide. There are a number of descriptions available concerning what happens when someone becomes possessed. Practises brought over by African slaves from West Africa, Mixed with indigenous South American tradition to develop their own flavour. During the suppression of Culto Omoloco or UmbandaUmbanda
Umbanda is an Afro-Brazilian religion that blends African religions with Catholicism, Spiritism and Kardecism, and considerable indigenous lore....
by the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
a period of syncretism commenced that included the introduction of images of the saints present in the churches presenting a new look for repressors behind which the Africans worshipped their gods and ancestors. This process of merger continued with the introduction of Kardecist spiritism and includes spiritualists.
| Afro | Brazilian | Origin | Line/Tradition |
|---|---|---|---|
| Orixá | Yoruba | Candomblé Nagô | |
| Vodun | Dahomey | Candomblé Jeje | |
| Vodunsu, Encantado | Europe, Middle East | Mina | |
| Caboclo Indigenous | Amazonian | Mina, healing & consultation | |
| Animal Spirits | Indigenous Amazonian | Curing |
From: 'Channellers, Cowries and Conversations with the Gods: explaining multiple divination
Divination
Divination is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic standardized process or ritual...
methods in an Afro-Brazilian religious tradition'.
In Puerto Rico, trance mediums feature in is spiritism and in Cuba, syncretic spiritualistic practises similar to Santería are called Santerfa and enjoy an estimated five million Hispanic American followers.
India
Spiritualism is also practised within India in both modern and traditional forms involving contacting the spirits of the dead persons, individuals own relatives as well as other benevolent spirits, in order to learn the secrets of the other world and gain wealth or power over others. it is prevalent in both the North and the South, amongst the Tulu and Telugu speaking people and across casteCaste
Caste is an elaborate and complex social system that combines elements of endogamy, occupation, culture, social class, tribal affiliation and political power. It should not be confused with race or social class, e.g. members of different castes in one society may belong to the same race, as in India...
divides by way of ritual, and exists in a variety of mediumship cults.
In 'A Tale of goddesses, money, and other terribly wonderful things: spirit possession, commodity fetishism, and the narrative of capitalism in Rajasthan', anthropologist J.G. Snodgrass explores the use of spiritualism amongst Rajasthani performing communities arguing for an appreciation of the way religious forms, and particularly the use of spiritual possessions, represent a form of language. Rajasthanis are possessed by a range of spiritual entities. Some of these are judged good and beneficial, some evil.
Trance mediumship and channelling
Channelling (mediumistic)
In spirituality, channelling or channeling is the belief that communication of information occurs by or through a person , from a deity, spirit or other paranormal entity outside the mind of the channel...
are also practised by the UN related new religious movement
New religious movement
A new religious movement is a religious community or ethical, spiritual, or philosophical group of modern origin, which has a peripheral place within the dominant religious culture. NRMs may be novel in origin or they may be part of a wider religion, such as Christianity, Hinduism or Buddhism, in...
called, the Brahma Kumaris who have their headquarters in the state.
Eastern Asia
Noted as early as 1850 by J. R. Logan in the Journal of the Indian Archipelago IV. 552 who illustrated the different forms of spiritualism which prevailed in Eastern Asia at that time". Henry Olcott of the Theosophical SocietyTheosophical Society
The Theosophical Society is an organization formed in 1875 to advance the spiritual principles and search for Truth known as Theosophy. The original organization, after splits and realignments has several successors...
went to length to draw correlations between Eastern spiritualistic practises and Modern Spiritualism.
China
Hsien-t'ien TaoWay of Former Heaven
The Way of Former Heaven encompasses five religious groups of Chinese origin. They claim to strive for the unification of Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism and other religions. They were violently suppressed at one point in history...
sects claim to represent a way (Tao) that transcends and unites all other religions. Explicit syncretism is a noticeable feature of these groups who claim that their teachings aim to unify the "Three Religions" (Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism), the "Five Religions" or even the former three plus Christianity and Islam. Most Hsien-tien Tao groups rely heavily on spirit-writing as a means of communicating with "the Mother" as well as lower-ranking deities. Amongst practitioners, the T'zu-hui Tang differ from the other Hsien-t'ien Tao sects, which were all originally based on the Chinese mainland, in that it originated in Taiwan in post-World War II years. It was founded in 1949, when the "Golden Mother of the Jasper Pool" revealed herself through a medium
Mediumship
Mediumship is described as a form of communication with spirits. It is a practice in religious beliefs such as Spiritualism, Spiritism, Espiritismo, Candomblé, Voodoo and Umbanda.- Concept :...
in the northeastern Taiwanese city of Hualien. The cults influence reaches to Malaysia.
Mesmerism, Planchette, and Spiritualism have also been noted in China, soon after the start of spiritualism in the West.
Japan
in Japan, spirit mediums are called Reibai. Although the primary religion of Japan, Shintoism is essentially animisticAnimism
Animism refers to the belief that non-human entities are spiritual beings, or at least embody some kind of life-principle....
, relating to Kami
Kami
is the Japanese word for the spirits, natural forces, or essence in the Shinto faith. Although the word is sometimes translated as "god" or "deity", some Shinto scholars argue that such a translation can cause a misunderstanding of the term...
, or spirits, psychical research typical of the West was introduced to Japan by Wasaburou Asano (1874–1937). Wasaburou established the Society for Spiritual Science Research in Japan and is recognized as creating modern Japanese Spiritualism. His successor Takeo Waki further developing the movement. Later Hiroyoshi Kuwahara created Neo Spiritualism which combined Japanese Spiritualism with the content of British spirit messages.
Japan Psychic Science Association (JPSA) was started in December 1946 promotes spiritualism and conducts psychical research. It provides members with the opportunities for psychic reading
Psychic reading
A psychic reading is a specific attempt to discern information with clairvoyance and the resulting statements made during such an attempt. The term is commonly associated with paranormal-based consultation given for a fee in such settings as over the phone, in a home, or at psychic fairs...
s and healings and promotes scientific research by a team of scientists and engineers.
Recently widespread popular interest was inspired by Hiroyuki Ehara, a self-professed spiritual counselor who hosts a weekly television show Aura no Izumi where he looks into celebrities' past lives and reads their "auras". Spiritual reading
Spiritual reading
Spiritual reading is a practice of reading books and articles about spirituality with the purpose of growing in holiness.Spiritual reading is devoted to the reading of lives of saints, writings of Doctors and the Fathers of the Church, theological works written by holy people, and doctrinal...
are known as Seishin Touitshuka. Other notable spiritualists include, Fukurai Tomokichi (1869–1952) Japanese pioneer of parapsychology
Parapsychology
The term parapsychology was coined in or around 1889 by philosopher Max Dessoir, and originates from para meaning "alongside", and psychology. The term was adopted by J.B. Rhine in the 1930s as a replacement for the term psychical research...
, Mifune Chizuko (1886–1911), a clairvoyant. Mita Koichi (1885–1943), a psychic and Deguchi Onisaburo (1871–1948) Leader of Ohmoto, a Japanese Shinto sect who practised channelling known as Chinkon-kijin. Japan also has its own traditional form or table turning or ouija
Ouija
The Ouija board also known as a spirit/fire key board or talking board, is a flat board marked with the letters of the alphabet, the numbers 0-9, the words "yes", "no", "hello" and "goodbye", and other symbols and words are sometimes also added to help personalize the board...
called kokkuri
Kokkuri (game)
or is a Japanese game popular during the Meiji period that is also a form of divination, based partially on Western table-turning. The name kokkuri is an onomatopoeia meaning "to nod up and down", and refers to the movement of the actual kokkuri mechanism...
and spirits beings
Spirit
The English word spirit has many differing meanings and connotations, most of them relating to a non-corporeal substance contrasted with the material body.The spirit of a living thing usually refers to or explains its consciousness.The notions of a person's "spirit" and "soul" often also overlap,...
are called yokai
Yokai
are a class of supernatural monsters in Japanese folklore. The word yōkai is made up of the kanji for "otherworldly" and "weird". Yōkai range eclectically from the malevolent to the mischievous, or occasionally bring good fortune to those who encounter them...
in its folklore.
Other Japanese religious leaders claiming to channel spirits include Ryuho Okawa
Ryuho Okawa
is the CEO and founder of the Happy Science religious organization and the Happiness Realization Party in Japan.After graduating from the University of Tokyo, he joined a Tokyo-based trading house. While working at its New York headquarters on the 40th floor of the 1 World Trade Center from...
of the Japanese new religious movement Kofuku-no-Kagaku, or Happy Science, who claims to channeled the spirits of Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
, Christ
Christ
Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...
, Buddha
Buddha
In Buddhism, buddhahood is the state of perfect enlightenment attained by a buddha .In Buddhism, the term buddha usually refers to one who has become enlightened...
, and Confucious.
Pacific islands
In Samoa, Java, Tonga etc. distinctions are made between god-like and spirit-like beings, with gods representing the moral order and spirits dealing with periphery issues, both through channelling, mediumship and possession. Authors note the susceptibility of missionaries in Samoa to local spirits, remembering that spirits were a significant feature of the Victorian milieu through the revival of SpiritualismSpiritualism
Spiritualism is a belief system or religion, postulating the belief that spirits of the dead residing in the spirit world have both the ability and the inclination to communicate with the living...
.
In Micronesia
Micronesia
Micronesia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising thousands of small islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It is distinct from Melanesia to the south, and Polynesia to the east. The Philippines lie to the west, and Indonesia to the southwest....
, recently deceased kin often appear as spirit visitors and possess female relatives in order to provide comfort and guidance. Identically to Anglo-American practises, they deliver important messages from beyond the grave. These spirits are fully sentient beings who retain social and emotional ties with their earthly homes and families. They occupy a liminal space between this world and the afterlife.
During this liminal period, spirits must learn how to "be dead", while the living struggle to reconcile themselves to the corporeal death and new spiritual life of the departed. Spirit possession and other forms of spirit communication, including the popular use of ouija
Ouija
The Ouija board also known as a spirit/fire key board or talking board, is a flat board marked with the letters of the alphabet, the numbers 0-9, the words "yes", "no", "hello" and "goodbye", and other symbols and words are sometimes also added to help personalize the board...
boards, help to facilitate the process of "becoming dead" on both sides of the cosmological divide. Spiritualistic practices play an important role in helping individuals to understand death as a journey when it is also marked by social rupture and the problems of grief and attachment.
The Antipodes
In Australia, AborigineVictorian Aborigines
The Indigenous Australians of Victoria, Australia occupied the land for tens of thousands of years prior to European settlement. According to Gary Presland Aborigines have lived in Victoria for about 40,000 years living a semi-nomadic existence of fishing, hunting and gathering, and farming...
tribes in Victoria called spirits Mrarts, understood to be the souls of "Black Fellows dead and gone", not demons unattached. The mediums, now very scarce, are Birraarks who were consulted as to matters present and future, whose practises include the 'spirit-rapping' known to the Modern Spiritualists and whistles, heard in certain Brazilian séances. The Māoris' specialty was 'trance utterance', the Tohungas being mediums.
Africa
West-African Kongol and Bantu tradition is generally referred to as Vodun (or anglicised to Voodoo). Spirit mediumship and spirit possession are fairly common practices in Sub-Saharan Africa, both in traditional religions and in Christian contexts. As is the norm, the term spiritualism and spiritism are used generally and interchangeably to describe indigenous spiritualistic practises. Spiritism, spiritualism, and spiritual churches have been established in Ghana and Nigeria. Following similar trends of the syncretism of traditional spirit worship and Christianity, they pervade everyday life to the top of society where they play a part in politic elections, ritualizing to help politicians win elections and interpreting events in prophetic terms and are used in healing.Kubandwa is a spirit possession cult spread all over the Great Lakes region of Africa (Rwanda, Burundi, north-western Tanzania, Uganda, Eastern Congo) past women have played an important role in kubandwa, both as mediums and spirits. Tromba mediumship features in Madagascar.
Islam
Spiritualism is practised but not condoned in Islamic societies. The Sufi sect of Dervishes are referred to as "Eastern Spiritualists". Likewise, the ZārZar
- Places :* Zar, Armenia, a town in the Kotayk Province* Zar, Azerbaijan, a village in the Kalbajar Rayon currently controlled by the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic* Žár , a village in the Czech Republic* Żar, Łódź Voivodeship, Poland...
cult of North Africa (Sudan, Egypt) and the Middle East (Iran).
Spiritualistic activities
The phenomena of Spiritualism consists of; prophecy, clairvoyanceClairvoyance
The term clairvoyance is used to refer to the ability to gain information about an object, person, location or physical event through means other than the known human senses, a form of extra-sensory perception...
, clairaudience, gift of tongues, laying on of hands, healing, visions, trance, apports, revelations, raps, levitation, automatic and independent writing and painting, photography, materialization, psychometry, direct and independent voice, and any other manifestation which proves the continuity of life after death.
Such universal practises and the giving of spiritual guidance, the different manifestation of spiritualistic activities were categorised by Sir William Crookes, a highly distinguished British physicist and chemist, as being;
- The movement of heavy bodies with contact, but without mechanical exertion
- The phenomena of percussive and other allied sounds
- The alteration of weights of bodies
- Movements of heavy substances when at a distance from the medium
- The rising of tables and chairs off the ground, with out contact with any person
- The levitation of human beings
- Movement of various small articles without contact with any person
- Luminous appearances
- The appearance of hands, either self-luminous or visible by ordinary light
- Direct (automatic) writing
- Phantom forms and faces
- Special instances which seem to point to the agency of an exterior intelligence
- Miscellaneous occurrences of a complex character.
Gender balance
Women have historically had a fairly constant interest in the spirit world. Spiritualism's current popularity in the West is a result of women having more power and visibility, giving the spirit world a prominence in society that it previously had only during spiritualism's "boom" periods when men became interested.Historically, the majority of mediums for tromba spirits amongst the Sakalava
Sakalava
The Sakalava are an ethnic group of Madagascar numbering approximately 700,000 in population. Their name means "people of the long valleys." They occupy the Western edge of the island from Toliara in the south to Sambirano in the north. The Sakalava denominate a number of smaller ethnic groups...
have also been adult women, usually in their forties or older and is likewise associated with female status. In general, a Sakalava ritual in which the spirits must be fed, cannot be performed if the two are not present and represented.
Swedenborg
A Swedish scientist, philosopher, politician and theologian. Widely recognized as the "Father of Modern Spiritualism" but practicing before the movement started. A clairvoyant medium and used his spiritualist gifts for the royalty of Sweden.Allan Kardec
Developed the C19th spiritualist philosophical doctrine of SpiritismSpiritism
Spiritism is a loose corpus of religious faiths having in common the general belief in the survival of a spirit after death. In a stricter sense, it is the religion, beliefs and practices of the people affiliated to the International Spiritist Union, based on the works of Allan Kardec and others...
, popular in Francophone
Francophone
The adjective francophone means French-speaking, typically as primary language, whether referring to individuals, groups, or places. Often, the word is used as a noun to describe a natively French-speaking person....
and Latin nations.
Edward Burnett Tylor
Anthropologist, introduced the term animismAnimism
Animism refers to the belief that non-human entities are spiritual beings, or at least embody some kind of life-principle....
.
Joseph Campbell
C20th American mythologyMythology
The term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. As examples, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece...
professor and author best known for his work in the fields of comparative religion.
Carl Jung
Carl JungCarl Jung
Carl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and the founder of Analytical Psychology. Jung is considered the first modern psychiatrist to view the human psyche as "by nature religious" and make it the focus of exploration. Jung is one of the best known researchers in the field of dream analysis and...
's doctoral dissertation was not medical research but the investigation of a medium, his maternal cousin, Hélène Preiswerk. His mother, Emilie Preiswerk, was born into a family that regularly practised Spiritualism. The daughter of a man who held weekly seances with his dead first wife who instructed young Emilie to stand behind his chair to discourage ghosts. Jung showed a willingness to take Spiritualism seriously at this formative stage in his life and the early experiences with Hélène Preiswerk suggest a credence of Spiritualism as possible evidence of the supernatural.
The spiritualist narrative in Jung's personal life reached a climax in 1916 when he became convinced that his house was crammed with spirits. He practised a typically mediumistic activity of ‘spirit-directed
Automatic writing
Automatic writing or psychography is writing which the writer states to be produced from a subconscious and/or spiritual source without conscious awareness of the content.-History:...
' writing.