Spiritualism—not to be confused with 'spirituality'—is a religious movement that flourished in the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Spiritualists believe that communication with the dead, or the 'spirit world,' is possible through the use of a medium, and that the wisdom derived from such communication is of great importance to the living.
Spiritualists have traditionally expressed a repugnance toward the idea that the human being has only the span of a short life in order to come to its full potential, either to be saved or damned. As Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a devout Spiritualist, expressed it: "The spirit (after death) is not a glorified angel ora goblin damned, but it is simply the person himself, containing all hisstrengths and weaknesses..."
Trances, visions, levitation, automatic writing, clairvoyance—all are in the repertoire of the practicing spiritualist.