SPIRITUALISM, the term used in philosophy to indicate the opposite of materialism, and the belief in the existence and life of the spirit apart from, and independent of, the material organism, and in the reality and value of intelligent intercourse between spirits embodied and spirits disembodied. The belief in spirit manifestations has long obtained, but in its limited and mod ern form spiritualism dates from the Fox sisters in 1848. In this year a Mr. and Mrs. Fox, who lived with their two daughters, Margaret and Leah, at Hyndsville, N. Y., were disturbed by repeated and inexplicable rappings throughout the house. At length it was accidentally discovered by one of the daughters that the unseen "rapper" was so intelligent as to be able to reply to various pertinent questions, and so com municative as to declare that he was the spirit of a murdered peddler. When this discovery was noised abroad a be lief that intercourse could be obtained with the spirit world became epidemic, and numerous "spirit circles" were formed in various parts of America. The manifestations thus said to be re ceived from the spirit were rappings, table turnings, musical sounds, writings, the unseen raising of heavy bodies, and the like. The first professional medium who visited Europe was a Mrs. Hayden, and she was followed in 1855 by Daniel D. Home, who visited nearly all the courts of Europe. He claimed to possess unusual powers, and was said to be able to float up to the ceiling or out of the window into the next room. Such claims not only attracted the curious and converted the unthinking, but also received the attention of legal and scien tific men. In America, Judge Edmonds and Professor Hare undertook to expose their fallacy, but both had to admit the genuineness of some of the evidence; while in England such eminent converts as A. R. Wallace, W. Crookes, F. R. S., and Professor De Morgan were inclined to put their credence in the truth of the phenomena. The London Dialectical
Society appointed a committee to investi gate the phenomena, and the report (1871) admits the genuineness of the phenomena, but does not seek to ex plain their origin. In the United States, the believers in spiritualism are very numerous, and have many newspapers, magazines, and books to explain and en force their belief. In 1884 the London Spiritualist Alliance was founded, and was incorporated in 1896. The chief work of the society has been to maintain and expound the principles of spiritual ism. In the United States a National Spiritualist Association was organized at Washington, D. C., in 1893. There were in 1920 about 1,000 working societies throughout the country; 22 state asso ciations; 32 camp meeting organizations and perhaps 1,000 local associations in various cities and towns. There were 200 churches; 500 ordained ministers, and 600,000 members. It is estimated that there are about 1500 public mediums throughout the United States. See PSYCHICAL RESEARCH.
The Belief.—The popular belief seems to be that the phenomena of spiritualism are the result either of self-delusion on the part of believers, unconscious de ception on the part of the medium, or clever conjuring. The more recent in vestigations of the Psychical Society seem to show that there are forces con nected with hypnotism and its kindred phenomena which may explain the occult occurrences of spiritualism on natural, though hitherto little known, laws. The belief of spiritualism is that our exis tence in this world is but one stage in an endless career; that the whole material world exists simply for the development of spiritual beings, death being but a transition from this existence to the first grade of spirit life; that our thoughts and deeds here will affect our conditions later; and that our happiness and progress depend wholly on the use we make of our opportunities and faculties in this plane.