What was the Spiritualism religious movement?

Spiritualism was a popular social and religious movement during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries centered on the belief that human awareness persists after death. Adherents claimed that the living could communicate with the deceased spirit world through mediums, séances, and trances. The movement flourished largely without formal texts or organizations until accusations of fraud led to the creation of formal churches.

What we know

• Spiritualism is a social religious movement popular in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. [3]
• Adherents believe that an individual's awareness persists after death and that spirits can be contacted by the living. [2, 3]
• Communication between the physical world and the spirit world occurs through séances, trances, and other forms of mediumship. [2]
• The movement attained cohesion through periodicals, trance lecturer tours, camp meetings, and mediums without canonical texts or formal organization for half a century. [3]

Still open

• While Emanuel Swedenborg has some claim to be considered the father of spiritualism, the exact origins and trajectory of the movement developed primarily from the 1840s onward.

Where to go next

• how it workedHow do mediums communicate with the spirit world?
• what caused itWhat caused the decline of informal Spiritualist networks?
• whoEmanuel Swedenborg
• whereWhere is Spiritualism practiced today?
• compared withHow does French philosophical spiritualism differ from the religious movement?
• an unexpected connectionHow did women's suffrage intersect with Spiritualism?Many prominent figures in the informal Spiritualism movement were women who simultaneously championed social reform causes like the abolition of slavery and women's suffrage.

Sources

• [1]spirit world (Wikidata Q7578061) · CC0 1.0
• [2]Spirit world (Spiritualism) · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [3]Spiritualism (movement) · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [4]Spiritualism (philosophy) · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [5]New religious movement · CC BY-SA 4.0