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Spiritualism is the opposite of materialism and is the term used in philosophy to indicate the doctrine of the existence of spirit as distinct from matter.

According to this system of philosophy, all that is real is spirit, mind, or soul, the external world or matter being only a succession of notions impressed on our minds by the First Cause or the Deity, or a mere production of the mind itself.

The term spiritualism, however, is now also specifically applied to the belief that communication can be held with departed spirits by means of rappings or noises, writings, visible manifestations, etc. The belief in such manifestations has long existed, but in its limited and modern form spiritualism dates from the year 1848.

In this year a Mr. and Mrs. Fox, who lived with their two daughters at Hydesville, New York, 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 communicative as to declare that he was the spirit of a murdered pedlar.

When this discovery was made known abroad, a belief 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 got from the spirits were rappings, table-turnings, musical sounds, writings, the unseen raising of heavy bodies, etc.

Part of the peculiarity of these phenomena was that they were always more or less associated with a medium, who was supposed to have an organization sensitive enough to communicate with the spirit-world.

It was about this time that hypnotism began to arouse scientific Interest and to contribute to the cause of spiritualism. It had first been investigated by Mesmer (q.v.) between 1770 and 1780, and was originally called MESMERISM.

One of the most remarkable personalities in the movement was William Stainton Moses, born in 1839, and educated at Oxford. He became editor of the Spiritualist paper Light, and his two works Spirit Identity and Spirit Teachinus were widely read.

The first professional medium who came to Europe was a Mrs. Hayden, and she was followed in 1855 by Daniel D. Home, who visited nearly all the courts of Europe. It was claimed that the latter, possessed unusual powers, and was said to be able to float up to the ceiling or out of the window into the next room. Now that would have been interesting to see, even if it was staged!

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