Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Anthon.Eff (talk | contribs) at 02:33, 13 January 2006 (→Merge Modern Spiritualist Movement into Spiritualism??). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

What is the difference between spiritism and spiritualism? I think some information here should be moved to spiritism Andries 22:25, 21 Feb 2004 (UTC)

In Brazil at least "Spiritualism" is an umbrella term for various movements that preach the existence and religious relevance of some sort of "soul" or "spirit". "Spiritism" is nearly always used to mean Kardecism (sometimes also Umbanda). Although there are lots of misinformation around, neither Spiritism nor Spiritualism have much to do with Buddhism, which in fact specifically denies the existence of a true soul. Luis Dantas 00:17, 22 Feb 2004 (UTC)

BTW - I agree that some of the info in this article belongs to spiritism instead. Luis Dantas 00:18, 22 Feb 2004 (UTC)

The article mentions the start of Spiritualism relating to the United States, but fails to point out that modern Spiritualism has its roots in the automatic writings and seances of William Stainton Moses recieved in the 1870's, whose book Spirit Teachings, is considered one of the first such works.

Another issue with this: while there is a movement called Spiritism (ie Kardec), the term is also used as a pejorative name for Spiritualism (ie the Spiritualist church) by its opponents. For instance, The Catholic Encyclopedia uses "Spiritism" in that sense, while reserving "Spiritualism" as a philosophical term for the opposite of materialism. RayGirvan 00:57, 8 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Spirit disambiguation

The word spirit in the article directs to a disambiguation page. Would "ghost" or "spiritual being" be a better link? Joyous 00:13, Jun 11, 2004 (UTC)

History of Spiritualism

Could someone flesh out the history of the movement?

Several movements could lay claim to a "spiritualist" ideology. Added link to Modern Spiritualist movementZosodada 9 July 2005 18:42 (UTC)

I was wondering when the Spiritualism movement first started, and how it might relate to the Second Great Awakening, which happened roughly 1800-1840 and the Third Great Awakening, which happened roughly 1880-1910. Another event in American religon around the mid 19th century was the publication of The Origin of Species in 1859. I'm thinking that Darwinism brought about a crisis in faith, starting around 1860. Darwinism (or at least the pop-science idea of it, not the theory itsefl) was a materalistic, logical belief system which denied the spiritual and the emotional. Spiritualism was an irrational, emotional, response to that system, and it looks like that started about 1870. I think the movement signaled a dissatisfaction with the world view of the Second Great Awakening, and was a precursor to the Third Great Awakening. An analogy would be the Beatnik movement, which was a precursor to the hippie/counterculture movement. (I think the hippie movement, or whatever you want to call it, was the Fourth Great Awakening. What do you all think? crazyeddie 05:30, 27 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Joseph Kony

I added Ugandan rebel leader, Joseph Kony, of the Lord's Resistance Army, to the list of well-known believers. freestylefrappe 03:54, May 21, 2005 (UTC)

Spiritualism was a phenomenon of North America and--to a lesser extent--of Europe. It can be distinguished from the contemporaneous occult movements (the Theosophical Society of the 1870s, for example) by its focus on communicating with the dead--any dead, but especially with the relatives of the believers--whereas the occult movements sought to gain magical powers--Blavatsky, for example,communicated only with spirits who could convey occult knowledge. Someone like Joseph Kony--not from the time period, not from the geographical area, and who clearly claims to use occult powers (spells to bullet-proof his soldiers)--does not belong in an article on Spiritualism.Anthon.Eff 17:28, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

Merge Spiritualist Church into Spiritualism

Should these be merged? -- nirvana2013 14:22, 21 October 2005 (UTC)

Yes merge these topics --wjbentley 29 October 2005

"Spiritualism" and "Spiritism" in other languages

I added a link to a Dutch[REDACTED] article called "Spiritisme". Unlike English, where "Spiritism" seems to be limited to Kardec's teachings, there are many languages where words similar to "Spiritism" actually mean Spiritualism. So maybe the list of links to other languages could and should be longer; consequently, there are probably some links in the Spiritism article that in fact belong here, in the Spiritualism article. GdB 22:50, 17 December 2005 (UTC)

Merge Modern Spiritualist Movement into Spiritualism??

Spiritualism is usually seen as the movement beginning with the Fox sisters in 1848 (in upstate New York, where so many of the events of the Second Great Awakening occured). The movement can be described as extremely individualistic, so that efforts to form a national organization and a single coherent dogma largely failed. The lack of dogma and lack of widely accepted texts means that one cannot easily describe Spiritualism by talking of its content, as the present article does. It would be better to focus on its history as the Modern Spiritualist Movement article does.Anthon.Eff 17:28, 3 January 2006 (UTC)