spiritualism

spiritual +‎ -ism

In Allan Kardec's 1857 book The Spirits Book (Le Livre des Esprits in original French), in which a distinction between spiritism and spiritualism is defined.

spiritualism (countable and uncountable, plural spiritualisms)

1. A philosophic doctrine, opposing materialism, that claims transcendency of the divine being, the altogether spiritual character of reality and the value of inwardness of consciousness.
   • R. H. Hutton

     What is called spiritualism should, I think, be called a mental species of materialism.

2. A belief that the dead communicate with the living, especially through a medium. Used in a broader sense than spiritism/Kardecism, in which followers specifically believe in Allan Kardec's Spiritist Codification, a series of books that contain additional moral and other teachings.
3. The quality or state of being spiritual.

• (belief that dead communicate with the living): spiritism, Kardecism

• spiritualist