Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online

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Spiritualism, spiritism (mediumship)
(1,013 words)

1. Definition

The term spiritualism (also spiritism) emerged in the middle of the 19th century when the possibility of making contact with spirits (Ghost) became an object of theoretical and practical popular interest in the United States and Europe. Spiritualism (or spiritism) in the narrow sense denotes a lay religion with scientific pretensions, which gained adherents in the United States and Europe between the 1840s and the end of the 19th centu…

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Rieger, Miriam, “Spiritualism, spiritism (mediumship)”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 01 December 2023 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_COM_027805>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20180208



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