Spiritualism - "A social religious movement founded in the mid-nineteenth century in New York State.

According to the British medium W. Stainton Moses, a spiritualist is 'one who has proven for himself, or has accepted on adequate evidence, the fact that death does not kill the spirit.'

Spiritualism centers upon two basic teachings: the continuity of personality after the transition of death, and the possibility of communication between those living on Earth and those who have made the transition to death. Spiritualism teaches that death is a new birth into a spiritual body, the counterpart of the physical, which is gifted with new powers. Spiritualists claim that their beliefs are based upon scientific proof and communication with the surviving personalities of deceased human beings by means of mediumship."

• Taken from the Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology edited by J. Gordon Melton.