From Borderland Sciences Research

Spiritualism (Latin: spiritus, breath, non-corporeal substance) is broadly a set of metaphysical beliefs that divides the world into matter, or the corporeal, and spirit, or the incorporeal, distinguished from similar belief systems by the assertion that spirits of the dead continue on in this spirit world and can be contacted by mediums. There have been many modern movements that can be described as spiritualist, including Allan Kardec's Spiritism and the American Spiritualist movement of the late 19th century, in addition to older antecedents, such as animism.