Spiritualism, a term that has two very different meanings, denoting at one time the doctrine that the only real is the spiritual (q.v.), and at another time a belief in the existence of spirits whom we, by means of certain media, can hold correspondence with, and who, whether we are conscious of it or not, exercise in some cases an influence over human destiny, more particularly of the spirits of dead men with whom in their disembodied state we can by means of certain mediums hold correspondence, and who, from their continued interest in the world, do in that state keep watch and ward over its affairs as well as mingle in them, forming a world of spirits gone from hence, yet more or less active in the sense world.
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)
Spiritual, The * Spithead