spiritualist
/ˈspɪrɪtʃ(ʊ)əlɪst
/ /ˈspɪrɪtjʊəlɪst/noun
1A person who believes that the spirits of the dead can communicate with living people: he became an ardent spiritualist, attending seances and insisting on their authenticity...
- The scriptwriter takes Myrtle to a spiritualist.
- Being a master spiritualist myself, I can assure you that Madame Blanche is a fake.
- The learned from all fields of science, as well as spiritualists, clairvoyants, and cranks, have studied the remains to try uncover the secrets of the past.
2 Philosophy An advocate of the doctrine that the spirit exists as distinct from matter, or that spirit is the only reality: a non-denominational spiritualist...
- We may, as spiritualists, try to explain our memory's failures and blunders by secondary causes.
- The pure associationist's account of our mental life is almost as bewildering as that of the pure spiritualist.
- Each was a spiritualist, and each comprehended meanings in realms of apprehension different from the physical world.
adjective
Relating to the belief that the spirits of the dead can communicate with living people: spiritualist mediums who claim to be able to contact the dead an active member of the spiritualist movement...
- Part of the chaperone's motivation for accompanying her niece was to have access to the city's sizable spiritualist community.
- She was an active member of the spiritualist movement in Britain.
- They elaborated the connections between the telegraph and spiritualist phenomena in an effort to legitimize their supernatural experiences.
Derivatives
spiritualistic
- Any discussion of his spiritualistic bent must begin with Mrs Piper.
- The terms he uses (haunting, poltergeist, medium, seance) come from a spiritualistic perspective.
- I do not myself contend that the proof is as overwhelming as in the case of spiritualistic phenomena.