Short answer
“Religion” is a broad category covering organized systems of belief and practice, such as Christianity, Islam or Buddhism. “Spiritualism” most often names one particular religion, which grew out of 19th-century America and Britain and centers on communication with the spirits of the dead. In that sense, Spiritualism is a religion, not an alternative to religion.
Three meanings to keep apart
- Spiritualism (capital S): the religious movement that began around 1848. See Spiritualism: The Religion of Mediums, Seances and Spirit Contact.
- spiritualism (lowercase): in philosophy, the view that reality is fundamentally spiritual or immaterial. This has nothing to do with seances.
- Spirituality: a general term for a personal sense of meaning, connection or the sacred, often without formal membership. Many people describe themselves as “spiritual but not religious.” Its relationship to mysticism is covered in mysticism vs spirituality.
How Spiritualism compares with religion generally
Spiritualism shares many features of religions: it has churches, ministers, services, ethical principles and a view of the afterlife. Some of its organizations are legally recognized as religious bodies in certain countries. Differences from many mainstream religions include:
- It places mediumship, the direct reception of messages from the dead, at the center of practice.
- It often has fewer fixed doctrines, and organizations differ on questions about Jesus, God or reincarnation.
- Its claims about spirit contact are tested through demonstration rather than authority of scripture, though skeptics point to a long record of fraud and say the claims lack reliable evidence.
Some mainstream traditions reject Spiritualism. Many Christian denominations, for example, discourage attempts to contact the dead.
Spiritualism versus spirituality
Spirituality is much broader and usually refers to an individual outlook. A person can be spiritual without taking any Spiritualist belief, and a Spiritualist might consider spirit communication one expression of their spirituality. The wider spiritual landscape, including its more commercial forms, is described in New Age Spirituality and the Occult Revival.
Can someone be both?
Some people combine Spiritualist practice with another faith, while others treat it as their only religion. A related movement, Theosophy, raises a similar question about whether it counts as a religion at all.