It was me...

Ooooooohhhh.... What can we talk about on here then... Um...WELL....

At A&E the other day when my son split his head open, they asked me to fill in the form, and on it was the word Religion? So, I turned to my six year old and asked him what religion he was.... he looked up and said in a confused way "What's that?", so I just shrugged and put "He hasn't decided yet!"

I got some very WEIRD looks!!

He then asked me what mine was, and I said "I'm just Spiritual", then he looked even more confused!!!
[url] [/url]

Oh oh, here we go. I knew this was going to happen as soon as we got a Spiritualism forum: we've discussed on here ad nauseam the difference between Spiritualism (seances, mediums etc) and Spirituality (wot dip said above.) Oh dear, confusion will reign....
xxxx

Hmm, there is a Spiritualist Church in town that is holding an open house in the next few weeks. I have thought about going to see what they are about. What might I expect, if you please?

Oh oh, here we go. I knew this was going to happen as soon as we got a Spiritualism forum: we've discussed on here ad nauseam the difference between Spiritualism (seances, mediums etc) and Spirituality (wot dip said above.) Oh dear, confusion will reign....
xxxx

Oh No! Now I am confused.... I hadn't really thought there was a difference between Spiritualism and Spiritualistic....:eek:

Oh No! Now I am confused.... I hadn't really thought there was a difference between Spiritualism and Spiritualistic....:eek:

Well, I put 'spiritualism' into the HP search machine and found this quote from Venetian which sums it up quite well:

Spiritualism is the practise and beliefs of spiritualists, who are believers or seekers after communication with the dead. Sometimes, since this is just a form of "interdimensional telephone" for a useless chat, or believed to be, it could be said that spiritualism isn't always even spiritual. Just IMO. It's simply communication or believed to be.

The word you're looking for isn't "spiritualism" but "spirituality". I'm sure any dictionary or Wikipedia will basically bear this out, with the usual fine print riders. When the subject comes up, I usually comment that "spiritualism" from the start was a very confusing choice of word, but there's no changing it now.

Oh - yes there is! It started getting called channelling! 🙂

In the mid-1800s for a time it was called "spiritism" which maybe is just slightly better as it implies something to do with spirits (of the 'dead'). But that went out of fashion before even the 1900s.

Have a look at some of the threads, dip, we've had long discussions about what these words mean in the past. Here's one of them:

HTH

Hmm, there is a Spiritualist Church in town that is holding an open house in the next few weeks. I have thought about going to see what they are about. What might I expect, if you please?

Scott have a look at the thread above this one called "inner healing" regarding spiritualist Churches

Spiritualism is the practice, usually by mediums to prove that the spirit (soul) exists after death. Spirituality is the pursuit of the higher spiritual concepts that we believe we can attain.
IMHO

regards

Oh, right, I got confused by the terms "spiritualist" and "spiritualism". I'm in the wrong place... Sorry about that. Spiritualist is what I was looking for. I'm not into the whole "channeling" thing.

Oh, right, I got confused by the terms "spiritualist" and "spiritualism". I'm in the wrong place... Sorry about that. Spiritualist is what I was looking for. I'm not into the whole "channeling" thing.

Spiritualist is someone who practises spiritualism. I think some people would think that was channeling. Thus if you are writing about a spiritualist you are in the right place.

Quote "Spiritualist is someone who practises spiritualism. I think some people would think that was channeling." Unquote.

To clarify for those who may think the above; a Spiritualist is someone who follows and/or practises Spiritualism in the same way a Jew follows Judaism for example. Channelling is when a medium (clairvoyant, -audient or -sentient) allows a spirit/energies to communicate with the receiver directly through them - as a sort of conduit or vehicle. Just being a Spiritualist isn't channelling.:)

... and being Spiritual is not necessarily being a Spiritualist. That's right isn't it?

How would one define being "Spiritual", and how is that different from being a Spiritualist........... ??????

I think, to avoid the confusion over whether spiritualists channel or not it would be better put something like this (if I get it right...)

A spiritualist believes in spirits (the spirit realm/dimension, spirit entities etc.) and their practice of being a spiritualist is called spiritualism. Some who practice spiritualism pertain to be in contact with spirit and act as channels to the spirit entities/dimension(s). There are spiritualism churches that spiritualists can attend. Spiritualism can be classed as a religion in it's own right.

Someone who is spiritual does not necessarily believe in the spirit dimensions or spirit entities etc., but does believe/practice a connection with the "source" whatever that may be to them (God, Universal Energy etc.) and perhaps believes that we are all one and connected in some way in this universe. i.e. they believe in things that are not tangible or material, but not necessarily the existence of spirit entities. A person can be spiritual and belong to any one of the religious belief systems or even be an atheist. Being spiritual is not tied to any one particular religion.

So the ist and ism's go together, but just "spiritual" is not necessarily in that belief system (for want of a better way of putting it)

At least that's my current understanding, but I'm sure I'm going to get corrected now...

:hidesbehindsofa:

At least that's my current understanding, but I'm sure I'm going to get corrected now...

:hidesbehindsofa:

Nope, that's a fair description!:) . Indeed, one can be of any denomination including Spiritualism and be deeply spiritual, looking toward a higher and/or divine conciousness.

Me personally - I'm Spiritualist-Pagan-Christian...work that one out, lol.

Oh dear!!!! X 🙂

I feel slightly [url] [/url] !!