People's lives in this material world provide extended opportunities to grow, to develop divine qualities and virtues, and the prophets were sent by God to facilitate this. In the Judaic world view, the meaning of life is to elevate the physical world 'Olam HaZeh' and prepare it for the world to come ' Olam HaBa ' , the messianic era. This is called Tikkun Olam "Fixing the World". Olam HaBa can also mean the spiritual afterlife, and there is debate concerning the eschatological order. However, Judaism is not focused on personal salvation, but on communal between man and man and individual between man and God spiritualised actions in this world.
Judaism's most important feature is the worship of a single, incomprehensible, transcendent , one, indivisible, absolute Being , who created and governs the universe. Closeness with the God of Israel is through study of His Torah , and adherence to its mitzvot divine laws. In traditional Judaism, God established a special covenant with a people, the people of Israel, at Mount Sinai , giving the Jewish commandments.
Torah comprises the written Pentateuch and the transcribed oral tradition , further developed through the generations. The Jewish people are intended as "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" [] and a " light to the Nations ", influencing the other peoples to keep their own religio-ethical Seven Laws of Noah. The messianic era is seen as the perfection of this dual path to God. Jewish observances involve ethical and ritual, affirmative and prohibitive injunctions.
Modern Jewish denominations differ over the nature, relevance and emphases of mitzvot. Jewish philosophy emphasises that God is not affected or benefited, but the individual and society benefit by drawing close to God. The rationalist Maimonides sees the ethical and ritual divine commandments as a necessary, but insufficient preparation for philosophical understanding of God, with its love and awe. The Jewish mystical Kabbalah gives complimentary esoteric meanings of life.
As well as Judaism providing an immanent relationship with God personal theism , in Kabbalah the spiritual and physical creation is a paradoxical manifestation of the immanent aspects of God's Being panentheism , related to the Shekhinah Divine feminine. Jewish observance unites the sephirot Divine attributes on high, restoring harmony to creation. In Lurianic Kabbalah , the meaning of life is the messianic rectification of the shattered sparks of God's persona, exiled in physical existence the Kelipot shells , through the actions of Jewish observance.
Christianity has its roots in Judaism, and shares much of the latter faith's ontology. Its central beliefs derive from the teachings of Jesus Christ as presented in the New Testament. Life's purpose in Christianity is to seek divine salvation through the grace of God and intercession of Christ John The New Testament speaks of God wanting to have a relationship with humans both in this life and the life to come, which can happen only if one's sins are forgiven John 3: In the Christian view, humankind was made in the Image of God and perfect, but the Fall of Man caused the progeny of the first Parents to inherit Original Sin and its consequences.
Christ's passion , death and resurrection provide the means for transcending that impure state Romans 6: The good news that this restoration from sin is now possible is called the gospel. The specific process of appropriating salvation through Christ and maintaining a relationship with God varies between different denominations of Christians, but all rely on faith in Christ and the gospel as the fundamental starting point. Salvation through faith in God is found in Ephesians 2: The gospel maintains that through this belief, the barrier that sin has created between man and God is destroyed, thereby allowing God to regenerate change the believer and instill in them a new heart after God's own will with the ability to live righteously before him.
This is what the terms Born again or saved almost always refer to. In the Westminster Shorter Catechism , the first question is: God requires one to obey the revealed moral law, saying: The Apostle Paul also answers this question in his speech on the Areopagus in Athens: Catholicism 's way of thinking is better expressed through the Principle and Foundation of St. All other things on the face of the earth are created for human beings in order to help them pursue the end for which they are created.
It follows from this that one must use other created things, in so far as they help towards one's end, and free oneself from them, in so far as they are obstacles to one's end. To do this, we need to make ourselves indifferent to all created things, provided the matter is subject to our free choice and there is no other prohibition. Thus, as far as we are concerned, we should not want health more than illness, wealth more than poverty, fame more than disgrace, a long life more than a short one, and similarly for all the rest, but we should desire and choose only what helps us more towards the end for which we are created.
Mormonism teaches that the purpose of life on Earth is to gain knowledge and experience and to have joy. Mormons teach that God provided his children the choice to come to Earth, which is considered a crucial stage in their development—wherein a mortal body, coupled with the freedom to choose, makes for an environment to learn and grow. A recent alternative Christian theological discourse interprets Jesus as revealing that the purpose of life is to elevate our compassionate response to human suffering; [] nonetheless, the conventional Christian position is that people are justified by belief in the propitiatory sacrifice of Jesus' death on the cross.
Hinduism is a religious category including many beliefs and traditions.
Spiritualism
Since Hinduism was the way of expressing meaningful living for a long time, before there was a need for naming it as a separate religion, Hindu doctrines are supplementary and complementary in nature, generally non-exclusive, suggestive and tolerant in content. There are four possible aims to human life, known as the purusharthas ordered from least to greatest: In all schools of Hinduism, the meaning of life is tied up in the concepts of karma causal action , sansara the cycle of birth and rebirth , and moksha liberation.
Particular goals for life are generally subsumed under broader yogas practices or dharma correct living which are intended to create more favorable reincarnations, though they are generally positive acts in this life as well. Traditional schools of Hinduism often worship Devas which are manifestations of Ishvara a personal or chosen God ; these Devas are taken as ideal forms to be identified with, as a form of spiritual improvement. In short, the goal is to realize the fundamental truth about oneself. Later schools reinterpreted the vedas to focus on Brahman , "The One Without a Second", [] as a central God-like figure.
Dvaita Vedanta and other bhakti schools have a dualist interpretation. Brahman is seen as a supreme being with a personality and manifest qualities. Vaishnavism is a branch of Hinduism in which the principal belief is the identification of Vishnu or Narayana as the one supreme God.
This belief contrasts with the Krishna-centered traditions, such as Vallabha , Nimbaraka and Gaudiya , in which Krishna is considered to be the One and only Supreme God and the source of all avataras. Vaishnava theology includes the central beliefs of Hinduism such as monotheism , reincarnation , samsara , karma , and the various Yoga systems, but with a particular emphasis on devotion bhakti to Vishnu through the process of Bhakti yoga , often including singing Vishnu's name's bhajan , meditating upon his form dharana and performing deity worship puja.
In this, Krishna is worshipped as the single true God, and all living entities are eternal parts and the Supreme Personality of the Godhead Krishna. Thus the constitutional position of a living entity is to serve the Lord with love and devotion. The purpose of human life especially is to think beyond the animalistic way of eating, sleeping, mating and defending and engage the higher intelligence to revive the lost relationship with Krishna. Jainism is a religion originating in ancient India , its ethical system promotes self-discipline above all else.
Through following the ascetic teachings of Jina , a human achieves enlightenment perfect knowledge. Jainism divides the universe into living and non-living beings. Only when the living become attached to the non-living does suffering result. Therefore, happiness is the result of self-conquest and freedom from external objects. The meaning of life may then be said to be to use the physical body to achieve self-realization and bliss.
Jains believe that every human is responsible for his or her actions and all living beings have an eternal soul , jiva. Jains believe all souls are equal because they all possess the potential of being liberated and attaining Moksha. The Jain view of karma is that every action, every word, every thought produces, besides its visible, an invisible, transcendental effect on the soul. Jains refuse food obtained with unnecessary cruelty. Many practice a lifestyle similar to veganism due to the violence of modern dairy farms, and others exclude root vegetables from their diets in order to preserve the lives of the plants from which they eat.
Buddhists practice to embrace with mindfulness the ill-being suffering and well-being that is present in life. Buddhists practice to see the causes of ill-being and well-being in life. For example, one of the causes of suffering is unhealthy attachment to objects material or non-material. Attaining and perfecting dispassion is a process of many levels that ultimately results in the state of Nirvana. Nirvana means freedom from both suffering and rebirth.
Theravada Buddhism is generally considered to be close to the early Buddhist practice. It promotes the concept of Vibhajjavada Pali , literally "Teaching of Analysis", which says that insight must come from the aspirant's experience, critical investigation, and reasoning instead of by blind faith. However, the Theravadin tradition also emphasizes heeding the advice of the wise, considering such advice and evaluation of one's own experiences to be the two tests by which practices should be judged.
The Theravadin goal is liberation or freedom from suffering, according to the Four Noble Truths. This is attained in the achievement of Nirvana , or Unbinding which also ends the repeated cycle of birth, old age, sickness and death. The way to attain Nirvana is by following and practicing the Noble Eightfold Path. Mahayana Buddhist schools de-emphasize the traditional view still practiced in Theravada of the release from individual Suffering Dukkha and attainment of Awakening Nirvana. In Mahayana, the Buddha is seen as an eternal, immutable, inconceivable, omnipresent being.
The fundamental principles of Mahayana doctrine are based on the possibility of universal liberation from suffering for all beings, and the existence of the transcendent Buddha-nature , which is the eternal Buddha essence present, but hidden and unrecognised, in all living beings.
Devotional schools such as Pure Land Buddhism seek the aid of celestial buddhas—individuals who have spent lifetimes [ citation needed ] accumulating positive karma, and use that accumulation to aid all. The monotheistic Sikh religion was founded by Guru Nanak Dev , the term "Sikh" means student, which denotes that followers will lead their lives forever learning. This system of religious philosophy and expression has been traditionally known as the Gurmat literally "the counsel of the gurus" or the Sikh Dharma.
The Sikh Gurus say that salvation can be obtained by following various spiritual paths, so Sikhs do not have a monopoly on salvation: A key distinctive feature of Sikhism is a non- anthropomorphic concept of God, to the extent that one can interpret God as the Universe itself pantheism. Sikhism thus sees life as an opportunity to understand this God as well as to discover the divinity which lies in each individual. While a full understanding of God is beyond human beings, [] Nanak described God as not wholly unknowable, and stressed that God must be seen from "the inward eye", or the "heart", of a human being: Nanak emphasized the revelation through meditation, as its rigorous application permits the existence of communication between God and human beings.
Taoist cosmogony emphasizes the need for all sentient beings and all man to return to the primordial or to rejoin with the Oneness of the Universe by way of self-cultivation and self-realization. All adherents should understand and be in tune with the ultimate truth. Taoists believe all things were originally from Taiji and Tao , and the meaning in life for the adherents is to realize the temporal nature of the existence. Shinto is the native religion of Japan. Shinto means "the path of the kami ", but more specifically, it can be taken to mean "the divine crossroad where the kami chooses his way".
The "divine" crossroad signifies that all the universe is divine spirit. This foundation of free will , choosing one's way, means that life is a creative process. Shinto wants life to live, not to die. Shinto sees death as pollution and regards life as the realm where the divine spirit seeks to purify itself by rightful self-development. Shinto wants individual human life to be prolonged forever on earth as a victory of the divine spirit in preserving its objective personality in its highest forms.
The presence of evil in the world, as conceived by Shinto, does not stultify the divine nature by imposing on divinity responsibility for being able to relieve human suffering while refusing to do so. The sufferings of life are the sufferings of the divine spirit in search of progress in the objective world. There are many new religious movements in East Asia, and some with millions of followers: New religions typically have unique explanations for the meaning of life. For example, in Tenrikyo, one is expected to live a Joyous Life by participating in practices that create happiness for oneself and others.
The mystery of life and its true meaning is an often recurring subject in popular culture , featured in entertainment media and various forms of art. At the end of the film, a character played by Michael Palin is handed an envelope containing "the meaning of life", which she opens and reads out to the audience: Uh, try to be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try to live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations. Many other Python sketches and songs are also existential in nature, questioning the importance we place on life " Always Look on the Bright Side of Life " and other meaning-of-life related questioning.
John Cleese also had his sit-com character Basil Fawlty contemplating the futility of his own existence in Fawlty Towers. In Douglas Adams ' popular comedy book, movie, television, and radio series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy , the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything is given the numeric solution " 42 ", after seven and a half million years of calculation by a giant supercomputer called Deep Thought. When this answer is met with confusion and anger from its constructors, Deep Thought explains that "I think the problem such as it was, was too broadly based.
You never actually stated what the question was. Deep Thought then constructs another computer—the Earth—to calculate what the Ultimate Question actually is. Later Ford and Arthur manage to extract the question as the Earth computer would have rendered it. That question turns out to be "what do you get if you multiply six by nine" [] , and it is realised that the program was ruined by the unexpected arrival of the Golgafrinchans on Earth, and so the actual Ultimate Question Of Life, The Universe, And Everything remains unknown.
While 6 x 9 would be written as 42 in the tridecimal numeral system , author Douglas Adams claimed that this was mere coincidence and completely serendipitous. In The Simpsons episode " Homer the Heretic ", a representation of God agrees to tell Homer what the meaning of life is, but the show's credits begin to roll just as he starts to say what it is. Blue season 1 episode 1 the character Simmons asks Grif the question "Why are we here? In Person of Interest season 5 episode 13, an artificial intelligence referred to as The Machine tells Harold Finch that the secret of life is "Everyone dies alone.
But if you mean something to someone, if you help someone, or love someone. If even a single person remembers you then maybe you never really die at all. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Philosophical and spiritual question concerning the significance of living or existence in general. This article is about the significance of life in general. For other uses, see Meaning of life disambiguation.
For to hope in the possibility of help, not to speak of help by virtue of the absurd, that for God all things are possible—no, that he will not do. And as for seeking help from any other—no, that he will not do for all the world; rather than seek help he would prefer to be himself—with all the tortures of hell, if so it must be. Chinese philosophy and Japanese philosophy.
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Wood 'N' Barnes Publishing. I think the problem such as it was, was too broadly based. The Anthology at the End of the Universe: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Meaning of Everything. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Six by nine… forty-two! I always said there was something fundamentally wrong about the universe! Westminster John Knox Press. The Real Meaning of Life.
Let Reality Catch Up: The Book of Positive Quotations. The Rhythm of Life: Living Every Day with Passion and Purpose. Parentalism in the Caring Life. Oxford University Press US. Create Your Own Destiny!: Spiritual Path to Success. Spiritualism first appeared in the s in the " Burned-over District " of upstate New York , where earlier religious movements such as Millerism and Mormonism had emerged during the Second Great Awakening.
This region of New York State was an environment in which many thought direct communication with God or angels was possible, and that God would not behave harshly—for example, that God would not condemn unbaptised infants to an eternity in Hell. In this environment, the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg — and the teachings of Franz Mesmer — provided an example for those seeking direct personal knowledge of the afterlife. Swedenborg, who claimed to communicate with spirits while awake, described the structure of the spirit world. Two features of his view particularly resonated with the early spiritualists: Swedenborg was formerly a highly regarded inventor and scientist, achieving several engineering innovations and studying physiology and anatomy.
Mesmer did not contribute religious beliefs, but he brought a technique, later known as hypnotism , that it was claimed could induce trances and cause subjects to report contact with supernatural beings.
There was a great deal of professional showmanship inherent to demonstrations of Mesmerism , and the practitioners who lectured in midth-century North America sought to entertain their audiences as well as to demonstrate methods for personal contact with the divine. Perhaps the best known of those who combined Swedenborg and Mesmer in a peculiarly North American synthesis was Andrew Jackson Davis , who called his system the "harmonial philosophy".
He was also strongly influenced by the socialist theories of Fourierism. Spiritualists often set March 31, , as the beginning of their movement. On that date, Kate and Margaret Fox , of Hydesville, New York , reported that they had made contact with a spirit that was later claimed to be the spirit of a murdered peddler whose body was found in the house, though no record of such a person was ever found. The spirit was said to have communicated through rapping noises, audible to onlookers. The evidence of the senses appealed to practically-minded Americans, and the Fox sisters became a sensation.
Amy and Isaac Post , Hicksite Quakers from Rochester, New York , had long been acquainted with the Fox family, and took the two girls into their home in the late spring of Immediately convinced of the veracity of the sisters' communications, they became early converts and introduced the young mediums to their circle of radical Quaker friends.
Consequently, many early participants in spiritualism were radical Quakers and others involved in the mid-nineteenth-century reforming movement. These reformers were uncomfortable with more prominent churches because those churches did little to fight slavery and even less to advance the cause of women's rights. Such links with reform movements, often radically socialist, had already been prepared in the s, as the example of Andrew Jackson Davis shows. After , many socialists became ardent spiritualists or occultists. Young and beautiful, her appearance on stage fascinated men.
Her audiences were struck by the contrast between her physical girlishness and the eloquence with which she spoke of spiritual matters, and found in that contrast support for the notion that spirits were speaking through her. Cora married four times, and on each occasion adopted her husband's last name. During her period of greatest activity, she was known as Cora Hatch.
Another famous woman spiritualist was Achsa W. Sprague , who was born November 17, , in Plymouth Notch, Vermont. At the age of 20, she became ill with rheumatic fever and credited her eventual recovery to intercession by spirits. An extremely popular trance lecturer, she traveled about the United States until her death in Sprague was an abolitionist and an advocate of women's rights. Yet another prominent spiritualist and trance medium prior to the Civil War was Paschal Beverly Randolph — , of mixed race, who also played a part in the abolitionist movement.
Another social reform movement with significant Spiritualist involvement was the effort to improve conditions of Native Americans. As Kathryn Troy notes in a study of Indian ghosts in seances:. Undoubtedly, on some level Spiritualists recognized the Indian spectres that appeared at seances as a symbol of the sins and subsequent guilt of the United States in its dealings with Native Americans. Spiritualists were literally haunted by the presence of Indians. But for many that guilt was not assuaged: The political activism of Spiritualists on behalf of Indians was thus the result of combining white guilt and fear of divine judgment with a new sense of purpose and responsibility.
The Fox sisters were to earn a living this way and others would follow their lead. As independent investigating commissions repeatedly established, most notably the report of the Seybert Commission , [19] fraud was widespread, and some of these cases were prosecuted in the courts. Despite numerous instances of chicanery, the appeal of spiritualism was strong. Prominent in the ranks of its adherents were those grieving the death of a loved one. Many families during the time of the American Civil War had seen their men go off and never return, and images of the battlefield, produced through the new medium of photography, demonstrated that their loved ones had not only died in overwhelmingly huge numbers, but horribly as well.
In addition, the movement appealed to reformers, who fortuitously found that the spirits favored such causes du jour as abolition of slavery, and equal rights for women. In the utopian socialist Robert Owen was converted to spiritualism after "sittings" with the American medium Maria B. Hayden credited with introducing spiritualism to England ; Owen made a public profession of his new faith in his publication The Rational quarterly review and later wrote a pamphlet, The future of the Human race; or great glorious and future revolution to be effected through the agency of departed spirits of good and superior men and women.
Many scientists who investigated the phenomenon also became converts. Stead — [25] and physician and author Arthur Conan Doyle — Founded in London in , its focus was the scientific study of alleged paranormal activities in order to prove or refute the existence of paranormal phenomena. Barrett , and Harry Price. The claims of spiritualists and others as to the reality of ghosts were investigated by the Society for Psychical Research , founded in London in The society set up a Committee on Haunted Houses.
Prominent investigators who exposed cases of fraud came from a variety of backgrounds, including professional researchers such as Frank Podmore of the Society for Psychical Research and Harry Price of the National Laboratory of Psychical Research , and professional conjurers such as John Nevil Maskelyne.
Maskelyne exposed the Davenport brothers by appearing in the audience during their shows and explaining how the trick was done. The psychical researcher Hereward Carrington exposed fraudulent mediums' tricks, such as those used in slate-writing, table-turning , trumpet mediumship, materializations, sealed-letter reading, and spirit photography. Magicians and writers on magic have a long history of exposing the fraudulent methods of mediumship. During the s, professional magician Harry Houdini undertook a well-publicised campaign to expose fraudulent mediums; he was adamant that "Up to the present time everything that I have investigated has been the result of deluded brains.
In February Thomas Lynn Bradford , in an experiment designed to ascertain the existence of an afterlife, committed suicide in his apartment by blowing out the pilot light on his heater and turning on the gas. After that date, no further communication from him was received by an associate whom he had recruited for the purpose. The movement quickly spread throughout the world; though only in the United Kingdom did it become as widespread as in the United States. One prominent convert was the French pedagogist Allan Kardec — , who made the first attempt to systematise the movement's practices and ideas into a consistent philosophical system.
Kardec's books, written in the last 15 years of his life, became the textual basis of spiritism, which became widespread in Latin countries. In Brazil, Kardec's ideas are embraced by many followers today. Spiritualism was mainly a middle- and upper-class movement, and especially popular with women. In founding camp meetings , the spiritualists appropriated a form developed by U. Protestant denominations in the early nineteenth century. Spiritualist camp meetings were located most densely in New England, but were also established across the upper Midwest.
Cassadaga, Florida , is the most notable spiritualist camp meeting in the southern states. A number of spiritualist periodicals appeared in the nineteenth century, and these did much to hold the movement together. By , there were about three dozen monthly spiritualist periodicals published around the world. Some, such as the British Spiritual Magazine were Christian and conservative, openly rejecting the reform currents so strong within spiritualism.
Others, such as Human Nature , were pointedly non-Christian and supportive of socialism and reform efforts. Still others, such as the Spiritualist , attempted to view spiritualist phenomena from a scientific perspective, eschewing discussion on both theological and reform issues. Books on the supernatural were published for the growing middle class, such as 's Mysteries , by Charles Elliott, which contains "sketches of spirits and spiritual things", including accounts of the Salem witch trials , the Cock Lane Ghost , and the Rochester rappings. Mainstream newspapers treated stories of ghosts and haunting as they would any other news story.
An account in the Chicago Daily Tribune in , "sufficiently bloody to suit the most fastidious taste", tells of a house believed to be haunted by the ghosts of three murder victims seeking revenge against their killer's son, who was eventually driven insane. Many families, "having no faith in ghosts", thereafter moved into the house, but all soon moved out again.
Such books were often based on excursions initiated by the use of Ouija boards. A few of these popular books displayed unorganized spiritualism, though most were less insightful. The movement was extremely individualistic, with each person relying on his or her own experiences and reading to discern the nature of the afterlife. Organisation was therefore slow to appear, and when it did it was resisted by mediums and trance lecturers.
Most members were content to attend Christian churches, and particularly universalist churches harbored many spiritualists. As the spiritualism movement began to fade, partly through the publicity of fraud accusations and partly through the appeal of religious movements such as Christian science , the Spiritualist Church was organised. This church can claim to be the main vestige of the movement left today in the United States. London-born Emma Hardinge Britten —99 moved to the United States in and was active in spiritualist circles as a trance lecturer and organiser. She is best known as a chronicler of the movement's spread, especially in her Nineteenth Century Miracles: Spirits and Their Work in Every Country of the Earth , and her Modern American Spiritualism , a detailed account of claims and investigations of mediumship beginning with the earliest days of the movement.
William Stainton Moses —92 was an Anglican clergyman who, in the period from to , filled 24 notebooks with automatic writing, much of which was said to describe conditions in the spirit world. However, Frank Podmore was skeptical of his alleged ability to communicate with spirits and Joseph McCabe described Moses as a "deliberate impostor", suggesting his apports and all of his feats were the result of trickery. Adelma Vay — , Hungarian by origin spiritistic medium, homeopath and clairvoyant , authored many books about spiritism, written in German and translated into English.
Palladino was said by believers to perform spiritualist phenomena in the dark: On investigation, all these things were found to be products of trickery. The British medium William Eglinton — claimed to perform spiritualist phenomena such as movement of objects and materializations. All of his feats were exposed as tricks. Bangs and Elizabeth "Lizzie" Snow Bangs , were two spiritualist mediums based in Chicago, who made a career out of painting the dead or "Spirit Portraits".
The hand was later exposed as a trick when biologists found it to be made from a piece of carved animal liver. The American voice medium Etta Wriedt was exposed as a fraud by the physicist Kristian Birkeland when he discovered that the noises produced by her trumpet were caused by chemical explosions induced by potassium and water and in other cases by lycopodium powder. Another well-known medium was the Scottish materialization medium Helen Duncan — Spiritualists reacted with an uncertainty to the theories of evolution in the late 19th and early 20th century.
Broadly speaking the concept of evolution fitted the spiritualist thought of the progressive development of humanity. At the same time however, the belief in the animal origins of humanity threatened the foundation of the immortality of the spirit , for if humans had not been created by God, it was scarcely plausible that they would be specially endowed with spirits. This led to spiritualists embracing spiritual evolution.
The spiritualists' view of evolution did not stop at death. Spiritualism taught that after death spirits progressed to spiritual states in new spheres of existence.
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- Jeremiah Semien: Mad Genius: Dangerously Love.
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- Spiritualism - Wikipedia.
- Meaning of life - Wikipedia.
- Bahá'í Reference Library - Paris Talks, Pages .
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According to spiritualists evolution occurred in the spirit world "at a rate more rapid and under conditions more favourable to growth" than encountered on earth. Hopps claimed humanity had started off imperfect "out of the animal's darkness" but would rise into the "angel's marvellous light". Hopps claimed humans were not fallen but rising creatures and that after death they would evolve on a number of spheres of existence to perfection. Theosophy is in opposition to the spiritualist interpretation of evolution.
Theosophy teaches a metaphysical theory of evolution mixed with human devolution. Spiritualists do not accept the devolution of the theosophists. To theosophy humanity starts in a state of perfection see Golden age and falls into a process of progressive materialization devolution , developing the mind and losing the spiritual consciousness. After the gathering of experience and growth through repeated reincarnations humanity will regain the original spiritual state, which is now one of self-conscious perfection. Theosophy and spiritualism were both very popular metaphysical schools of thought especially in the early 20th century and thus were always clashing in their different beliefs.
Madame Blavatsky was critical of spiritualism; she distanced theosophy from spiritualism as far as she could and allied herself with eastern occultism. The spiritualist Gerald Massey claimed that Darwin 's theory of evolution was incomplete:. The theory contains only one half the explanation of man's origins and needs spiritualism to carry it through and complete it. For while this ascent on the physical side has been progressing through myriads of ages, the Divine descent has also been going on—man being spiritually an incarnation from the Divine as well as a human development from the animal creation.
The cause of the development is spiritual. Darwin's theory does not in the least militate against ours—we think it necessitates it; he simply does not deal with our side of the subject. He can not go lower than the dust of the earth for the matter of life; and for us, the main interest of our origin must lie in the spiritual domain. Spiritualists believed that without spiritualism "the doctrine of Darwin is a broken link". Gerald Massey said "Spiritualism will accept evolution, and carry it out and make both ends meet in the perfect circle".
A famous medium who rejected evolution was Cora L. Scott , she dismissed evolution in her lectures and instead supported a type of pantheistic spiritualism. Alfred Russel Wallace believed qualitative novelties could arise through the process of spiritual evolution, in particular the phenomena of life and mind. Wallace attributed these novelties to a supernatural agency. Wallace believed natural selection could not explain intelligence or morality in the human being so suggested that non-material spiritual forces accounted for these.
Wallace believed the spiritual nature of humanity could not have come about by natural selection alone, the origins of the spiritual nature must originate "in the unseen universe of spirit".
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Oliver Lodge also promoted a version of spiritual evolution in his books Man and the Universe , Making of Man and Evolution and Creation The spiritualist element in the synthesis was most prominent in Lodge's book Raymond, or Life and Death which revived a large interest for public in the paranormal. The first of these continued the tradition of individual practitioners, organised in circles centered on a medium and clients, without any hierarchy or dogma. Already by the late 19th century spiritualism had become increasingly syncretic , a natural development in a movement without central authority or dogma.
However, theosophy with its inclusion of Eastern religion, astrology, ritual magic and reincarnation is an example of a closer precursor of the 20th century new age movement. Some appropriate new age and neo-pagan beliefs, while others call themselves "Christian spiritualists", continuing with the tradition of cautiously incorporating spiritualist experiences into their Christian faith. The second direction taken has been to adopt formal organization, patterned after Christian denominations, with established liturgies and a set of seven principles, and training requirements for mediums.
In the United States the spiritualist churches are primarily affiliated either with the National Spiritualist Association of Churches or the loosely allied group of denominations known as the spiritual church movement; in the U. Formal education in spiritualist practice emerged in s, with organizations like the William T. Diversity of belief among organized spiritualists has led to a few schisms, the most notable occurring in the U. In the United States, this distinction can be seen between the less Christian organization, the National Spiritualist Association of Churches, and the more Christian spiritual church movement.