A philosophical belief system that rejects or opposes spiritual ideas and emphasizes material or physical reality instead.
From anti- + spiritualism (the belief that spirits exist and can communicate with the living). This term emerged in the 19th century alongside scientific materialism, which explicitly rejected spiritualist claims as unproven.
In the 1800s, spiritualism was wildly popular—people held séances and believed mediums could talk to the dead, but skeptical scientists championed antispiritualism and demanded scientific proof for extraordinary claims.
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