Spiritualism remains a living religious tradition in the early 21st century, present in multiple regions with differing institutional shapes. Its strongest institutional concentrations are in the United States (notably in communities such as Lily Dale, New York), the United Kingdom (with national bodies and local Spiritualist churches), and in parts of Latin America—particularly where Kardecian Spiritism, derived from the mid-19th-century codifications of Allan Kardec (for example, The Spirits' Book, first published in 1857), adapted to local contexts as in Brazil. By the early 2020s the movement’s adherent numbers are modest compared with major world religions, but the communities are active: annual conferences, summer assemblies, and regular services maintain continuous practice. Estimates of organized membership vary by country and by method of counting—registered congregations, affiliated centers, and informal networks produce figures that scholars and practitioners alike describe as in the tens to low hundreds of thousands across several nations, with larger constituencies in Brazil and pockets of concentrated membership in parts of the United Kingdom and the United States.
Geographically, Spiritualism has both local nodes and transnational networks. Lily Dale Assembly, founded in 1879 in western New York, is an illustrative center: it developed as an intentional community where mediums, teachers, and seekers gather for weeks in the summer for sittings, lectures, and workshops. Other well-known American centers include Cassadaga in Florida, a long-standing Spiritualist camp with regular demonstration services and seasonal programming. In the United Kingdom the Spiritualists’ National Union (SNU), formally established in the early 20th century (1902), coordinates churches and ministers and organizes education programs; British Spiritualist churches often host public demonstration services, Sunday platforms, and training classes in mediumship and pastoral care. In Brazil, Kardecist Spiritism—while doctrinally distinct in its codified texts and emphasis on progressive moral education—shares many practical features with Anglo-American Spiritualism, including mediumship, healing practices, and organized charitable activity. Brazilian Spiritist institutions, including federations and local centers, constitute extensive networks that operate study groups, clinics offering “passes” (a form of laying-on of hands and prayerful treatment), and social assistance programs in urban neighborhoods.
Internal diversity has increased in recent decades. Contemporary Spiritualists range from those who emphasize formal ritual and demonstration mediumship within church settings to independent mediums who work outside denominational structures; some practitioners foreground therapeutic and counseling aspects, while others emphasize spiritual development, ethical instruction drawn from Kardecian literature, or experimental investigation. Common practices observable across many branches include public demonstration services in which a medium claims to convey spirit messages, healing circles or “healing rooms,” trance preaching, automatic writing, slate-writing, table-turning, and private sittings for evidential mediumship. Adherents hold differing theological views: some articulate explicitly Christian interpretations of spirit messages and afterlife doctrine, while others speak in more secular or universalist terms about the continuity of the personality after death and moral progress in the spirit world.
Digital technologies have further diversified practice. Since the late 2010s, and notably during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020–2021 when many congregations suspended in-person gatherings, Spiritualist churches and individual mediums increased their use of live-streaming platforms, webinars on mediumship technique, and recorded spirit messages circulated via podcasts and video channels. Online training courses, membership forums, and social-media groups now connect practitioners across continents, enabling international healing events, distance mediumship demonstrations, and online “sittings.” This shift changes the social ecology of Spiritualism: where once local congregations and printed journals—many historically affiliated with national organizations or local assemblies—were primary, online networks now form an important layer of affiliation and practice.
Relations with other religious traditions and with secular society remain varied. Some Spiritualist churches maintain explicit Christian language and rituals, framing spirit messages in Christological terms and celebrating familiar liturgical seasons; others adopt a more eclectic spiritual vocabulary that draws on New Age, humanist, or syncretic influences. In Brazil, Spiritism has long interacted with Roman Catholic culture and with Afro-Brazilian religious traditions, producing hybrid practices and contested boundaries in certain localities. Relationship to mainstream science is similarly contested: some Spiritualists welcome parapsychological research and formal investigation as corroboration of mediumistic claims, and institutions such as the Society for Psychical Research (established in 1882) have historically conducted tests and published studies; others regard séance experience as a category of personal religious knowledge that resists laboratory reduction and emphasize testimonial and pastoral value over experimental validation.
Contemporary controversies reflect both continuity with the past and modern inflection points. Accusations of fraud and ethical concerns about mediums’ engagement with bereaved clients still appear in public discourse; the early 20th-century campaign of exposure by professional magicians and skeptics, which included figures who publicly investigated mediums, remains a prominent part of the movement’s historical memory. In response to recurring scandals and public scrutiny, many churches and associations have developed codes of practice, complaint procedures, and training standards for ministers and mediums; national bodies such as the SNU and various Spiritist federations publish guidelines on conduct, evidential ethics, and the responsible provision of counseling and healing. Debates also surround the commercialization of mediumship: adherents and critics debate the ethics of charging fees for sittings, the use of social media for promotion, and the standards of transparency for evidentiary claims; some organizations try to regulate advertising and pricing while independent practitioners often set their own terms.
Spiritualism’s intersection with social movements is also notable. From its earliest days the movement attracted many women as leaders and practitioners at a time when many mainstream religious institutions limited female public authority; historians have highlighted Spiritualism’s role as an avenue for women’s public oratory, leadership, and social reform activism in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Today, women commonly occupy positions of authority in Spiritualist churches and organizations, serving as ministers, trainers, and board members. Moreover, the movement’s therapeutic dimensions—bereavement counseling, holistic healing circles, and community support—have sustained its social relevance, particularly in contexts where access to mental-health resources is limited or where bereavement rituals are sought outside conventional religious frameworks.
Legal and institutional recognition varies by country. In some jurisdictions Spiritualist churches are registered as places of worship and may obtain charitable or tax-exempt statuses; in others recognition is limited and dependent on national law concerning religious bodies. The 20th century saw the formal incorporation of national bodies—for example, denominational organizations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries—and those institutions continue to play roles in interfaith dialogue, pastoral training, and public representation of Spiritualism. In many places Spiritualist and Spiritist organizations also operate community services—a factor that affects their civic presence and legal standing.
The movement also engages with contemporary intellectual debates. Scholars of religion, historians, and social scientists study Spiritualism as a case of modern religious invention, an arena for gender and social reform, and a site where changing notions of evidence and authority are negotiated; historians such as Ann Braude and others have produced influential studies of these themes. Parapsychologists and psychologists sometimes collaborate with mediums in controlled research, while skeptical communities and investigative journalists continue to critique methods and claims. This pluralistic scholarly and public engagement contributes to the visibility of Spiritualism and shapes how adherents present themselves to wider audiences.
Finally, the living presence of Spiritualism is best seen in the quotidian practices of its adherents: a small séance in a private home using traditional protocols, a Sunday demonstration service in a local church, a healing circle offering “passes,” or a summer assembly where experienced mediums teach novices and members attend workshops. These practices sustain communities and keep the foundational project—communication with the dead, moral improvement, and spiritual consolation—alive. The movement persists by renewing its rituals, rearticulating ethical standards, and negotiating its place in pluralistic societies that alternately embrace, critique, or ignore its claims. Whatever the future holds, Spiritualism today remains a tangible, practiced tradition that continues to generate testimony, institutional life, and sustained scholarly interest.