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... to make spiritualism relevant for the world of the novel is powerful, and this is what prompts my discussion. "Spiritualism defined itself by preaching the existence of a powerful life after death, a belief that the "afterworld" and the earthly world may influence each other, the continuity of personality, the power of communication after death, and the insistence that both good and evil spirits exist." (Doyle 247-248). Webb 2 Spiritualism can be distinguished amongst the dead by creating various categories of development and temperament, ranging from the altruistic, to the passive, to the threatening. "Some spirits, they believed, exist in a suspended state of contradiction and confusion, tied to this world by unresolved interests" (Doyle 280). With these as its fundamentals, the movement gradually took on a distinct form. "By 1868, there were an estimated eleven million believers in America" (Brandon 37). "The growth of spiritualism was ...