[f. next + -ATION. Cf. F. spiritualisation, Sp. espiritualizacion.] The action of the verb SPIRITUALIZE.
1. The action of changing into spirit; conversion or transformation of a corporeal or material substance into a spiritual condition.
1665. Needham, Med. Medicinæ, 285. The Fifth Concoction is in the Arteries, where its [the blood’s] Spiritualisation and vitality is perfected.
1674. Blount, Glossogr. (ed. 4), Spiritualization, is the changing the whole body into spirit; a Chymical term.
1824. Monthly Mag., LVIII. 38. That spiritualization … which must take place previous to the admission of any bodies into that region of spirits.
1891. [F. C. S. Schiller], Riddles Sphinx, 297. For coincidently with the spiritual development of spiritual beings, Matter also undergoes a process of spiritualization.
transf. 1863. Cowden Clarke, Shaks. Char., iv. 104. What of that madcap, will-o’-the-wisp—that spiritualisation of fun, frolic, and mischief—immortal Puck?
2. The action of spiritualizing or making spiritual; the state of being spiritualized.
1809. Crit. Rev., Ser. III. XVI. 464. This spiritualization of the old faith.
1851. Ruskin, Stones Ven., I. i. § 29. The history of Gothic architecture is the history of the refinement and spiritualisation of Northern work under its influence.
1879. Farrar, St. Paul, I. 144. Nor had they seen that His fulfilment of the Law had consisted in its spiritualisation.
b. Interpretation in a spiritual sense.
1820. Southey, Wesley, I. 204. Madness never gave birth to combinations of more … blasphemous obscenity, than they did in their fantastic allegories and spiritualizations.
