No, a medium is anyone who has the faculty to communicate with spirits or perceive spiritual reality. Whereas a spiritist is one who follows and studies spiritist philosophy and who may or may not be a medium.

The Spiritism does not make someone a medium, which depends on organic conditions and predispositions. Neither Spiritism nor anyone else can make one develop what one does not have. It can, however, help its hatching and further development. And it is especially in the spiritism information that we can find all the necessary elements for its good use. There are those who call themselves spiritists when they mean mediums, who advertise themselves as such and in reality do not know the meaning of the word spiritism or what it implies. It is generally these who, without knowledge and often without mediumship of any kind, take advantage of people's ignorance and goodwill to make a profit.

Neither a true spiritism nor a good medium will use his knowledge or faculties for anything other than disinterested help. There have been mediums in all ages of mankind, but not spiritists. Before the Spiritism, which came into being in 1857 with the publication of The Spirits' Book, there could be no spiritists, for there was no such thing as Spiritism and no such term as spiritist.

In conclusion, can there be spiritists who are not mediums? Yes, can there be mediums who are not spiritists or spiritists? Evidently, but it is within spiritist knowledge that the best guidelines can be found to correctly orient mediumship. In short, a medium who neither knows nor has studied the spiritism should never be called a spiritist.