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My recollection is that Spiritualism became very popular during and after the War Between the States.
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I guess that's true too (seances, etc. became popular then). You've also got the Gothic movement in literature around that time - it's the perfect storm.
And to pull a bit from the other posts, it does seem that following war, it is indeed the accepted reaction to "search for meaning and truth". But those dead in sin will not seek out the gospel, they seek power, and the occult delivers a shadow thereof in spades.
Interesting...
Mary, I've always thought that the rise of Nazism/paganism in Germany was the right message at the right time. Telling uneducated streetsweeper Hans that he, who due to hyper-inflation cannot buy even a loaf of bread with a month's salary, is an 'ubermensch' by virtue of his ethnicity, is quite a neat trick. You have instantly empowered the economic underclass and brought them in line with your dogma. Add Nuremburg rallies and general mass hysteria over the 'little corporal' and voila, you have a new religion all made up and ready to go. I've seen photos of an SS officer having his children baptized by a priest under a swastika - the synthesis of all that is mind-boggling. But Nazism plays to paganism and the occult like few other things. I've actually got a Discovery Channel DVD on Nazis and the occult and it is truly chilling.