“Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.” This is the central value of Satanism, as expressed by Aleister Crowley, in his foundational book on Satanic belief, The Book of the Law.

Question: How do you effectively control a person?

Methods can vary, but history has shown that one of the most effective tools for this purpose is to tell people that they are in charge, that they are the masters of their own destiny. That they are their own gods.

Humans are predictable creatures. We make predictable choices: We often submit to our desires, we do whatever we can to preserve and bolster our egos, we wallow in short-term pleasures, and we hoard shiny things. This is the base core of the average human person.

If you tell people to be free, to do what they want, to “follow their heart,” and all the other self-help, positive psychology, liberal philosophy cliches and doctrines we constantly are being fed — everything from the jingoistic promise of “liberty, freedom, and empowerment for all” to a commercial slogan like “Just do it” — then people are all going to converge on that same basic core, all the while believing that they are truly the masters of their own destiny and firmly in control of who they are.

It is not unlike being a drug addict. Addicts feel like they are in control and feel like they are making their own decisions. And actually they are! But the problem is, those decisions are predictably bad and lead to nowhere except utter destruction. This is also how imperial powers used the introduction of drugs and alcohol to destroy and gain control of once powerful native peoples around the world.

Point being, reduce people to their base selves and they can be effectively controlled for whatever purpose.