To the horrified astonishment of his apprentice, the elder sorcerer explains how the human mind has been infiltrated by an alien intelligence: We have a ‎predator that came from the depths of the cosmos and took over the rule of our lives. ‎Human beings are its ‎prisoners. The predator is our lord and master. It has rendered us docile, helpless. If we want to protest, it suppresses our protest. If we want to act ‎independently, it demands that we don’t do so. Sorcerers believe that the predators have given us our ‎systems of ‎beliefs, our ideas of good and evil, our social mores. They are the ones who set up our hopes and expectations and dreams of success or failure. They have given us covetousness, greed and cowardice. It is the predators who make us complacent, routinary and egomaniacal. (Carlos Castaneda)