How did it start?

The engine by which mystical ideation becomes cultural doctrine includes three primary components: insanity, evil, and feebleness of mind. The insanity is embodied principally by schizophrenics, though also by individuals with certain other types of brain disease. The evil is embodied by the power lusting second hander. The feebleness of mind is embodied by ordinary people, of ordinary mental fortitude and ordinary susceptibility to memetic infection. By mental fortitude, I mean capacity to maintain rational consistency, particularly when presented with a concerted effort to befuddle.Three corollaries of the inborne propensity to socialize are (1) a tendency to adopt community doctrine without critical examination, as a method of minimizing the time and mental effort expended to learn how to avoid socially imposed penalties, (2) a tendency to follow instructions, including an awareness that disobedience leads to penalties, and (3) a tendency to accept the doctrine of service.Music and dancing (which prominently feature repetitive structures) are tools whereby trance states in particular, and susceptibility in general, can be created. The intertwining of religion, music, and dance, is far older than civilization. Precisely how music exerts its effects on the human mind is yet to be understood, but the effects themselves are well-known.