The real reason why people often reject this hypothesis is because they can't believe that the most powerful, richest, and most well-rewarded members of society could be this superstitious and insane.
It doesn't require them to be superstitious or insane. When you eliminate the supernatural or divine (or infernal) and deal solely with the natural, material results, then it still not only makes sense for the most powerful to indulge in rituals, sacrifice, burnings and other occult practices. Why? What is the purpose if one strips the supernatural from it?
It is no different than what any religious organisation accuses all the other religious organisations of. Religions themselves are a power structure. Though the way that power is maintained differs from religion to religion. Islam instructs to kill those who leave it, and they sometimes follow this. Jehova's Witnesses instruct complete ostracism, even from family. Scientology uses a kind of gangstalking and court cases against those who leave it and pose a threat.
So how does a religion have power over its a members in a way that non-religious affiliation does not? It demands more than a libertarian "participate in what you want, believe what you want" that goes for other organisations. A demand for belief is a total demand, every action is supposed to be in service of that belief. In that way belief can be harnessed both for the most good and the most evil. Taking care of orphans, or denying your own children. Or raping them, in the case of the evillest.
What would the value of that be? Such evil? Such harm? The only answer most people seem to come up with to that question is pedophilic desire or complete malformed/damaged humans, or a mix of both. Yet there are three more motivations for childrape in an occult/religious organisation. Don't let me fill it in for you, think about it. What could be the value of that? Read no further. Think it through.
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3 motivations
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1. Blackmail
To more completely answer the purpose of an elite religious organisation when you strip the supernatural from it, is that it gives better control and direction to its members. The rituals are a better test of loyalty than any signed document can be, and they are a better bind into their power structure than any contract or even private information given up at confession or scientology auditing. Because if they have a video of you committing unspeakable acts, their power over you is complete. A flick of the wrist and a leak to a paper and your reputation is destroyed. Once your reputation is destroyed, it's easy to get rid of you. Who would defend Epstein? And if you followed anything about him, it's most likely that he was one of those enforcers, who attained compromising blackmail. It works as well on non-members as it does on members.
2. Eroding morality
While you have morals intact, there are things you won't be willing to do. But once you've done terrible things, things you don't even support in your heart, then you're hollowed out sufficiently, where minor evils such as the above mentioned blackmailed are nothing. What is blackmailing a politician or general compared to the rape or murder of a child? Compared to making a girl eat her own baby and taunting her while you do it? You have become a more willing subject, a more willing vessel of whatever you are required to do. Put this in that persons drink? Sure. Done. Easy.
3. Mind control
This goes into more esoteric territory. It's harder to believe. As such, I expect the majority who read this above all to be rejected. I was more curious than I should have been and I tried to find everything about MK ultra I could find. I discarded the vast majority of what I could find and saved only that which seemed possibly. I followed up what I could and came to the conclusion that a person like Kim Noble was not faking it. That the movie split is a movie where a little of that esoteric world is revealed. I found an instruction manual on how to do it. I will not repeat it for fear that anyone who reads this might be inspired to follow it. I will say only this: It requires the most horrible acts to be performed on a young child and various methods of emotional manipulation as displayed in Kubrick's clockwork orange. For those that have seen the podesta fatherhood video, that was not it, but it was comparable. An essential element was missing there for it to be MK ultra. But in essence, to answer the motivation, certain rituals change people to have certain traits that can be useful to a ruthless person.
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All this, no superstition necessary. But the religious aspect is always useful to give answers to followers that are different and less honest than "I want to use you".