I'll also show you how the widely held belief that this is untrue this is exactly how the state controls you, at scale. And you fully permitted it. So to do it and then complain about the power of the state is the action of a spoiled child, right?
On every single occasion where you had a choice, that choice was made 100% by you. A choice is a binary event - 1) do I do it, or 0) do I not do it. There's no in between where you haggle with the fairies about it.
This means that there is also no teaching, good advice, religion or guru who can help you change your mind either. You, are always the final arbiter when it comes to your choices.
Also, time cannot help you. You make every choice in an instant. If you allow time to think about your choice thats evidence you have submitted to a Master who chooses for you and this was also your free choice - to hand responsibility over to a higher power. You are no longer and autonomous individual but an obedient instrument of that authority. Giving choice a bit of time allows a teacher(a Master)to present a belief to you.
These beliefs always come with lucrative 'welfare packages' in exchange for the freedom you might choose to give up. This short term cosy pillow is a tempting place to rest your weary head isn't it? If you accept the deal, that will still have been your choice. You will have done it. It was not forced onto you. No one has that power.
Only you can give permission to someone to control your mind. You do this willingly and freely. Even when threatened with force you still make the final decision.
The mechanics of your submission to a Master like this are that someone tells you what to believe. And you go on to believe it. You still don't know if it is truth. You just agree to believe it. Often contrary to what you already know.
That was your choice in totality.
No one else or no power in this universe, that we know of, can change your mind against your will. You are the only one who can do it.
Your choices are entirely a matter for you to attend to. They belong to you and only you. Your choices may coincide with identical choices of others. But that is random coincidence, as far as anyone knows.
The phrase 'controlling your mind' is a bad way to think about it though. It's a common myth. You are the sole controller. And you can prove it without doubt scientifically and emotionally. If someone has changed your mind that's a figure of speech - you changed it because you chose to believe in what they want you to believe. You still did it.
You can lie about what you choose to believe and the lie was still your choice.
There's nothing wrong with beliefs, per se. So long as we always remember that is what they are, beliefs. What are beliefs? They're someone else's idea which you have chosen to submit to against your own individual autonomy. That 'someone else' might also have adopted someone elses idea too in a long daisy chain of beliefs, ad infinitum. It is still a belief, adopted fully by your free choice in spite of millions of people in that enormous chain mail who have given up their freedom to the extent of that belief.
To say a million other people believe it so it must be true is a common logical falacy - an appeal to popularity (also known as argumentum ad populum, bandwagon fallacy, or appeal to the majority).
Each one of you chose to be this slave. It was never once forced onto any of you. You decided to give up that much of your freedom for this belief.
Even God cannot change your mind for you. If he could that would break his oath of freedom with you and the universe and he would lose all credibility. If he even exists.
My hypothesis - if he even exists, is that God does not want your obedience contrary to all religious power structures. It's obvious why Power wants you to believe he does, right?
He wants your autonomy, not your obedience. He wants you to choose from your own self from what you know. Belief to him is irrelevant. He wants you to know, not to believe. If you move against him on this, then so be it, but then you're on your own in the universe. (I presume). And stacking the logic emotionally does not help for example by saying faith is a much deeper form of belief. It is still belief. And a redefinition fallacy.
Some people say "but if I stop believing, and start trying to know, how will I get on in life?".
I'm not suggesting you stop believing in anything. I am saying recognise it is happening to you. And why it is important that you recognise it us actually happening.
If you can do this little, a whole lot of personal transformation awaits. But it does mean you stop worshipping your current Master and he will be very angry with you for trying. So what. Once you stop believing in something, it evaporates - it was always just an idea which you freely chose to allow to control you.
This is exactly how the state controls you, at scale. And you fully permitted it.