Human puppets could not conceive of themselves as being puppets at all, not when they are fixed with a consciousness that excites in them the unshakable sense of being singled out from all other objects in creation. Once you begin to feel you are making a go of it on your own--that you are making moves and thinking thoughts which seem to have originated within you--it is not possible for you to believe you are anything but your own master (18).
Thomas Ligotti, The Conspiracy against the Human Race. New York: Hippocampus Press, 2010.












