Mysticsm provide the right kind of secret trivia about the world you can make people fall into the illusion of the Real World(TM) being revealed to them with. That's why cults everywhere rebrand esoteric teachings into sruff their great guru came up with. Only reason it works is that people are generally unaware of even basic mysticsm, so they got nothing to compare the revelations they've been shown to.
In a fun parallel contrast, marxism works in very similar basis, historical materialism is treated as a lens, through which the true nature of the society is illuminated. What differentiates it from the earlier tradition of western philosophy is that it's designed to appeal to the working class, who are unlikely to have any alternative lenses to play with.
Over all this is a powerful historical pattern, which really highlights how unstable the reality people inhabit is. People yearn to explore alternative worlds so much it can be exploited by ideologies.
