ABSTRACT
Metaphysics is paranoia. The notion of a transpersonal, supernatural creator entity is in reality a very frightful thought. For those in prayer or in the madhouse, I can think of no greater paranoia. For the believer constantly worried about God’s judgment or watchful eye, or the psychotic tormented by religious delusions, the common denominator is anxiety. This is why God may be rightfully called The Holy See. Here the very notion of God is laced with an inherent ambivalent factor in felt-relation to our unease and trepidations, for God is both an ideal and a feared, unknown omnipotent object. God therefore serves a dialectical function within the abyss of our psyches that lies at the heart of our anxieties, as well as a promissory medicine to alleviate them. This ambivalent fulcrum, however, is experienced differently for people, depending upon what side of the dialectic (ideality vs. a fear factor) is most operative at any given moment. This ambiguous tension between God as good versus ominous is not only historically situated, it is dialectically organized within the concept itself, for ideality always stands in relation to its opposition: both are mutually implicative in any discourse on God.
