>"That’s just perfectly normal paranoia. Everyone in the universe has that"
>This is a quote from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Arthur Dent spoke of a feeling that there was something going on in the universe that nobody would tell him about. “Oh no” says Zaphod Beeblebrox, “That’s just perfectly normal paranoia. Everyone in the universe has that”.
This feeling is what films like The Truman Show and The Matrix play on. But does anyone know what that feeling is? Is it really universal? If so what causes it and what is it’s function?
Battison's Blog 
>The word paranoia comes from the Greek word meaning madness. Yet in reality nigh on 40% of us feel frequent paranoid or suspicious thoughts and there are various relevent causes that share similarities with other mental disorders/illnesses. I'm currently writing a short article on the topic. But in short my view is that it is natural to question; scientific method and western culture encourages us to do this; and the occasional paranoid thought or two can push us further towards questioning reality. So our paranoia does not mean there is something to be found that is inconsistent with what we currently percieve as reality. It's natural, and if it gets bad (i.e. you think pretty much everyone wants to kill you and there's no reason for them to do so) you can seek help for it.