Edgar Allen Poe, one of our great American authors, wrote a famous, rather chilling tale called the “Tell-Tale Heart.” In the story, we see the inner workings of an unknown narrator’s mind, as he wrestles with guilt, self-loathing, fear, and growing paranoia. From the beginning of the tale, the narrator feels mentally and emotionally tortured by encounters with an elderly gentleman, who he believes is watching him, and judging him. He is literally spooked by the old man, and as his paranoia grows, so does his fear of what he calls the man’s “all-seeing eye,” which seems to discern the narrator’s very spirit. Vexed by this sensed reveal of his innermost soul, black as it feels, the narrator kills the man with the all-seeing eye and buries him under the floorboards of his home.

Soon, called…