The term "Chapel Perilous" refers to the psychological state in which an individual is uncertain whether or not his/her experiences are being influenced by a supernatural force. In his 1977 book Cosmic Trigger, writer and philosopher Robert Anton Wilson remarked that being in this state ultimately leads the subject to becoming either bat-shit paranoid or completely agnostic. In a broader sense, the term could conceivably be extended to describe the sense of cognitive dissonance experienced during any existential ordeal in which an individual comes to reconsider their pre-conceived notions about reality.