The Man Upstairs
By Vincent Tarantola
It is almost routine to refer to God as the Man upstairs. If you listen to the radio, you will hear this expression a hundred times a day. The question is: Is God a man and does He really live upstairs, whatever that may mean?
This image we have of God is based on the picture we have of Higher Powers as being human. We seem unable to visualize the energy of the universe as anything but some old man sitting somewhere in the clouds throwing an occasional thunderbolt and twiddling his thumbs most of the time. The implication is that we, who live downstairs, are inferior and are therefore subject to his wrath if we misbehave.
Our emotional concept of God still seems to be that of the Old Testament, in spite of the fact that Jesus Christ brought us a very different image of the Creator, one that is very personal and internal, the vision of someone who is not against us but rather on our side all the time, if only we ask for His help.
The fact is that there is no man upstairs, but there is a Greater Intelligence and a deeper ability to love that is available, as well as incredible power to create and re-create our life, all to be found not in church or in the sky. but within our own psychic and mental system. The Lord, Who ought
to know, insists that "The Kingdom of God Is Within you." [Luke 17:21]
I realize that this is perhaps the most well-kept secret in all of Christendom. It has been implied that the Christ Consciousness told people to go to church if they want to find God. As a matter of fact, the Master said quite the opposite. The fact is that it is impossible to find God if you do not know where He is to be found, and He is certainly not upstairs; nor is He a man.
God is is the Divine Part in every created being, and that includes you. It consists not of a person, but rather of potentials that go well beyond those which are considered normal or human. The wonderful fact is that everyone is a genius, at least potentially, for eveyone is God, Divine. And this Divine Being does not live anywhere else but within your own heart and mind, and therefore cannot be found anywhere else.
So stop looking for a false god and start looking within, where you are sure to find Him, to find the True You.