In Chapter 6 of The Unconscious God, Frankl says that:
a) Being human is being conscious that you are responsible
b) Logotherapy extends psychotherapy beyond the psyche to include the noölogical (uniquely human way of being that sets them apart from animals) dimension, the source of the spiritual unconscious, which gives human beings an unconscious sense of responsibility
c) In this unconscious sense of responsibility is an unconscious relationship to God. When this relationship is repressed, it shows up in neurotic symptoms and distorted religiosity such as for example, superstitions.
The following is my understanding of what Frankl is saying in this part of the book: We are always in relationship to God, whether we realize it or not. Responsibility “to” implies relationship to an “other.” It is possible for someone to talk to another person or group of people and use the other(s) merely as a platform from which to speak, without paying any attention to the person or persons to whom he is speaking. The people in the audience do not exist for the speaker as real entities whose opinions count; they only serve as props.
A genuine relationship requires acknowledging and relating to the other’s existence and taking them seriously. The speaker may disagree with them but he has to first understand their perspective and relate to it, if he expects them to relate back.
As in person-to-person relationships, it is possible in the human-divine relationship to merely use God as a prop, without paying any attention to God’s communication. Religion will then be distorted, because it will be an attempt to satisfy human desires in the guise of bowing to God’s will.
That would be a case of inventing meaning and then pretending it is God saying it. Another kind of distortion can occur when not only the message, but also the identity of the messenger is ignored. When there a warped conception of who God is (a tyrant in the sky?) or a warped conception of who I am (rubbish?) in relationship to God, then my religious expression will be warped. Many wars have been fought in the name of distorted religiosity.
The unconscious attitude of relating to God when it is freely expressed and not repressed will manifest as someone who acknowledges God’s existence and sees clearly who God is and who he is in relation to God, and he carries on a dialogue in which he is always seeking to know what his responsibility is.