Every now and then we hear, we constantly read about spiritual beings who are completely different from us humans, but who, like us, have consciousness and free will. About the highest beings standing before the Creator, shining with His reflected light and serving Him; and about lower, fallen creatures, tirelessly doing evil, pursuing a single goal: to enslave the world to their father, Satan. And Satan was once the most beautiful of the Angels...
But what do we know about both, and most importantly, what do we need to know about them? This is our next conversation with the editor-in-chief of our magazine, Abbot Nektariy (Morozov).
—What is the basis of Christians’ faith in Angels and demons? Why is it impossible to be Orthodox Christian, denying their existence?
— Belief in Angels and demons is not an entirely correct formulation of the question. We believe in God, and everything else is not an object of faith, but the reality that we encounter. We simply acknowledge that it is there. It cannot be said that our belief in the reality of precipitation is based on the fact that it falls periodically. Both the Old and New Testaments contain many references to both the angelic and demonic worlds. We cannot help but believe God, whose voice is heard on the pages of Holy Scripture. In addition, the presence of both light and dark forces Ascetics of piety constantly tell us; many of them saw both Angels and demons with their spiritual eyes. We have no reason not to believe these people, they lived according to the truth and according to the righteousness of God, which is why we honor them as saints. Finally, in my Everyday life we inevitably encounter the action of angelic and demonic forces: either beneficial and saving, or destructive and destructive.
- How do we deal with them?
— Spiritual life for a person who has not even begun it is an extremely mysterious area, and often a person does not understand why at some point, for example, the passion of anger flares up in him with terrible force. Why does the passion for fornication, which until now was hidden and did not manifest itself under the same stimuli, suddenly turns into a stormy stream, sweeping away all the dams? Why suddenly, under the same circumstances under which a person was previously healthy, cheerful and productive, he plunges - not even just into despondency, but into some kind of hopeless despair. If a person lives a spiritual life consciously, he tries to join the experience of spiritual life that is preserved in the Tradition of the Church. Getting acquainted with the works of devotees of piety, he begins to understand who is influencing him and why.
— Does it influence from the outside? But why should we assume this in such cases? After all, each of us in and of ourselves is a sinful being.
— Sinful passion in a person is like a smoldering coal. In order for this ember to flare up into a fire, it needs someone to intentionally fan it. Passions are something that belongs to us; they are a consequence of the corruption of human nature by sin. But it is the enemy who can fan this ember; it is in his interests. And when we experience some kind of extraordinary uprising of passions, we must understand that somewhere nearby there is an enemy, perhaps more than one.
- Why is this so important to know?
“We very often sin precisely because we believe that what attracts us to sin is ours; It is difficult for a person to fight with himself, to resist himself. But it’s much easier to fight if we know: here, next to us, is the one who wants us dead. It is he who attracts us to what we ourselves really want. The enemy is truly a deceiver. He looks like a swindler who offers us something incredibly tempting, for example, fabulous enrichment without any labor costs, like the notorious builders of financial pyramids; but in reality this only entails huge losses. And if we look at this person and see that he is just a swindler and has already ruined more than one investor like this, then we, of course, will not agree to his offers, no matter how seductive they may be for us. It’s the same in spiritual life; we must know: here stands an enemy, a liar and a murderer from time immemorial. Nothing good can happen where he is. Understanding this, we will not allow what he wants.
The Venerable John Climacus in his “Ladder” spoke about what he saw with spiritual eyes during common prayer brethren of the monastery. Some demons hang on the monks' shoulders, others weigh down their eyelids, others make them yawn... Any person who lived in a monastery will confirm this. Why does it happen that during a service a person feels terribly sleepy, his legs and back hurt? But then the service ended, the man went out into the street, and everything was fine with him: he didn’t want to sleep, and his back didn’t hurt. The same thing often happens during home prayer. Why? Because the demon does not need a person to pray. And if a person knows that it is the demon that is acting, and not his own nature, then he will not succumb to self-pity, will not say: “No, I seem to be too tired, why should I be so overtired, I’ll go to bed.”
- So, we need to study the experience of the Fathers of the Church; it is this that is useful for us in this case?
—Of course, useful, as in all other cases. There is a saying: forewarned is forearmed, and demons are well armed, they have been fighting against humans for thousands of years, they have been studying both humanity as a whole and each of us individually literally from birth. But we don’t study them, we don’t have such opportunities. Thus, we are not on an equal footing with them. But when we read the holy ascetic fathers, we can correlate what we learn from their works with our own experience and distinguish: this is me, but this is not me, this is someone else, and react accordingly. Elder Ephraim of Katunak sometimes met the enemy with laughter: sensing the approach of temptation, sensing, for example, a vain thought, he laughed: “What, again?” Because the demon brought it to him a hundred times, because the demon brings the same thing every time. And each time it turned into shame and ridicule for the demon. And if the elder had assumed that vain thoughts came only from himself, it would have been much more difficult for him to laugh at them.
“It is no coincidence that the only prayer accepted by contemporaries directly from the Savior contains a petition for deliverance from the evil one...
— Yes, but the word “deliverance” in this case should not be taken literally. As long as this world exists, until the life of the next century begins, we will not completely get rid of the evil one, he will remain a companion of our life, every day, every hour, a companion who desires one thing - our destruction. But at the same time - no longer by his own desire, but by the Providence of God - contributing to our salvation. How? Here we must remember the words of St. Mark the Ascetic: evil promotes good intentions unseelie. When the enemy tempts us, when he wants us to fall, he involuntarily “trains” us, tempers us, makes us stronger. War is a difficult time, but it is also a time for winning crowns. Of course, only if we fight. Our task is to prove to the demons that we are not theirs. That we are not with them, that we are breaking with them the union that we conclude through sin. And we ask God that He would not allow us, through our weakness, cowardice, and infirmity, to become the prey of the evil one. Deliver us from authorities the evil one - this is precisely the meaning of the petition from the Lord's Prayer.
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—What is demonic possession? Maybe we are all obsessed with them to one degree or another?
- No, possession is a special state when a person finds himself in the power of a terrible black spirit; so much in power that the manifestations of this state resemble the dance of a puppet - to such an extent a person does not control himself. However, if this person is examined by psychiatrists, they can say that he is completely healthy. They may, however, say something else. Loss of mental health may be a consequence of demonic possession, which, of course, has a destructive effect on the psyche; and, on the other hand, mentally ill people are much more susceptible to demonic influence than healthy people.
- But not every psychiatrist’s patient is possessed by a demon...
- Not everyone, of course, there are any number of mentally ill people who do not have any demonic possession. But it’s much easier for the demon to play with a sick person, and here’s why. We have protective barriers against our enemies. Firstly, our rough “leather garments,” our carnal structure, which deprives us of the opportunity to directly perceive the spiritual world. This is good for us, because, as the holy fathers say, if we had been left with the ability of primordial man to communicate with the spiritual world, we in our fallen, sinful state would have been much more capable of communicating with fallen spirits than with Angels. The second protective barrier is the mind. Of course, the mind can be arrogant, it can be primitive or, on the contrary, sophisticated, perverted, but if a person has at least minimal sobriety, he alone common sense he will not do some things that the enemy suggests to him. Of course, the most reliable barrier in the path of the enemy is piety and the fear of God. A mentally ill person lacks these protective barriers. He cannot think soberly, he cannot be pious and God-fearing, and, worst of all, some of his bodily components become thinner, he becomes much more capable of perceiving the spiritual world. And, being in such a painful aggravated state, again, he does not enter into communication with Angels.
- In that case, how to distinguish mental illness from obsession? A modern doctor, reading in the Gospel about a possessed youth or a Gadarene madman, can say that the first suffered from epilepsy, and the second from schizophrenia.
- Indeed, sometimes you can’t say what it is - mental disorder caused by somatic factors - for example, traumatic brain injury - or obsession. There are obvious cases: when absolutely healthy man, sitting on a chair, suddenly begins to bounce on it like a ball, but at the same time does not lose clarity of consciousness. Or - when a two-year-old girl suddenly begins to speak in a man’s bass voice, and things that she could not hear anywhere. I remember how I once expected confession from Archimandrite Kirill (Pavlov). There were many of us, everyone was concentrated, everyone was preparing for their confession, and suddenly he brought us all out of this state... not a scream, not a cry, not a groan, but a sound that has no name on earth, it is impossible to define it, there is nothing to compare it with . It was something chilling. This sound was made by a man kneeling in front of Father Kirill. Everyone had a feeling of extreme horror. Because none of us have ever heard anything like this.
Elder Paisiy Svyatogorets used this way to distinguish a possessed person from a mentally ill person: he put a particle of relics in the water and then gave the person this water to drink. If nothing special happened to a person, then he was just a sick person. The possessed person began to fight, scream, and swear.
But in general, I repeat once again: just as obsession destroys the psyche, so a mentally ill person is more susceptible to demonic influence than a healthy person. Mental illness still has a spiritual basis. Yes, some psychiatrist will say that the reason is biochemical changes in the cerebral cortex, but he is unlikely to answer the question of why these changes occurred. Meanwhile, it can be noted that proud people are primarily susceptible to mental disorders. A humble person can endure any shock and not get sick, because he is ready, he understands where it came from. And a proud man breaks down. Madness is one of the strangest, most terrible, but still - ways of human self-preservation. A person cannot cope with something and runs away into madness. Madness gives him the opportunity to exist in this world, as if huddled, closed.
— Does a person fall into demonic possession through his own fault?
- In general, it does not happen that we are not to blame for what happened to us: as the holy fathers say, the cross of each of us is made of a tree that grew from the soil of our heart. If we talk about children, they always pay for the sins of adults. More precisely, these sins affect them, just as the illness experienced by their parents or exposure to radiation affects them.
- Why are we urged to be very careful about the so-called reprimands of the possessed? Is there no consensus about them in the Church? I had to hear that most of people who come to be lectured are either selfish malingerers who have entered into a role, or psychopaths who need to attract attention to themselves at any cost and who begin to unconsciously compete in this.
— There is just a consensus. With the blessing of the ruling bishop, a good priest of righteous life is appointed to read certain prayers over those tormented by unclean spirits. And in those cases where the action of spirits of evil is really present, these people, through the prayer of the Church, are given help. The lives of saints and patericons are full of such cases when demons left a person through the prayers of a saint. Regarding people who are simply unhealthy, this is why unauthorized reprimands carried out without blessing by priests who do not have spiritual rights and authority are terrible, because the demon deceives people through these priests. They come to him simply sick, and sometimes leave already possessed. The actions of these priests are reminiscent of the seven sons of the Jewish high priest Sceva, who tried to cast out an evil spirit by exorcising it Jesus Whom Paul Preaches. The evil spirit then answered them: I know Jesus, and I know Paul, but who are you?(Acts 19 , 13, 15), and they suffered a lot from the one possessed by him...
— The lives of saints, especially desert monks, contain stories about their struggles with demons. The Holy Fathers saw them. Why can't we see? Because our life is not like that of saints, our prayer is not like that, we do not pose such a danger to demons, we do not pose such a challenge to Satan as saints?
“We don’t see demons, because the Lord, fortunately for us, does not allow us to see them.” If we had seen them, it is unknown whether we would have survived it or not. Demon, demon - there are many synonyms, but one of these synonyms is the spirit of evil. The demon is evil personified. Archimandrite John (Krestyankin) in one of his sermons said that a symphony of evil is being performed in the world. Its author is hiding, but he exists, and this symphony is brilliant in its own way. We know how terrible evil is on earth, we see what people have been doing to each other for centuries; Now imagine how terrible the one who produces all this is. That is why the Lord does not allow us to see him - because we are not at all ready for this.
- Still about the nature of demons and the nature of Angels. Demons are, after all, the same angels who fell with Dennitsa, with Satan?
— Yes, that's them. And since we cannot say anything about what the Cherubim and Seraphim are like who stand before God, then we also cannot say anything about what the fallen Angels are like. According to John of Damascus, Angels are the second intelligent lights, borrowing their light from the First and Beginning Light. An angel is a messenger, a messenger who comes to communicate the will of God or to fulfill it in relation to us. The angel brings us light from the Source, from the One Who is the Light. The Angel's Light is reflected; it can be compared to a mirror reflecting a ray of sunlight.
- Angels have free will, however, according to the word of St. Basil the Great, they are not reluctant to sin - unlike us - because they directly contemplate God and all things in him. But some of them could have once fallen and turned into their own complete opposite…
- Regarding the possibility of the fall of an Angel, there is no consensus among the teachers of the Church; we can, following St. Basil, believe that they are just inflexible to sin, or, following other fathers, that it is generally impossible for an Angel to fall. The temptation that befell the angelic world was short-lived, but colossal. It divided the Angels into two worlds: the world of those who remained faithful to God, and the world of the fallen angels, the demonic world, and this division is forever. We have no reason to believe that an Angel, like a sinful man, can fall and rise again. And there is no reason to believe that the demon can suddenly repent.
The fact is that man - a spiritual, but also a physical being - has justification in his mortal flesh, the holy fathers wrote about this. Fear of illness, fear of misfortune, loss, death - all this makes us unfaithful out of cowardice. Why should a demon be afraid? Or Angel? They do not have our infirmity and weakness. The choice of the spirit is a free and irrevocable choice.
— How to understand the words of Christ: Do not despise one of these little ones; for I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven(Matt. 18:10)? Are we talking about Guardian Angels, each of which is assigned to one of the people?
“These words speak, first of all, about the high dignity of man. We people tend to neglect a person if he seems small and insignificant to us, if he is poor, crippled, beggar... But this person has an Angel who cares about him and who stands before the Face of God. This is God's care for this man.
We are not obliged to believe that a personal Angel is assigned to each of us or that a personal demon is assigned to tempt us. It is possible that this is exactly the case; we find indications of this in the lives and works of some saints, but it may be otherwise. What can we know about what is happening in the spiritual world? It is enough for us to know that Angels protect us, and demons are looking for how to destroy us. And the desire to put this into some kind of intelligible system is caused by a person’s pride, the thought that this is possible for him.
— How are the possible influence of the Guardian Angel and our free will combined on us?
- And how do our will and the presence of good, smart friends, whom we listen to, from whom we expect advice and support in Hard time? There is, however, a very important difference in the influence of demons on us and in the influence of Angels. A demon cannot know a person's thoughts. He can act based on what he knows about us as a great psychologist and a great analyst. Watching us, he guesses what is happening in us. The Angel acts by the Holy Spirit and in the Holy Spirit, and we are transparent to the Angel.
— The lives of saints contain many stories about the appearance of Angels. Most often they are seen in the form of beautiful husbands or young men in luminous clothes. So they do have a visible appearance?
— It is important to understand that the saints saw Angels not with their physical eyes, but with their spiritual eyes—with intelligent, unimaginable vision. It is difficult for us to imagine this: we, earthly people, think in images, behind each of our thoughts a material image appears. But the saints, when the Holy Spirit, the blessing of God, descended on them, saw the phenomena of another world, saw heavenly bliss. Not in images, but as it is. It is very difficult for us to understand that in that other life there will no longer be the images we are familiar with, that this life will be completely different. When a person is overcome by spiritual joy, he cannot say what he actually rejoices about; there are no words for it. The Apostle Paul was a very eloquent man, he could express in words everything that he needed to express, but he could not talk about what he saw when he was caught up to the third heaven, because it cannot be expressed in human language, these are completely different areas . He heard there unspeakable words that a person cannot retell(2 Cor. 12 , 4). Saints have had such visions. But there are also other visions - when we, like small children, are shown something in images accessible to us. A demon with black membranous wings, with terrible horns, fangs - this is a very suitable image for this demon to appear to a person, but it is a mistake to think that the demon really has such wings and horns. As for the Angel, his essence is best reflected, probably, not by this traditional image - a beautiful young man, but by our understanding that since God is love, then His servant is also love. The presence of an Angel always means peace, deep heartfelt tranquility and the feeling that you are warmed by love.
In ordinary life, as long as it goes on steadily, without incident, we don’t even think about the fact that in parallel with us there exists a world of other entities. Its main “residents” are angels and devils). The Holy Scriptures are rich in descriptions of the effects on human souls demons. The Bible names the signs of a demon-possessed person. Since the Middle Ages, the Holy Fathers have given this important. Little is known about angels: they are protectors, and we do not necessarily know about their methods of protection. Demons are serious enemies of the human race, and in order to resist them, it is necessary to study methods of combating this evil spirits. Christ himself emphasized that they can only be driven out through fasting, the cross and prayer.
How did the Evil Spirit appear?
Before the Creator created the universe, there was a world of angels. The most powerful one was called Dennitsa. One day he became proud, rose up against God himself, and for this he was expelled by the angry Lord from the angelic world.
Every Christian knows the signs of a possessed person: speaking in someone else's voice, rejection of church values, the ability to levitate, the smell of sulfur, and more. But there are also signs of the devil’s presence that are difficult to recognize.
To protect yourself from best advice- do not contact him, since the possessed does not control his own mind. Only church rituals will help drive demons out of him.
How does the devil possess a person?
Anthony the Great claims that humanity itself is to blame for the fact that demons find refuge in the souls of people. These are incorporeal creatures that can take refuge in a person if he accepts their nasty thoughts, temptations and will. This is how people agree with existing evil. The stories of priests about the presence of the devil are quite frightening and scary. On your own personal experience They have more than once been convinced of the reality of the actions of dark forces, therefore they know all the signs of a possessed person, can recognize him and try to save the soul. Even strong prayer does not immediately help get rid of the invading evil spirits.
So why are demons able to enter humans? The Holy Fathers claim that their place is where sin already lives. Sinful thoughts, an unworthy lifestyle, many vices - it is easiest for the devil to penetrate a vicious person.
Many people wonder why God allows this. The answer is simple. In fact, from the Almighty we are endowed with freedom of choice, will. We ourselves must choose whose power is closer to us, the Lord or Satan.
The clergy divide demoniac people into two types.
The first is that the demon subjugates the soul and behaves like a second personality inside a person. The second is the enslavement of the human will by various sinful passions. Even John of Kronstadt, who observed the possessed, noted that demons would take possession of the souls of ordinary people due to their innocence and illiteracy. If a spirit enters the soul of an educated person, then this is a slightly different form of possession, and fighting the devil in these cases is quite difficult.
Possessed people in church
There is a statement in the Christian Church that a person’s obsession, which does not manifest itself in everyday life, comes out as soon as the possessed person approaches the church or sees an icon and a cross. There have been cases when, during a service, some people begin to rush about, howl, cry, shout blasphemous speeches, and swear. All these are the main signs of a possessed person. This is explained by the fact that the demon tries to protect the soul from divine influence. The devil is intolerant of everything that somehow reminds us of faith in God.
Educated, intelligent people with a demon in their souls, it would seem, are accustomed to taking into account the opinions of others, they are measured and sedate, but as soon as you start a conversation with them about religion, all their respect comes to naught, their faces immediately change, and rage appears. The demon living inside cannot transgress his essence as soon as it comes to his eternal enemy - God. The way demon-possessed people behave in church only confirms the fact that the demon tries to avoid sources of danger and is afraid of being cast out. In fact, it is not people who are afraid of the church and the Creeds, but the unclean essence that is in them.
Possession can be divided into several signs: in some cases, the demon simply whispers nasty things to a person, encourages him to do obscenities, and go against God. Having penetrated the body, the demon can act to the detriment of other people, causing them harm. Having taken possession of the bodies of the dead, the devil in the guise of ghosts torments people.
Physical Signs of a Demon Possessed Person
Church ministers identified phenomena indicating signs of demon-possessed people. In the treatise “On Demons” by Peter of Tire the following points of demon manifestations are indicated:
- the voice acquires an eerie demonic timbre;
- any voice changes are possible;
- paralysis of the body or some limbs;
- an incredible display of strength for the average person.
Other demonologists also highlight:
- a huge belly unusual for humans;
- rapid decline, weight loss leading to death;
- levitation;
- split personality;
- imitation of animals;
- obscene behavior, thoughts;
- the smell of sulfur (the smell of hell);
- blasphemy against God, church, holy water, cross;
- mumbling in a non-existent language.
This is not a complete list of signs. Of course, many points of possession can be explained by some kind of physical illness; for example, in the Middle Ages, demonic behavior was often confused with symptoms of epilepsy. Mental disorders were passed off as public sinful orgies, and imitation of animals was confused with schizophrenia. In fact, it is really difficult to define in everyday life what a possessed person means. Many character traits, behavioral stereotypes, promiscuity, ignorance - all this resembles demonic possession.
Exorcism
The traditional "cure" for possession is to expel the demon from the body. Exorcism rites are performed by clergy who read special prayers, fumigate with incense, and conduct confirmation. Most often, during the ritual, people strongly resist, even faint. A priest should not be alone; he definitely needs assistants - other representatives of the church. Modern doctors and psychologists do not believe in such rituals and claim that it is just then how to explain that such attacks occur exclusively with church intervention and after the ritual people feel significant relief? There are still no answers to these questions.
You can cast out demons through sincere faith, prayer and fasting. Before the process of expulsion, one must receive communion and confession. The reprimand can be performed by a monk who has not known sin or carnal pleasures. The key point is a strict fast. An unprepared soul itself will not be able to cope with the exorcism of demons. Prayer may not work, and the result may be unpredictable. The reprimand will be carried out by a monk who has received instructions from senior spiritual brethren; he is endowed with divine protection and special power that will help cope with demons. Readable prayer called exorcist. After pronouncing it multiple times, signs of possession by demoniacs disappear, confirming the presence of hellish forces.
When exorcising the devil, a prayer must be heard from the lips of a sincere believer; magic is strictly excluded. People involved in the occult become possessed by demons in 90% of cases.
Prayerful protection from evil spirits
Evil spirits can easily attack us, move into our homes, plot intrigues, and make a person obsessed. In Orthodoxy there are many prayers that help protect against the attacks of evil spirits. The most famous are the prayer to Seraphim of Sarov, Pansofia of Athos “From the attack of demons”, St. Gregory the Wonderworker and, of course, the prayer to Jesus Christ.
Orthodox believers know that the text should always be carried with them, because in times of rampant evil spirits there is always a chance of falling under its influence. At any moment along the way you may encounter a possessed person, what should you do in this case? A prayer word will save.
Many people learn the text of the prayer by heart. But in stressful situations, a person usually gets lost and forgets about everything in the world, so it is better to always have protection with you. You can give yourself confidence in a difficult situation by reading the text of the prayer from the page. It is very important to follow some rules:
- Always carry the text of the prayer with you. Style and Old Church Slavonic words are reinterpreted and faked modern language It’s not worth it, it can reduce the power of words prayed for centuries.
- You need to pronounce the text yourself; online auditions are not suitable here; the emotional component and sincerity of the spoken phrases are important.
- When reading the prayer, you must be protected by a cross or icon. Shameless demonic spawn can easily penetrate unprotected lost souls and nullify the words of prayer.
Protect yours vital energy and your home. For example, it will be more difficult for demons to enter a house consecrated by the priest.
Obsession from a scientific point of view
What does official science say about demonism? Scientists call obsession mental illness, whose name is cacodemonomania. It is believed that seizures most often affect dependent people, open, impressionable or, on the contrary, passive. For the most part, they are susceptible to outside influence. Sigmund Freud called cacodemonia a neurosis. According to him, a person himself invents a demon within himself that suppresses his desires. So what is obsession - a curse or a disease? Scientists explain the signs of demon possession various diseases, but it is worth noting that often medical methods are not able to solve the problem.
- The obsession is explained by epilepsy. When losing consciousness during convulsions, a person is able to sense contacts with the immaterial world.
- Depression, euphoria, and sudden mood swings are characteristic of affective bipolar disorder.
- Tourette's syndrome is also confused with obsession. Out of frustration nervous system Nervous tics begin.
- A disease known in psychology is accompanied by split personality, when several personalities live in one body, showing themselves at different periods.
- Schizophrenia has also been compared to obsession. The patient experiences hallucinations, speech problems, and delusional ideas.
If an unclean essence enters a person, this is reflected in his appearance. How to recognize a possessed person is listed in the article above. You can also add to this that those possessed by demons change the color of their eyes, they become cloudy, although their vision remains the same. The color of the skin may also change, it becomes darker - this sign is very dangerous.
Real cases of obsession
There are stories of people being possessed by demons that have been recorded and documented. Here are just a few of them.
Clara Germana Celje. Story from South America. The girl Clara, at the age of 16, told the priest in confession that she felt the presence of a demon in herself. The story took place in 1906. At first they did not believe her words, since it is not easy to identify a possessed person. But her condition began to worsen every day. There is documentary evidence from people who say that the girl behaved inappropriately and spoke in someone else's voices. The exorcism ritual was performed on her for two days, which saved her.
Roland Doe. The story of this boy took place in 1949. His aunt died. After some time, Roland tried to contact her through a seance, but incredible things began to happen around him: screams were heard, crucifixes shook, objects flew, and so on. A priest invited to the house saw objects falling and flying. At the same time, the boy's body was covered with various symbols. It took 30 sessions to drive out the evil spirit. More than 14 sources confirm the fact that the bed with the sick boy was flying around the room.
The Emily Rose Story
I would especially like to note the case of Annaliese Michel. This is the most striking example of a person’s demonic possession. The girl became the prototype of Emily Rose in the famous film.
When the girl turned 17, her life became a nightmare. In the middle of the night she was attacked by paralysis, it was impossible to breathe. Doctors diagnosed him with Grand Mal seizures or epileptic convulsions. After Annalize was admitted to a mental hospital, her situation only became worse. Drug treatment did not bring any relief. The demon constantly appeared to her and talked about the curse. She began to develop deep depression. A year later, in 1970, the girl was discharged from the hospital. She herself turned to the church and asked for an exorcism, claiming that the devil had entered her body. Church ministers know how to understand that a person is possessed, but they refused to help her and advised her to pray more. The girl began to behave more inappropriately. She bit her family members, ate flies and spiders, copied dogs, mutilated herself, and destroyed icons. This went on for five years. Relatives had difficulty persuading the clergy to perform an exorcism. The ceremony began in 1975 and ended only in 1976; it was held twice a week. A great many evil spirits were expelled from her body, but her health still deteriorated, she could neither drink nor eat. As a result, the girl died in her sleep. According to her, before her death, the Virgin Mary came to her and offered her an option for salvation - to leave her body, which was enslaved by demons.
How to deal with a possessed person
If suddenly you discover signs of demon possession among your loved ones, it is important not to get lost at this moment, try to create conditions so that the person does not harm himself or others. There are several tips on how to protect yourself from a possessed person:
- You should not provoke a possessed person into an attack of aggression, since he is not capable of taking responsibility for his own actions. Agree with him and control the situation.
- Protect the possessed person from moving. Sit or lay on the bed. Make sure he can't hurt himself.
- If demonic possession manifests itself, try to calm the person down and bring him to a normal state. If an attack is provoked by icons or crucifixes, remove them.
Protect yourself and your loved ones from the attacks of demons. True faith, fervent prayer, and a life of piety will not allow the devil to take possession of your soul and body.
Probably, we all often come across the opinion that dark forces act on a person in connection with or witchcraft. At the same time, few people pay attention to the real impact that a person is exposed to outside of any connection with magic. This means that it is important to have a correct understanding of the dark forces themselves and the ways they influence people.
Who are demons?
These are personal, endowed with reason, ethereal beings who fell away from God, forming a special, hostile to everything good peace. Having lost the spiritual Heaven, they are in the celestial or aerial sphere (see: Eph. 2:2) and turn their evil attention to the world of people.
They have a certain power in this world, since the crown of creation - man - in the Fall gave way to his place as the king of the world to the evil deceiver. In this regard, it is clear that dark forces are capable of causing some harm. So, in the Holy Scripture, in the book of Tobit, it is said about the demon Asmodeus, who killed seven husbands in turn, for whom Sarah, the daughter of Raguel, was married off (see: Tob. 3: 8). The book of Job tells how, under the influence of the devil, fire, which seemed to come down from heaven, burned the flocks of sheep that belonged to Job along with the shepherds (see: Job 1: 16). Due to the obsession of dark forces, a hurricane also began, destroying the house where Job’s children had gathered, so that they all died (see: Job 1: 18-19). True, there is one peculiarity in this story. All the disasters that happened to his family were allowed by God, who agreed to allow such demonic sabotage to test the righteous (see: Job 1: 6-12).
This is what is important to focus on. Although the influence of demons on the world in terms of the power of their destruction can be incredibly powerful, they themselves are dependent on God and can act only when God allows. From the Gospel we know that even in order to enter the pigs, demons were forced to slavishly ask permission from the Savior (see: Matthew 8:31). Saint John Chrysostom explained about this:
“Demons do not even dare to touch pigs without His permission... Everyone knows that demons hate us more than dumb animals. Consequently, if they did not spare the pigs, but in one instant cast them all into the abyss, then all the more would they have done this with the people possessed by them, whom they dragged and dragged through the deserts, if God’s Providence had not curbed and deterred their further aspirations."
This means that the true basis for our spiritual life should not be the fear of fallen forces, but the fear of God, the fear of falling away from Him through our sins, through which we become more accessible to the direct influence of the fallen angels.
The world of fallen spirits is invisible to us, but is capable of manifesting its existence. Moreover, this manifestation often happens exactly where a person does not expect it at all, for example, in emerging thoughts, internal movements of the soul, desires. The life of the holy martyr Juliana tells how one day during prayer the devil appeared to her in the form of a bright angel and urged her to make a sacrifice to demons. The Lord strengthened Saint Juliana, so that she remained above his temptations. The demon confessed to the holy saint:
“I am the one who once advised Eve in paradise to transgress the commandment of God to her destruction. I inspired Cain to kill his brother Abel. I taught Nebuchadnezzar to place a golden image in the field of Deira. I deceived the Jews to worship idols. I made the wise Solomon mad by arousing in him a passion for wives. I inspired Herod to kill infants, and Judas to betray the Teacher and hang himself. I'm hooked And d to stone the Jews by stoning Stephen, moved Nero to crucify Peter upside down and behead Paul with the sword. I have deceived many and subjected them to disasters.”
Evil spirits are capable of putting thoughts into us that we perceive as our own. These are all those thoughts that lead to sin and prevent you from turning to God. Dark demons try to influence the will, arousing vicious desires in us, muffle the voice of conscience in us, calling us to enjoy all earthly blessings, and after reckless consumption, when the entire emptiness of a godless life is revealed, they bring despair to the soul.
It is naive to think that demons influence people necessarily in the form of creepy ghosts
It is naive to think that demons influence people necessarily in the form of creepy ghosts or in terrible forms of possession. Their influence on people can be very diverse and not always outwardly terrifying. For example, the truly terrible thing they do is that demons prevent a person from turning to God, to living according to the Commandments of the Gospel. “To everyone who hears the word about the Kingdom and does not understand, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart” (Matthew 13:19), - the Lord in the parable depicted the state of those people who heard the gospel, but did not show zeal for it in time. A person does not even suspect that the once heard word of Truth, which lay on his heart, but was not realized in life, was stolen by the evil one. For unbelievers, according to the words of the Apostle Paul, “the god of this age (that is, the devil. - O. V.D.) blinded their minds, so that the light of the gospel would not shine on them” (2 Cor. 4:4). This is expressed in the inability to see and perceive the Truth of spiritual life, and preferring to it the dead treasures of the earthly world.
Demons, like competent psychologists, examine us, what we are most susceptible to, and with this they tempt us most of all. The Lord says: “Watch and pray, so that you do not fall into temptation” (Matthew 26:41). Without inner vigilance and constant turning to God, it is impossible to recognize the machinations of the evil one.
Demons, to put it in worldly terms, work individually with each person, according to his weaknesses and preferences. They seduce some with carnal pleasure, others with a thirst for honor and glory, and others with the opinion of themselves as a very virtuous person. According to Abba Evagrius, “of the unclean demons, some tempt man as a human being, while others alarm man as a dumb animal. The first ones, having come, put into us thoughts of vanity, or pride, or envy, or condemnation, which do not concern any of the dumb; and the latter, approaching, arouse anger or lust not according to their nature, for these passions are common to us and the dumb and are hidden in us under the rational nature (that is, they stand below it or under it).”
Reverend Anthony The Great One taught that every Christian who succeeds in spiritual life is first tempted by demons through evil thoughts. If the ascetic turns out to be firm, then they attack him through dreamy ghosts. Then they take on the guise of soothsayers, so that the ascetic believes them as if they were predicting the truth.
“Therefore, when demons come to you at night, want to announce the future or say: “We are Angels,” do not listen to them; because they lie. If they praise your asceticism and please you, do not listen to them and do not get close to them at all; it is better to seal yourself and your house with a cross and pray.”
If the fallen angels see that a person wants to achieve incredible self-development and perfection, then they are happy to help him discover all the “hidden possibilities” in himself, so that the greatness of the newly-minted psychic can surprise and captivate the hearts of many others. And if a person turns to an occultist in order to remove damage, they politely remove their own slander from him, as if showing that magic and extrasensory perception are truly good for people.
The famous Bulgarian fortuneteller Vanga is a vivid example of demonic seduction
A striking example of such seduction is the famous Bulgarian fortuneteller (1911-1996). Like many other similar people, the emergence of Vanga’s special abilities was preceded by trauma: when twelve-year-old Vanga was returning to the village with her cousins, a terrible hurricane lifted her into the air and carried her far into the field. There she was covered with branches and sand, Vanga’s eyes hurt, and soon she went blind. After some time, she discovered “extraordinary” abilities. She could tell a person his past, reveal details that even loved ones did not know, determined people’s illnesses, and often predicted the future. She herself considered her abilities to be a gift from God.
Who exactly revealed to her the secrets hidden from mere mortals?
Vanga explained to her niece Krasimira Stoyanova what she was seeing higher power like transparent figures, like human reflections in water, but more often one hears their voice. Krasimira Stoyanova wrote several books about her aunt and in one of them she reports the following:
“I was 16 years old when one day in our house in Petrich Vanga spoke to me... only it was not her voice. There was an impression that it was not she, but some other person who was speaking through her lips. The words I heard had nothing to do with what we had talked about before. It was as if some unknown person had intervened in our conversation. I heard: “Here we see you”... - and then there followed a full report of what I had done that day up to that moment. After a short pause, Vanga sighed and said: “Oh, my strength has left me”... - and again returned to our previous conversation. I asked her why she suddenly began to describe my day, but she replied that she did not describe anything, but repeated what she heard. Then she sighed: “Oh, these are forces, small forces that are always nearby. But there are also big ones who command them. When they decide to speak through my mouth, I feel bad, and after that I can’t come to my senses for the whole day.”
The feeling of oppression that Vanga herself admits unmistakably indicates that dark spirits appeared to her, who are capable of telling people things that are inaccessible to ordinary knowledge. Krasimira Stoyanova provides various details about how Vanga communicated with the other world. In general, these are typical mediumistic experiences that have been known for many centuries: “Only sometimes we could not understand why our aunt turns pale, why she suddenly feels bad and a voice suddenly comes from her lips, striking us with its strength, unusual timbre, words and expressions , which are not in Vanga’s usual dictionary.” “And suddenly she spoke to me in an unfamiliar voice, which sent shivers down my spine.”
One of the enemy’s favorite suggestions is suspiciousness
Of course, this type of seduction is exceptional. Usually people stumble over the smallest things: to better arrange earthly life, forgetting about their own immortal soul; elevate yourself and your successes to the first place, completely ignoring the sorrows and suffering of your neighbors. The goal of the devil is to sow anger, self-justification and distrust of God in people. One of the enemy’s favorite suggestions is suspiciousness: a person invents whole stories for himself in connection with individual circumstances of his own life, and in illnesses and failures he sees not a manifestation of God’s Providence, but a magical obsession of an ill-wisher.
But there is one truth that is worth knowing. What harms the soul most is irreconcilable hostility towards other people, and it is this that most often makes one think about witchcraft on the part of one’s enemy. Usually a distant relative, neighbor, or co-worker is suspected of corruption or witchcraft. Thus, a fearful occult worldview is created in which personal troubles are combined with resentment against the supposed ill-wisher; as a result, Christianity is forced out of our everyday, everyday life by thoughts of conspiracies and the search for magical protection from them.
Elder Paisius the Holy Mountain has very useful advice for those who believe that they have been “jinxed”
Elder Paisius the Holy Mountain has very useful reasoning in this regard:
“And what evil do mediums, psychics, “clairvoyants” and the like do to people! Not only do they siphon money out of people, they also destroy families. Eg, man walking to the “clairvoyant” and tells him about his problems. “Look,” the “clairvoyant” answers him, “one of your relatives, a little dark, slightly taller than average, has cast a spell on you.” A person begins to look for which of his relatives has such characteristic features. It is impossible that none of his relatives were at least a little like the one the sorcerer described to him. “Ah,” says the man, having found the “culprit” of his suffering. “So that means she put a spell on me!” And he is overcome by hatred for this woman. And this poor thing herself does not know at all the reasons for his hatred. It happens that she did him some favor, but he seethes with hatred towards her and does not even want to see her! Then he goes to the sorcerer again, and he says: “Well, now we need to remove this damage from you. To do this, you will have to pay me some money.” “Well,” says the confused man, “since he found who damaged me, I must reward him!” And he forks out. Do you see what the devil is doing? He creates temptations. Whereas a good person - even if he actually knows for sure that someone did something bad to someone else - will never say this to the victim: “So-and-so did something bad to you.” No, he will try to help the unfortunate man. “Listen,” he will tell him, “don’t accept different thoughts. Go and confess and don’t be afraid of anything.” Thus he helps both one and the other. After all, the one who has harmed his neighbor, seeing how he behaves towards him with kindness, thinks - in the good sense of the word - and repents.”
It turns out an amazing thing: the real attack of the enemy is not someone’s witchcraft or damage, but the opinion that the misfortune that happened was brought upon you by witchcraft. Regarding all the temptations of fallen angels in general, I would like to recall the words of Holy Scripture: “Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walks around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Resist him with firm faith, knowing that the same sufferings happen to your brothers in the world. May the God of all grace, who has called us to His eternal glory in Christ Jesus, after you have suffered for a short time, perfect you, establish you, strengthen you, and make you steadfast. To him be glory and power forever and ever. Amen" (1 Pet. 5:8-11).
Who do they see before death - Angels or demons?
At the moment of death, the deceased is usually greeted by two Angels. This is how the author of “Incredible for Many...” described them: “And as soon as she (the old nurse) uttered these words (“Heavenly kingdom, eternal rest...”), two Angels appeared near me, in one of which I for some reason - he recognized mine, but the other was unknown to me.” Later, one pious wanderer explained to him that it was a “counter angel.” St. Theodore, whose path after death through aerial ordeals is described in the life of St. Basil the New (10th century, March 26), says:
“When I was completely exhausted, I saw two Angels of God approaching me in the form of beautiful young men; their faces were bright, their eyes looked with love, the hair on their heads was white as snow and shone like gold; the clothes looked like the light of lightning, and on the chest they were girded crosswise with golden belts.” Gallic bishop of the 6th century, St. Salvius described his experience of death this way: “When my cell shook four days ago and you saw me lying dead, I was raised by two Angels and carried to the very top of heaven” (St. Gregory of Tours. History of the Franks. VII, 1).
The duty of these Angels is to accompany the soul of the deceased on his path. There is nothing uncertain in their appearance or in their actions; having a human appearance, they firmly grasp “ thin body» souls and take him away. “The Bright Angels took her (soul) into their arms” (St. Theodore). “Taking me by the arms, the Angels carried me straight out of the room through the wall...” (“Incredible for many...”). St. Salvius was "raised up by two Angels." Such examples could be continued.
Therefore, it cannot be said that “ glowing creature"from modern cases, which has no visible form, does not accompany the soul anywhere, which draws the soul into conversation and shows it “reverse frames” of its past life, there is an Angel who accompanies you to the afterlife. Not every being who appears as an Angel is actually an Angel, because Satan himself takes the form of an Angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14). And therefore, about creatures that do not even have the appearance of an Angel, we can say with confidence that they are not Angels. For a reason that we will try to explain below, in modern “post-mortem” experiences there seem to never be certain encounters with Angels.
Then could it not be that in reality the “luminous being” was a demon masquerading as an Angel of light in order to tempt the dying person when his soul leaves the body? Dr. ("Life After Life", pp. 107-108, "Reflections", pp. 58-60) and other researchers do pose such a question, but only to reject such a possibility in connection with "good" action , which produces this phenomenon on the dying. Of course, the views of these researchers on evil are naive to the extreme. Dr. Moody believes that "Satan seems to command his servants to follow the path of hatred and destruction" (Life After Life, p. 108) and appears to be completely unfamiliar with Christian literature describing the real nature of demonic temptations, which are invariably presented to their victims as something “good”.
What is it like Orthodox teaching about demonic temptations at the hour of death? St. Basil the Great in his interpretation of the words of the psalm: save me from all my persecutors and deliver me; lest he, like a lion, snatch away my soul (Ps. 7:2-3), gave the following explanation: “I think that about the courageous ascetics of God, who throughout their entire lives fought with invisible enemies, when they escape all their persecutions , being at the end of his life, the prince of this age inquires in order to keep them with him if there are wounds on them received during the struggle, or some stains and imprints of sin. And if they are found unwounded and unsullied, then as invincible, as free, they will be laid to rest by Christ. Therefore, the Prophet prays for the future and real life. Here he says: save me from those who persecute, and there during the trial: deliver me, lest a lion snatch away my soul. And you can learn this from the Lord Himself, Who, before suffering, says: The prince of this world comes, and has nothing in Me (John 14:30)” (vol. 1, p. 104).
Indeed, not only Christian ascetics have to face a demonic test at the hour of death. St. John Chrysostom in his “Conversations on the Evangelist Matthew” figuratively describes what happens to ordinary sinners during death: “Therefore you will hear many stories about horrors at the last end and terrible phenomena, the very sight of which is unbearable for the dying, so that those lying on the bed with with great power they shake it and look fearfully at those who are coming, while the soul tries to stay in the body and does not want to be separated from it, horrified by the vision of the approaching Angels. For if we, looking at terrible people, tremble, then what will be our torment, how will we see the approaching angels of terrible and inexorable forces, when they will drag our soul and tear it away from the body, when it will cry a lot, but in vain and to no avail" ( Conversation 53, vol. 3, pp. 414-415).
In the Orthodox lives of saints there are many stories about such demonic spectacles at the moments of death, the purpose of which is usually to frighten the dying person and make him despair of his own salvation. For example, St. Gregory in his “Interviews” talked about one rich man, former slave many passions: “Shortly before his death, he saw vile spirits standing in front of him, fiercely threatening to carry him into the depths of hell... The whole family gathered around him, crying and groaning. Although they could not, according to the patient himself, by the pallor of his face and by the trembling of his body, understand that there were evil spirits there. In mortal fear of these terrible visions, he tossed on his bed from side to side... And now almost exhausted and desperate for some kind of relief, he shouted:
“Give me until the morning! Just be patient until the morning!” And with this his life was interrupted” (IV, 40). St. Gregory speaks of other similar cases, as does Bede in his “History of the English Church and People” (Book V, ch. 13, 15). Even in nineteenth-century America, such cases were not uncommon; a recently published anthology contains stories from the last century that carry titles like: “I'm on fire, get me out!”, “Oh, save me, they're dragging me away!”, “I'm going to hell!” and “The devil is coming to drag my soul to hell” (John Myers. Voices on the Edge of Eternity. 1973, pp. 71, 109, 167, 196).
But Dr. Moody says nothing of the kind: in essence, in his book all the experiences of dying people (for worthy of attention with the exception of , see pp. 127-128) pleasant - whether Christians or non-Christians, religious people or not. On the other hand, Drs. Osis and Haraldson found something not so far from such experience in their research.
These scientists found in their studies of American cases the same thing as Dr. Moody: the appearance of otherworldly visitors is perceived as something positive, the patient accepts death, the experience is pleasant, causes peace and elation and often the cessation of pain before death. In studies of Indian cases, no less than one third of the patients who saw the phenomena experienced fear, oppression and anxiety as a result of the appearance of "yamduts" ("death messengers", Hindi) or other creatures; these Indians resist or try to avoid otherworldly messengers. Thus, in one case, a dying Indian office worker says:
“Someone is standing here! He has a cart, it’s probably Yamdut. He must be taking someone with him. He’s teasing me that he wants to take me!...Please hold me, I don’t want to!” His pain increased, and he died (“At the Hour of Death,” p. 90). One dying Indian suddenly said: “Here comes Yamdut to take me away. Take me out of bed so that Yamdut doesn’t find me.” He pointed out and up: “There he is.” The hospital room was on the first floor. Outside against the wall of the building there was a big tree, on whose branches there were many crows sitting. As soon as the sick man had this vision, all the crows suddenly left the tree with great noise, as if someone had fired a gun. We were surprised by this and ran out through the open door of the room, but did not see anything that could disturb the crows. Usually they were very calm, so all of us present remembered very well that the crows flew away with great noise just when the dying man had a vision. It was as if they, too, felt something terrible. When this happened, the patient lost consciousness and died a few minutes later. Some yamduts have scary appearance and cause even greater fear in the dying person.
This is the biggest difference between the American and Indian dying experiences in the studies of Drs Osis and Haraldson, but the authors cannot find an explanation for it. Naturally, the question arises: for what reason in modern American experience One element is almost completely missing - fear, caused by terrible otherworldly phenomena, so common both to the Christian experience of the past and to the present Indian experience?
We do not need to define precisely the nature of the appearances to the dying person to understand that, as we have seen, they depend to some extent on what the dying person expects or is prepared to see. Therefore, Christians of past centuries, who had a living belief in hell and whose conscience at the end of their lives accused them, often saw demons before death... Modern Hindus, who, of course, are more “primitive” than Americans in their beliefs and their understanding, often see creatures that live up to their still very real fears regarding . And modern "enlightened" Americans see phenomena consistent with their "comfortable" lives and beliefs, which generally do not include any real fear of hell or belief in the existence of demons.
Indeed, the demons themselves offer temptations that are consistent with the spiritual consciousness or expectations of those being tempted. For those who fear hell, demons can appear in a terrifying form so that the person dies in a state of despair. But to those who do not believe in hell (or to Protestants who believe that they are securely saved and therefore do not fear hell), demons would naturally offer some other temptations that would not reveal their evil intentions so clearly. In the same way, to a Christian ascetic who has already suffered enough, demons can appear in such a form in order to tempt him, and not to frighten him.
A good example of this kind is the temptation by demons at the hour of death of the martyr Maura (3rd century). After she was crucified on the cross for nine days with her husband, the martyr Timothy, the devil tempted her. The lives of these saints say how the martyr Mavra herself told her husband and partner in suffering about her temptations: “Cheer up, my brother, and drive away sleep from yourself; Wake and understand what I saw: it seemed to me that before me, as if in admiration, there was a man who had in his hand a cup filled with milk and honey. This man said to me: “Take this and drink it.” But I said to him: “Who are you?” He answered: “I am the Angel of God.” Then I told him: “Let us pray to the Lord.” Then he told me: “I came to you in order to ease your suffering. I saw that you were very hungry and thirsty, since until now you had not eaten any food.” Again I said to him: “Who prompted you to show me this favor? And what do you care about my patience and forgiveness? Don’t you know that God is able to create even what is impossible for people? “When I prayed, I saw that the man was turning his face to the west. From this I understood that it was a satanic deception; Satan wanted to tempt us on the cross. Then soon the vision disappeared. Then another man came up, and it seemed to me that he led me to a river flowing with milk and honey, and said to me: “Drink.” But I answered: “I have already told you that I will not drink water or any other earthly drink until I drink the cup of death for Christ my Lord, which He Himself will dissolve for me with salvation and immortality of eternal life.” When I said this, that man drank from the river, and suddenly both he and the river disappeared with him” (“The Life of the Holy Martyrs Timothy and Maura”). It is clear what caution a Christian must exercise when receiving “revelations” at the time of death.
So, the hour of death is truly a time of demonic temptations, and those spiritual experiences that people receive at this time (even if it seems that this is happening “,” which will be discussed below) should be assessed by the same Christian standards, just like any other spiritual experience. Likewise, the spirits that may be encountered at this time must be subjected to a comprehensive test, which the Apostle John expresses as follows: test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have appeared in the world (1 John 4:1).
Some of the critics of modern “posthumous” experiences have already pointed out the similarity of the “luminous being” with the “spirit guides” and “spirit friends” of mediumistic spiritualism. Therefore, let us briefly consider the spiritualistic teaching in that part where it speaks of “luminous beings” and their messages. One classic work on Spiritualism (J. Arthur Hill. Spiritualism: Its History, Phenomena and Teachings. New York, 1919) points out that Spiritualist “teaching is always, or practically always, in agreement with the highest moral standards; in relation to faith it is always theistic, always respectful of it, but not very interested in such intellectual subtleties as interested the Fathers of the Church Councils” (p. 235).
The book then notes that the “key” and “central doctrine” of spiritualistic teaching is love, that from spirits spiritualists receive “glorious knowledge” which obliges them to carry out missionary work to spread “the knowledge of what really is” and that “perfect “spirits lose the “limitations” of personality and become more “influences” than personalities, becoming more and more filled with “light.” Indeed, in their hymns, spiritualists literally call upon “luminous beings”: “Blessed servants of light, hidden from mortal eyes... The messengers of light went in the middle of the night, To open the eyes of our hearts...”.
All this is enough to doubt the “luminous being” who now appears to people who know nothing about the nature and insidiousness of demonic tricks. Our suspicion only increases when we hear from Dr. Moody that some describe this creature as " funny personality” with a “sense of humor” that “entertains” and “amuses” the dying person (Life After Life, pp. 49, 51). Such a being, with its “love and understanding,” is in fact remarkably similar to the trivial and often good-natured spirits in seances, which, without a doubt, are demons (if the seances themselves are not scams).
This fact has led some to dismiss as demonic deception all reports of “after-death” experiences, and one book written by evangelical Protestants argues that “there are new and unknown dangers in all this deception.” Even vague belief in reports about clinical experiences, we believe, can have serious consequences for those who believe in the Bible. More than one sincere Christian has fully believed that the luminous being is none other than Jesus Christ and, unfortunately, these people can be fooled very easily" (John Weldon and Zola Levitt, "Is There Life After Death?", 1977, p. 76). In addition to pointing out the undoubted fact that a number of post-mortem experience researchers are also interested in the occult and even have contact with mediums, the authors of the book, in support of this assertion, draw a number of remarkable parallels between modern post-mortem experiences and the experiences of mediums and occultists of the recent past.
There is, of course, a lot of truth in these observations. Unfortunately, without a complete Christian teaching about afterlife Even the most well-intentioned “Bible believers” are mistaken when they reject, along with an experience that may turn out to be a demonic deception, a genuine post-mortem experience of the soul. And, as we will see, these people themselves are capable of believing the deceptive “posthumous” experience.
Drs. Osis and Haraldson, who both had "direct experience with mediums", note some similarities between the appearances of the dying and the experience. However, they note a significant, “conspicuous discrepancy” between them: “Instead of continuing worldly life(which mediums describe) prefer to begin a completely new way of life and activity” (“At the hour of death,” p. 200). In reality, the realm of “posthumous” experience does not seem completely different from the realm of ordinary mediumship and spiritualism, but it is still a realm where demonic deceptions and suggestions are not only possible, but positively to be expected, especially in these last days in which we live , when we witness more and more subtle spiritual temptations, even great signs and wonders, in order to deceive, if possible, even the elect (Matthew 24:24).
Therefore, we should at least be very careful with the “light beings” who seem to appear at the moment of death. They are very similar to demons who introduce themselves as “Angels of Light” in order to seduce not only the dying person himself, but also those to whom he will subsequently tell his story if he is brought back to life (the possibility of which, of course, the demons are well aware of).
But, ultimately, our judgment of this and other "posthumous" phenomena must be based on the teaching that follows from them - whether it is either given by some spiritual being seen at the moment of death, or is simply implied, or is inferred from such phenomena.
Some of those who "died" and were brought back to life - usually those who were or became very religious - identified the "luminous being" they encountered not with an Angel, but with the invisible presence of Christ himself. For these people, such an experience is often associated with another phenomenon, which for Orthodox Christians is perhaps the most mysterious at first glance phenomenon encountered in modern after-death experiences - the vision of “heaven”.
Confessions of a demoniac. "This race is driven out by fasting and prayer"
Last summer I rented a room near the Siverskaya station and every night at two o’clock I looked through sea binoculars at the red planet Mars with a snow cap on its crown, which that year came surprisingly close to our sinful Earth.
Scientists astronomers claim that the last time it came so close was during the time of the Neanderthals, 60 thousand years ago.
Well, how can you not sacrifice a night’s sleep for such a curiosity!
And on Saturdays and Sundays I went to the Church of the Kazan Icon Mother of God, where he met one wanderer - a Little Russian who was walking from Veliky Ustyug to the Poltava region.
He had nowhere to spend the night, so I invited him to my place.
I bought a piece of pork, prepared a good dinner and invited the guest to the table.
However, he refused to eat pork, explaining:
I don't eat pork.
And not because I’m a Jew or a Muslim, but all because one day a mangy neighbor’s pig crawled into my garden.
Of course, I call him lousy out of spite, but in fact, he was a well-fed, pink, full of young fat, cheerful and terribly gluttonous pig.
Grunting joyfully and spinning like a top, he began to greedily devour everything that was green and curling in the beds.
Seeing this robbery through the window, I realized that the harvest must be saved, otherwise goodbye to my labors.
I grabbed a mop and shouted: “Well, wait, creature, I’ll give you a beating now!” I jumped out into the yard and began to drive the robber out of the garden with a mop.
But the scoundrel did not want to leave these fertile lands, dodging the mop, he drove around the beds, trampling the crops and, as he went, fragile everything he could grab.
Still, I turned out to be more agile and gave the thief a sweeping blow to the ridge with a mop.
The piglet squealed, rushed to the hole he had made in the fence and ducked into the hole.
Without ceasing to scream, he headed into the pigsty, quickly moving his front legs and dragging his hind legs along the ground. My wife, going out onto the porch with a basin of wet laundry, saw a crippled pig and, shaking her head disapprovingly, began hanging out the wet laundry.
The next morning, in the neighboring yard, a fire was burning brightly, on which the owner was scolding yesterday’s pig, and his wife, a fierce and malicious woman, was shaking her fist in the direction of our house.
While taking off the laundry that had dried overnight, my wife discovered the disappearance of my favorite checkered shirt, but attributed this loss to the gypsies passing by. As for the neighbor, who worked as a cemetery watchman and gravedigger, he did not create any noise or scandal, rightly judging that the pig that poisoned someone else’s garden received a fair punishment. But his wife thought differently and, harboring a grudge against me, was preparing black revenge.
A week after this incident, I woke up in the middle of the night from heavy thunderclaps, blinding flashes of lightning and the steady pounding of heavy rain on the roof.
The wife wandered around the room in only her nightgown, stumbling over chairs, crossing herself and whispering prayers.
Having found matches, she lit the lamp in the shrine and, kneeling down, laid prostrations and prayed to Elijah the prophet so that he would not throw lightning at our house.
Unlike me, she was very pious and firmly adhered to all the decrees of the Orthodox Church.
I often laughed at her and was indifferent to faith, like the majority of Soviet people at that time.
But since that stormy night, something unusual began to happen to me: causeless restlessness, nervousness, a feeling of fear and a melancholy mood appeared.
At night I was tormented by nightmares, I dreamed of the dead, together chasing me out of the house.
Of course, I drank before, but now, out of boredom, I started drinking like crazy and quit working.
And one day, not knowing what I was doing, I climbed into the attic and, tying a rope to a beam, hanged myself...
I woke up in a hospital corridor, tightly tied to an old iron bed.
It turns out that the wife, returning from the market, saw the door open to the attic, climbed in, driven by a premonition, and cut the rope.
An ambulance was called. The doctor on duty, after examining me, waved his hand and said: “Amen!” But he still took care of me.
For several hours the doctors tried to bring the unfortunate hanged man back to life, but the soul sought to part with the disgusted body, and only after a lumbar puncture did I come to my senses. And for a long time I walked with a purple scar from the rope around my neck, I could not speak, but only wheezed.
My wife, having once met gypsies, began to shame them for a stolen shirt. But the omniscient gypsies said:
You, golden one, don’t scold us, but curse your neighbor - the Kyiv witch. It was she who spoiled your husband: she stole a shirt and forced her husband to bury it in a grave with another dead person.
Hearing this, my wife was simply stunned. Running home with a white face, she threw herself on the bed and burst into tears.
She remained silent to all my questions... And my madness continued.
At night, black ghosts crushed me, ordering me in hoarse voices to climb into the noose again.
My wife told me to go to the city and knowledgeable people ask how to get rid of damage.
I arrived in the city in the evening and stayed with my brother-in-law. At dinner he told about his trouble.
After listening with sympathy, my brother-in-law advised me to contact the famous psychiatrist Ilya Davidson, and if he did not help, then to the psychic Ivan Bryukhanov.
Davidson, who turned out to be a lean fellow with a goatee, listened to me favorably, tapped me on his knees with a hammer and said that devils, demons, witches, as well as God Himself, do not exist in nature.
All these are the fruits of my sick imagination, and it’s time for me to stop drinking, and it would be nice to go in for sports.
He called my illness dromomania, that is, a passion for vagrancy.
And to unwind, he advised me to wander around and take some pills.
I started taking pills and wandering around the city. Because of the pills, my hands and lower jaw began to tremble, and the dogs, apparently unable to tolerate strays, bit me and turned my trousers into rags.
The next day I went to see a psychic.
The door leading to his office was hung with signs announcing the works and titles of Pan Bryukhanov.
He was called a Doctor of Esoteric Sciences, an honorary member of the Tibetan Union of Lamaists, a full member of the Association of Vuk-Vuk Magi of Lake Chad, etc.
The psychic himself turned out to be a fat red-faced man with a thick black beard.
He was dressed in a black cassock, and stars of some foreign orders were stuck on his fat belly.
He waddled close to me and began making various passes with his hands.
I somehow became sleepy and fell into a chair. I didn’t want to, but for some reason I shouted all sorts of curses at Bryukhanov in a bad voice.
He puffed out his cheeks and blew hard in my face, then he dripped something black into a glass and gave it to me to drink.
I fell asleep. I dreamed of a tomato war in Spain, tomato juice flowed through the streets in streams...
I woke up in the office of the same Bryukhanov. He drank tea and shook his finger at me:
I couldn’t remove the damage from you, even the African drops of Vuka-Vuka didn’t help... Look for the holy desert elder, maybe he will cast out demons from you.
I completely despaired and went downhill.
Peel continued and soon lost the ability to distinguish between nightmares of visions and reality.
They didn’t let me into the temples of God and pushed me out, because as soon as the choir sang the antiphons, I got down on all fours and howled like a wolf.
And when they brought out the cup with the Gifts, someone spewed obscenities out of me and I threw myself at the priest with my fists.
Gradually, I grew hair, became worn out and wandered the streets, spewing obscenities at everyone and everything.
My brother-in-law, in despair, kicked me out of his house.
I started begging.
He begged silently, simply holding out his hand for alms.
I found clothes and shoes in garbage dumps.
In the fields, far from human eyes, I moved on all fours and chewed grass like the ancient Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar.
I completely forgot about my house and my wife, as if they had never existed.
Spent the night in ditches, haystacks, and cemeteries.
One day, while passing through the Chernigov region, where there are many holy places, I came to the Trinity-Ilyinsky Monastery.
Since I could not open my mouth so as not to spew out obscene language, I showed the monks and pilgrims a cardboard on which it was written that I was looking for an old hermit. But no one could help me.
Then I decided to enter the cathedral in honor of the Life-Giving Trinity, where there was a miraculous icon of the Mother of God “Irrigated Fleece” with a miraculous flow of tears, but some unknown force threw me out of the narthex onto the porch.
I began to cry, then the hieromonk came out of the church with a sprinkler and began chasing me around the yard and sprinkling me with holy water.
I almost choked with rage and threw a brick at him.
The pilgrims grabbed me and dragged me to the holy spring.
The water was icy, and men and women sat in it, immersed up to their chests.
The hieromonk came out of the booth and rang the bell - it was time to get out.
Many plunged headlong and wandered to the shore.
But some women took care of their hair and plunged only up to their necks.
And I saw that a whole bunch of demons were sitting on their dry heads.
I began to shout that it was in vain that they sat in the holy font.
Looking around, I saw that colorful rags, ribbons, some clothes, crutches, staves were hanging on the nearby bushes and trees...
It’s a fashion among those who have been healed to hang something up as a sign of gratitude.
This fashion came to us from the Catholic West, where the sources and miraculous icons It is customary to hang silver and gold images of the healed organ.
The demons sitting inside me mocked and laughed.
The hieromonk approached me, intending to burn me with a cross, and I ran away into the forest.
And at night he again went in search of the unknown holy elder.
From Ukraine I went to Russia and everywhere I showed a cardboard with the inscription that I was looking for a holy elder.
So I went to Arzamas, went to Diveevo, but only near Optina Pustyn I met a monk who, looking at my cardboard, asked:
Can you hear the speech?
I nodded.
Then he crossed himself and advised:
Go, dear man, to the Vologda province on the Sukhona River to Veliky Ustyug. There, in the forests near Kochenga, look for the righteous old man Nile. If he is still alive, he should help you and free you from demons.
As soon as he said this, my stomach began to shake; the demons became alarmed and began to shamefully scold the monk.
The old man crossed himself and left me, and I was happy, since if the demons were scared, it means that the Vologda elder is alive and will help me.
With the money I accumulated while traveling by begging, I bought decent clothes at a flea market, went to the bathhouse, and got my hair cut. All that remains is to find the old man.
Perhaps only the priest could tell where to look for him.
I settled near the oldest monastery in the north, the Gledensky monastery, which is four kilometers from Veliky Ustyug at the confluence of the Sukhona and Yuga rivers.
Luckily for me, after a long wait, a religious procession left the monastery for the Dormition of the Mother of God.
Despite the fact that the demons began to crush me, I approached him and began to show everyone my cardboard with the inscription: “Where can I find Elder Nile?”
Two kind women said that Father Neil was alive and well and explained how to get to him.
On the same day I reached Kochanga, and then moved along the forest road to the old man.
How long did it take to walk close? But here in front of me is the old man’s forest cell - a small hut with a log barn attached to it.
In response to my annoying knock on the window, a tall, handsome old man of a clearly fasting appearance came out of the hut, with a large gray beard, thick bushy eyebrows, dressed in an old cassock stained with wax with a wide leather belt and a pectoral cross on his chest.
Giving me a bow from the waist, he looked at me with the penetrating gaze of his blue eyes and said:
Speak so I can see you.
I opened my mouth, and thick obscene abuse poured out at the elder and the Holy Trinity.
So you didn’t come alone, there’s a whole company of you,” Father Neil said with a smile.
And now - be silent and be patient if you want to be delivered from malicious demons. “This race is driven out by fasting and prayer,” said our Lord Jesus Christ.” At this holy name, the demons jumped and grumbled violently in my womb.
Strip down to your underpants, take this old fur coat and a bowl of water and let's go to the barn.
The barn was spacious and well built.
It was clear from the dry manure that horses had stood here before.
A chain with an iron belt at the end was embedded in the log wall.
The elder put this belt on me and locked it with a padlock.
He poured water into a bowl and brought a handful of rye crackers.
Then he brought large sheets of paper from his cell with prayers written large on them and attached the sheets to the wall opposite me.
Child,” he said. - He who endures to the end will be saved.
With these words he locked the doors and left.
So, like a mad dog, I was put on a chain, on water and black crackers.
I began to bark, jump and tear at the chain.
It seemed to me that I even grew a dog's tail.
I swore at the old man and threatened to tear out his beard. Tired, I drank water and scattered the crackers.
He threw dry horse manure at the prayers hanging on the walls.
In response to the noise and screams, an old man came with sprinkler and a whip.
Standing at a safe distance, he first sprinkled me with holy water, and then took out me with a whip.
I calmed down a little, and the elder began to talk with my demons.
They shouted that they settled down so well because I led a pig’s lifestyle: I smoked, drank vodka, didn’t go to church, didn’t believe in God, and was also a feeder - secretly distilled moonshine and sold it to drunkards.
Moreover, besides his wife, he had a mistress.
And the shirt buried in the grave has nothing to do with it, since the neighbor is not a witch, but the same possessed woman as the one in which we are sitting. We sit well and will not leave, and you, Elder Nil, do not frighten us.
Because of Philip’s iniquities, God allowed us to enter into him to torture him. So we will torment Filya until he gets into the loop again.
The elder replied to this:
Fierce and crafty demon, together with Christ Jesus I will harass you and drive you out of this sinful sufferer. Just know it! I don't waste words.
The demons responded to this with mocking laughter, whistling and cursing.
By morning I was terribly hungry, because I had been shivering all night under my old sheepskin coat.
I began to scream and tear at the chains:
Oh, evil old man, bring me at least some scraps, otherwise I’ll die of hunger.
The elder did not come for a long time, apparently he was standing in prayer.
But then the gates opened, and the elder poured water into a bowl for me and used his staff to push the crackers scattered throughout the barn toward me. I greedily gnawed on a cracker and looked through the open gate into the open air, where the wet snow was falling...
After two weeks of sitting on a chain, on water and breadcrumbs, I weakened in spirit and body, and even began to little by little read the prayers of repentance that were hung on the walls, although the demons beat me to death with their wicked cries and suffocation.
I had short-lived illuminations of mind when I realized that I was suffering, that I was being punished for my unbelief and swinish lifestyle, I passionately desired to free myself from my tormentors and become a worthy son of the Church.
But he himself, without God’s help and the help of the elder, could not do anything. On the third week, when I became even more physically weak, the elder freed me from the chain and took me to the bathhouse, where I could warm myself by heating the heater, and even wash myself thoroughly.
Elder Nil began to come to me more often. He entered with the words:
He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not believe in the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
Hearing this, the demons jumped in my womb and laughed mockingly.
The elder made the sign of the cross over me, sprinkled me with holy water, burned incense and read the forbidding prayer of St. Basil over those suffering from demons.
He repeated this prayer ten times, burned incense, threw me onto a bench and crushed me with a large icon of the Mother of God “It is worthy to eat.”
And if I started to get violent, he would whip me.
“A serious illness requires strong medicine,” he used to say.
And the demons screamed:
Evil Kaluga, we sat, we sit and we will sit! What do we have to do to go into the abyss? Perhaps we can emerge from this damned sinner, but only into the pig of the Gadarenes.
But where can I get the pig of Gadarene, gentlemen, devils? Is Vologda not suitable for you?
Pig - there is a pig everywhere. Let's have the Vologda one too.
Then the elder fed me a little, returned my clothes and money, and ordered me to buy and bring a pig from the nearest village.
I prepared a cardboard:
I’ll buy a one-year-old pig,” and went to the villages.
They took me for a deaf-mute, and I soon bargained for a decent pig from one owner.
Urging her with a twig, I drove her to the elder.
The elder looked at her and approved:
Just like the Gadarenes.
And the next morning in the bathhouse, in the presence of a surprised pig sitting on the backside, the elder began to exorcise demons.
And I heard the elder’s terrible words:
I cast out demons from you, Philip, sick, but reborn through the holy source of Baptism in the name of God, who redeemed you with His precious Blood, so that you become cleansed of demons. May all unclean spirits and all evil of the devil's deception be removed from you, conjured by Jesus Christ, who will come to judge the living and the dead. Amen!"
After these words, I was thrown to the floor, and screaming and convulsed like a shot dove.
Brown, foul smoke came out of his mouth and entered the open snout of the pig.
The pig jumped to his feet, his eyes became bloodshot, and with a growl he began to throw himself at the walls and the door.
The door, unable to withstand the pressure, swung open, and the pig, screaming incessantly, rushed into the forest in great leaps.
The elder said three times:
And the pig and the demons will be eaten by wolves in the forest.
Then he steamed me in the bathhouse, brought me to his cell and communed with the Holy Gifts.
All night long we offered up to God thanksgiving prayers, and in the morning they went to bed.
I wanted to stay with the elder as a cell attendant, but he said that since I was possessed by a demon, therefore, according to the Gospel tradition, I should go home and tell people what God had done to me.
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