The question is quite simple: from the point of view of Orthodoxy, does a person have a subconscious? I still believe that the subconscious is something that is acquired unconsciously during life, and the soul is given by God. Then psychologists and psychoanalysts have a right to exist, because they treat not the soul, but incorrect life attitudes, some kind of obsession.
Hieromonk Job (Gumerov) answers:
Christian anthropology does not contradict the idea that there is a special area in man, which includes unconscious ideas, hidden thoughts and feelings, and forgotten images. A simple confirmation of this is activity during sleep. “Dreaming is a movement of the mind while the body is still,” writes St. John Climacus (Ladder 3:25). Aristotle also advised artists and philosophers to be guided by dreams. This was formulated more clearly by G.V. Leibniz, who argued that in a dream a person invents something that in reality would require a lot of thought. There are many examples that confirm this idea. It is enough to recall some discoveries: Carl Gauss's law of induction, D.I. Mendeleev's periodic table, Niels Bohr's planetary model of the atom.
For Orthodox theological teaching, what is unacceptable is not the idea of the subconscious, but its development in various psychoanalytic concepts. Z. Freud's constructions are very primitive. Personality has a three-member structure: Consciousness – Preconscious – Unconscious (1905). Later in the 20s, he modified the scheme: I - It - Super Ego. Almost all mental processes are understood as a manifestation of fundamental psychic energy libido(Latin libido - attraction, desire, passion, aspiration), which for him is synonymous with sexual attraction. The human psyche is interpreted as a sphere of dominance of unconscious desires for sexual pleasure. These drives, disguised, penetrate into consciousness, constantly threatening the unity of the “I”. He considered social activity and cultural creativity as sublimation, i.e. transformation and switching of the energy of sexual desires. Consciousness is seen as censorship. Everything forbidden is repressed into the subconscious. S.L. Frank quite accurately calls Z. Freud’s constructions sexual materialism, just as the teachings of K. Marx are economic materialism. “Many “educated” people perceive this name as an insult; they took revenge for him by reproaching psychoanalysis with “pansexualism.” Whoever considers sexuality to be something shameful and humiliating for human nature is free to use the more euphonious expressions eros and erotica. I myself could do the same and thereby get rid of many objections; but I did not do this because I did not want to give in to cowardice. It is unknown what this would lead to; first they give in in words, and then little by little in deeds. I find no merit in being ashamed of sexuality; the Greek word eros, which is supposed to soften the shame, is, after all, nothing more than a translation of the word "love", and, finally, he who can wait has no need to make concessions. So, we will try to assume that love relationships (indifferently speaking: emotional attachments) constitute the essence of the mass soul” (S. Freud. “Mass psychology and analysis of the human “I”). Is it possible to talk about some kind of serious treatment of the psyche using a technique which is based on such a primitive understanding of man?
K. Jung in his teaching about the subconscious overcomes the crude reduction of human nature to the physiological principle. His central conceptual concept is collective unconscious. “The unconscious, as a collection of archetypes, is the sediment of everything that has been experienced by humanity, right down to its darkest beginnings. But not as a dead sediment, not as an abandoned field of ruins, but as a living system of reactions and dispositions, which in an invisible, and then in a more real way, determines individual life” (C. Jung. The Structure of the Soul). C. Jung was a man who completely fell away from the great Christian tradition. He speaks neither of the transcendence of God, nor of an actual spiritual world, nor of actual religious experience. For him, only images of the depths of the unconscious were objective in religion. With such a reduction of religion to archetypal symbols and images, effective therapy is impossible. If a person has committed a serious sin, and it subconsciously oppresses him (due to spiritual inexperience, he does not realize it), then the priest’s task is to help him see the cause of his internal painful state, so that he can repent in the sacrament of confession and heal the soul.
The despondency and painful state of mind of many people are generated by the conflict between unbelief at the level of consciousness and the unconscious need for spiritual life, which is ineradicable in a person who has the image of God. No amount of work with images and symbols will help. Only overcoming the conflict between the unsatisfied fundamental need of the soul and the real way of life can help a person get rid of the source of the disease.
Christian anthropology not only does not deny the subconscious, but definitely speaks of the dark depths of fallen human nature. “O truth, light of my heart, let not my darkness speak to me! I slipped into it and was enveloped in darkness, but even there, even there, I loved You so much. I wandered and remembered You” (Blessed Augustine. Confessions. Book 12. X). The entire spiritual life of a Christian is aimed at not only illuminating the consciousness, but also purifying and transforming the heart.
*) Currently Metropolitan of Khabarovsk and Amur– Approx. Ed.
These are theses. I used them during my report and have placed them here. The main, in my opinion, thoughts are highlighted in large font. Lowercase – main quotes, mainly from St. Feofan.
In his work “The Human Soul. Experience of Introduction to Philosophical Psychology” (Moscow, 1917; reprint: St. Petersburg, 1995) Semyon Ludwigovich Frank was forced to state: “The word “consciousness,” which, at first glance, is understood by everyone in the same way, i.e., refers to the same range of phenomena, is in fact one of the most polysemantic and vague words of the human language.”(Frank. 1995, p. 469). In the almost ninety years that have passed since these lines were written, final clarity on this issue has not been achieved. Many approaches to the problem of consciousness have ultimately led to many different points of view on it..
Rubinshtein S.L., speaking about personality:
Precisely because every activity comes from the personality, as its subject, and, thus, at each given stage the personality is the initial, initial one, personality psychology as a whole can only be the result, the completion of the entire path traversed by psychological knowledge, covering all the diversity of mental manifestations , consistently revealed in it by psychological knowledge in their integrity and unity.
“The question... of studying personality is the question of its self-awareness" (Rubinstein), therefore, such thoughts could be attributed to self-awareness.
The logic here is simple:
– firstly, initially self-consciousness seems to be a black box, we do not know anything about it reliably;
– secondly, the only acceptable methodological approach in this case is to explore the diversity of mental manifestations; of course, using scientific methods;
– and thirdly, from this private knowledge, like mosaics, to put together an image in its entirety, to build a complete theory of self-consciousness.
But even after the first glance it becomes clear: this path is endless, and the goal is unattainable (if this is the path followed).
– is there enough scientific methodological basis for studying the properties of the human spirit, which includes self-awareness? I think no. Scientific methods are fully applicable only to material phenomena; personality, self-awareness are phenomena of a spiritual order;
- it is unlikely that it will be possible to study at least one mental manifestation: almost inevitably, different points of view will arise (and have arisen), and from them - different hypotheses, theories, schools. What can we say about diversity?
– But even if we assume that it will still be possible to study (and therefore build a generally accepted theory) every mental manifestation, this does not mean at all that it will be possible to put together a holistic picture of self-consciousness from these mosaics. Again, generally accepted.
And S.L. himself noted: “ No matter how great the importance of the problem of personality in psychology, personality as a whole cannot be included in this science.”. And, therefore, self-awareness.
The patristic paradigm is built on different foundations. The main thing is that self-consciousness is not a “black box” at all; personality is revealed in its entirety through the Gospels, through the image of Christ. Moreover, the Personality is perfect, divine. The Holy Fathers revealed the spiritual and ascetic aspects of self-awareness. And the psychologists of the Russian school (Snegirev, Nesmelov, Zenkovsky) are psychological.
The topic of my speech is “The problem of self-consciousness in the patristic understanding.” But with your permission, I will reformulate it slightly: “The phenomenon of self-awareness. Patristic approach". This approach is most fully and systematically (of the works known to me) set out in the fundamental work of St. Feofan the Recluse “Outline of Christian Moral Teaching”. My report is based on this work. As necessary, to reveal or explain certain thoughts of St. Feofana, I will refer to the works of V.A. Snegireva and others. Vasily Zenkovsky.
« Self-awareness, writes Archpriest. Basil, - is the main sign of personality in a person.” It “has as its object... the depth and inexhaustibility of life within a person; and therefore self-consciousness is... consciousness of one’s unity, one’s “I”, one’s originality, separateness”. This depth and inexhaustibility can hardly be expressed in words. Moreover, find a scientific definition.
There are known attempts of this kind. Here is one of them: “ a vertical contour that unites all levels and subsystems of a person, forms his vertical, hierarchically ordered integrity, upon achieving which the maximum synergetic effect is manifested, and the level of entropy of a person as a living system is reduced as much as possible" Absurdum per absurdum.
Because V.A. Snegirev defines consciousness as “ simply the presence in the soul of any specific state, living and active, or some sum of them" AND St. Feofan the Recluse does not seek to give an exhaustive definition in ratio, realizing the impossibility of this. It is limited to the following: " A special turn of consciousness is self-consciousness, or self-knowledge. It is predominantly turned inward and distinguishes itself from its actions, rising above both».
And then begins what the holy fathers call spiritual reasoning, the highest gift of God. What is this turnover? It is not at all that self-consciousness is consciousness turned inward, towards oneself; it can also be directed outward. Self-awareness is moral consciousness, that is, consciousness through the prism of moral feeling.
Man is a moral being, which means he must have “ strictly moral consciousness, called self-consciousness, in which a person recognizes himself as a person obligated to purposeful activity, to responsive deeds subject to reporting».
Strange, isn't it? However, here are the words of S.L. Rubinstein: " Human consciousness is generally not only theoretical, cognitive, but also moral consciousness, and then an even stronger statement. It receives its psychologically real expression in the inner meaning that everything that happens around him and by himself acquires for a person.».
So, moral consciousness by definition is self-consciousness.
Any act of self-consciousness (be it a thought, image, deed) is invariably accompanied by a moral feeling. This moral feeling, on the one hand, is experienced as something whole, unified, and on the other hand, it arises as a combination, the interaction of other feelings. V.A. Snegirev identifies four of them:
« One’s own (and other people’s) actions, regardless of their pleasantness and usefulness,
– distinguishes between good and bad;
– feels the need, the pull to do good and avoid bad (sense of duty);
– feels opportunity, has freedom of choice as to what to incline one’s will to (a sense of freedom, moral freedom);
– feels satisfaction in the soul when doing good and torment when doing evil (approval or torment of conscience);
– experiences a feeling of approval when good is accompanied by pleasure, and evil by punishment (sense of justice);
The last four arise in the soul so quickly, almost simultaneously, that they merge into a single state, feeling" Which is a moral feeling.
Let us note once again that such a complex emotional-sensual moral process accompanies every act of self-consciousness.
And let us emphasize once again: any mental action that does not include a moral feeling is not an act of self-consciousness. Even if it is directed inward. (A moral feeling, being directed at any object, “makes it its own,” including it in the sphere of personal experiences (but those described above), as it were, includes it in the sphere of personality).
The more intense and stable the moral feeling, the clearer and more distinct the self-awareness. Moreover, a person is on a higher moral level. It is obvious.
But connected with self-consciousness is another phenomenon of exceptional importance: religious consciousness. V.A. Snegirev states the following: “ The idea of an infinite omnipotent Being is an integral part of the process of self-consciousness... The degree of clarity of this last idea is therefore always proportional to the degree of clarity of the first: the idea of one’s own personality is vague, vague, and the idea of an infinite Personality is also vague; a person clearly, definitely and distinctly recognizes the specificity of his own personality and its properties - a clear, definite idea of the specificity and main properties of the infinite Personality arises».
In other words, the clearer my self-awareness (the clearer my personality is represented in my consciousness, the more intense my moral feeling), the clearer my perception of God.
For many years St. Feofan peered into the movements of his own soul and the souls of a huge number of people who communicated with him and were edified by him. He points out three elements of self-awareness “in which a person recognizes himself as a person obligated to purposeful activity, to responsive deeds that are subject to reporting.”
According to St. Feofan has three main structural elements: expediency, duty and responsibility. Those. awareness of the fact that I:
1. is obliged to do certain things that
2. must have a specific goal (accompanied by a sense of duty to achieve it) and
3. to be accountable (to someone or something).
Actually, the entire colossal, profound work “The Outline of Christian Moral Teaching” is a very detailed vector of spiritual and moral development. Its two poles: a sinner (unenlightened by grace) is the initial state. The ultimate goal of development is a true Christian, a spiritually successful person. What are the spiritual states of the sinner and the Christian?
The main difference between them is the ability to rise above oneself and above the outside world. St. Feofan speaks about this ability very succinctly and intelligibly. I will quote his words:
about a person who works at sin and passions, it is undoubtedly known that he does not rise above the external world, but, on the contrary, is carried away by it, lives in it, as if dissolves with it, which is why he is called external, living outside himself, having gone beyond himself. He considers the well-being of his external things to be the well-being of his own person and, on the contrary, their unwell-being as his misfortune. That is why there is an attempt to cause damage or actual damage to clothing, home, furniture, place, etc. shake him deeply, strike him to the very heart.
He also does not rise above his inner world, but just like external things, he is carried away by the mechanism of his internal movements. They usually say: I was lost in thought, I was lost in thought, I don’t remember what happened to me and around me... that is, at that time he was carried away by the movement of thoughts, or he was beside himself with joy, grief-stricken, lost his temper in his heart... ... that is, he surrendered himself to the movements of his heart; or you won’t remember in your troubles and worries: this is needed, another is needed... that is, constantly driving forward and forward the diverse desires of the will. It is obvious that one given over to sin has no power over internal movements, but is, as it were, pressed into them, drawn by them, like a warrior cramped inside a regiment. And this is not just for one hour, but constantly. Such is the law of his inner life: to behave as a slave.
This is the most dangerous of the deceptions of the sinner’s face. He considers everything that arises inside to be himself and stands for it as for himself, as for his life. That’s why he doesn’t want to deny himself anything.
Meanwhile, how many things come into us from outside of Satan and the world, except for what arises from the sin living in us, which also should not be considered as our own?
The first action of the grace-filled awakening of the sinner is to extract the soul from the mechanism of his internal and external life and to rise above its flow... Here, therefore, lies the first opportunity for true and complete consciousness .
Here are the words of the famous psychologist V.I. Slobodchikova: “The practice of working with consciousness means that thanks to a person’s aspirations and his actions, consciousness ceases to be something spontaneous, related to nature (being) and a direct automatic functioning. Consciousness for the first time begins to be reflection. Reflection acts as a break, as a way out of a person’s complete absorption in the immediate... process of life in order to develop an appropriate attitude towards it.”(Human Psychology, p. 183. The same thing is said, but in different languages).
From this moment it begins, for the first glance of a person under the influence of grace is drawn to his essential relationships: first of all, its light falls on them. Then the one who is attentive to himself does not descend from this height of spirit. His eye is elevated above everything he owns and everything in contact with him, and he is aware of and sees everything clearly, like some kind of guard.
A true Christian's self-awareness is at the highest degree of perfection. So - he clearly knows his actions; knowing his actions means:
– remember clearly the facts of internal and external life,
– how pure or sinful they are,
– fully remember, realize their “power and meaning” (meaning - what are they for, where do they lead in a given situation, their purpose? Or content?),
– what was their motivation,
He knows what he means himself, what awaits him, what state he is in, what his relationship to others is...
- what is his internal state now, at this current moment,
– what are his relationships with people,
– what spiritually he is like at this period of his life,
– what is the trend of his spiritual development.
“In ordinary human knowledge, once you know an object well, you often know it well for the rest of your life, without clouding your knowledge of it.
But in faith it is not so. Once you have known, felt, touched, you think: the object of faith will always be so clear, tangible, and loved by my soul.
But no: a thousand times it will darken for you, move away from you and, as it were, disappear for you, and what you previously loved, what you lived and breathed, at times you will feel complete indifference, and sometimes you must clear the way for yourself with sighs and tears to see him, grab him and hug him with your heart.
This is from sin, that is, from the continuous attacks on us by the evil spirit and its constant enmity towards us.”
Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt
ABOUT THE FIGHT AGAINST “EVIL SINS”
or how to get rid of passions that lead to the death of the soul
The main vices of our soul as defined by the Holy Fathers
Patristic asceticism, in its centuries-long experience, developed the doctrine of passions as the source of sin.
The ascetic fathers were always interested in the original source of this or that sin, and not in the evil deed itself that had already been carried out. This latter is only a product of a sinful habit or passion deeply rooted in us, which ascetics sometimes call “evil thoughts” or “evil sin.” In their observation of sinful habits, “passions” or vices, the ascetic fathers came to a number of conclusions, which are very subtly developed in their ascetic writings.
There are a lot of these vices or sinful states. The Monk Hesychius of Jerusalem states: “Many passions are hidden in our souls; but they expose themselves only when their reasons become visible.”
The experience of observing and combating passions made it possible to reduce them into diagrams. The most common scheme belongs to the Monk John Cassian the Roman, followed by Evagrius, Nile of Sinai, Ephraim the Syrian, John Climacus, Maximus the Confessor and Gregory Palamas.
According to these saints, all sinful states of the human soul can be reduced to eight main passions: 1) gluttony, 2) fornication, 3) love of money 4) anger, 5) sadness, 6) despondency, 7) vanity and 8) pride.
It is appropriate to ask why the Fathers of the Church, alien to any scholastic aridity and schematization, so stubbornly insist on these eight sinful vices in our soul? Because through their own observation and personal experience, verified by the experience of all ascetics, they came to the conclusion that the mentioned eight “evil” thoughts or vices are the main causative agents of sin in us. This is the first. In addition, in these ascetic systems of passions there is a great internal dialectical connection. “The passions, like the links of a chain, hold on to one another,” teaches St. Isaiah of Nitria (Philokalia, Volume I). “Evil passions and wickedness are not only introduced one through the other, but they are similar to one another,” confirms St. Gregory Palamas (Conversation 8).
This dialectical connection has been verified by all ascetic writers. They list the passions in exactly this order because genetically passion from passion has its hereditary origin. The writers mentioned above beautifully tell in their ascetic works about how from one sinful habit another one imperceptibly arises, or better, how one of them is rooted in the other, itself giving rise to the next one.
Gluttony is the most natural of passions, as it arises from the physiological needs of our body. Every normal and healthy person feels hunger and thirst, but if this need is excessive, the natural becomes “supernatural,” unnatural, and therefore vicious. Gluttony, that is, satiety and immoderation in nutrition, naturally excites carnal movements, sexual impulses, which lead, with incontinence, that is, with a non-ascetic mood, to passion fornication, from which all kinds of prodigal thoughts, wishes, dreams, etc. are generated. To satisfy this shameful passion, a person needs means, material well-being, an excess of money, which leads to the generation of passion in us love of money, from which all sins associated with money originate: wastefulness, luxury, greed, stinginess, love of things, envy, etc. Failures in our material and carnal life, failure in our calculations and carnal plans lead to anger, sadness and despondency. Anger gives rise to all “communal” sins in the form of irritability (in secular parlance called “nervousness”), intemperance in words, grumpiness, abusive mood, embitterment, and so on. All this can be developed in more detail and depth.
There is another division in this scheme of passions. The passions just named can either be carnal, that is, in one way or another connected with the body and our natural needs: gluttony, fornication, love of money; or spiritual, the origin of which must be sought not directly in the body and in nature, but in the spiritual sphere of man : pride, sadness, despondency, vanity. Some writers (for example, Gregory Palamas) therefore treat carnal passions, if not more leniently, then still consider them more natural, although no less dangerous than passions of a spiritual order. The division into “dangerous” sins and “minor” ones was completely alien to the fathers.
In addition, ascetic writers distinguish in these schemes passions that originate from vices, from evil directly (three carnal passions and anger), and those that originate from virtue, which is especially dangerous.
In fact, having freed himself from a centuries-old sinful habit, a person can become proud and indulge in vanity. Or, on the contrary, in his desire for spiritual improvement, for even greater purity, a person makes certain efforts, but he succeeds in nothing, and he falls into sadness (“not according to God,” as these saints say) or even more a more malicious sinful state of despondency, that is, hopelessness, apathy, despair.
Open and secret passions
A division into open and secret passions can be accepted. Vices gluttony, love of money, fornication, anger very difficult to hide. They break through to the surface at every opportunity. And passions sadness, despondency, sometimes even vanity and pride, can easily disguise themselves, and only the experienced gaze of a thoughtful confessor, with extensive personal experience, can reveal these hidden diseases.
Subtle psychologists, ascetic fathers, based on their experience, know that the danger of passion is not only that it has penetrated into a person’s soul, but also that it then dominates a person through habit, through memory, through an unconscious attraction to it. or other sin. “Passion,” says Saint Mark the Ascetic, “willfully raised in the soul by deed, then rises forcibly in its lover, even if he did not want it” (“The Philokalia,” Volume I).
Demons of bodily passions and demons of mental passions
But Evagrius the monk teaches us this way: “What we have a passionate memory about is first in fact perceived with passion, about which we will later have a passionate memory” (ibid.). The same ascetic teaches that not all passions control a person for the same length of time. Demons bodily passions rather, they move away from a person, as over the years the body ages and physiological needs decrease. Demons spiritual passions“until death they stubbornly stand and disturb the soul (ibid.).
The manifestation of passionate desires is different: it can depend either on an external exciting cause, or on a habit ingrained in the subconscious. The same Evagrius writes: “a sign of the passions operating in the soul is either some spoken word, or a movement made by the body, from which the enemy finds out whether we have their thoughts within ourselves, or whether we have rejected them” (ibid.).
Various ways to heal vicious passions
Just as the causes and instigators of passions, physical or spiritual, are different, so should the treatment of these vices be different. “Spiritual passions originate from people, and bodily passions from the body,” we find in the teachings of this ascetic father. Therefore, “the movement of carnal passions is suppressed by abstinence, and spiritual love is suppressed by spiritual love (ibid.). The Monk John Cassian the Roman says approximately the same thing, who especially subtly developed the doctrine of the eight main passions: “spiritual passions must be healed by simple healing of the heart, while carnal passions are healed in two ways: both by external means (that is, abstinence) and by internal ones” (“Philokalia” ", volume II). The same ascetic teaches about the gradual, so to speak, systematic treatment of passions, since they are all in an internal dialectical connection.
“The passions: gluttony, fornication, love of money, anger, sadness and despondency are connected to each other by a special affinity, according to which the excess of the previous one gives rise to the next one... Therefore, one must fight against them in the same order, moving in the fight against them from the previous ones to the subsequent ones. To overcome despondency, you must first suppress sadness; in order to drive away sadness, you first need to suppress anger; in order to extinguish anger, you need to trample on the love of money; in order to purge the love of money, one must tame the lustful passion; to suppress this lust, one must curb gluttony” (ibid.).
Thus, we must learn to fight not with evil deeds, but with the evil spirits or thoughts that give rise to them. It is useless to fight an already accomplished fact. The deed is done, the word is spoken, sin, as an evil fact, has already been committed. No one is able to make the former non-existent. But a person can always prevent such sinful phenomena in the future, as long as he take care of yourself, carefully analyze where this or that sinful phenomenon comes from and fight the passion that gave rise to it.
Therefore, when a person repents of the fact that he often allows himself to get angry, scold his wife, get irritated with children and colleagues, one must, first of all, pay attention to the rooted passion of anger, from which these cases of irritability, abusive expressions, "nervousness" and so on. A person free from the passion of anger is a kind and good-natured person by nature and does not know these sins at all, although he may be susceptible to some other sins.
When a person complains that he has shameful thoughts, dirty dreams, lustful desires, then he must fight in every possible way against the prodigal passion rooted in him, probably from childhood, which leads him to unclean dreams, thoughts, desires, views, and so on.
In the same way, frequent condemnation of neighbors or ridicule of other people's shortcomings indicate the passion of pride or vanity, which gives rise to such conceit, leading to these sins.
Disappointment, pessimism, bad mood, and sometimes misanthropy also come from internal reasons: either from pride, or from despondency, or from sadness that is not “according to God,” that is, not saving sadness. Asceticism knows saving sadness, that is, dissatisfaction with oneself, with one’s inner world, with one’s imperfections. Such sadness leads to self-control, to greater severity with oneself. But there is also such sadness that comes from human assessments, from failures in life, from motives that are not spiritual, but spiritual, which taken together is not salutary.
A spiritual and godly life is not made up of “good deeds,” that is, not from facts of positive content, but from the corresponding good moods of our soul, from what our soul is alive with, where it strives. Good habits and the right mood of the soul give rise to good facts, but the value does not lie in them, but in the very content of the soul.
Repentance and confession are our helpers in the fight against sinful passions. The difference between the Orthodox understanding of confession and repentance and the Catholic one
Thus, it is not good deeds in their real concreteness, but a virtuous state of soul, a general striving for holiness, for purity, for likeness to God, for salvation, that is, deification - this is the aspiration of an Orthodox Christian. Not sins, as specific evil facts realized separately, but the passions, vices, evil spirits that gave rise to them - this is what we must fight against and with. Anyone coming to confession should have a feeling sinfulness, that is, the painful state of his soul. Repentance consists in a decisive desire to free ourselves from the sinful states that captivate us, that is, the above-mentioned passions.
It is extremely important to cultivate in oneself not a legal understanding of good and evil, but a patristic one. “Virtue is the mood of the heart when what is done is truly pleasing,” teaches Saint Mark the Ascetic (“Philokalia,” Volume I). He says: “Virtue is one, but has diverse activities” (ibid.). And Evagrius teaches that “active life (that is, the practice of virtues) is a spiritual method of purifying the passionate part of the soul” (ibid.). One should not think that “deeds in themselves are worthy of Gehenna or the Kingdom, but that Christ rewards everyone as our Creator and Redeemer, and not as the Measurer of things (ibid.), and we do good deeds not for the sake of reward, but to preserve what is given to us purity" (ibid.). We must, finally, learn to expect not a legal reward, but to acquire the grace of the Holy Spirit, to make our soul His abode. All the Fathers of the Church taught this, and especially the Venerable Macarius of Egypt, and in our time the Venerable Seraphim of Sarov. Otherwise, doing good for the sake of reward turns, according to Evagrius, into providence (“Philokalia”, volume I, compare: St. Hesychius of Jerusalem, “Philokalia”, volume II).
Figuratively speaking, the Orthodox understanding of confession and repentance differs from the Catholic one precisely at this point. Roman jurisprudence and pragmatism had an impact here too. The Latin confessor is much more of a judge during confession; whereas the Orthodox is primarily a healer. Confession in the eyes of a Latin confessor is most of all a tribunal and an investigative process; in the eyes of an Orthodox priest, this is a moment of medical consultation.
In the Latin practical manuals for confession, precisely this view is instilled in the priest. Confession is performed within the framework of logical categories: when? Who? with whom? how many times? under whose influence? etc. But the most important thing in the eyes of a Western confessor will always be sin as evil deed, as a fact, as an act of sinful will. The confessor pronounces his judgment on a perfect negative fact that requires its retribution according to the rules of the canonical code. For an Orthodox confessor, on the contrary, what is more important is not sinful facts, but sinful states. He, as a healer, strives to discover the roots of a given disease, to open a deeply hidden abscess, as the source of any external action. He does not so much pronounce a judicial verdict as give healing advice.
The legal point of view permeates Latin theology and their ecclesiastical life in all directions. Based on sin or virtue, as an evil or good deed, they place their logical emphasis on this perfect reality. They are interested quantity good or evil deeds. They thus arrive at a sufficient minimum of good deeds, and from here they derive the doctrine of supererogatory merits, which at one time gave rise to the well-known doctrine of indulgences. The very concept of “merit” is purely legal and completely unusual for Orthodox writers. Latin jurisprudence acquired a formal understanding and quality moral actions. They introduced into their moral theology the teaching of the so-called “adiaphora,” that is, indifferent deeds, neither evil nor good, which gradually penetrated into the consciousness of seminarians and priests through our scholastic textbooks. From there, the point of view of the sanity and insanity of sin, the doctrine of the clash of duties and other manifestations of the ethics of law, and not the ethics of grace, penetrated into our textbooks of moral theology.
You can also schematize what was said in this way. For Western consciousness, the primary meaning is in logical schemes, in the legal understanding of sin and virtue, in the rubrics of moral casuistry. The Orthodox consciousness, brought up in the tradition of patristic antiquity, is based on the experience of the spiritual life of ascetic writers who approached sin as a spiritual weakness and therefore sought to heal this weakness. They are more in the categories of moral psychology, deeply pastoral psychoanalysis.
During confession, one must try in every possible way to penetrate into the “depths of the soul,” into the hidden areas of the human underground, the subconscious, and unconscious sinful habits. It is necessary not to expose sins, that is, not to expose oneself for a given act and judge oneself for the deed done, but to try to find where the root of all sins lies; what passion in the soul is most dangerous; how to eradicate these old habits more easily and effectively.
It’s good when during confession we list all our completed deeds, or maybe even, out of an old childhood habit, we read them from a note, so as not to forget some sin; but attention must be paid not so much to these sins as to their internal reasons. We must awaken the consciousness of our general sinfulness, in the presence of consciousness of this or that sin. In the apt expression of Father Sergius Bulgakov, one must pay attention not so much to the “arithmetic of sin” as to the “algebra of sin.”
This recognition of our mental illnesses and their healing is incomparably more correct than the enumeration of sins and sinful actions of people adopted by the Latins. To fight only against sins revealed in actions would be as unsuccessful as cutting off weeds that appear in the garden, instead of uprooting them and throwing them away. Sins are the inevitable growth of their roots, that is, the passions of the soul... In the same way, it is impossible to reassure myself that I allow relatively few sinful acts: it is necessary to cultivate in oneself constant good inclinations and dispositions, which is where Christian perfection or salvation lies.
Will a Christian be saved by faith or good works?
The Decalogue of the Old Testament forbids sinful deeds, and the beatitudes of Christ are offered not by deeds, but location; unless peacemaking can be called a matter, but it is accessible only to those believers who have imbued their souls with heartfelt goodwill towards people. The endless debate among European theologians about whether a Christian will be saved by faith or good works reveals in both camps a general misunderstanding of our salvation. If these theologians do not want to learn the correct understanding from the Savior, then the Apostle Paul depicted it even more clearly: “The fruit of the spiritual is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control.” It is not deeds, not actions in themselves that are valuable in the eyes of God, but that constant mood of the soul, which is described in the above words.
About the gradual development of sin in us
The second topic that should be developed in the question of various sins is the topic of the gradual development of sin in us. The holy ascetic fathers left us in their writings many valuable observations on this matter.
A very common misconception among Christians who come to confession is that this or that sin “somehow”, “suddenly”. “from somewhere,” “out of the blue,” took possession of the sinner’s will and forced him to commit this very evil act. From what has just been said about the patristic teaching about sins as manifestations of bad habits or passions nesting in our soul, it should be clear that “out of the blue” or “from somewhere” sin does not appear by itself in the human soul. A sinful act, or a negative phenomenon of spiritual life, has long ago penetrated under one influence or another into our heart, unnoticeably strengthened there and built its nest, turning into an “evil thought” or passion. This act is only an outgrowth, a product of this passion, against which spiritual warfare must be waged.
But asceticism also knows something more and calls for a more effective struggle. For the purpose of spiritual hygiene, or, better said, spiritual prevention, ascetic writings offer us a finely developed analysis of the gradual emergence and development of sin in us.
In the works of such famous spiritual writers as St. Ephraim the Syrian, St. John Climacus, St. Hesychius of Jerusalem, St. Mark the Ascetic, St. Maximus the Confessor and others, based on their own observation and experience, the following description of the origin of sin is given: first of all, sin does not originate on the surface of the body, but in the depths of the spirit. The body, in itself, is not to blame and is not the source of sin, but only an instrument through which one or another sinful thought can manifest itself. Every sin begins not suddenly, not automatically, but through a complex process of internal maturation of one or another evil thought.
What is the devil's “pretext”
Our liturgical books, especially the Octoechos and the Lenten Triodion, are filled with prayers and chants for the liberation of us from the “pretexts” of the devil. “Prilogue” is an involuntary movement of the heart under the influence of some external perception (visual, auditory, taste, etc.) or an external thought to do such and such. This arrow of the Devil, or, in the expression of our asceticism, “addiction” or “attack,” can very easily be driven away. Without holding our thoughts on such a sinful image or expression, we immediately push them away from ourselves. This “addiction” dies out as quickly as it appeared. But as soon as we dwell on it in thought, become interested in this tempting image, it enters deeper into our consciousness. The so-called “conjunction” or “combination” of our thought with the “preposition” occurs. Fighting in a fairly easy form can also be carried out at this stage of development, although not as simply as in the first stage of the “fight.” But not having mastered the “confusion,” but having paid attention to it and seriously thinking about it and internally examining the outlines of this image that we liked, we enter the stage of “attention,” that is, we are almost in the grip of this temptation. Anyway, mentally we are already captivated. The next stage in the language of ascetics is called “delight,” when we internally feel all the charm of a sinful action, we build images that excite and captivate us even more, and not only with our minds, but also with our feelings, we surrender ourselves to the power of this evil thought. If even at this stage of development of sin a decisive rebuff is not given, then we are already in power "wishes" behind which only one step, and perhaps only one moment, removes us from doing this or that bad deed, be it the theft of someone else's thing, eating forbidden fruit, an offensive word, a blow, etc. Different ascetic writers call these different stages differently, but the point is not in the names and not in more or less elaboration. The fact is that sin does not come to us “suddenly,” “out of nowhere,” “unexpectedly.” It goes through its “natural” stage of development in the human soul; more precisely, originating in the mind, it penetrates attention, feelings, will and, finally, is carried out in the form of one or another sinful act.
Here are some useful thoughts about passions and the fight against them, found among the holy ascetic fathers. “Addiction is an involuntary recollection of past sins. Whoever is still struggling with passions tries to prevent such thoughts from becoming passions, and whoever has already defeated them drives away his very first attack” (“Philokalia”, volume I). “Attunement is an involuntary movement of the heart, not accompanied by images. It is like a key, it opens the door to sin in the heart. That’s why experienced people try to capture it at the very beginning,” as St. Mark the Ascetic teaches. (ibid.). But if the pretext itself is something that came from outside, then it still finds a certain weak spot in a person, which is the most convenient to target. Why does the same St. Mark teach: “don’t say: I don’t want to, but the excuse comes on its own. For if not the reason itself, then you truly love the reasons for it” (ibid.). This means that in our heart or mind there is already some reserve from previous sinful habits, which react more easily to “addictions” than those who do not have these habits. The means of struggle, therefore, is constant purification of the heart, what ascetics call “sobriety,” that is, constant observation of oneself and trying not to allow “pretext” to enter our mind. cleansing, or “sobriety,” is best accomplished by unceasing prayer, for the simple reason that if the mind is occupied with a prayerful thought, then at that very second no other, sinful thought can dominate our mind. Therefore, St. Hesychius of Jerusalem teaches: “just as without a large ship it is impossible to cross the depths of the sea, so without calling on Jesus Christ it is impossible to drive out the pretext of an evil thought” (“Philokalia”, volume II).
Righteous John of Kronstadt about the fight against the spirits of evil
“Oh, how many misfortunes, many difficulties, how difficult earthly life is! - wrote the holy righteous John of Kronstadt. - From morning to evening, every day we must wage a difficult battle with the passions of the flesh, warring against the soul, with the principalities, rulers and rulers of the darkness of this world, the spirits of wickedness in high places and (Ephesians 6:12), whose wickedness and deceit are immeasurably evil, hellishly skillful, and unslumbering...”
The Kronstadt shepherd also gives us weapons to fight passions:
“If your heart is disturbed by the spirit of any passion, and you lose peace, are filled with confusion, and words of discontent and enmity towards your neighbors fly from your tongue, do not hesitate to remain in this state that is harmful to you, but immediately bow your knees and confess before the Spirit To the saints your sin, saying from the bottom of your heart: I have offended You, Holy Soul, with the spirit of my passion, the spirit of malice and disobedience to You; and then with all your heart, with a feeling of the omnipresence of the Spirit of God, read the prayer to the Holy Spirit: “Heavenly King, Comforter, Soul of truth, Who is everywhere and fulfills everything, Treasure of good things and giver of life, come and dwell in me, and cleanse me from all filth, and save, O Blessed One, my passionate and lustful soul.”, - and your heart will be filled with humility, peace and tenderness. Remember that every sin, especially passion and addiction to something earthly, every displeasure and enmity towards your neighbor because of something carnal, offends the All-Holy Spirit, the Spirit of peace, love, the Spirit that draws us from earthly to heavenly, from visible to invisible, from corruptible to incorruptible, from temporary to eternal, from sin to holiness, from vice to virtue. O All-Holy Soul! Our steward, our educator, our comforter! Preserve us with your power, desperate Shrine! Soul of our heavenly Father, plant in us, raise in us the spirit of the Father, so that we may be His true children in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
(according to the teachings of the Holy Fathers of the Philokalia)
Much has already been said above about people’s abilities for spiritual perception, and about the fact that we have inner, spiritual hearing. Christians are well aware that thoughts, just like images, come from God, the enemy and from man himself. Saints and ordinary Christians can hear the Voice of God and revelations from Him (theme “On the mysterious actions of God”). Here are some quotes about this:
Theophan the Recluse (The Path to Salvation): “Those who have achieved (to be the temple of the living God) are the mysteries of God, and their state is the same as the state of the Apostles, because they also know the will of God in everything, hearing, as it were, a certain voice, and they, having completely united their senses with God, they secretly learn His words from Him.”
Luke of Crimea (Spirit, soul and body): “For the holy prophets, direct hearing of the words of God and perception of them with the heart were possible. “And he said to me, Son of man, accept all my words that I speak to you with your heart and hear with your ears” (Ezek. 3:10). “My heart says from You: “Seek My face”; and I will seek Your face, O Lord” (Ps. 26:8). The prophet Jeremiah talks about his calling as a direct conversation from God with him. The Prophet Ezekiel, having described his extraordinary vision of the glory of God, continues: “When I saw this, I fell on my face and heard the voice of Him speaking, debt consolidation pros and cons and He said: “Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak to you.” "And as He spoke to me, a spirit came into me and set me on my feet, and I heard Him who spoke to me" (Ezek. 2:2)."
Schiigum. Savva (Experience of building a true worldview): “In a soul that has been cleansed of passions and accustomed to unceasing prayer, the (inner) hearing is so refined that it constantly perceives the voice of God.”
Metropolitan Tryphon Turkestanov (Akathist “Glory to God for everything”, Ikos 10): “...Sharpen my hearing, so that at all moments of my life I hear Your mysterious voice and cry out to You, the omnipresent:... Glory to You for indicating the secret voice, glory to You for the revelation in a dream and in reality...”
Holy ascetics could also hear demons.
Ephraim the Syrian (Funeral Hymns): “I once heard that death and Satan were arguing among themselves about which of them has more power over man. Death pointed to its power, with which it conquers everyone. Satan points out his malice with which he leads everyone into sin.”
Basically, we sinners are constantly in our own thoughts and listening to thoughts from our enemies, often without even suspecting that these are thoughts from them. This is discussed in detail in the topic “On Delight,” chapter “The Impact of the Enemy on a Person’s Mental Power.” But there are times when a person clearly realizes that this thought and “voice” do not come from him, and this action is called in science an auditory hallucination.
When considering acute auditory hallucinations, let us pay special attention to the content of the conversations of the “voices”. The following quote was given above: “The content of hallucinations is a discussion or commentary on the patient’s behavior, reproaches for drunkenness, a discussion of his family affairs. Sometimes the voices are imperative (imperative) in nature, threatening violence, ordering to give up money, throw yourself under a tram, hang yourself, etc. In a number of cases, the voices argue among themselves: some accuse, others justify; some threaten, others defend; some order to commit suicide, others warn against it.” Audible quarrels with defense and accusations are an image of ordeals, when demons and angels argue about the soul. You can read about this in the stories of St. Theodora about the ordeals.
As for the commanding character, this is how demons always act when they want to drive a soul to suicide.
Ignatius Brianchaninov: “Only one of the sins - suicide - cannot be healed by repentance, but each of them mortifies the soul and makes it incapable of eternal bliss.”
Nikolai Serbsky (Symbols and Signals, Ch. 12): “The feeling of extreme despair that directs a person’s thoughts towards suicide is a clear signal that an evil spirit - the spirit of despondency - has taken possession of the soul of this person.”
Sometimes demons inspire a person to commit murder, in which case they can become visible, but often they only inspire such thoughts.
Fatherland (Ignatius Brianchaninov): “They said about a certain brother that he lived as a hermit in the desert and for many years was deceived by demons, thinking that they were angels. Sometimes his father according to the flesh came to him. One day, a father, going to see his son, took an ax with him with the intention of chopping his own firewood on the way back. One of the demons, warning the coming of his father, appeared to his son and told him: “Behold, the devil is coming to you in the likeness of your father with the goal of killing you, he has an ax with him. You warn him, snatch the ax and kill him.” The father came, according to custom, and the son, grabbing an ax, struck him and killed him. Then the unclean spirit immediately attacked this hermit and strangled him.”
Moral Theology (sins against the 6th commandment, sin - killing someone or just an attempt on someone’s life in temporary unconsciousness): “Fever, drowsiness (as if intoxicated from sleep), wakefulness during sleep (indulgence, sleepwalking), disorder of mental faculties from prolonged insomnia, loss of all consciousness while intoxicated: all this, with the special violence of the enemy-devil, leads some to murder, which is distinguished by even special cruelties. Let us assume that a person cannot be blamed for his painful and completely unconscious state, in which he commits a terrible sin; for example, in sane sleep, sanity is destroyed (the sleeper is not responsible for the harm that happened around him); and even more so a painful dream cannot be imputed. However, often the culprits are those reasons that gradually disposed a person to an unconscious state: and drunkenness in this case is not at all recognized as a reason that would destroy sanity. Yes; A person comes into a state of temporary unconsciousness more from his own sins and vices. Moreover, at this time (as in a dream) he mostly belches out what occupied him in a healthy state (for example, a praying man whispers more prayers in a fever, and a robber raves about murders) ... - A Christian has an angel from God - a guardian who, in moments of his unconscious crime, would not have retreated from him if he had not previously removed this good spirit from himself by his ungodly deeds. - All this leads to the conclusion that in unconsciousness the one who committed murder or attempted such a crime , when it comes to memory and consciousness, must bring deep contrition before God. - You, Christian, pray to God first that you will not be in any disorder of mental abilities, and then that your guardian angel will not retreated from you even in moments of unconsciousness!”
Hearing the enemy's voice is well known to those Christians who have been attacked by the enemy with blasphemous thoughts.
John Climacus (Ladder, ch. 23): “Often during the Divine Liturgy, and at the most terrible hour of the Mysteries, these vile thoughts blaspheme the Lord and the holy Sacrifice being performed. From here it is clearly revealed that these ungodly, incomprehensible and inexplicable words are spoken within us not by our soul, but by a God-hating demon who was cast out of heaven because he attempted to blaspheme God there too.”
(You can also read about them in the topic “About beauty”)
We also note that the Fatherland books contain many examples of what demons do invisibly to humans. This can be not only screams and whispers, but also other actions.
The life of the desert fathers: “Once the demons told Saint Macarius of Egypt that not a single meeting of monks could exist without them. Come, look at our deeds... May the Lord forbid you, unclean demon! - Macarius exclaimed. And, starting to pray, he began to ask the Lord to reveal to him whether there was any truth in the words of the devil. Coming to the celebration of the all-night vigil, he asked the Lord for the same thing. And then he sees... The Ethiopians scattered around the church, jumping up to each monk, seemed to be flirting (while reading psalms). Whoever closed his eyes with two fingers began to doze off; they put a finger in the mouth of another, and he yawns... The reading ended, and the brethren prostrated themselves to pray before God, then suddenly the image of a woman flashed before one, before everyone in general - first one thing, then another... And as soon as the evil spirits imagine something, how actors in the theater, this will enter the heart of the one praying and give rise to thoughts... But loans el paso tx no credit check it also happened: then evil spirits ran up with some kind of deception - suddenly they jumped back headlong, as if driven by some force, and did not dare neither stop nor pass by them. But they jumped on the necks and on the backs of other, weaker brothers: apparently, they were inattentively praying. Seeing this, St. Macarius sighed and shed tears. After finishing the prayers, he called each brother separately, and it turned out that everyone was thinking about what the elder had seen.”
About hypnagogic hallucinations and the teachings of the Holy Fathers on this matter
Concluding the conversation about visual and auditory hallucinations, let’s say that along with what is said above about hallucinations, there is another type of hallucination – hypnagogic. Let's briefly consider its essence.
Textbook on psychiatry: “Hypnagogic hallucinations are visual illusions of perception, usually appearing in the evening before falling asleep, with eyes closed (their name comes from the Greek hypnos - sleep), which makes them more related to pseudohallucinations than to true hallucinations (there is no connection with the real situation) . These hallucinations can be single, multiple, scene-like, sometimes kaleidoscopic (“there is some kind of kaleidoscope in my eyes,” “I now have my own TV”). The patient sees some faces, grimacing, sticking out their tongues, winking, monsters, bizarre plants. Much less often, such hallucinations can occur during another transitional state - upon awakening. Such hallucinations, also occurring when the eyes are closed, are called hypnopompic. Both of these types of hallucinations are often one of the first harbingers of delirium tremens or some other intoxicating psychosis.”
Textbook on clinical psychology: “Hypnagogic hallucinations, which, along with hallucinations of the imagination and pseudohallucinations, are classified as incomplete, also occur in children more often than true hallucinations. Hypnagogic hallucinations are understood to be predominantly visual images that spontaneously arise when falling asleep, which are projected into the dark field of vision with closed eyes or into an external unlit space with open eyes. Their content can reproduce individual impressions and images perceived by the child during the day. Such hallucinations are often observed in healthy, especially impressionable children, children with pronounced eidetism. Pathological hypnagogic hallucinations are not associated with images of everyday impressions, are unusual, often fantastic and are accompanied by an affect of fear.”
Textbook on psychiatry: “Children and adolescents may also have pseudohallucinations, often in the form of hypnagogic ones. The latter most often occur against the background of an illness, especially one that occurs with clouding of consciousness in the form of oneiroid (schizophrenia, infections, including intracranial, intoxication). A 3-year-old girl, already put to bed, suddenly jumped up and began hitting herself on the head with her fists, crying and shouting, “Again these scary guys are in my head, I just can’t get them away.” Pseudo-hallucinations in the form of hypnagogic (before bedtime when falling asleep) can occur in children and adolescents without any psychosis, but in the presence of such traits as emotional lability, impressionability, and increased suggestibility.”
Textbook on neurophysiology: “During the period of falling asleep, mental activity is very diverse. So-called hypnagogic hallucinations often occur. This type of hallucination looks like a series of slides or pictures. In contrast, dreams are more like movies. It is noted that hypnagogic hallucinations occur only when the dominant rhythm of wakefulness disappears from the EEG (EEG - slow waves and individual bursts of alpha rhythm).”
Because It was said above that hallucinations can occur while falling asleep or before waking up, so we consider it necessary to talk about sleep and the state of drowsiness.
Theophan the Recluse (Outline of Christian Moral Teaching): “Dreams are unauthorized movements of the imagination in the sleep of the body with a lack of self-awareness and independent will. In the course of dreams, three degrees are distinguished: “delirium” - during dozing, the actual “dream”, or sleepy reverie, during the perfect sleep of the body, and “secret sleep”, unremembered, during the dead sleep of the body. In their production, the life of the heart with images dominates. When the soul’s power over itself is lost, then images of the imagination, as if breaking free from some rivets, fill the entire area of the soul. Here, images of different times and places, present and past, bad and good, are mixed and combined according to laws that there is no way to know. The personality of the dreamer himself is lost: he is inserted into the dramas imagined by the imagination as an outsider and undergoes strange transformations: now he rejoices, now he suffers, now he is promoted, now he is put to shame, and so on. Since the soul loses its independent activity in a dream, it is even more strongly exposed to the influence of another world than in reality, and the good one is influenced by the good, and the bad one by the evil. ...There are three types of these dreams. Some are “promiscuous”, about whom Sirach writes: “like one who embraces a shadow or chases the wind, so one who believes in dreams” (Sir. 34:2). Others are “intelligible”, which are implanted in a person who begins to regain consciousness by God or a Guardian Angel. Job says about them that during sleep and in visions at night, when sleep overwhelms a person, when he sleeps on his bed, God opens his ear and, having taught it, seals it in order to lead a person away from evil deeds, in order to remove pride from him. and to keep his soul from the grave (Job 33: 15, 16, 17). Third, finally, there are special dreams, large payday loans - “Divine, prophetic.” God Himself says about them: “If there is a prophet of the Lord among you, then I reveal myself to him in a vision, I speak to him in a dream” (Num. 12:6). Dreams are as the heart is. For the most part, they can be considered witnesses to our moral state, which is not always visible in the waking state. In a careless person, devoted to passions, they are always unclean, passionate: the soul there becomes a playground of sin. For a person who has converted and is zealous for the purification of his heart, they are either good or bad, depending on what prevails, and sometimes - how he falls asleep. Here he is subjected to frequent attacks by demons, who sometimes strongly seduce the inexperienced, as Saint Climacus notes.”
Ignatius Brianchaninov (vol. 5, chapter 46): “We need to know and know that in our state, not yet renewed by grace, we are unable to see dreams other than those made up of the delirium of the soul and the slander of demons. Just as during a state of vigor thoughts and dreams constantly and incessantly arise in us from fallen nature or are brought by demons, so during sleep we see only dreams based on the action of fallen nature and the action of demons.”
Euthymius Zigaben (Explanatory Psalter, ps. 118, v. 147, footnote): “The untimely (midnight) is especially accompanied by the most powerful attacks from mental enemies: because darkness itself contributes to every vile and nasty and indecent action...”.
As mentioned above, before deep sleep, a state of drowsiness occurs. Many people had various revelations precisely in a dormant state (you can read about this in the Lives of the Saints). Here are examples of how this happened to ordinary people:
Trinity leaves from Dukhovny Meadow: “The ever-memorable Archbishop. Vologda Nikon (+1919) recalled his own mother, and was distinguished by remarkable detail related to the circumstances of his birth. “My mother,” he said, “when I was delivered from the burden, I suffered for a long time and was close to death. In these difficult moments of her torment, she began to fervently pray to St. Nicholas, asking for his holy help. In the midst of prayer, she for a moment fell into a thin slumber and sees : from the icon of St. Nicholas, which was in the corner ark, the living St. Nicholas came out. He, approaching the suffering woman, meekly said: “Calm down! By God's permission, this very minute you will easily be relieved of your burden as a boy. Call him by my name Nikolai,” and he became invisible. After that, my mother immediately gave birth to me and asked to name me Nikolai at baptism.”
Trinity leaves from Spiritual Meadow: “On the day of the opening of the relics of St. Seraphim of Sarov, - Fr. reports about himself. Archimandrite Kronid, - I, having come from the early liturgy and in grief from overwhelming thoughts, lost myself in half-asleep and then I can’t even give myself an idea whether it was half-asleep or in reality, I only see from the front door of my cell 1000 dollar loans fast coming to Rev. for me Seraphim. I fell to my knees before him and, crying and sobbing, began to ask him, saying: “Help me, Pleasant of God, in torment from thoughts.” And I hear his gentle, fatherly voice in response: “Believe, undoubtedly, in our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ, who came into the world to save the suffering. Read the Holy Gospel daily, be meek and humble, and you will find peace for your soul.” Having come to my senses after these words of consolation; I saw myself sitting on the sofa and felt great joy within me. After this phenomenon, I won’t say that the thoughts disappeared, but I became stronger in the fight against them and was not embarrassed by them as much as before.”
Let us note that in Christian teachings, a soul in slumber is considered to be a soul living in sins, in negligence and carelessness about its salvation, as well as in despondency.
Gregory of Nyssa (Explanation of the Song of Songs, conversations. 11): “(it is necessary) to always be awake with the mind, as if some seductress of the soul and a accuser of truth, driving away drowsiness from the eyes, I mean that drowsiness and that sleep by which these dreamy dreams are formed in those immersed in worldly seduction ideas: superiority, wealth, dominance, arrogance, charm of pleasures, love of fame, addiction to pleasures, ambition..."
Theophan the Recluse (Interpretation of Psalm 119, v. 28): “... when the soul slumbers, sin does not sleep, but, creeping up, attempts to captivate it and attract it to itself. “The beginning of sleep,” he says, is dozing, and the beginning of fall is the disintegration and relaxation of the soul through despondency. Just as one who is dozing is drawn to sleep, so one who is morally weakened is drawn to sin.”
Based on all of the above, it is quite natural that alcoholics have disturbed sleep, their bodies are exhausted, and in drowsy states they may have hallucinations, or see and hear demons.
About fear during alcoholic psychoses in the teachings of the Holy Fathers
The issue of fears must be considered from three points of view: the first is the fear of a sinner (it will be discussed in the section “On the hidden spiritual causes of drunkenness”), the second is fear during abstinence (i.e. when abstaining from drinking alcoholic beverages) and the third is fear during hallucinations.
Let's look at the second fear. It was said above that psychosis mainly occurs when a person abstains from drinking alcohol. Let us recall what happens to a person emotionally: “The harbingers of delirium (pre-delirium state) last for several hours. Usually, by the evening, the anxious and melancholy mood characteristic of withdrawal is replaced by affective lability: depression alternates with euphoria, anxiety with apathy. Excitement, restlessness, and talkativeness are combined with an influx of vividly imagined colorful memories. Illusions appear: hanging clothes are mistaken for a person, someone’s faces are seen in patterns and spots... Then complete insomnia sets in. Restlessness, anxiety and fear increase. The main symptom of delirium appears - vivid visual hallucinations.”
Such emotional states with the suggestion of thoughts about drinking come from demons in order to prevent a person from coming to his senses from the passion of drunkenness.
Theophan the Recluse (The Path to Salvation): “But there is something that comes directly from Satan. From him there is a certain vague timidity and fear that troubles the soul of a sinner at any time, and even more so when he thinks about good. This is almost the same as a master threatening a servant when he begins to do something not according to his will and plans.”
Experiencing such a demonic action, the soul wants to get rid of these sensations, and resorts to a well-known method - take alcohol and “relax.” And this is what the enemy of the human race needed.
As for fear directly during hallucinations, a quote was previously given that hallucinations (in particular “pseudo”) differ from ideas produced by the soul in that they do not depend on the will of a person, are intrusive, violent and have completeness and formality of images. This observation corresponds to the teaching that spiritual forces influence a person independently of his will and this causes great fear in a person. This is how the saints talk about it:
Ignatius Brianchaninov (Conference of the soul with the mind): “The blood is agitated, the imagination is heated by some action that is alien and hostile to me, and I see tempting images approaching me, enticing me to dream of sin, to enjoy the destructive temptation. I don’t have the strength to run away from seductive images: my painful eyes are involuntarily, forcibly drawn to them.”
In general, causing fear in a person is a kind of fun for the enemy.
Nicodemus the Holy Mountain (Invisible Warfare, part 2): “Our enemy the devil rejoices when the soul is troubled and the heart is in anxiety. Why does he contrive in every possible way to disturb our souls.”
Athanasius the Great (Life of Anthony the Great, paragraph 28): “The demons, having no power, seem to amuse themselves at the spectacle, changing their disguises and frightening children with many ghosts and specters.”
Athanasius the Great (Life of Anthony the Great, paragraph 37): “...demons, when they see people in fear, all the more multiply the ghosts in order to bring them into greater horror, and, advancing, they already swear, saying: “When you fall, worship me” (Matthew .4, 9)".
Athanasius the Great (Life of Anthony the Great, paragraph 36): “...the invasion and vision of evil spirits is outrageous, with noise, voices and screams, like a riotous movement of poorly educated young people or robbers. From this, fear, confusion, confusion of thoughts, sadness, hatred of ascetics, despondency, sadness, memories of relatives, mortal fear, and, finally, a bad desire, negligence of virtue, and moral disorder immediately arise in the soul.”
So, with psychoses that arise from alcoholism, namely delirium and hallucinosis, phenomena occur that are the fruit of sin, which allows enemy spirits to act openly before the sinner. The same painful processes that occur in the human body are also the fruit of sin.
So, he who has known the glory of God has known the bitterness of the enemy; whoever has known the kingdom has known Gehenna; whoever has known love has known what hatred is; whoever has known the lust for God has known the hatred that (addresses) the world; whoever has known what purity is, has known the uncleanness of stench (lustful passions); whoever knows the fruit of virtues knows what the fruit of evil is; Whoever the angels rejoice in his deeds, he knew how the demons rejoiced with him when he did their deeds. For if you do not run away from them, you will not know their bitterness. How can anyone know what the love of money is if he does not renounce everything and remain in great poverty for God’s sake? How can you recognize the bitterness of envy if you do not acquire meekness? How can you recognize the rebelliousness of anger if you do not acquire long-suffering in everything? How can you know the shamelessness of pride if you do not acquire the quietness of humility? How can you know the stench of fornication if you don’t know the sweet fragrance of pure innocence? How can you know the shame of condemnation if you don’t know your shortcomings? How can you know the ignorance of ridicule if you don’t know crying over sins? How can you experience the confusion of despondency if your feelings are not settled and you do not recognize the light of God?
Abba Isaiah (Sketsky)
When encountering various accidents, let everyone observe what is happening in his soul, and thus determine what it is like. For example, by observing what happens in the soul when he is scolded or dishonored, or shown contempt, he will truly know whether there is humility in him.
Simeon the New Theologian
The lack of bread teaches us to seek bread so as not to die of hunger; lack of water prompts you to look for it so as not to die of thirst; a recognized disease prompts one to seek a doctor; so it is in Christianity; when we recognize the poverty and poverty of our souls, we will seek bliss. It is bad for a Christian to be without prayer, without love, without humility, without meekness and other Christian virtues and not to have them: disaster clearly follows. We must look for them diligently. Thus, a known misfortune prompts a person to seek his bliss. Know, Christian, the depravity, poverty, sinfulness, poverty and wretchedness of your heart - and this very knowledge will teach you prayer and Christian virtues.
Tikhon Zadonsky
Whoever looks into his heart will forget that there are sinners on earth, except for him alone... Looking into himself, examining his sinful spots, he is convinced that the only means for his salvation is the mercy of God, that he is an inextricable servant... Needing mercy himself, he pours it out abundantly on his neighbors, and has only mercy for them.
Ignatiy Brianchaninov
As soon as you see the light<силою Господа>, first and at the beginning of everything, you will know yourself and your condition, and then everything else that you need to know. The consequence of this will be that you will begin from the bottom of your heart to consider yourself incomparably superior and holy, not only to pious and virtuous people, but also to every person in general, great and small, righteous and sinful, even those who openly sin. And let this be a clear sign to you and to everyone else that you have received remission of all your sins, if you come to this measure and achieve this good state. For holy humility is found at this level, and the first gift it gives to those who reach this level is to think that of all people there is no one more sinful and insignificant than him, and so that with all the feeling of his soul, with full conviction, he reveres himself alone. sinful and believed that he alone had<может>perish and be betrayed to eternal torment.
Simeon the New Theologian
When the soul is cleansed with tears, as it repents and fulfills the commandments, then a person, first of all, by the grace of the Spirit, will be worthy to know his condition and all of himself. Then, after a thorough and long-term cleansing of the heart and the rooting of deep humility, he begins little by little and in a certain ghostly way to cognize God and the Divine mysteries. And the more he comprehends, the more he marvels and acquires even deeper humility, thinking about himself that he is completely unworthy of the knowledge and revelation of such mysteries. Therefore, guarded by such humility, as if being behind walls, he remains invulnerable to thoughts of vanity, although he grows daily in faith, hope and love for God and clearly sees his prosperity, manifested in the addition of knowledge to knowledge, virtue to virtue. When he finally reaches the age of Christ to the extent of fulfillment and truly acquires the mind of Christ and Christ Himself, then he comes to such a good state of humility in which he is sure that he does not know whether he has anything good in himself, and considers himself an unworthy slave and insignificant.
Simeon the New Theologian
When someone comes to know himself - and this requires a lot of external protection, abolition from worldly affairs and a strict examination of conscience - then immediately and suddenly a kind of divine humility comes into the soul, something more than a word, bringing contrition to the heart and tears of warm tenderness: so that then the one experiencing it in himself action considers itself to be earth and ashes, a worm, and not a person, unworthy even of this animal life, for the superiority of this gift of God, in which he who is worthy to abide is filled with an indescribable intoxication of tenderness, enters into the depths of humility and, having left himself, imputes it to nothing everything external - food, drink, clothing of the body - is like one who has been changed by the good change of the right hand of the Most High (cf. Ps. 76:11).
Nikita Stifat
If you want to place yourself on the firm path of salvation, then first of all try to listen only to yourself, and leave all others to the Providence of God and their own will and do not worry about edifying anyone. It is not in vain that it is said: “Everyone will either become famous or be ashamed by his own deeds.” This will be more useful and salutary and, moreover, more peaceful.
Be attentive to your salvation, as Fr. often says. John of Kronstadt: “The end is already at the door, repent, sinners.” When you go to a holy temple, don’t talk to anyone other than God, pray the rosary, listen with attention in the temple, where you go - pay attention, sit at handicrafts - pay attention, do with your hands - pray with your mind, heart and lips. In the evening it is advisable to go and get some fresh air - this is good. Take a full, free breath of God’s fresh, life-giving air and again keep your attention in prayer. Verb incessantly: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
Joseph Optinsky (Litovkin)
When a person looks in the mirror, he can see all the dirt on his face. So the monks have a kind of mirror, through which he can see all the dirt not only outside, but also inside his heart. The monastic mirror is attention to one’s salvation, i.e. face your sins and shortcomings. When you took your hair, you took a quick look in your mirror, and then you said how many of your shortcomings you saw. And even more so, whoever is always watching and who is always busy with himself has no time to watch people or listen to how Mother Superior deals with the dean in church, because you won’t teach her, and you shouldn’t, but you can always upset yourself.
I repeat to you, my child, pay attention to yourself, humble yourself more. Seeing other people's shortcomings comes from pride, but you seem to have accumulated quite a bit of it.
Joseph Optinsky (Litovkin)
When someone talks idle talk, then he cannot live attentively and is constantly distracted. From silence comes silence, from silence comes prayer, for how can one who is absent-minded pray? Pay attention to yourself, an attentive life is the goal of monasticism. It is said: “Take heed to yourself!”
Barsanuphius Optinsky (Plikhankov)
Let the servant of God Domna consider herself the most sinful and repent to the Lord, who came to earth and suffered not for the righteous, but for sinners, and therefore the sinner is then disgusted with God when he despairs of his salvation. Let him trust in the Lord and be saved by His great mercy. She needs to repent better in confession and partake of the Holy Mysteries during all four Lents of the year. Let him learn to pray while working.
Joseph Optinsky (Litovkin)
We must think humbly about ourselves and dissolve all our doing with humility, but drive away the false humility presented as an excuse for our reluctance and laziness to strive: “Where can we, sinners, do this? These were holy people...” This is how one hears those who do not want to work for their salvation. You can answer them: yes, this is true, but saints were very often great sinners before, they became saints through asceticism, so consider yourself a sinner - consider yourself, and force yourself to do good. It will be useful. Self-justification is the root of evil.
Nikon Optinsky (Belyaev)
Imagine, dear brother, always this truth: what a person sows in this age, that is what he will reap a hundredfold in the future, and rely on this truth for yourself every day: what did you sow for the future age - wheat or thorns? Having tested yourself, be prepared to do better the next day and spend your whole life in this way. If the present day was spent poorly, so that you did not offer a decent prayer to God, did not contrite your heart even once, did not humble yourself in thought, did not show mercy or alms to anyone, did not forgive the guilty, did not tolerate an insult; on the contrary, he did not refrain from anger, did not refrain from words, food, drink, his mind plunged into unclean thoughts: having considered all this according to your conscience, judge yourself and trust yourself the next day to be more attentive in good and more careful in evil.
And so, dear one, always consider your sowing and clear it of thorns, and be careful, like a true Christian, to do not only the things that perish, but those that remain in the eternal life.
Moses Optinsky (Putilov)
When you consider yourself nothing, then what does it matter what they say and think about you? A humble person is always peaceful and calm. In the meantime, we will achieve this, then great skill is required. In any case that shocks you, recognize your weakness and reproach yourself, and not others.
Macarius Optinsky (Ivanov)
Rumor... is not something extraordinary - something that does not happen in the world! Every class of people has their own temptations. Regarding ourselves, we must seek peace in our own conscience, in patience and prayer, believing without a doubt that such temptations cleanse our sins, which stem from unfair opinions and suspicions regarding others.
Ambrose Optinsky (Grenkov)
It is another thing to think and reason about the ascetic life, and another thing to experience this through life itself. One of our neighbors, a gentleman, last Holy Pentecost, wanted to punish himself for his weak previous life with strict fasting. He ordered the seed to be crushed for himself and ate this crush with kvass and black bread, and with such ungradual and unusual severity he spoiled his stomach so much that the doctors could not fix it for a whole summer.
You always thought about living in a cramped cell and in many ways deprivation, but in reality, you could not live like that, because even in your big house there was barely a corner to accommodate a sick old woman. Due to our weakness, physical and mental, it is more useful for us to humble ourselves and submit to how things are going according to the circumstances surrounding us.
Ambrose Optinsky (Grenkov)
It is difficult to struggle with human weaknesses and endure the shortcomings of those around us, but by bearing such a burden, the fulfillment of the Law of God is proven, as the Apostle testifies: Bear one another’s burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ (Gal. 6:2).
Ambrose Optinsky (Grenkov)
Standing in church, you don’t need to count your shortcomings and thereby distract your mind from the attention of reading and singing, but simply consider yourself a sinner for all your sinfulness and for scattered thoughts, that’s enough. Saint Isaac writes: “Whoever does not consider himself a sinner, his prayer is not acceptable before God.”
Macarius Optinsky (Ivanov)
From many groans and bitter tears of repentance and sorrow, through which the soul rejects the joy of the world and the very food of contrition; because he begins to see his sins like the sand of the sea, and this is the beginning of the enlightenment of the soul and a sign of its health.
Peter Damascene
He who knows himself, that is, who does not remain ignorant of the falls into which he fell, but keeps the wise rule: “know yourself,” even in success, although he has sometimes exalted himself, giving in to arrogance for a while, does not think about himself high, but, studying his own nature and his own weakness and not dreaming of himself above human nature, he comes to consciousness of himself.
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