On spiritual delusion
A man who boasts of his virtue proves by this that he has no true virtue. Inward self-satisfaction of the heart is a sign of his folly. St Gabriel Kikodze
Pride is such a skilful painter that it hides your ugliness away somewhere out of every corner, will not let it even come to mind, and meanwhile paints your portrait with such beauty that it gives wings to your self-admiration. Therefore, whatever stumbling and failure there may be on every side, I have laid this down in my heart: from the first day of my going forth to the end, to keep my gaze within this bound — that I have always been in error and shall be in error until death — and to lean only on the abyss of God's goodness. St Alexi Shushania
If you think yourself greater than anyone, you are abominable before the Lord. Often do not believe even what you have seen with your own eyes and heard with your own ears — the one may deceive you, and the other too. Archimandrite Gabriel (Urgebadze)
If you see a man who takes counsel with no one or does not follow advice, expect him to fall into delusion before long. St Joseph the Hesychast, †1959
Hell is crammed with proud virgins; God needs a humble man. St Tikhon of Athos, †1968
Spiritual rapture is the portion of the perfect. It is given to us by God only when we need it. Otherwise it would be for us like a knife or fire in the hands of a child. St Gabriel (Zyryanov)
Everything given by God turns to evil for us if we seek in it not God's glory but our own. Father Andronik (Lukash)
People, instead of being united with God, grow proud, fall into delusion, judge others, make themselves equal to the saints. Some even consider themselves saints outright. God, to punish them and bring them to their senses, allows them to commit some shameful sin, and because of its gravity they often come to their senses, repent and amend. But often even this does not help them, and they perish for ever. Schema-archimandrite Zosima (Zacharias) Minaev
Fear the temptation caused by a desire that goes beyond the measure of the life of the saints. You may want to outdo everyone in asceticism, to fast very strictly, to live a contemplative life in absolute solitude. Fear these temptations, which hide behind righteous thoughts. Do not fall into their trap; it will destroy you. Father Savvas of Athos
A sinner can easily repent, but repentance is hard for one whom the devil has deceived. So it is until the deceiving demon is exposed and brought into the open. When his cunning is revealed, the evil one can no longer hide. St Daniel of Katounakia
Remember two thoughts and fear them: the first, when it tells you that you are a saint, and the second, which tells you that you will perish. Both these thoughts are from the evil one; there is no truth in them. But you, think thus: I am the greatest of sinners, but God is merciful, He loves people greatly and will forgive me my sins.
People fall into delusion through inexperience or because of pride. If it is from inexperience, God will easily heal it; if it is because of pride, the soul will suffer long, until it learns humility. When it learns humility, then God will heal it. The fathers say that at a vision sent by the evil one the soul is troubled; but only a humble soul, one that does not think itself worthy of a vision, senses the devil's action and is frightened and alarmed. The deluded person, however, may feel neither fear nor disturbance, since he wants visions and thinks himself worthy of them, and that is why the devil easily deceives him. When we weep over our sins and humble the soul, we have no visions and do not want them; but when we give up mourning for our sins and humility, then they can carry us away. St Silouan the Athonite
The devil tries before death to cast a person into delusion by false visions and to destroy him. So at such visions feel your own nothingness and say boldly to the evil one: “Go back, accursed one, into the outer darkness, for I need neither visions nor anything else but the favour of my Lord and the intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos.” Even if you think these visions are from God, still try to put them away as best you can. Do not think that by rejecting these visions on account of your unworthiness you will anger God. If a vision really is from God, He Himself knows how to assure you of it, and will not count this as an insult, for He knows that you were being careful. He who gives grace to the humble will not take it away for something done out of a sense of humility. Father Euthymius of Optina (Trunov)
Father Cherubim asked an elder of the skete of Kavsokalyvia, Father Anthony, whether anything supernatural had happened in his life. The venerable father answered: “My child, know that such supernatural events happen very rarely; but if one ever does happen, the sign of its genuineness will be that the one to whom it was revealed keeps it as something precious, as a gift of God, in complete secrecy. He will never make it known, and avoids every hint or slightest gesture that would reveal and give away this gift of God. If on the Holy Mountain you meet a person who proclaims such a gift of God, doubt its genuineness. Since I came to the Holy Mountain I have met many venerable fathers, ascetics and deeply humble men. God whispered to us secretly in our hearts that, because of their manifest holiness, they had had many heavenly visions and revelations. And yet they never let slip a word about it. On the contrary, they often repeated that they were sinners and were waiting for God's mercy. Likewise in the lives of the holy fathers we find that they avoided revealing such gifts. The holy apostle Paul himself, though he was the head of the apostles, did not ascribe to himself the being caught up to the third heaven, but said wisely and with discernment: ‘I knew a man.’ You have probably read the life of Andrew the Fool for Christ. Because of his great holiness and humility, heavenly things were not distinct for him from the things of everyday life, but were often interwoven with them. While he was on earth doing his foolish things, he could at the same time see the heavenly world. This he always kept secret; the only one to whom he revealed it was his spiritual father. And that only in order to be under his oversight, so as not to fall into demonic delusion. Only a few of his visions did he reveal to Epiphanius, his faithful disciple. So, my child, I tell you again: never take an interest in such things. Seek only the mercy of God, and you will be saved.”
Delusion is the corruption of human nature by falsehood. Delusion is the state of all men without exception, brought about by the fall of our first parents. We are all in delusion. The knowledge of this is the greatest safeguard against delusion. The greatest delusion is to consider oneself free of delusion. We are all deceived, all deluded, all in a false state, all in need of being set free by the truth. The Truth is our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us make this Truth our own by faith in Him; let us cry out in prayer to this Truth, and He will draw us out of the abyss of demonic seduction. St Ignatius Brianchaninov
As wrong action of the mind leads into seduction and delusion, exactly the same happens with wrong action of the heart. Full of senseless pride is the desire to see spiritual visions and the striving toward them with a mind not purified from the passions, not renewed and restored by the Holy Spirit. Just as full of pride and lack of discernment is the heart's desire and striving to delight in holy, spiritual, divine feelings when it is not yet at all ready for such delight. As the unpurified mind, which wants to see divine visions but has no means to do so, invents visions itself and deceives itself with them, so too the heart, when it tries to feel divine sweetness and other divine feelings and cannot find them in itself, invents them itself, seduces itself with them and destroys itself; for it enters the realm of falsehood, into communion with the demons, submits to their influence and becomes enslaved to their power. St Ignatius Brianchaninov
To make progress in prayer and to escape delusion, self-denial is needed, which teaches us in prayer only to gather our attention. Then the labour of prayer will grow easier and lighter, and the temptations that always accompany ascetic struggle will grow lighter too. But if anyone tries prematurely to discover the action of grace in himself, upon such people — as St Nilus of Sora says, in agreement with the other holy fathers — heavy demonic temptations are permitted, beyond their strength. At the root of such striving lie unrecognized haughtiness and conceit, which seem to him to be zeal. St Ignatius Brianchaninov
Until the action of the Holy Spirit is revealed in the heart, the subtle action of the blood either remains wholly inexplicable or little understood, and may even be taken for the action of grace if due caution is not shown. This caution consists in not recognizing any feeling of the heart as right, until the time of purification and renewal by the Holy Spirit, except the feeling of repentance — sorrow for sins, permeated with hope of mercy. From fallen nature God accepts only one sacrifice of the heart, only one feeling, one state: “The sacrifice to God is a broken spirit: a broken and humbled heart God will not despise” (Ps. 50:19). St Ignatius Brianchaninov
Particular attention must be paid to the action of vainglory in us, whose action on the blood is very hard to notice and understand. Vainglory almost always acts together with the disguised passion of fornication and gives a person the most refined sinful pleasure. The poison of this pleasure is so subtle that many take the delight given by vainglory and the passion of fornication for consolation of conscience, even for the action of divine grace. The ascetic seduced by this delight gradually falls into a state of delusion: taking this state for a state of grace, he gradually comes wholly under the power of the fallen angel. St Ignatius Brianchaninov
The humble ascetic is content to have been made worthy of the remembrance of God. He considers this a great mercy of the Creator toward a poor and helpless creature — man. He does not think himself worthy to receive grace, does not seek to discover its action in himself, for he knows from the holy fathers that the beginning of such seeking lies in vainglory, from which delusion and fall are born. St Ignatius Brianchaninov
So as not to fall into delusion in noetic prayer, allow no imagining in yourself, no image or vision whatever. St Nilus of Sora
If anyone, with a self-assurance founded on conceit, tries to reach high states of prayer, and has acquired not true zeal but satanic zeal, the devil easily entangles him in his nets as his own servant. St Gregory of Sinai
The books of the fathers, especially those that teach true obedience, sobriety of mind and stillness, attention and noetic prayer — that is, the prayer performed by the mind in the heart — are fitting only for the monastic order, and not for all Orthodox Christians in general. The God-bearing fathers, handing on the teaching about this prayer, affirm that its beginning and unshakeable foundation is obedience, from which true humility is born; and humility guards the one who labours in prayer against every delusion that follows upon self-will. True monastic obedience and the complete cutting off of one's own will and judgement are impossible for laypeople... So fearful is this work — prayer not merely of the mind, but worked skilfully by the mind in the heart — that even true obedient disciples (who have not only cut off but wholly put to death their own will and judgement before their fathers, the true and most experienced teachers of this prayer) are always in fear and trembling lest they fall into some delusion in this prayer, although God unceasingly protects them for the sake of the true humility which they have acquired by God's grace through true obedience. All the more are laypeople, living without obedience, in danger of falling into some delusion if they begin such prayer merely from reading such books — the danger that threatens those who begin this labour of prayer on their own authority. The saints called this prayer the art of arts; who can learn it without an artist, that is, without an experienced teacher? St Paisius Velichkovsky
The kind of prayer described in the “Philokalia” (the “Dobrotolubiye”) must be practised with a spiritual father experienced in this work, before his eyes. If anyone takes up this work alone, only from the description, he will not escape delusion. What is described there is only the outward side of the work; what the spiritual father adds to it to complete the inner order is not visible. One who performs such labour without a guide naturally stays with the outward labour alone, and strictly carries out what concerns the posture of the body, the breathing and the gazing into the heart. Since such methods can by natural means bring a person to a certain degree of collected attention and warmth, and he has no reliable judge to tell him what the worth of the changes taking place in him is, he comes to the idea that this is exactly what he is seeking — that he has been illumined by grace, when it is not so — and he thinks he is clothed with grace when he is without grace. This is delusion, which will afterwards distort his whole future life. St Theophan the Recluse
One may be deranged by the Jesus Prayer if, while practising this prayer, one does not give up the sins and sinful habits that the conscience condemns. St Theophan the Recluse
Do not be seduced by inward sweetnesses; without the cross they are unstable and dangerous. Consider every person better than yourself. Without this word of the heart, even if a person works miracles, he will still be far from God. The Life of the Nun Magdalina
A certain man named Malpas, a native of Edessa, became in his time the inventor of the heresy of the Euchites. He led an exalted life and endured heavy labours and sorrows. They say that he was a disciple of blessed Julian (called Saba), and for a short time travelled with him to Sinai and Egypt. Malpas saw the great fathers of that time; he saw blessed Antony (the Great) and heard from him mystical words about purity of soul and salvation, and heard a precise discourse on the passions. In this conversation Antony the Great explained that the mind, after purification, contemplates spiritual mysteries, and that the soul can attain dispassion by grace after it has been freed from the old passions by keeping the commandments and has regained the health of its original nature. And when Malpas, in the flower of his youth, heard these words, he was kindled like fire and returned to his city. And since the passion of love of glory was kindled in him, he chose a hermit's dwelling and gave himself up to labours, merciless hardships and unceasing prayer.
When the passion of love of glory had flared up in him beyond measure — that is, the hope of receiving those high gifts he had heard of — he did not perceive the wiles, lies and cunning of the devil, by which he carries off the strong to their ruin. Malpas had not learned the art of resisting the enemies of the truth; he placed his hope in labour, hardship, poverty, ascetic struggle and patience, without having acquired the ancient weapons for the fight with the evil one — self-abasement, humility, contrition of heart; he forgot the Holy Scripture too, which says: when you have done your work, kept the commandments, endured hardship, count yourselves unprofitable servants. On the contrary, a self-assurance founded on his own labours inflamed him, and he burned with desire to receive that high gift he had heard of. And then, after a long time, when the devil noticed that he had no humility and thirsted only for visions, to try those mysteries he had heard of, he appeared to him in brilliant light and said: I am the Comforter, sent to you from the Father, to make you worthy of those visions you strive for as the reward of your works, to grant you dispassion, and henceforth to give you rest from works. In return the treacherous enemy demanded worship. Malpas, grown foolish, did not perceive the evil one's attack; at once he received him with joy, worshipped him, and in that instant came under his power. And the enemy, instead of a divine vision, filled him with demonic fantasies, made him give up labour for the truth, puffed him up and seduced him with a vain hope of dispassion, saying: now you need neither works nor bodily suffering nor struggle with passions and desires; and then he made him heresiarch of the Euchites. When these heretics multiplied and their loathsome and false teaching came to light, the bishop of the time drove them out. St Isaac the Syrian
“I remember a woman in great hardship, whom no one among men would help. The Lord wished to help her and sent her a certain vision. After this vision the devil put a thought into the woman's mind: ‘Who knows, perhaps God has granted you such a vision only because He means to lay on you a very great mission.’ The woman believed the thoughts the devil suggested and was caught in the evil one's net. But God had mercy on her again: she was given a revelation in which an invisible voice advised her: ‘Write a letter to Father Paisios and describe in it all the visions you have ever had.’ The woman described everything and sent me the letter. She had indeed had visions, but all of them from the devil. Only the first and the last were from God. In the end the poor woman believed me and managed to free herself from the trap of delusion the devil had set.” Father Paisios the Athonite
Father Paisios used to tell how once an unbridled sinner came to him and said that the Mother of God had appeared to him. The “Mother of God” had supposedly said: “My child, announce to the people that Thessalonica will sink into the sea and everyone will drown.” He exclaimed: “O All-holy One! If people are threatened with drowning, I will save them like Moses!” And the “Mother of God” gave him both a “blessing” and a sign in confirmation that she had laid this “great mission” on him: “My child, I entrust the whole world to you. Go to Veria, to so-and-so. He will give you a cross, so that you may baptize and save the world.” And in Veria the devil, in the form of the Mother of God, appeared to that man too and commanded him: give such-and-such a man a cross. And so one deluded man gave another deluded man who came to him, a false messiah, a cross for the salvation of the human race. Fortunately, the saviour of mankind went to Father Paisios to receive his blessing and told him everything. “The poor man was already spiritually sick,” the venerable father recalled. “Instead of going to his spiritual father and repenting, he found the devil and was finally caught in his trap.” Father Paisios the Athonite
“A man must never ask for the vision of divine light, for revelations, gifts and the like. We should ask God only to grant us repentance. Then the merciful Lord will give us everything we need. Once, when I was living on Sinai in the cave of St Episteme, the devil wished... to do me a service. Near my cell there were three or four steps, and at night I used to light them with a lighter. Once I tried to strike the lighter, but in vain. Suddenly a strong, brilliant pillar of light fell on me from a rock, like a searchlight. ‘No,’ I muttered, ‘I must keep well away from searchlights like that,’ and I turned back. The light vanished at once.” Father Paisios the Athonite
Some deluded people spread their ideas within the bosom of the Church. So there is a great danger that their followers, on learning that what they believed was delusion, will be led astray and fall away from the Church. If a man sincerely repents and is freed from delusion, he must humble himself and tell his followers that they are mistaken. He must try to bring them back to the right path. But if the deluded man is exposed and does not want to give up his delusion, then his followers must be warned gently and tactfully. A layman who trusts his own thoughts goes out of his mind. A monk falls into delusion. A monk should not take pills; his pills are repentance and humility. As for psychotropic drugs, they are sometimes useful. After taking them, a deluded person feels tired, grows drowsy, his appetite increases, and he no longer thinks of himself as a bodiless angel but as a man of flesh. When a man falls into delusion, he follows his own thoughts. So there is no other means of bringing him to his senses but one: he himself must feel the terrible state he has fallen into, admit it and submit to his spiritual father, never trust his own thoughts, and unceasingly beg the Lord for mercy. Father Paisios the Athonite
