Father Paisios the Athonite
“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 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.”
“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.”
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.
