I am an intensive care nurse, I live in the Vladimir region, I retired, but I continue to work. What is intensive care in the region? Frequent deaths, great responsibility on the nurse, lack of modern technologies and even basic medicines and stress, stress, stress. My health began to fail me - pressure surges, my heart, I even ended up in the hospital, I myself spent a week in intensive care, but it didn’t get any better. The doctors shrugged their shoulders.
I’m not used to being sick - work, home, part-time jobs for neighbors (giving someone an IV, giving someone a massage) - all this requires constant attention and participation. Then I decided to turn to my grandmother-fortune teller, since the doctors could not do anything. I am a believer, but I almost never went to church, only on holidays. Of course, I understood that going to my grandmother was not entirely right, but my friends convinced me: “She’s 83 years old, she knows what she’s doing, and whatever she says comes true.”
This woman took money from me, and then offered to open the ancient book herself; on the page that fell out there was a drawing of a coffin and candles.
The grandmother whispered prayers and said: “You have been jinxed by envy. You are a suicide bomber, you will die soon.”
She gave the charmed water with her, but said that you don’t have to come again, you’ll die soon anyway. And she told me not to tell anyone anything.
It’s difficult to describe my condition, I really believed that I was going to die. I was very scared, cried for a long time, and finally talked to my husband, children, and friends. Of course, I ran to the priest - I confessed, took communion, for the first time in 15 years. But the fear remains, and it is very difficult to overcome it.
Why do people turn to fortune tellers: a psychologist’s version
private practicing psychologist, associate professor at the Higher School of Psychology, member of the Society of Practicing Psychologists “Gestalt Approach”:
First reason– the need for a spiritual understanding of the world and spiritual experiences. The human soul is Christian by nature, and therefore every person has spiritual needs, including the miraculous and supernatural.
All kinds of market fortune-tellers, psychics and sorcerers offer people exactly these needs to satisfy these needs and in an easy way to obtain what is properly achieved through serious, long-term spiritual practice, a certain way of life, and purification of the heart.
Of course, on the part of a person turning to a fortune teller, this is self-deception. The same as, for example, financial pyramids like “MMM”, only in spiritual life. The hope is to get everything at once with minimal investment of time and effort.
The second reason- infantile personality type. If a person is not an adult, he still tries to live in many ways like a child.
For example, when a child asks for a toy, he does not understand that parents need to earn money and work for this. He asks - they give it to him. And in the case of turning to fortune tellers, the same infantile experience occurs, pampering your inner child. Probably everyone has this need, but among infantile people it is especially strongly developed and is considered not as an element of a lifestyle, but as an important, necessary and completely natural life strategy. This is, in essence, the belief that you can miraculously solve a problem.
And fortune tellers turn to these structures of the psyche, which were formed in childhood and are responsible for such a naive worldview, when everything is possible right here and now. When the abilities of these sorcerers, fortune tellers, and psychics were studied in the 90s, it was revealed that among them there were a lot of those who had psychological skills at the level of, say, NLP practitioners.
Why you shouldn't be afraid
There is such an anecdote: A patient comes to a doctor and says: “Doctor, am I going to die?” The doctor answers: “But what?!”
Once, back in the late 90s, a boy who was escorted to the war in Chechnya came to me for confession. He went to a fortune teller, who told him: “They won’t kill you, but they will wound you in the arm.” I, of course, consoled him, but, in principle, he was happy with such a “soft” prognosis.
And then I figured out what options for the development of this story could be next. If this boy had been killed, no one would have bothered to investigate further, go to a fortune teller: “How is it possible, you said they were wounded, but they killed him?!” If the boy had not been killed or even wounded, then, if anything, the fortune teller had guessed right - he would not have been killed. Third option: wounded, but not in the arm. Again, I almost got it right. And if, God forbid, he really gets wounded in the arm, then the fortune teller will be declared a prophetess and glorified.
That is, this is a win-win lottery that can simply be called gypsy. Gypsies and fortune tellers know various methods of deception, and use them mainly for mercantile purposes. The worst thing is that these charlatans often profit from the misfortune of others. How many times have I had to perform a funeral service for cancer patients who, in desperation, found some kind of medicine on the Internet, paid a lot of money for a bottle of an unknown liquid, which in fact turned out to be almost tea or herbal infusion, and thought that this would save them. And there are many such examples.
But even if you believe the fortune teller, there is no need to be afraid. If a person truly realized and mourned his sin, and did not simply state the fact of its commission, his repentance will have creative power. God can change a lot, and not only in a person. We say: after confession, sins are blotted out. And indeed the Lord, as it were, erases sins from the book of a person’s life. At the same time, He erases them not only for the future, but erases them in the past itself. And, accordingly, the consequences of sin change and disappear. That is, if a person repented and God blotted out his past sins, then the consequences of these sins are blotted out from the person’s life.
If, after repenting, a person is still afraid, this indicates his insufficient faith that God forgives and protects. And then the priest needs to give this person some kind of reasonable but effective penance. If there is no confirmation in faith, there is no trust in the will of God and in God, then a person needs to read the Gospel for a month, for example. After this penance, a person’s faith will be strengthened, he will understand that repentance cleanses and doubt less that he has broken the ties with the devil.
Nikolai B.: “Healing through prayer?”
This happened about 40 years ago. I suffered from psychological disorders, headaches and lack of strength for life - I could not even chop wood for the stove. I spent a lot of time and money to find out the reason, I even went to the clinic, but there was no point.
One day, my relative advised me to turn to a healer, who, according to him, cured him of his illness and generally returned him to his family with his wife and children. I agreed. The house where Maria (the healer) lived could hardly be called a home; she did not live richly, she did not take money for her work, but she always asked to bring bread and a bottle of vodka, which she sometimes drank right there with her guest.
Maria was a beauty - white face, black hair, huge eyes half the size of her face, but at the same time she had a crooked back and arms crooked from polio. And the look - she could sparkle her eyes so much that the drunken men making noise in the next room, catching it on themselves, suddenly fell silent and switched off at once.
She didn’t ask questions, looking at her, the man himself began to tell.
She treated it like this: she puts her fingers together as if for a cross, and begins to move over the sore spot - sometimes in a circle, sometimes with a cross, sometimes she draws a Star of David and mutters something. She taught me to read “May God rise again,” only in a strange village accent: “and let them flee from their father…” She strictly ordered me to read “May God rise again” nine times a day, then everything would be fine.
The treatment helped - I gained more strength, I could just fly, my career took off, my relationships with my relatives improved. But then I began to get lazy, stopped reading the prayer and everything returned - my strength and health were gone.
Not a prayer, but a spell
Sometimes people say: “They also have icons, they read prayers.” But if a person were to compare, he would understand that there is little in common with prayer. The words are the same, but the meaning is incantatory. We know that any prayer can be turned into a spell - it’s one thing for a person to read the Lord’s Prayer, turning with all his heart to the Heavenly Father, but it’s quite another thing if he reads the Lord’s Prayer as a spell: for example, strictly forty times, just saying the text.
Prayer always has a certain structure: turning to God, asking, repenting, glorifying God. This structure creates the spiritual content of a person’s appeal to God. And in the “prayers” of fortune tellers there is no appeal, they do not beg, but force, conjure: you, archangel, stand in front, the other archangel - behind, and so on. Because the forces they are dealing with are demonic.
Elizaveta R.: Guardian angel from massage
My mother-in-law said: “Lisa, I have an excellent massage therapist. Even two. Let’s go to them with Vera!” Vera is my daughter, she really needs a massage.
On the threshold, the masseuse greeted me with a statement that she was working with the blessing of the Russian Orthodox Church. Then I began to get acquainted with my daughter’s problems. The massage turned out to be acupuncture, the woman tried to teach me how to transfer energy with my hand. At that moment, I already strongly doubted that I had come to the right place.
The last straw was not even the statement that the doctors who performed the caesarean section were to blame for everything (they are not to blame for anything, and I know that for sure), but some kind of calendar of energies and a message that Vera does not yet have an angel -keeper. But we’ll work out, and he’ll appear.
I left feeling like a squeezed lemon. In general, I quite clearly felt that my aunt “could do something,” I felt her strength. It was uncomfortable with her. She's probably even a good person. And he probably even wants the best. But I had no doubt about where her powers came from.
“Child to grandma!”
A person must think about who he is dealing with, with what forces. When a doctor comes to see a child, the parent, unless the doctor changes his shoes or washes his hands, will not even let him near his child. But it’s the same in the spiritual sense: do people really not care with what thoughts, with what wishes, with what faith a person touches your child, with what power does he turn to?
As a priest, I can testify to many cases where there was a direct connection between turning to fortune tellers and subsequent problems in a person’s life. For example, one girl had some kind of inflammation on her skin, she went to her grandmother, she whispered something to her, anointed her, gave her some water, and everything seemed to go away. And then, six months later, such a terrible misfortune happened to her that she almost died.
Church opinion
The Old Testament contains a direct prohibition against turning to fortune tellers:
“There shall not be found among you one who guides his son or daughter through fire, a soothsayer, a soothsayer, a soothsayer, a sorcerer, a charmer, a conjurer of spirits, a magician, and one who inquires of the dead; For everyone who does this is an abomination to the Lord, and for these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you; Be blameless before the Lord your God” (Deut. 18:10-13).
In cathedral decrees, the prohibitions regarding fortunetellers, sorcerers and sorcerers are also unambiguous. The Church categorically prohibits fortune telling. The text of Rule 61 of the VI Ecumenical Council with interpretations by Bishop Nikodim (Milos) looks like this:
“Those who give themselves over to wizards, or others like them, in order to learn from them that discoveries ascend to them, in accordance with the previous paternal decrees about them, are subject to the rule of six years of penance. Subject to the same penance those who pronounce fortune-telling about happiness, about fate, as well as the so-called charmers, practitioners of protective talismans and sorcerers. Those who are stubborn in this and do not reject such destructive pagan inventions are determined to be completely thrown out of the Church, as the sacred rules command.”
This rule condemns witchcraft, fortune-telling and similar matters as a satanic work and punishes with a six-year penance anyone who engages in these matters; if such a person does not repent, but persists in sin, he is subject to complete expulsion from the Church.
The rules (65, 83) of St. Basil the Great also speak about sorcerers and sorcerers. One who turns to fortune-tellers is compared to a murderer, receiving penance equal in severity: “He who has given himself over to sorcerers or the like will be subject to penance for the same amount of time as the murderer.”
Like Saint Basil, sorcerers were condemned by Gregory of Nyssa, John Chrysostom, Ephraim the Syrian and many others. Moreover, John Chrysostom calls not to believe the positive result of turning to fortune-tellers: “If sometimes, by God’s permission, demons heal (through divination), then such healing happens to test the faithful, not because God does not know them, but so that they learn not to accept from demons even healing."
Of course, today no one excommunicates those who turn to fortune-tellers, psychics and sorcerers for six years from taking communion. Because if these rules were in effect now, there would be no one in the temples. So the practice of excommunication for a long period of time has not existed for at least one and a half to two thousand years. And by the decrees of the Holy Synod, it is generally prohibited under the threat of defrocking those elders who impose such penances.
Dear people. I am writing about one problem. You probably don’t all know that the Orthodox Church prohibits treatment from sorceresses, healers, psychics, etc. Priests say that it is a sin to go to grandmothers, grandmothers cure the devil, but cripple the soul. Healers, healers, psychics are all servants of the devil. Ask the priests yourself how they feel about this. Or call the Diocese about this. You can type in a search engine how the church treats healers, psychics, healers, parapsychology, bioenergy, fortune tellers , damage, the evil eye - and you will understand that the church treats all this as a devilish phenomenon. Only Orthodox saints can heal with prayers. And there are very few of them in our country, you can mainly find them in monasteries. A man decided to build a chapel, open a Christian cemetery, orphanage, orphanage, to begin non-traditional treatment of people - he must come to an appointment with the ruling bishop and receive his written blessing for this activity. (You can find out about the authenticity of this blessing by calling the Diocese from which the blessing was issued.) No blessings of certain elders, monks, priests or mothers are valid here. http://azbyka.ru/parkhomenko/otvety_svyasc...osy_7-all.shtmlThe above link is about blessings and healers. But healers do not have such blessings, and cannot have them. They cannot receive it, since occult treatment, witchcraft, bioenergetic treatment contradicts the foundations of the Orthodox faith. Moreover, rolling out an egg and pouring out wax has nothing to do with Orthodoxy, this is already disguised magic, and the church does not recognize rolling out an egg and pouring out wax. And the saints never treated with wax, eggs.. http: //www.pravmir.ru/vopros-otvet/category...kstrasensorika/This link specifically describes the church’s position on witchcraft, egg rolling, and wax draining, see for yourself that this is a sin. Spells for a child against the evil eye, against a hernia , from fright, for a sound sleep, removing damage, charmed water is also from the devil. http://www.pravmir.ru/vopros-otvet/category...iya-koldovstvo/This link specifically describes the position of the church on the above. And the bottom link gives the position of the church on all healers in general: http://lib. eparhia-saratov.ru/books/02b/be...1/contents.html And here it is written how poorly treatment ends with healers, psychics, healers: http://www.k-istine.ru/occultism/occultism_disease. htmAbout the dangers of healers and occultists: http://k-istine.ru/occultism/occultism.htmIf you have resorted to the help of such healers, healers, psychics, turned to fortune tellers, or treated someone like this yourself, then you need to come to church for confess to the priest, tell him everything, and he will tell you what to do. Before confession, you need to read the book “To help the repentant”, all the sins are written there, they too must be confessed if you have committed them. Sins must be confessed without hiding a single one, otherwise even if the priest reads a prayer of absolution over you, confession will still not take place. Thus you will save your soul, because for the help provided, the devil takes the soul of a person after death, and will then torment the person if the person does not repent at confession. At confession you will get rid of such a sin, because turning to healers, etc. - turning to the devil and apostasy from God. But with sincere repentance, all this will be forgiven, and you will save your soul. And tell other people that this is a sin, and that the Orthodox Church does not recognize such healing. If you don’t believe it, ask the priests yourself, look in the search engine, how Orthodoxy treats healers .About the fact that they send healers to church. Instead of prayers, healers and healers read pagan spells similar to Orthodox prayers, or they insert something of their own anyway, and even if they read Orthodox prayers, they read them as a spell, and not as an appeal to God. Although they send a person to church - to confess, take communion, and as it seems to you, they bring him to God, know that the devil is happy when a person renounces Satan at baptism, and immediately goes to his servants (healers, magicians, healers..), a person takes communion and immediately goes from God to Satan. Thus, a person runs first to God, then to the devil, and in addition still believes in omens and superstitions. The goal of the devil is to desecrate a sacred thing, and to quietly force a person to sin, so that the person will then be held accountable for such desecration. This is the goal of near-Orthodox healing. And many grandmothers sincerely think that they are doing good, and do not know that they are serving demons. But healers send to be baptized so that it is easier to work with a person, since demons leave a baptized person, and it is easier for the healer to work. And so many healers are simply not able to cope with a bunch of demons at once. Icons and Orthodox paraphernalia are needed only to lure an unchurched person to the healers, because a churched person or the clergy already knows this trap. In truth, they heal with black magic disguised as white. White and black magic are just working colors of magic, and any magic is an appeal to demons for services, and you are helped by demons, which you sometimes want to get rid of. Even the magicians themselves admit that black and white magic are just working colors . At one congress of magicians, a new palette of colored magic was even adopted. In this case, you don’t even pay with money, but with your soul, you can get help instantly, and live well, but in the next world a person will have to suffer!!! Demons need to force more people to bow to themselves, so that a person will turn away from God and go begging help from demons. In this case, the goal of the demons is to bring more human souls to hell. They are ready to fulfill any request, and even give a person health, children, happiness and earthly well-being, just to destroy the person’s soul. The help that Matrona of Moscow gave to the sick not only had nothing to do with conspiracies, divination, so-called folk healing, extrasensory perception , magic and other witchcraft actions, during which the “healer” comes into contact with the dark force, but had a fundamentally different, Christian nature. That is why the righteous Matrona was so hated by sorcerers and various occultists, as evidenced by people who knew her closely in Moscow period of life. Mother said about sorcerers: “You can’t turn to grandmothers, they will cure one thing, but harm the soul.” But as an Orthodox person, I don’t deny saints and visionary people. It was said above about Saint Matrona of Moscow, who condemned all sorts of folk conspiracies, extrasensory perception and similar things. But I don’t think there are very many saints in our country; you can meet them more often in monasteries. In order to become a saint and receive a gift from God, people spent years in prayers, fasting, non-covetousness, they gave up many worldly goods, and even ate a glass of water and prosphora once a day. And they never took anything for help. Healers must take a blessing from the clergy, and the blessing must be in the form of a special document. And you need to check the blessing yourself, call the Diocese, because healers like to deceive on this matter. Read the lives of Orthodox saints, and compare the lifestyle of Orthodox saints and healers. Holy people refused worldly goods, had humility, spent the day in prayer, most of the time observed strict fasting, refused marital intimacy. Do healers and healers really refuse worldly goods, have humility, spend the day in prayer, observe strict fasting most of the time. Moreover, I know that healers mostly read not Orthodox prayers from the prayer book, but from all sorts of leftist books where pagan conspiracies are printed, disguised as prayers. And sometimes you can hear healers swearing during a reception, and then immediately turn, as they think, to God. God would not give such people a gift. The gift is given only to a humble and spiritually purified person. And tell the treating grandmothers themselves why their healing, fortune telling and love spells are dangerous. Show them printed materials on this topic, found on the Internet, according to the requests "how the church should treat healers, psychics, fortune tellers." Persuade them to talk with the priest on this topic. Your job is to show them the materials, talk with them, the main thing is you cannot remain silent. Many treating grandmothers simply treat as they were taught, or read in different books, and do not even suspect that they are serving the devil and not God. If the treating grandmothers ask questions and don’t know the answer, look in an Internet search engine, or go to the priest. If you don’t believe me, and think that I’m a sectarian, or from traditional medicine, ask the priests yourself, they will also tell you that this is a sin, and they will explain why. Or search on the Internet - how Orthodoxy treats psychics, healers, fortune-telling, love spells, palmistry, yoga, reiki, Moreover, even in the Bible it is written: Deuteronomy 18:9-14 ".. you shall not have anyone who guides his son or daughter through fire, a soothsayer, a fortune-teller, a sorceress, sorcerer, charmer, conjurer of spirits, magician and interrogator of the dead; For everyone who does this is an abomination to the Lord, and for these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you; be blameless before the Lord your God; For these nations, whom you drive out, listen to fortunetellers and soothsayers, but the Lord your God has not given you that." Isaiah 44:25 "Who makes the signs of false prophets worthless and reveals the foolishness of magicians, drives away the wise and makes their knowledge foolish." ;Jeremiah 27:9 \"And you do not listen to your prophets and your fortune-tellers, and your dreamers, and your magicians, and your astrologers\"; 2 Kings 21:6 \"And he made his son pass through the fire, and he told fortunes and told fortunes , and started summoners of the dead and wizards; He did much that was disgraceful in the sight of the Lord to provoke Him to anger." 2 Kings 23:24 "And Josiah destroyed the callers of the dead, and the magicians, and the teraphim, and idols, and all the abominations that appeared in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, so that fulfill the words of the law written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord." "The sorcerer, the siren sorcerer, wax and tin, may not receive communion for twenty years." This indicates the temporary excommunication of such healers from Communion until repentance in confession . Fortune telling was condemned by both Stoglav and Domostroy. But the saints never used wax for treatment, and it is not heard that they used eggs. I advise you to read the lives of the saints. And you will see the difference between Orthodox saints and healers. Orthodoxy does not set as its goal the acquisition of any supernatural abilities, but sets the goal of cleansing the soul from sins through repentance, prayer, fasting, abstinence, doing good deeds, love for God and people. At its core is Christian life lies in love and faith, good deeds, asceticism (fasting, abstinence). The Christian path goes through moral improvement: “Be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect,” and not through exercises that develop supernatural abilities without cleansing the soul (repentance), love, and doing good deeds. This path is dangerous and disastrous. Occultists follow a completely different path - through special training without cleansing the soul and body from sins and with them they develop the supernatural abilities that every person has or receive them from the devil. In confirmation of what is written above (this is the position of the Orthodox Church) Hieromonk Anatoly (Berestov), notes from a modern doctor-priest about psychics, sorcerers, the influence of television and occult sciences on our health.: http://www.zavet.ru/book/berestzv.htmHoly Matrona of Moscow said: you cannot be treated by grandmothers, They treat one thing, but they cripple the soul. They treat with evil. Matrona never approved of treatment from grandmothers and turning to sorcerers, and always scolded her for this, and the occultists did not like her. For more details, read the life of Matrona of Moscow, there are places where Matrona prohibits folk healing. And in some church and cathedral regulations it is written: let no one receive communion. on the Russian coat of arms he is depicted as defeated, and in Rus' he personified the symbol of evil and the devil), and people began to engage in alternative medicine and Eastern teachings. And because of Soviet times, people do not remember the truth, and willingly went on the occult path. I’m trying to remind people where is Orthodoxy, where is paganism mixed with Orthodoxy and where is Satanism. Yes, and grandmothers themselves sometimes admit that all the energy of the body is drained onto a diseased organ, and that the child will get other diseases with age. We treat one, cripple another, maybe this is from God. For those who believe that extrasensory perception and psychics are from nature, I present the following arguments: White and black magicians, whisperers and grandmothers, and in modern psychics, receive their abilities in a special way: by inheritance, or when meeting with a very strong magician For example, Juna inherited her abilities from her great-grandmothers. And Anatoly Goncharov claims that he is a “fourth generation sorcerer.” Yuri Longo inherited his gift from his grandfather, a famous magician in his time. There is a belief among sorcerers that they can only die in peace if they pass on their skills to someone else by inheritance. Other sorcerers and witches receive their gift through a vision, the appearance of a certain man in white. For example, Alan Chumak has his own “cosmic teacher”. What to say? The Bible says that Satan can take the form of an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14). There are entire lawsuits against Kashpirovsky and similar healers. Many people complain of ailments after the sessions. Below are links. It is written about former psychics, how badly extrasensory perception ends: A letter from a former “healer, where demons openly admit that extrasensory perception is not from God”: http://www.zavet. ru/a/post_993451452.html So, for example, says psychic healer A. Babich, long-experienced psychic N.E. Mareeva directly calls psychics involved in “treatment” with aura (biofield) sorcerers, and psychic manipulations “witchcraft operations” (Gareev Z. Mom, don’t sell me to a psychic // Megapolis-Express. - 1996. - No. 39). Sorcerer and magician V.M. Bedash admits that healing magic - extrasensory perception or bioenergy therapy - is green magic. The famous “healer” among the intelligentsia, S.N. Lazarev, who is engaged in the diagnosis of karma and its correction (note that from the point of view of the traditional teaching about karma, he is a heretic), has repeatedly admitted in his book “Diagnostics of Karma” that as a psychic he began as a magician and sorcerer. He also does not deny that even now he periodically resorts to witchcraft techniques. I advise you to talk about this topic with priests, or read material on this topic on the Internet by typing in a search engine - how the church relates to folk healing, confession of a psychic, and similar queries, answers are given on the first pages. By the way, also on this topic: horoscopes, astrology, palmistry, feng shui, yoga, numerology, access to the astral plane, folk signs and superstitions are also apostasy from God, and these activities also need to be told in confession in churches. Because these hobbies lead to contact with demons. I have a proposal for the clergy: in the churches of your diocese, post a notice that you cannot contact healers, healers, psychics of the like. Since many parishioners have not gone through the catechumen (since it was introduced recently), and do not know about it, and some healers send people to church, and many people probably go from healers to church and back. I also propose to carry out explanatory work with parishioners, or even somehow, if possible, raise this topic in the media. I ask you, whoever you can, to contact the healers and have a conversation so that they know that their activities are not good and are prohibited by the church , because many of them read conspiracies and use wax and eggs in their work, and not everyone knows that this is contrary to Orthodoxy. If the clergy does not have time to carry out such work, then parishioners and laity can be involved in this. If each person begins to little by little inform other lay people, talk with healers, and introduce discussions in forums, then many people can be saved from turning to healers and the like, and the healers themselves do not always know that they do not bring good. Every layman or clergyman can find healers in his area and talk with them.
25.02.2012 18:06
HOW TO BE SURE THAT THE BIBLE IS ACCURATE (TRUE)? The Bible was written thousands of years ago. How can we be sure that all the facts are presented accurately? How can we be sure that the Bible is true? How can we know that the text of the Bible has not been changed? Maybe it's full of errors? How do we know that people have not tampered with the Bible or changed it? We will look at a number of facts that help ensure that the Bible is accurate, true, and true. We can be sure that there are no errors in it.1. All prophecies are true and accurate. Prophecy is a message from God speaking about future events. The Bible is filled with hundreds of prophecies, starting from the third chapter of Genesis and all the way through the text to the book of Revelation. God gives people many predictions. There is not a single false prophecy. Many prophecies in the Bible spoke about the first coming of Jesus. Each of these prophecies was fulfilled just as God predicted. There are many prophecies that have not yet been fulfilled. Many of them are related to the second coming of Jesus. If we look back at how each previous prophecy has been fulfilled, we can fully trust God regarding all the prophecies that relate to the second coming of Jesus.2. The Bible says it is the Word of God. The authors of the Bible clearly say that it is the Word of God. God guided them and told them what to write. The authors trusted God when He told them what to write (2 Pet. 1:20,21).3. There are no contradictions in the Bible. What is a contradiction? This is when two phrases seem true, but taken together they refute each other. This means that if one of the statements is true, the other must be false (not true). Both cannot be true at the same time. The Bible is consistent. If one place of Scripture declares a truth, another place does not say that anything to the contrary is true. Sometimes things may seem contradictory. The problem is that often a person will only pick out part of a verse and therefore will not get the full picture of what the verse or chapter is saying.4. The Bible is an indivisible whole. The entire Bible is one message. The only reason for this integrity is the one Author who wrote the Bible. God is that Author. He oversaw the writing of all 66 books of the Bible. This is why there are no contradictions in the Bible.5. Archaeological evidence. Archaeological research has provided further evidence of the Bible's accuracy. There is not a single archaeologist who has proven that the Bible contains false facts about cities, kings, and customs. In 1947 The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in the modern State of Israel. These scrolls include copies (or parts) of all but one of the books of the Old Testament. Many of these scrolls were written 100-200 years before the birth of Christ. These copies of the Old Testament books are 1000 years older than all other copies of the Old Testament previously known. When the Dead Sea Scrolls were compared to our Bible today, no significant differences were found. The Dead Sea Scrolls are a powerful fact that proves that our modern Bible is accurate and reliable. These scrolls give us compelling evidence that the Bible we have today tells us the same thing it told us when it was first written.
For a person who, for one reason or another, considers himself a Christian, practicing astrology, witchcraft, love spells and other Satanism is strictly prohibited. There is no “damage” at all. Those who resort to dark forces can only harm themselves - for they will go to Hell...
If a person took part in any rituals, read any mantras, prayers addressed to the spirits of evil, accepted initiations and dedications, then this person cuts himself off from the Church, for “what kind of fellowship does righteousness have with lawlessness? What does light have in common with darkness? What concord is there between Christ and Belial? Or what complicity is there between the faithful and the unfaithful? "(2 Cor. 6:14-15).
Undoubtedly, turning to fortune tellers and so-called “healers” and sorcerers is a grave sin. Even with such an intention, a Christian should repent in the Sacrament of Confession. The Church has never blessed magic and witchcraft, including the so-called “folk healing”. Even if church prayers, candles, icons are used, all the same, any witchcraft, fortune telling, clairvoyance, love spells, lapels and the like are always service to the devil, and for a Christian, even just passively participating in these sessions, this is a sin, who needs to repent in confession.
Just think everything through and make a conscious choice: either you believe in Christ and His Church, or you believe in the grandmother-healer and witch. Just understand that you can’t sit on two chairs: you can’t be both an Orthodox Christian and, as if you press it, turning for help not to the prayers of the Church, not to the Sacraments of Christ, but to sorcerers and healers. You need to be consistent in your worldview - either one or the other. And what exactly - everyone chooses for themselves freely and is responsible for their choice.
The most useful thing for you now will be a serious, detailed Confession for the entire time that has passed since your last Confession (or for your entire life, if you have never done this before). It would also be useful for you to purchase literature in the church store that teaches the basics of the Orthodox faith, first of all, the Gospel, and carefully read these books.
Any magic, white, black, even pink, is all the same. Even the “healer’s” use of prayers, the Cross and the presence of icons in his house cannot serve as a guarantee that this is not a charlatan. Remember the words of the Savior: Many will say to Me on that day: “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name? And weren’t they doing many miracles in Your name? “And then I will declare to them: I never knew you; Depart from me, you workers of iniquity." (Matthew 7:22-23)
If one of the “healers” claims that he has the blessing of the Church, ask to see a document. The documents presented, if any, are false. In any case, if you want to make sure of this, you can request copies of the documents and take them to the diocesan administration at your place of residence.
If someone on the street or in a letter claims that you have been damaged, treat it simply - as quackery and a way of making money on the fears of suckers.
In the Trebnik of the 17th century, Metropolitan of Kyiv Peter Mogila, to the question of whether a person is subject to the action of witchcraft, demonic forces through the evil eye, damage, the answer is given: “No, if he is sinless.” That is, if these forces have nothing to cling to in a person, then, of course, he is not susceptible. The Christian has protection. Thanks to repentance, Confession, Communion, prayer, trust not in his own strength, but in the power of God, which cleanses and washes the sinful soul, he is able to prevent all these hooks of the evil one from hooking it.
There are the words of the Apostle Paul: “Stop worthless and women’s fables” (1 Tim. 4:7). One can also recall the words of St. John Chrysostom, characterizing these “fables”: “The ravings of drunken old women and children’s scarecrows”
Question:
About 2 years ago, exhausted by the painful consequences of the sin of unnatural fornication, I accidentally learned about the services of a grandmother who supposedly knows how to look at water and remove damage, and turned to her.
When I got there, she whispered some prayers over a cup of water, then put the cup on my head and read a certain sequence of spells and prayers and gave me a drink. At the same time, I felt some strange warmth, and it was as if I was enveloped in some kind of whitish fog.
Being in this strange aura, I saw everything as if through some kind of cloudy whitish fog. After which the grandmother gave me instructions to perform certain procedures, and, returning from there, I continued to remain in this foggy aura. In confession, I told the priests about visiting my grandmother, and they warned me that it was a sin, and that the demon would return and bring 7 others with him, however, I ignored their warnings and continued to visit my grandmother. In addition, I dared to offer a willful prayer for the return of the enlightened state of consciousness that I had previously achieved, etc. in the same spirit, and repeated this request before the church several times. At the same time, I seemed to feel some kind of increased prayer power within me.
But, a few days later, when I was sitting alone, I felt as if some kind of stream of strange sweetness was entering me in the chest area, and at the same time I felt someone’s presence right in front of me, although I did not see anyone. I stood up and bowed before this invisibly standing figure, while I felt his ghostly feet on the floor, from which some ghostly streams of energy spread and flowed into my head.
When I tried to pray, with every word some kind of sweetness flowed into my soul, which made me even want to speak, but this sweetness was somehow false. At the same time, my mind was distracted from the things I was doing and I became unable to do normal things. After some time, information began to come into my head from somewhere outside about people whom I had previously known, information about events that had previously happened to me, previously unknown to me, and my mind was increasingly immersed in a state of some kind of alienation from real world, and I even began to feel the urge to leave the house. I was almost convinced that I had been visited by a miraculous visitation and had been given spiritual gifts, but just before going to bed I remembered what I knew about the state of delusion and realized that I was in a state of delusion.
Therefore, the next morning I went to church in fear, called the priest and began to tell him what had happened. Without listening to the end, he brought a confession, began to speak for me, and as soon as he baptized me, it was as if this veil had fallen from me, and I saw everything in a different light, different from ordinary consciousness, and I felt the Divine power prevailing over me, which everything grew and caused me something like an overwhelming burning sensation, in short, I apparently came to a state free from delusion and fell into the hands of the Zhivago God. After which the priest came up, raised me to my feet, blessed me to receive communion and said that in the Vvedno church there was a lecture from Father Alexander and I needed to go there. After which they brought me home, and I gradually descended back from this state of grace, in which it was very difficult for me to remain, and at the same time I felt the presence of demonic forces next to me. After which a whole series of demonic obsessions followed, and, probably, only through the efforts of the Guardian Angel did I not become completely possessed.
However, demons took over my mind, and under their influence I was in a state of mental disorder for a whole week, until I was finally taken to Father Alexander for reprimand. After which my psyche returned to a normal state, and the demons, apparently, left me, but they continued to fake intimidation in my dreams for some time. However, about a year after my first visit to my grandmother, all sorts of dark thoughts and fantasies gradually began to creep into my head, into which my mind was actively involved; in short, I entered some kind of painful state of consciousness, in which my soul and mind were painfully tense and constrained from the inside, and the senses came into a state of painful tension.
Then I again had to go to lectures to exorcise the demon. This made me feel better, but I continued to feel some kind of painful disorder in the functioning of the mind, psyche and sense organs. After a few more months, unpleasant sensations arose again, which were expressed in the fact that I either felt my body suspended in the air like a rag, or felt complete discord and insomnia in my head, and could not put my consciousness together, etc. Only after I went to the lecture again did I feel better, but I am afraid that after a while the attacks of demons will begin again at the most inopportune moment.
In addition, in a random conversation with fellow students, the conversation came up about my grandmother, and I ended up giving my grandmother’s phone number to one of them, which probably aggravates my guilt even more. To make amends for my guilt, I brought her to the prayer service as well. When I told Father Alexander about my visit to my grandmother and the consequences during the reprimand, he said that I had broken the Law of God, and that I needed to write a general confession from the age of 7 and the curse needed to be lifted from me.
When I said that in confession I had already repented of this sin many times, he asked if they had read a prayer over me to remove the curse? I answered that no, then he repeated that I needed to write a general confession and repent properly, but I still didn’t understand about lifting the curse.
So I wrote here to find out mainly the following questions:
Did I bring a curse or something on myself by visiting my grandmother, and if so, what is that curse?
If this curse is an act of calling upon me demonic forces, as a result of which they gained certain access to me, then how far does it spread over time, what consequences does it have and what is necessary to remove it?
Is it enough that I confessed this sin, took communion and attended a prayer service to cast out demons, or is something else required - a prayer to remove the curse or something else like that?
To what extent is it even possible to get rid of all these consequences?
Are all the painful symptoms described above a consequence of the fact that the demon comes to me at a certain distance and spreads some of its waves or something else onto me?
What worries me even more is that, perhaps, since I once came into contact with my grandmother, the conductor of the devil’s power in this world, the consequences of this are not limited to the fact that a certain number of demons came to me at a certain distance and do some obsessions and illnesses. If Satan is the prince of this world, and the information that I have gleaned about him indicates that he is an airy prince, a ruler of the world, that he stands everywhere, etc., then this leads me to assume that by visiting my grandmother I violated the alienation and protection of my soul and my entire structure from Satan established by Baptism and that my soul has now come into contact not only with individual demons, but also with Satan, who, apparently, is not only a person, but also an integral part of the current universe, since soon he will be the ruler of the world, etc. And that the protective shell, which previously separated me from the world-holding and omnipresent power of Satan and made my soul alien to him, has now, as a result of a visit to my grandmother, been destroyed, and I am now in my spiritual being not only in contact with God, but and with Satan, who now has direct access to my soul for his destructive influences. It seems that it is the Mother of God who makes a protective shell around a person, and my fears that it has been destroyed partially or completely are based on the fact that, as I described above, streams of satanic energy flowed into my soul, producing a feeling of false sweetness in it. My greatest fear is that streams of satanic energy are flowing into my eyes and head, and that the protective covering has been removed from my eyes.
These concerns are based on the fact that I experienced some hallucinations while watching TV, etc. I hope that these assumptions of mine are incorrect, but this cannot be left to chance, and if you are competent in these matters, please confirm or refute them.
AND. AND.
Hieromonk Job (Gumerov) answers:
Dear I.! The protective shell that you write about is nothing more than our physical body in a certain state. Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov) writes about this: The divinely inspired writer of the Book of Genesis says that after the fall of the first people, God, having pronounced judgment on them, even before their expulsion from paradise, made them garments of skins and clothed them (Genesis 3:21). Leather vestments, according to the explanation of the Holy Fathers (St. John of Damascus. An exact exposition of the Orthodox faith, book 3, chapter 1), mean our coarse flesh, which, during the fall, changed: it lost its subtlety and spirituality, and received its present plumpness. Although the initial cause of the change was the fall; but the change took place under the influence of the Almighty Creator, through His ineffable mercy towards them, to our greatest good. Among other beneficial consequences for us that flow from the state in which our body now finds itself, we must point out that by allowing our body to become fat, we have become incapable of sensually seeing the spirits into whose region we have fallen. Man has free will and, unfortunately, often abuses it. Consciously turning to evil spirits deprives our body of its ability to be a natural defense. Demons find access to the soul and lead it to a painful state. A person’s sincere appeal to God through the sacraments of repentance, communion and unction deprives demons of power over a person. Alive in the help of Vyshnyago. He will dwell in the shelter of the Heavenly God. Says the Lord: Thou art my protector, and my refuge, my God, and I trust in Him.(Ps.90:1). When a person begins to live in the grace-filled experience of the Church, his will is freed from direct dependence on fallen spirits. However, the soul, having gone through the terrible experience of the fall, continues to experience the consequences of the violence committed against it for a long time.
Dear I.! You must believe that the Lord wants and can heal you. You do not need to look for any special prayers and think about removing the “curse”. Sincerely and regularly participate in the prayer and liturgical life of the Church, zealously approach the holy sacraments, be sure to observe fasts, and follow the morning and evening rules. Prayerfully proceed to the healing relics of the saints of God: St. Sergius of Radonezh, Saints Mitrofan of Voronezh and Tikhon of Zadonsk, Blessed Matrona of Moscow and others. Decisively distance yourself from everything harmful: TV, reading unhealthy books, etc. Otherwise, the healing of your spiritually weakened soul will be delayed.
The “hallucinations” you write about are a subjective phenomenon. This is caused by demons who want to instill fear in you. There is no need to be afraid of them. Spiritually they are nothing. Their apparent power appears only when we are powerless and give them meaning. You have a “protective shell”, because church sacraments heal not only the soul, but also the body. Through them a person is reborn. The devil is not “an integral part of the current universe.” He is called the prince of peace (John 14:30), world ruler of the darkness of this age(Eph.6:12) because he rules the part of humanity that has fallen away from God.
With humility and reverence let us follow the teaching of the Holy Fathers and the tradition of the Orthodox Church! Let us reverently submit to the institution of God, who covered our souls with thick curtains and shrouds of bodies during our earthly wanderings, separating us with them from the created spirits, shielding and protecting us from the fallen spirits. We do not need a sensual vision of spirits to complete our earthly, arduous journey. For this we need another lamp, and it is given to us: The lamp of my feet is Your law, and the light of my paths (Psalm 119, 105). Those who travel under the constant shining of the lamp - the Law of God - will not be deceived either by their passions or by fallen spirits, as Scripture testifies(Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov).
