Lately, many people started to manifest unusual skills: treatments with the energetic field, telepathy and psychokinesis, clairvoyance. All these are part from the contemporary life and therefore a religious interpretation and a clear and convincing attitude over these phenomena are necessary.
Is this thing good or bad? How should an orthodox Christian act when he meets such type of persons and should he draw upon their help? We will try to answer these questions but let’s first try to investigate our tradition and the experience of our Spirit bearers Holy Fathers.
In the Acts that evoke the preaching activity of Apostles after Christ’s Ascension, we read about a man called Simon who was casting spells on Samarian nation and amazed them, telling them he was a great person and everybody was listening to him, old and young and who said: This is God’s power, called the great and they listen to him for he had amazed them for a long time with his spells (Acts 8, 9-11).
Saint Justin the Martyr, analyzing this text, wrote that Simon was a sorcerer who lured with his spells the ignorant people “who saw in him a big power from God.” What kind of miracles did Simon the magician overreach the people? He did that through the same miracles that the sensorial people from today do – healings, telepathy, psychokinesis, clairvoyance, levitation. Besides these, Simon, as Saint Theophylact says, “tamed the possessed ones” meaning he used magical resources that he convinced the demon with to give the possessed person some space for a while, a fact that created the healing illusion. Later the devil possessed the ill person back. (Countless televiewers were witnesses to a similar recent “miracle” when during a TV show from 1990 a sorcerer “casted out the devil” from a woman).
Simon, the sorcerer honestly believed that also the Apostles, likewise him, shared the same art. Yet he met Philip the Apostle. The power of this devout man’s sermon and miracles was so extraordinary that it did not surprise only the public but also Simon himself. The people’s belief in Simon ceased for the belief in Christ and the people got baptized and so did Simon himself. The magician was defeated by the Apostle that worked the miracles through the Holy Spirit (as it happened long time ago with the Egyptian magicians who opposed Moses with their sorceries but who were defeated by the power of God – Exodus 7-8).
In the same book of Acts we read: “… Once, as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave girl who had a spirit of fortune-telling and who had brought her owners a great deal of money by predicting the future. She would follow Paul and us and shout, “These men are servants of the Most High God and are proclaiming to you a way of salvation!” She kept doing this for many days until Paul became annoyed, turned to her and told the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!” And it came out that very moment. (Acts 16, 16-18).
Here is actually the position of Paul the Apostle to that spirit: although he said the truth, the Apostle did not want the truth to be said through the unclean mouth of the devil, giving such an example of attitude to the evil spirits, even if they sometimes truly proclaim. For all these conceal nothing but a one single desire – to attract the man, to get in contact with him and gain his trust and to later bring him to perdition.
In the Paterikon from Pecerska we read about a monk Nichita, a later hierarch and miracle worker, whom due to his pride and conceit, after he early became a hermit, was spellbound by the devil that endowed him with the clairvoyance and by heart knowledge of the entire Old Testament. So that …”he spent a long time for talking to those who came to him, read them from the Scripture about the spiritual benefit, he started to foretell and therefore a huge glory started to be outspread about him, all the people were amazed about the certification of his prophecies.” Yet, when through the prayers of the holy fathers from Kievo-Pecerska Lavra the demon was casted out from him, it proved that he did not know anything by heart anymore and moreover he became illiterate. From the same Paterikon from Pecerska we read in the life of verily devout Lavrentie the eremite about a possessed man who spoke – by means of devil – Hebrew, Latin, Greek and other languages of the world that the possessed had never heard about before and who prophesized and spoke about things and people that he had never known about before.
In the life of Saint Martyr Cyprian we read how, during the time he was a sorcerer, he got acquainted with all the devilish wiles, different metamorphoses specific to the devil (he learned flying in the skies, walk on the water), change the sky properties, start the winds, make the sky thunder and rain and the sea torrential, cause damage to orchards, vineyards and field crops, send illnesses and plagues onto people – in other words, he got acquainted with the damaging wisdom and evil bringer cunnings of devil.” We could refer to thousands of similar examples, yet we believe that the conclusion is clear even without them: the demonic forces are capable to endow and they endow people with unordinary supra-sensorial skills.
Let’s now investigate about how the Holy Fathers practically approach these extra-sensorial skills. Let’s refer to Saint Siluan. In the chapter referring to clairvoyance we read about three types of it: “…first is due to natural human intuition, enhanced through fasting, the second is the result of the demonic work and the third is the one given from God.” What kind of clairvoyance do we retrospect the clairvoyance of a sensorial person to? Only to the first two for the third one represents a grace of God and is given only to the chosen ones after many years of ascetic life in Christ, “and to the prideful one is given nothing”.
Let’s investigate closely the first two types of clairvoyance.
“The first one, according to elder Siluan, can be useful and directed inwards for the humble man with pure thoughts because it helps him to a flawless respect for Christ’s commandments referring to our human fellow. Yet the first one can be harmful for the prideful and lustful one for it will multiply him the occasions for sins and will expose him to more possibilities to commit them.”
The second type is extremely harmful for those who accept it, for sooner or later it will lead to the imbalance of all psychic and spiritual forces of man distorting even his appearance… in the case of such type of clairvoyance, even if sometimes the skill of “reading” the mind of somebody manifests, yet the indwelling man will stay inaccessible to you. This skill manifests sometimes with a slightly higher authenticity towards some outward type events. Those who do not oppose it will take benefit to indulge themselves in conceit… and due to their general destructive and demoralizing nature of demonic acts, causes sufferings to those who have it, a fact that becomes obvious only after a long period of time.
To many people these sensorial skills appear as a consequence of yoga practice or other oriental religions. An eloquent example on this matter is the activity of the well-known Czech sensorial Frantisek Fierd. During one of the sessions of “Popov” society from Moscow, during which Frantisek was diagnosing ill patients from a distance by describing their life and the history of their illness, to the question of academician A.J. Spirkin who asked him about the way he achieved such type of performances, Frantisek answered with: “It is the result of an intensive yogi training, during which you learn to relax by disconnecting your rational and intellect. In other words, the information flow goes to the level of subconscious.”
Here the source of “talent” is absolutely clear. By thinning the body through a special diet and practicing some specific hatha-yoga exercises, penetrating the philosophical doctrine of it, often meditating and repeating the mantras the man exposes himself to the direct action of some cosmic forces, gets connected to their “hierarchy” and achieves the initiation and the respective “skills”. There is in yoga a very adjusted rigorous method: if you do this you will achieve paranormal skills and you will truly achieve them. Yet where will you get them from and with what price? Regarding this matter the oriental teachers prefer to not talk about it too much and they refer in general to an impersonal cosmic force and the inward potential of man. (I can do everything by myself, with my own forces, in other words – I am God). It is exactly the thought that Lucifer fell from Heaven for and became Satan for believing in him (according to Isaiah 14, 12).
Another way to achieve the paranormal skills is represented by the initiation with the direct help of a teacher included already within the demonic hierarchy. As a plague is transmitted to the healthy man from his contact with the ill one so does the possession occur if one believes and exposes himself to a yogi, sorcerer or sensorial person. These “skills” will grow and develop depending on the power of the last and on the addiction to passions of the first especially that his initiation can be achieved also without his own will being sufficient only his increased attention and trust.
As an example we will refer to transcendental meditation (TM) that became very popular in USA during the middle of the eighth decade of the last century. Due to TM exercises the man, according to the commercial of its founders, was endowed with huge vital forces, permanent joy, relax and health. Those who wanted to attend that class had to bring their teacher (guru) in a special room for initiation a basket with fruits and flowers. The gift is placed in front of the picture of the deceased guru, wherefrom the teacher got his initiation. In the same place a candle was lot and aromatic substances were burned. The ceremony in front of the portrait took half an hour, including the intonation of a song in Sanskrit (the meaning of which is unknown to the beginner) and the names of the former yoga teachers. At the end of the ceremony the initiated one gets his mantra (a secret word in Sanskrit) that he has to repeat continuously during his meditation. The interpretation of that ceremony is never revealed to the initiated one, its signification being accessible only to the teachers. Amongst others, that ceremony is nothing else but a worship of “puja” gods, including the divinization of guru-teacher Maharishi. Thus, the atheist of today, without suspecting anything, finds himself initiated in practicing a religious ritual and he is imperceptibly forced to do things that his Christian great-grandfathers probably would had rather preferred to be tortured or suffer a cruel death instead: he brings offerings to pagan gods. The explanation of the unheard off success of TM is given exactly by the aforementioned sin from a spiritual point of view more than the psychic method. The continuous repeat of mantra places the entire human being of man on a specific wave (vibration) connecting him apparently to the generator of that vibration. The demons, by the virtue of their fall are not effective for the creation. They only act destructively and over those who devoted themselves to them. In the book of the American ascetic Serafim Rose many examples are evoked about teachers and pupils who practiced occultism and they started to manifest mental and emotional disorders, attempts for suicide, crimes or possession.
Many fresh sorcerers propose their patients to be treated with biologic field ensuring them that they would get their own energy. According to the data of oriental reflex therapy, each person has a certain vital energy reserve that similarly to the blood that is continuously pumped in the veins, flows on certain energetic channels united between one another. If in a certain point an energetic block is formed or an energetic insufficiency then the organ placed on the respective channel will get ill. The acupuncture and the massage of some points have as a purpose the rebalance of normal flow of energy and its correct redistribution.
Yet, in reality, according to the data of A.I. Spirkin, “the sensorial person seems to contribute to the energy pump from the healthy organs to the ill one. If it is necessary, he will be able to give a part from his own energy to the ill patient.” This energy actually is not depersonalized but it carries all the information of its owner. The researches showed that this refers also to the water “enchanted” by beldams, as well as to the objects “charged” with energy by the sensorial people or to the objects used by sorcerers. Here are the conclusions of the same researcher: “A sick, for instance, a schizophrenic, has no right to cure anybody because his sick information can be transmitted to the healthy person.” In this way a part of the “inner man” of a sensorial person flows into the receiver with its inherent consequences. For instance, if the sensitive is a vicious person, his vices will be more or less transmitted to the patient as well as the information about the diseases that the sensorial person suffers of. So does the opposite process occur. All the diseases that the sensorial person treats are transmitted in a decreased percentage also to him and if he is receptive to them he will also become ill of them. Eventually the people who treat using their own energy are getting ill usually very serious and many acquaintances of the author had suffered even from their youth of an incurable paralysis. As for the man they treated, if the causes for the diseases were not canceled than the patient will usually get sick again.
Another channel of receiving energy is when the sensorial person, according to his affirmations, “receives it from cosmos.” The cosmos is an abstraction thus if you wish you will be able to very easily conceal in its infinite the real sources of “miracles worker forces.” Let’s try to clear this though. From the countless discussions I had with sensory people, I understood that when they work, above them descends a directed energy column that they use. They do not know where it comes from or possibly they do not want to tell. 11 If the energy is channeled, it means that there has to exist also the one who channelizes it. Who is that? According to the Matthew’s Gospel, you will know the tree from its fruits (Matthew 12, 33). And as Saint Apostle James says, the salt spring cannot give also sweet water… But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. (James 3, 11-14-15).
The words of Saint Ignatius Briancianinov fit perfectly to the aforementioned ones, as he writes that: “The Holy Fathers strictly condemn the desire to work miracles; such kind of inclination reveals that in that soul dwells the self-deceit that comes from conceit and arrogance… Those who desire to work miracles, imagined by them, desire it from their physical lust, from the growth of their passions that they are not aware of, although maybe they think that they are guided by a big eagerness in God’s work. Those who desire to see such signs are sharing the same condition of lust and self-deceit.” Thus, if the man who acquired sensorial skills is conceit, arrogant, full of self-love, envy, inclines to debauchery, is avaricious, in other words is a lustful man, it will be clear: these skills carry a demonic character. The power he uses is from the devil that has a destructive power both over him and the receiver.
For instance, according to the data of a researcher from Kiev, T.P. Resetnikova, who studied the result of the action of sensorial people over a test glass filled with human blood, the content of magnesium in blood was either doubled or halved under the influence of the operator. Resetnikova used as reference a paper of Louis Kerverand who proved the existence of the physical process called transmutation (transformation of elements). Under the effect of sensorial people upon the organism of perceiver is generated as a consequence of transmutation of elements a chemical unbalance especially in the blood that according to the opinion of specialists could lead to cancer and possibly also to AIDS.
Besides, once the people are treated by sensorial people and slightly recovered for a while, over and over again look for the possibility to “charge” themselves a bit, to receive a new similar supply of energy, they often become telepaphy maniacs (they look forward to the broadcast of sensorial people’s TV shows and they cannot live without that anymore, they totally lose their will), due to the destruction of the inward psychological barrier that protects them from the outward influences; they easily fall for any influence, even for the demonic ones as it goes in the people with a strong ill will. Their soul is exposed to such type of intrusion, they start to look for other sensorial people, the respective information will not be long in coming and the person starts developing according to a determined course. This obviously does not occur on Christ’s path. Besides this, the demonized sensorial people – in order to get more money and fame – apply real barbarian methods to redistribute the energy in the organism whereafter the ill organ gets an energy inflow from the healthy one and recovers while the other one gets ill. For instance, a person gets a treatment for ulcer and soon after that dies of heart attack. During the session, the sensorial people practice also the energy squeeze from the patient; establishing a long term energetic connection and they continue to “pump” energy on that channel.
The idea of generosity of sensorial people became popular and according to it they apparently take upon them the illnesses of others giving their own health for the recover of others. Something like that is far from them. A generous start is noticed to the fresh inexperienced sensorial people that soon either get sick and stop treating other people or seek for the certified source of energy (from the demonic forces). Yet during the treatment sessions the sensorial person focuses the biggest part of his efforts to create a protection barrier for them against the illness. As long as they are not able to cancel the ontological cause of the illness (a thing that is achievable only through the power of God), the sensorial people transfer the illness either to another organ or to another patient. This is surely difficult to be called an act of generosity.
Thus in some cases the sensorial people donate energy and in others they steal it. Is this a contradiction? Not at all. Let’s admit that they collect 70% of energy while they return only 10%. That’s the way Djuna, Kaspirovski, Rutko and many others do.
Here is what A.I. Spirkin, correspondent member of Russian Science Academy says about Djuna: Do you know what puzzles me as a scientist? – Even the fact that she receives in the evening 120 patients in 3-4 hours. During the period she lived in a hotel in Moscow if I visited her in the morning I saw her exhausted and pale (unfortunately she was also a smoker). I went to the apartment where she received those who feverishly waited… After the 10th patient, 20th, 70th she became agile, even rompish, she was giggling meaning she was already in an emotional ascension. In the evening, at the restaurant, she was dancing a lot, she was overwrought, full of energy, and she came back to the hotel late at night.” An adequate addition to this story is an article published in the “Ogni Bolgarii” magazine in 1987. The author, a journalist who met Djuna, said that he had never met a person who did not get ill again after the treatment with her. Isn’t this an obvious energetic vampirism? The alcoholism, smoking, night parties exhaust the body, an obvious thing illustrated by Djuna’s wilted face and apathy. Yet during her sessions with the patients where she can easily squeeze energy, her vigor and freshness reappear. The mechanism is clear. Of course the illnesses of “treated” people are coming back. And it is a fortunate case if that stress did not result in a lethal end for the patient as it happened for instance not only once during Kaspirovski’s treatments.
11. Some sensorial people or bio therapists have the courage and deign though to explain the source of their “bioenergy”. For instance, professor Nina G. from Moldavian Republic explained how she was contacted by “aliens” and brought in a laboratory where other persons were waiting in line to be charged with energy. When she was asked if she wanted to work for them, Nina answered that she would like to work only for Christ. (before this happened, Nina was a Christian only by name: she did not attend the church and she did not take Communion). Without paying attention to her answer, they charged her with energy through her pate and forbade her to talk with anyone about what happened there. Later, Nina woke up at home, feeling in her back a permanent pressure that urged her to look for patients and get rid of the overwhelming energy. Over the time, she felt that she was followed by a demon (directing spirit) that appeared especially during the night. Being frightened she ran to a priest who advised her to go to church, to pray and stop practicing such type of treatment. With God’s mercy and as an example for others, Nina got rid of the unwanted “guest” and evil energy.
