And although all the psychological and physiological phenomena mentioned above may seem completely unrelated to each other on the surface, we will try to show that in many cases this connection exists, since these phenomena very often have a common spiritual etiology, that is, causes.

Thus, let us try to look at the whole complex of these phenomena from an unusual point of view for a "secular" person, that is, brought up in an atheistic spirit. We will consider them from a spiritual, or rather, from an Orthodox position.

HISTORICAL ASPECT OF THE PROBLEM

The fact that the psyche and physiology of a person can be influenced from the outside with the help of some secret, magical forces has always been known in all peoples who have ever lived on earth. People who possessed the secret knowledge necessary to control these mysterious forces in ancient times were called priests (priesthood, that is, sacrifice – Slav.; zhreti – to offer sacrifice; priest – sacrificer)2. The forces with the help of which the priest exerted this or that influence on man or nature were called gods or spirits among pagan peoples. They have always been understood by everyone as intelligent beings of immaterial nature. In order for the spirits to have the desired effect, the priest had to perform a certain ritual and make a sacrifice to them, and often a human one. Thus, for example, among the Incas, Aztecs and Mayans, priests, cutting open the victim's chest with an obsidian knife, tore out the still beating human heart and, in clouds of tobacco smoke burned on the altar, offered with special incantations to their "god" - Quetzalcoatl. The qualities of this "god" described in the priestly books, his character and capabilities completely coincide with the capabilities and character of the head of the fallen angels (he is called Satan, Lucifer or Lucifer) described in the Old and New Testament traditions.

In their peoples or tribes, the priests had power that was not imaginary, but quite real, they were feared, because with the help of spirits they could not only bring diseases to people or their livestock, but even destroy a person from a distance.

In modern periodicals, publications have repeatedly appeared about how, after verbal manipulations and curses of a sorcerer of an African tribe, a completely healthy tribesman, sentenced to death, obediently prepared for it and after a while... Died!

Another reason for the worship of priests or shamans was that they often performed the functions of healers in their tribe, since the spirits prompted them (the phenomenon of "inner hearing")3 the healing properties of certain plants4, as well as recipes for making medicines5. But most successfully they could remove the disease induced with the help of spirits by themselves or other shamans.

The authority of pagan priests (shamans) in the eyes of rulers and people was also supported by the fact that with the help of spirits, priests made predictions of the most important events in the life of a particular people or tribe. Most often, these predictions were received by them either in the form of some symbolic pictures or plots shown during sleep, or in a state of mystical trance (one of the forms of an altered state of consciousness is psychiatrist). From the remotest antiquity to the present day, they have achieved this state with the help of various narcotic (including alcohol) drugs, transcendental meditation, as well as through ritual dances and special ritual singing. As research has shown, all these methods cause inhibition of the cerebral cortex, which, according to our observations, makes it very easy for demons to manipulate human consciousness.

Neurosurgeons at the University of Illinois in 1997 discovered a syndrome they called "rhythmic toxicosis", which appears in people who abuse listening to rock music. It is known that many, especially the most harsh, rhythms of this music are borrowed from the rituals of the voodoo cult performed in Africa on tom-toms. Their purpose is to turn off a person's consciousness and put him into a state of trance, which is most conducive to contact with spirits. It is in this state that young people are introduced at most rock concerts, and white people have symptoms similar to alcohol or drug poisoning. Young people of African descent have not been shown to have such symptoms, although they also go into a trance. The same method that causes inhibition of the cerebral cortex is techno music used in raves (rave means delirium, fever, severe insanity or madness). The number of beats per minute varies from 115 to 160. Biophysicists, physiologists and psychologists have long known that a certain frequency and rhythm of blows can have an unusually strong effect on the human psyche and physiology. However, not all of them realize that this is the way the gates for demons to enter his body, if, of course, a person is deprived of the protection of the grace of the Holy Spirit.

Today, despite the fact that in the so-called "civilized countries" there is no priestly-shamanic institution for a long time (it disappeared as a result of the Christianization of these countries), the functions of priests and shamans in them are performed by numerous adepts of magical cults, who work in the field of so-called "occult-magical services" by the sweat of their brows. Their appearance is due to the process of the falling away of the once Christian peoples from their faith and, naturally, from living according to the Commandments of Christ, which was the reason for the apostasy of the grace of the Holy Spirit from these peoples. In turn, de-Christianization entailed a return to paganism. The clan of "figures" who have replaced priests in the modern secular world include persons who are professionally or amateurly engaged in magic, that is, witchcraft, quackery, extrasensory perception, the so-called folk healing, reiki methodology, astrology, various fortune-telling, and other occult activities.

Almost all of them are able to commit actions that cause the so-called "spoilage", that is, willingly or unwillingly, to settle horned "tenants" in people. Of course, not everyone sets such goals for themselves consciously – often the process is automatic: a person turns to a sorceress, opens his soul to demonic influence – and the evil ones freely enter through the doors that are wide open. Another "worker" of magic, who turned to demonism for purely mercantile reasons,

And he does not suspect what forces he awakens in his desire to enrich himself.

However, among the host of charlatans, spiritually damaged and greedy for money, there are real priests (in the original sense of the word). They, although in relatively small numbers, began to appear again from the second half of the 19th century in countries with Christian roots. This was due to the return of the peoples of these countries to the pagan way of life. The new priests are ministers of the Worldwide Church of Satan, whose branches are now open in all parts of the world. For example, the first Church of Satan in Russia was registered by the Ministry of Justice in St. Petersburg in February 1992, and in Moscow there are already more than 20 branches (covens) of this "church". Such branches now exist in almost all major cities of the former Soviet Union.