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.

In order for a modern person to be able to understand the issues inexplicable from the point of view of psychology and medicine, to understand the causes of some mysterious diseases and strange changes in the behavior of relatives or acquaintances, we will try to show the origin, methods and forms of influence, as well as the symptoms and consequences of the phenomenon called "spoilage" in Russia.

THE TERM "SPOILAGE" AND ITS SYNONYMS

The term "spoilage" in Russia has been used since ancient times. Moreover, it has always been used exclusively to designate precisely those forms of mental and physical diseases that were caused by the help of "dark forces" and secret witchcraft knowledge. The complete Church Slavonic dictionary compiled by Archpriest G. Dyachenko refers us to the Greek analogue of the Slavonic word "spoilage": ????????, or ???????? 6 The Greek word means: "to lose one's mind, to suffer the consequences of poison, sorcery, a magic drink"7. Since ancient times, the process of inducing damage has had several synonymous names in many Slavic languages, for example: enchantment, obavanie, sorcery, magic, witchcraft (from "vetdenie"), medicine man (from "knowledge"). And people who possessed specific knowledge that made it possible to come into contact with demonic forces were called, respectively, sorcerers, magi, magicians, sorcerers, healers, as well as tailors (from the word "spoil"). About these people and the consequences of their activities, the "Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language" by V. Dahl (its 1st edition appeared in 1861-68) says the following: "Portezhnik, portyozhnitsa and porchelnik, porchelnitsa; porter, porter, porter — who spoils people or cattle with charms, evil eye, slander water, quackery.

Spoiled — spoiled by an evil healer, on whom he "finds", is unleashed; fits like falling off, Witt's dances, clique, possession"8.

At present, the Slavic terms are: enchantment, enchantment, sorcery, etc. Long since they have fallen out of use and, as a rule, are replaced by two more modern terms: witchcraft or magic, which we will use in the future. Thus, it is witchcraft (magic) that is the main way to cast a spell on a person and domestic animals.