Nevertheless, almost all of these unfortunate people deceived by demons are infinitely confident in the divine origin of their abilities to heal people with energy influence or even prayer. But it is about them that Christ spoke: "Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord! God! Did we not prophesy in Your name (for example, the clairvoyant Vanga. — Author)? and was it not in Thy name that demons were cast out ("they removed the curse." — Author)? and have they not performed many miracles in Thy name (they healed illnesses and lifted corpses into a sitting position by the devil's power, like Y. Longo. — Author)?" depart from me, you workers of iniquity" (Matt. 7:22-23).

"THE MONKEY OF THE LORD GOD"

Ever since the head of the fallen angels, Lucifer, who is more often called Satan, together with like-minded angels, refused to obey his Father and Creator, he has not ceased to work on the task of separating all mankind from God and submitting all people to his authority. Psychics and other "healers" (i.e., unconscious sorcerers), who are assigned a very significant role in solving this problem, must nevertheless think that their abilities have a positive origin. To do this, demons use deception, which consists in a clever substitution of concepts. That is why one of the main tactics in this struggle is the METHOD OF SUBSTITUTION, which consists in passing off demonic actions as actions of God's grace.

Let me give you a few examples: just as the prophets of God received revelations from the Creator, the false prophets (founders of other religions and sects) received knowledge and revelations from demons who called themselves either "gods" and angels, or representatives of higher alien civilizations or cosmic teachers of humanity.

In the same way, like many Orthodox saints who performed many miracles and healings by the grace of God, sorcerers, magicians, shamans, Sufis, yogis, fakirs, lamas, and psychics amaze the gullible with miracles performed by the power of the demons living in them. One could point to many other similar substitutions, or even copying (however, as always, with a negative sign), but I believe that each of the readers can recall examples of this himself.

Here I will only note that in some cases occultists, psychics and other servants of the devil are even, I would say, forced to do something similar to what is done by true servants of God and in general by all Christians who live a correct church life. The spiritual practice of all peoples of the world shows that in order to achieve contact with the spiritual world, it is necessary to "thin" the flesh with the help of fasting, that is, the rejection of meat and dairy products, alcohol, etc. I will cite only two examples concerning fasting and prayer.

I believe that readers are well aware of the fact that all occult systems that help their adepts to master magical powers (in other words, to develop paranormal abilities, or, in other words, siddhis), just like Orthodox Christians, use both fasting and prayer to achieve their goals. The commonality of these methods (outwardly the same) is due to the fact that both occultists and Christians use them to prepare their bodies and souls for contact with the spiritual world. The difference lies in the fact that they reach the level of communication with different, one might even say, diametrically opposed, spheres of this subtle world. There are two of them: the higher, called Heaven (not to be confused with what we understand in ordinary life by this word), also called the Kingdom of Heaven, and the lower, infernal, called in Slavonic utter darkness (or in Russian, outer darkness, Matt. 25:30) or hell (from the Greek ????, which in Hebrew sounds like Scheol, literally, a place devoid of light).

From the experience of the holy ascetics of both the Old Testament and the New Testament Church, as well as from the experience of yogis, Buddhists, lamaists and others, it is known that lenten food or even fasting prepares the human body to receive certain spiritual powers, and prayer unites both body and soul with the source of this power. It is clear that in the cases I have indicated (firstly, Orthodox asceticism, and secondly, pagan spiritual systems) the sources of spiritual forces are very different. In the first case, prayer connects a person who has come to know the True God with the Creator of the entire universe. It is from Him that the praying person receives the grace-filled power of the Holy Spirit. In the second case, prayer and fasting open a person to the influence of those forces that dwell in the lower sphere of the spiritual world, that is, facilitate contact with the devil's world and demonic energies. Thus, as we see, the only question is in whom and how the person praying and fasting believes, as well as for the sake of which he undertakes these spiritual feats.

An Orthodox Christian, turning in prayer to the One True God, the Creator, One in three Hypostases, or to the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ, prepares himself by fasting and prayer to receive the uncreated energies of the Holy Spirit, since the acquisition, that is, the accumulation (accumulation) of Divine grace is, according to the words of the Venerable Fathers Macarius of Egypt and Seraphim of Sarov, the main work of every Christian's life.

However, he needs the uncreated energy of the Holy Spirit (grace) not at all in order to assert himself in his own eyes or in public opinion, and not for various manipulations with the will and consciousness of other people, in order to feel himself a "superman" and almost a "god". No, he needs grace as food that really nourishes and strengthens the soul in the struggle against sin. Only the grace of God can, as it were, charge the paralyzed, exhausted will of man, which is unable to follow the Commandments of God on its own because of its weakness and susceptibility to evil.

These negative qualities manifested themselves in all people as a consequence of ancestral sin. Only the grace of the Holy Spirit returns to the human soul divine peace, gentleness, patience, fearlessness, modesty, sacrificial love for one's neighbor, courage and willpower. Only the grace of God can really change and transform the soul of man, as if refining and purifying it from sinful passions by Divine fire, in order to make it worthy of eternal life in the coming Kingdom of Glory. Only the grace-filled Divine energies enlighten our mind with the true Divine and uncreated light, opening it to the cognition of the Creator and Divine Providence about the world and people. And, finally, the grace of God, which can be felt not only by people who are near the person who possesses it, but also to an even greater extent by demons, is for its bearer the most effective protection (as it were, a screen) from their influence.

Most people perceive the grace present in a true Christian as a "radiation" of love, warmth and tranquility, which brings calm to their troubled souls. On the contrary, demons perceive this Divine energy as a scorching flame, which does not allow them to even approach the ascetic, and even more so to control his will, mind and spiritual feelings (emotions) with the help of mental transmission. In the same way, people who are possessed by evil spirits (and there are more and more of them in our time) perceive a grace-filled person with unconscious and, as it were, groundless hostility and even malice, which becomes quite understandable if we take into account the natural reaction to the Divine grace of those spiritual beings who dwell in possessed people.