This serious warning points to yet another extremely important moment in the spiritual life, to the terrible danger that threatens the ascetic who is inexperienced and has neither a true guide nor correct theoretical spiritual knowledge ("thoughts," according to St. Ignatius) – the possibility of falling into daydreaming, or the so-called prelest. The latter term, often used by the Fathers, is remarkable for the fact that it accurately reveals the very essence of this phenomenon: flattery to oneself, self-deception, opinion of one's own dignity and perfection, pride. St. Ignatius warns: "He who thinks of himself as impassible will never be cleansed of passions; he who thinks that he is full of grace will never receive grace; he who thinks of himself as holy will never attain holiness. It is simple to say: he who ascribes to himself spiritual deeds, virtues, virtues, grace-filled gifts, flatters himself and amuses himself with opinions, blocks the entrance to spiritual deeds, Christian virtues, and Divine grace with this opinion, opens wide the entrance to sinful infection and demons. There is no longer any capacity for spiritual progress in those infected with opinion" (I, 243). Quoting the words of St. Gregory the Sinaite and naming the main source of this deadly disease: "In general, the only cause of delusion is pride..." – the saint also offers an antidote: "As pride is the cause of delusion in general, so humility... serves as a true warning and protection against delusion... Let our prayer be imbued with a feeling of repentance, let it be combined with weeping, and delusion never affects us" (I, 228).

In this feeling of repentance and humility, the Fathers saw the main criterion in distinguishing between holiness and delusion. St. Ignatius writes: "All the saints recognized themselves as unworthy of God: by this they showed their dignity, which consists in humility. All the self-deceived considered themselves worthy of God: by this they revealed the pride and demonic delusion that enveloped their souls. Some of them received demons that appeared to them in the form of angels, and followed them... others stirred up their imagination, heated their blood, produced nervous movements in themselves, took this for grace-filled pleasure and fell into self-deception, complete delusion, and were numbered in their spirit among the rejected spirits" (II, 126).

Unfortunately, any believer can find himself in this miserable state if he lives "on his own," without a spiritual mentor, without the guidance of the writings of the Holy Fathers. But if understanding the fathers is not always an easy task, then it is many times more difficult to find a true leader. And in this regard, St. Ignatius gives especially valuable advice to the modern believer. He warns about the need for great caution in choosing a spiritual father and the right attitude towards him, about the indispensability of separation from someone who turns out to be in delusion. Finally, and this can be especially important for a modern person. St. Ignatius says that at the present time there are no teachers who see the souls of people, but there are still, by the mercy of God, the elder "successful brethren" who have knowledge of the Holy Fathers and a certain spiritual experience, whose advice must be used without fail, checking, however, their patristic writings. Let us cite a few small excerpts from the works of the saint on this issue.

"According to the teaching of the Fathers, the residence... the only thing befitting our time is to live under the guidance of the writings of the fathers with the advice of successful modern brethren; This advice must again be checked according to the Scriptures of the Fathers... The Fathers, who are thousands of years removed from the times of Christ, repeating the advice of their predecessors, are already complaining about the rarity of divinely inspired teachers, about the multitude of false teachers that have appeared, and offer Holy Scripture and patristic writings for guidance. The Fathers, who are close to our time, call the divinely inspired leaders the heritage of antiquity and already resolutely bequeath the Holy Scriptures as a guide, verified by these Scriptures, and the advice of contemporary ones, which is accepted with the greatest circumspection and caution... brethren" (I, 563). "The Holy Fathers bequeath to choose a teacher who is not charming... They warn against unskilled teachers, lest they be infected by their false teaching" (I, 219).

"It will be objected: the faith of a novice can replace the lack of an elder. It is not true: faith in the truth saves, faith in falsehood and in demonic delusion destroys, according to the teaching of the Apostle" (2 Thessalonians 2:10-12) (V, 73).

"The Monk Pimen the Great commanded to immediately separate from the elder, living together with whom turns out to be harmful to the soul: obviously, because of the violation by this elder of the moral tradition of the Church" (V, 74).

St. John of the Ladder wrote that "in his time the vessels of Divine grace were greatly diminished... the saint sees the reason for this in the change of spirit in human society, which has lost its simplicity and has become infected with deceit" (verse 26, ch. 52). St. Gregory of Sinaite (XIV century) "I ventured to say that in his time there were no grace-filled men at all, so rare they had become... All the more so in our time it is necessary for the worker of prayer to observe the greatest caution. We have no divinely inspired teachers!" (I, 274)

St. Cassian of Rome says: "It is useful to reveal one's thoughts to fathers, but not to any one, but to spiritual elders who have discernment, to elders who are not according to their physical age and gray hair. Many, carried away by the outward appearance of old age and expressing their thoughts, instead of healing, received harm from the inexperience of those who hear" (I, 491).

"The Monk Nilus of Sorsky never gave instruction or advice directly from himself, but offered to the questioners either the teaching of the Scriptures or the teaching of the Fathers. When... he did not find in his memory a sanctified opinion on any subject, so he left the answer or fulfillment until he found instruction in the Scriptures. This method is evident from the writings of the Hieromartyr Peter of Damascus, St. Gregory the Sinaite, St. Xanthopoulos and other Fathers, especially the later ones. It was held by the hieroschemamonks of the Optina Hermitage, Leonid and Macarius... They never gave advice from themselves... This gave the councils their power" (I, 489).

"Every spiritual guide must lead souls to Him (Christ), and not to himself... Let the teacher, like the great and humble Baptist, stand aside, acknowledge himself as nothing, rejoice in his humiliation before the disciples, which is a sign of their spiritual progress... Guard against addiction to mentors. Many did not beware and fell into the snare of the devil together with their mentors. Addiction makes a loved one an idol: God turns away from the sacrifices made to this idol with anger... And life is lost in vain, good deeds perish. And you, teacher, guard yourself against sinful beginnings! Do not replace God for the soul that has come to you. Follow the example of the holy Forerunner" (IV, 519). Such is the voice of the Holy Tradition of the Church, that is, of the Holy Spirit Himself, who speaks to us today through His saint.

About one of the most common reasons for falling into self-conceit and delusion, St. Ignatius writes as follows: "It is not without reason that the state of self-deception and delusion is attributed to the state of spiritual disposition of those monks who, having rejected the exercise of the Jesus Prayer and mental activity in general, are satisfied with outward prayer alone, that is, unfailing participation in church services and unfailing fulfillment of the cell rule, consisting exclusively of psalmody and prayer, oral and vowel... They cannot avoid "opinions"... Verbal and public prayer is fruitful when it is associated with attention, which is very rare, because we learn to pay attention primarily through the exercise of the Jesus Prayer" (I, 257-258). Naturally, this remark applies not only to monks, but also to all zealous Christians.

However, it is wrong to think that prelest is a phenomenon that arises only on specifically Christian, especially Orthodox, soil. In his article "On Prelest," St. Ignatius writes directly: "Prelest is the state of all people, without exception, produced by the fall of our forefathers. We are all in delusion. Knowledge of this is the greatest protection against delusion. It is the greatest charm to admit that one is free from delusion. We are all deceived, all deceived, all in a false state, in need of liberation by the truth. The truth is our Lord Jesus Christ" (I, 230).

Therefore, we will give several illustrations of charming states from different "worlds". First, from the non-Christian.

Buddha, for example, inspires his followers: "Do not seek support in anything but in yourself: shine on yourselves, leaning on nothing but yourself." He says of himself: "I am omniscient, I have no teacher, no one is equal to me; In the world of men and gods, no creature is like me. I am sacred in this world, I am a teacher, I am alone – the absolute myself – the Buddha. I have achieved peace and received nirvana."