And all our diseases stand in the closest causal connection with our nervous system. Today's medicine is increasingly looking for and finding the roots of diseases in the nervous system, primarily in the brain. This is very, very important: if the nervous system, if the brain is in charge of all disease processes, then recovery is from the nervous system, from the brain, from its perception and influence on it.

This is the belief of modern scientific medicine. And in the last century, the famous psychiatrist, French professor Charcot wrote a book about the role of faith in healing the sick. In our time, there are striking facts that testify to the fact that even the death of a person can be caused by an impulse from the brain, can be caused by autosuggestion.

The young woman decided to commit suicide. She poured a large dose of arsenic into a glass of water, drank this water and died instantly. Arsenic does not kill people instantly. The examination of the corpse did not give any indication of the objective causes of death: the body of the deceased was in perfect order, all organs were healthy. The cause of death was not found in her body.

Two glasses were found in the suicide's room: one with the remains of clean water, the other, full, with arsenic. She drank clean water by mistake and died. Isn't this an example of how our brain, by suggestion and autosuggestion, can influence not only the course of illness, but even cause death? And if so, if an influence coming from the brain could interrupt life, then such influences can also heal the sick, as is proved by the innumerable miracles at the discovery of the relics of St. Seraphim of Sarov and the multitude of miracles in Lourdes.

If so, then why not admit that the name of Christ, that the great power of Christ, the boundless faith in Christ could heal all illnesses, when the holy apostles invoked the name of Christ on the sick and demon-possessed? The power of Christ is a very real power. You have heard in the Gospel that once, when He was crowded, an unfortunate bleeding woman secretly approached Him and touched His garment in the deep conviction that one touch would heal her.

Then the Lord stopped, looked around and asked: "Who touched Me?" The disciples were amazed: "How, O Lord, do You ask, who touched You: the people press You on all sides?" "No, someone touched Me, for I felt power proceeding from Me" (Luke 8:42-46). Mk. 5, 24-31). He felt the spiritual power that came out of Him and healed the unfortunate bleeding woman.

He gave this Divine power, the power of His Holy Name, to His apostles, and with this power they worked miracles, with this power they cast out demons, with this power they raised the dead. Ye have now heard the Gospel account of the healing of the Gadarene demoniac man. What shall we say about this story? So, does it refer only to that ancient time when there were many demon-possessed, when the people did not doubt the existence of demon-possession, when Christ and His apostles cast out demons?

And is this not a fable, as all unbelievers believe? No, no, this is not a fable. And just as there were demon-possessed during the earthly life of the Lord Jesus, so to this day there are many, many demon-possessed among us. True, not as terrible as the Gadarene demoniac was. Who are the possessed? Why and why did the Lord perform an amazing miracle of healing a demoniac in which lived a whole legion of demons, possessing inhuman strength, breaking iron chains?

In order to show the most vivid example of possession, to show that this demoniac was healed by the power of Christ, although this was the most terrible manifestation of possession. But you know that in nature in general, as in human life, side by side with the vivid manifestations of various physical and spiritual forces, there are many, many smaller, much smaller, barely perceptible manifestations of the same forces; You know that all natural phenomena are arranged according to degrees.

You know that grains of quartz sand and shards of granite are the same as huge mountains, the same as the highest peaks of the Himalayas, the Cordillera and the Andes – they are the same granite, the same quartz, only in a small, small size. There are ciliates and bacteria that are invisible to the naked eye and detectable only by a microscope. Along with them, there were huge, monstrous dinosaur lizards, diplodocus.

Do you not know people who are always lying, lying endlessly, not saying a word of truth? Are they not possessed by the unclean spirit of lies, the power of the one whom the Lord called the father of lies, the devil? And when you see a violently depraved harlot, will you not then say that she is possessed by the demon of fornication? Those robbers, bandits who kill dozens of people for the purpose of robbery, who are capable of slaughtering a baby, are these people not possessed by the demons of bloodlust, the demons of murder, the demons of violence?

These are all demoniacs: there are many, many of them among us. And are we ourselves far from them? No, they are not far away. We are all infected with pride, ambition, vanity, envy. What are those? This is also the demonic possession of pride, ambition, and envy. There are many possessed to this day, and many among us, only not such as the Gadarene possessed, but still possessed by demons. What to do, what to do?

We must fight with all our might against the demons that live in us. Oh yes, it is necessary, we need a struggle, and the Lord has shown us how to fight demons. He said: "This kind is cast out only by prayer and fasting" (Matt. 17:21). Remember this. The holy apostles cast out demons by prayer and fasting, they cast them out in the name of Christ. What happened in this case?

The holy and great spirit of the apostles, burning with love for the Lord Jesus and faith in Him, dwelt in the weak spirit of the sick and possessed. How can he move in? It can be very simple, for the human spirit is like bodiless spirits, it is only a spirit less powerful than these bodiless spirits, but it is of exactly the same nature and is akin to them: it is capable of communion and unity.