Will the devil possess a person? Possessed by demons: opinions of the church and psychiatrists. How to protect yourself from demons

The forms and degrees of this serious illness vary. St. Diodochos, Bishop of Phytica, writes: “There are two kinds of evil spirits: the subtlest, which war on the soul, and the coarsest, which act on the body. When grace does not dwell in a person, evil spirits, like snakes, nest in the depths of the heart, preventing the soul from seeing the desire for good. When grace dwells in him, then they, like some dark clouds, flash through parts of the body, transforming into sinful passions and various ghostly dreams, so that through memories and entertainment with dreams, the mind can be pulled away from the conversation with grace.” St. Diodochos speaks of a degree when subordination to evil spirits has no noticeable external manifestations. This type of dependence is characteristic of almost all people who do not have a spiritual life or spend it extremely inattentively. Possession becomes noticeable when demons take possession of a person’s consciousness and will, and through this the body. And here the degree and types of this disease are very different. The Gospel describes the terrible state of possession in which the Gadarene resident found himself: he had a home in coffins, and no one could even bind him with chains, because he was bound with shackles and chains many times, but he broke the chains and broke the shackles, and no one was able to tame him; always, night and day, in the mountains and coffins, he screamed and beat against the stones(Mark 5:2-6). The sacred text also reveals to us the reason for such a disastrous situation. There was a legion of evil spirits within him. The Roman legion numbered from 4,000 to 6,000 soldiers. This word, apparently, does not indicate a number, but an innumerable multitude of demons that tormented a person. But even one demon can cause a lot of torment. The father who came to Jesus speaks of his sick son: He [goes berserk] during the new moon and suffers greatly, for he often throws himself into fire and often into water(Matthew 17:15).

The nature of the possession and the degree of pain also depend on the demon that has taken possession, for they have different strengths and not the same ferocity: “others are so furious and ferocious that they are not content to torment with cruel torment only the bodies they have entered, but are in a hurry also to attack those passing in the distance and strike them with cruel blows, such as are described in the Gospel (Matthew 8:28), for fear of which no one dared to pass that way” (Venerable John Cassian. Interview 7th, chapter 32).

When a demon possesses a person, his inner life is completely disrupted. The mind gradually becomes darkened. Only after healing did the Gadarene demoniac regain his sanity. The inhabitants of that country, having come to the place where their herd of pigs grazed, found a man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind(Luke 8:35).

The patient's will becomes unfree. “Just as in a dark and deep night some cruel wind blows and causes all the plants and seeds to move, confuse and shake: so man, having fallen under the power of the dark night - the devil, and staying in the night and darkness, is terribly blown by the wind of sin caused to oscillate, shake and move; his whole nature, soul, thoughts and mind are in confusion, all his bodily members are in shock. Not a single member of the soul or body is free and cannot help but suffer from the sin that lives in us” (St. Macarius the Great. Spiritual Conversations. 2:4). Sometimes the consequence is blindness (Matthew 12:22), deafness and dumbness: Jesus, seeing that the people were running, rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to him: the spirit is dumb and deaf! I command you, come out of it and do not enter it again.(Mark 9:25).

Possessed by a demon becomes gloomy. The soul is deprived of the ability to be cheerful and joyful. Sometimes it resembles attacks of melancholy and fear. Two letters from L.N. Tolstoy to his wife Sofya Andreevna show how painful this condition is: “On the third day of the night I spent the night in Arzamas, and something extraordinary happened to me. It was two o'clock in the morning, I was terribly tired, I wanted to sleep, and nothing hurt. But suddenly I was attacked by melancholy, fear, and horror such as I had never experienced. I will tell you the details of this feeling later, but I have never experienced such a painful feeling and God forbid anyone else to experience it. I jumped up and ordered them to lay it down... Yesterday this feeling... returned while driving" (September 1869). In another letter, L. Tolstoy writes: “Since I arrived here, every day at six o’clock in the evening, melancholy begins, like a fever, physical melancholy, the feeling of which I cannot better convey, like the feeling that the soul is parting with the body” ( dated June 18, 1871).

The ultimate goal of demons is to destroy the inner spiritual life. If it never began in a person, then prevent it. In the words of St. Neil of Sinai: “The devil, the culprit and at the same time the painter of vice, has the goal of plunging every person into severe and inconsolable sadness, making him far from faith, from hope, from the love of God.”

A believer should not be faint-hearted and inclined towards fearlessness. He who dwells under the shelter of the Most High, under the shadow of the Almighty, rests(Ps.90:1). Demons are not given the power to harm arbitrarily. Only those who constantly live in sin without repentance, proudly reject God’s help or are infected with false teachings have no protection. “So it is clear that unclean spirits cannot otherwise penetrate those whose bodies they want to take possession of, unless they first take possession of their minds and thoughts. When they are deprived of the fear and memory of God or spiritual reflection, then as if they were disarmed, deprived of the help and protection of God, and therefore easily defeated, they are boldly attacked, then they build a dwelling in them, as in the domain presented to them” (Venerable John Cassian. Interview 7 -e, ch. 24).

Traditionally, possession means the possession of a demon or demon in a person, who begins to control his life, pushing his victim onto the path of evil. And although few people today believe in Christian stories about demonic possession, this phenomenon itself continues to excite the minds of many researchers who have decided to study this issue.

First of all, it is necessary to separate the phenomenon of possession by demons and demons from its religious interpretation. Hundreds, if not thousands of books have been written about demoniacs, and their number is steadily increasing every year.

Briefly, the Christian explanation of possession is as follows: a demon or demon subjugates a person’s will in order to lead him astray from the “true path.”

Under the influence of the servants of the devil, a person changes beyond recognition: he becomes aggressive, he experiences convulsions or epileptic seizures, he has obsessive thoughts about murder or suicide, he loses his sense of shame, hallucinates and speaks on behalf of those he is obsessed with, including languages ​​unknown to science.

Other signs of demonic possession are expressed in irrational hatred of Christian symbols and clergy, but in this case we are talking more about mental disorders than about outside interference. To confirm this, it is enough to turn to the descriptions of possession in Islam, where, for obvious reasons, strong dislike for Christians is not indisputable evidence of the influence of evil spirits on a person.

Islam considers inappropriate immoral behavior, hallucinations, frequent loss of consciousness and mental abnormalities to be signs of demonic possession. True, unlike Christianity, Muslims blame all these symptoms on jinn or shaitans.

In both cases, the general properties of obsession should be considered: an increased level of aggression, strange visions and frequent attacks accompanied by clouding of reason. Similar symptoms can be found in the Voodoo religion, where, IN ADDITION to everything else, we are also talking about the abduction of the soul. Religious systems only interpret this phenomenon differently, burying it under a heap of conjectures built on the tenets of each specific cult.

Cults may be different, but the cases described by their adherents of the introduction of hostile entities into a person’s energy field remain unchanged. The possessed person not only suffers himself, but also causes pain to those around him, depriving them of peace and vitality - here lies the key to solving the riddle of demonic possession.

All religions agree that demons or jinn have a destructive influence on people, but they find it difficult to explain how an immaterial entity destroys the physical body of its victim. The spirit that has taken possession of a person does not absorb food or blood and does not eat the body from the inside, then what does it feed on to maintain its own existence?

The only answer that comes to mind is energy. The possessed person behaves hostilely towards others not because the entity that has possessed him embodies evil, but because this is the mechanism of its feeding. Strictly speaking, calling it a spirit, demon or shaitan is not entirely correct, since the most accurate definition for creatures of this kind is the term “energy vampire.”

When faced with these dangerous creatures, ancient people tried to explain their nature in accordance with their religious doctrines and mistook them for demons, shaitans or ghosts. Priests and priests tried to fight them with the help of spells and rituals, but the history of the Inquisition shows that the fastest and most effective way to expel the “demon” remains only the physical destruction of its carrier. A. since energy vampires are well aware of all human misconceptions, they willingly play along with people with the sole purpose of getting as much energy as possible, generated by physical and moral suffering.

Victims of the Inquisition did not always incriminate themselves, admitting to relations with the devil, under the influence of torture. Often, the energy vampire who possessed them actually took the form of a demon or Satan in the hallucinations he created, which were taken by the possessed to be true reality.

The stronger the torture, the more the victim suffered, and the energy vampire doesn’t need anything else. Burning alive at the stake, a person released a colossal amount of energy. The vampire could only take it and leave the body of his carrier just before death.

However, over time, viewers got used to public executions and stopped feeling the fear for their own lives, which helped energy vampires from lower castes survive. They had to look for other ways of feeding, and the public burning of heretics gradually became a thing of history. Belief in demons and demons began to steadily weaken, and at the moment has almost completely disappeared in civilized countries, where a cult of virtual violence and an irresistible fear of the future, which promises either crises and ruin, or the next “End of the World,” has now reigned.

In the first decades of the existence of Soviet Russia, mass repressions of the clergy gave energy vampires a lot of food, closing the circle of history. However, from the point of view of a predator, the human personality is secondary in relation to the amount of energy that can be obtained from it. Executioners and victims change places from era to era, but for an energy vampire this is just a change of dishes on the dinner table and nothing more.

Incubi and succubi

Sexual energy is a powerful source of food for energy vampires, who from ancient times came to people under the guise of incubi and succubi in order to have sexual intercourse with them. Incubi are lecherous demons who seek sexual contact with women. In contrast, succubi seduce men in the form of seductive women.

History has preserved many descriptions of intercourse between humans and demons, but the nature of incubi and succubi has long remained a mystery to researchers. Traditional ideas about sin and morality, as well as the desire of many demonologists to replace reality with their own fabrications and speculations, prevented them from looking at the problem from the point of view of the physical processes of energy flow from one being to another.

Descriptions of incubi are full of ugly details and details. They, like most demons, are credited with goat-like features, which make them similar to satyrs. Sometimes they look like dogs, cats, deer and other animals, while their animal appearance in no way interferes with carnal contact with humans.

Due to the fact that demons were considered ethereal beings, for a long time demonologists tried to figure out how they converge with women. Some suggested that demons simply possessed other people or created bodies for themselves from scrap materials. Others believed that demons used corpses for their purposes.

Both of these versions should be considered overly far-fetched, given the ability of energy vampires to instill in their victims any visions, giving them vivid, realistic hallucinations. Succubi visit men in the form of beautiful demonesses, whose devilish essence is sometimes revealed by clawed feet or webbed wings.

In the early Middle Ages, they were considered dream demons that caused lustful thoughts and visions in “good Christians.” Initially, there was no sexual motive in their actions. In the mythology of many nations there is an invisible creature that comes to people at night and sits on their chest, causing suffocation and immobilization. A person caught during sleep experienced horror, generously sharing his life force with the energy vampire who visited him. Later it turned out that during orgasm the human body releases much more energy, and the vampires simply changed tactics, skillfully playing on the religious views of that time.

The Parisian Bishop William of Auvergne (c. 1180 - 1249) wrote that demons only create the illusion of sexual relations. For a number of reasons, his ideas did not receive further development, because the Inquisition needed something more substantial than the fantasies of illiterate peasants prone to self-hypnosis and hallucinations generated by ergot poisoning. As in the case of ghosts, the appearance of which is accompanied by a decrease in temperature, similar details are present in the descriptions of incubi. “Many witches from all European countries and in all centuries when they were persecuted spoke about the specific cold emanating from demons...

Isabel Goody and Janet Braidheid of the Alderk coven confessed in 1662 that the devil was “a dark man, very cold; this cold was like water from a spring well" (Summers A. "History of Witchcraft"). “Jeanne d Abadie confessed to de Lancre [the demonologist] that the devil’s semen was unusually cold, so that she could not become pregnant from him” (Robbins R. “Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology”). “In those cases when the Devil appeared in human form, he was often “dark-skinned” or “swarthy,” as befits the Prince of Darkness. They said that an icy cold wafted from him...” (Cavendish R. “Black Magic”).

A feeling of cold occurs in a person when he loses energy, for example, on the street in winter or when in contact with an energy vampire. In turn, an abundant loss of vitality can lead to illness and even death, as medieval demonologists wrote about. After having sexual intercourse with a “demon,” a person feels “upset and weakened.” The man whom the succubus visited for a month soon died. According to the English monk Thomas Walsingham, one girl died three days after intercourse with the “Devil”.

There are other cases where sexual relationships with “demons” continued for several decades. “So, the witch-priest Benoit Berne, who was burned at the age of eighty, admitted that he lived with a demon named Hermione for forty years; at the same time, the demon remained invisible to others.

In the legends about the incubate... a person often leads a long and quite happy life with a succubus (incubus) and has prosperous offspring, but in the end the succubus (incubus) still disappears after his mortal partner violates a certain prohibition" (Makhov A. "Garden demons"). And in Neoplatonism, sexual relations with a “demon” were considered completely honorable: “As a result of a connection with an incubus, human nature not only does not degrade, but, on the contrary, is ennobled” (Sinistrari L. “On demonicity and incubi and succubi”).

It was believed that a woman could give birth to a child from an incubus, who would be either a great genius or a terrible villain. Any extraordinary personality like Attila or the wizard Merlin was recorded as a demonic offspring. There is no real basis for such stories, since energy vampires do not have DNA and seed to transfer it to a woman. The roots of these tales should be sought not in the facts of sexual relations between people and “demons,” but in the psychology of envious ordinary people who are inclined to see mysticism and otherworldly intervention where the result was achieved through patience and hard work.

Temptations of Saint Anthony

Saint Anthony was a very interesting person from the point of view of researchers of the problem of possession by demons and demons. He was born around the year 251 in Egypt, at the age of eighteen he gave away all his property to the poor and went to live in the desert, where throughout his long life he was subject to temptations from devilish forces. He died at the age of 105, which indicates a huge supply of vital energy and explains the reasons why the energy vampires did not leave him alone until his death.

Being an ascetic, Saint Anthony successfully resisted the attempts of energy vampires to penetrate his biofield, but his enemies found a very effective way to feed at his expense. At first, vampires came to him under the guise of seductive women, trying to awaken sexual energy in him. When this strategy failed, they began to take the form of hideous demons and tear at his flesh, causing unbearable suffering.

From the point of view of an outside observer, all this looked like the hallucinations of an old man who had lost his mind, but according to the information that has reached us, Saint Anthony was by no means a madman. He maintained clarity of mind and reason until his very old age, which many of our contemporaries cannot boast of.

Energy vampires took advantage of the burning feeling of guilt for their own sinfulness, inherent in most great ascetics and ascetics, as a master key to the treasury of the life force of St. Anthony. Struggling with “devilish temptations,” he was forced to pacify the flesh and work hard, which caused him a lot of physical suffering, which he perceived as a reward for his asceticism.

Saint Anthony lived far from people, in a tomb. He ate only once a day, and ate mainly bread and salt. He prayed at night, leaving only a few hours for sleep, “Then the enemy... comes to him one night with many demons and inflicts so many blows on him that he remains silently lying on the ground from pain; and, as Anthony himself assured, his suffering was very cruel, and the blows inflicted by people could not, according to him, cause such pain...” (Life of our Venerable Father Anthony).

Another passage from the Life indicates that Anthony was well aware of the immateriality of his tormentors: “The whole place was instantly filled with the ghosts of lions, bears, leopards, oxen, snakes, adders, scorpions, wolves. Each of these ghosts acts according to their outer appearance. The lion, preparing to attack, roars; the ox apparently wants to gore; the snake does not stop wriggling: the wolf strains his strength to rush. And all these ghosts make a terrible noise and display fierce rage.

Anthony, struck and wounded by them, feels terrible bodily pain, but even more so, awake in soul, lies without trembling, and although he groans from bodily pain, nevertheless, sober in mind and as if laughing, he says: “If you have how much... If you had any strength, then it was enough for one of you to come... If you can and have power over me, then do not hesitate and attack. And if you can’t, then why are you fussing in vain?”

Here, the demons and demons that tormented thirty-five-year-old Anthony are referred to several times as ghosts, although the author of the Life does not even try to explain how these immaterial entities could cause Anthony such serious physical suffering. The answer is quite simple: in ancient times, and even now, ghosts and ghosts were called energy vampires who briefly acquire a visible form. It was they, under the guise of demons and demons, who devoured the energy of Saint Anthony during the eighty-five years of his hermitage.

And although Saint Anthony did not leave drawings or other images of the demons he saw, the story of his temptations has constituted an inexhaustible theme for artists, from the Renaissance to the present day. However, the greatest interest in this regard is the creative heritage of Hieronymus Bosch, in particular his famous triptych “The Temptation of St. Anthony”.

The magical appeal of Bosch's paintings has baffled many art historians, especially considering that similar images can be found in the paintings of other painters of that era, for example, Jan Mandijn, Pieter Bruegel the Elder or Wellens De Kock. Perhaps Bosch did not invent his monsters, but depicted real creatures he saw.

In this case, Bosch's painting is the most detailed and accurate reflection of the world of energy vampires, instilling disgusting hallucinations in people in exchange for pure energy of fear and suffering. It is difficult to say anything definite, since Bosch himself preferred not to talk about the source of his inspiration. The triptych “The Temptation of Saint Anthony” is so filled with monstrous characters that you can look at it for hours, amazed at the abysses into which the painter bravely looked.

Among other notable paintings, one should mention the painting by Peter Hughes “The Temptation of St. Anthony” (1547), as if divided into two parts. On the left we see many demons and demons, appearing before Anthony in an endless line, and on the right - a lonely candle in the ruins, which the saint symbolically protects from the invasion of devilish forces.

If by candle we mean a source of light and energy, then the ultimate goal of the satanic army becomes obvious: they came not for Anthony, but for his life force, which they need for existence. Orthodoxy has developed the theme of torture by “demons” and “demons” in the doctrine of posthumous ordeals of the soul.

"Interesting newspaper. The world of the unknown" No. 10 2013

SIANEL Copyright

21 SIGNS OF SATAN'S PRESENCE

I. The devil's first trick is to try to convince everyone that he doesn't exist. While camouflaging, he tries to look like everyone around him. He is called the prince of darkness because, while weaving his machinations, he seeks to hide in the shadows and remain incognito. He has a number of alibis prepared for any actions.

II. A person possessed by the devil certainly has a hidden or obvious moral vice. Obsession with vice manifests itself as mental lameness, although God marks many sons and daughters of sin with a congenital physical defect.

III. The devil is always a misanthrope. The devil cannot love and does not tolerate those who love. The devil meets every manifestation of tenderness with furious anger.

IV. The devil is extremely aggressive and extremely cruel. In the manifestation of power and cruelty he finds vicious voluptuousness, bringing the husband under his control to the eruption of semen. The devil lurks at the bottom of the soul of any leader.

V. The devil, looking like an anarchist, always strives for power. He does not recognize anyone's authority other than his own. His submission to anything is always temporary and ostentatious.

VI. The devil is the father of lies and the first deceiver: he promises mountains of gold, but pays with broken shards.

VII. The devil is the first intriguer. Cunning is his innate trait. Obsessed with a morbid curiosity about all sorts of secrets. He spreads gossip and slander, finding special pleasure in it, and reports his intrigues only in order to once again laugh at the gullible. Everything he does is based on cold calculation.

VIII. The devil is the Trojan horse of all times and peoples. The father of all traitors and provocateurs, all mentally unbalanced and eternally dissatisfied people.

IX. The devil loves to disguise himself as an angel of light, a fighter for the ideals of the Church and the State, while he himself secretly defends vice. The greatest bearers of sin give the impression of special holiness.

X. The devil loves to hide behind the best human feelings. Behind the rhetoric about high love, the mortal sin of incest is often hidden - the Sin of Oedipus, Electra and the godless Caligula, who lived with his sister, like a husband.

XI. The devil is a tireless innovator, he is also the first extremist, always strives for extremes and will never be satisfied with half measures.

XII. The devil is always a nihilist and a cynic. He secretly despises any truths of the Holy Church and the human order and rejects them in practice, if he is not afraid to drop the mask from his face.

XIII. The devil likes to do everything in the dark, from behind and vice versa. Perversity of taste is the primary sign of the devil. The habit of contradiction is an ineradicable property of the devil.

XIV. The devil is dangerous only when he is not seen, and as soon as he reveals himself, he becomes vile, funny and pathetic.

XV. The devil is always prone to irony and sarcasm, but he cannot tolerate irony and ridicule of himself.

XVI. The devil is always prone to destruction and self-destruction, murder and suicide. Finds pleasure not only in torturing someone, but also in provoking others to cause him pain.

XVII. The devil always knows better than others how to influence people, how to win friends, because the dark sides of life are visible to him better than simpletons who are not accustomed to peering into the darkness.

XVIII. The devil is a party of parties and a union of unions. Those possessed by the devil quickly recognize each other by intimate characteristics. According to the law of similarity, they are drawn to each other. They create a secret cohort within any organization, with the help of which they seize power in the organization.

XIX. Legion is the name of the devil. No matter where you look, the devil will always be among us, for half of humanity, to one degree or another, is obsessed with the sin of fornication. Sodomy and lesbians are the first servants of the devil, but they make the most capable spies for the cause of the Holy Order.

XX. The truth about the devil is such a dirty thing that people marked by the devil cannot calmly accept it.

XXI. When you think you've finally caught the devil in your trap, you'll find him sitting in your own chair. For, faced with the machinations of the eternal enemy of humanity, the heart of an honest servant of the Lord is filled with bitterness. This interferes with the work of the Inquisition of the Holy Roman Church: some sinners only need to be isolated, others, like the Jews, should be deprived of their rights, and only the incorrigible should be burned alive, without shedding blood.

Let me sum it up. The moral imperative of Good: do unto others as you would have them do unto you. The devil, treating others like dumb cattle, demands to be treated like God. Being an immortal essence, the devil imagines himself equal to God in everything. He is tirelessly jealous of people towards Him. His exorbitant pride prevents him from humbling himself before the Lord. This is why humility is the first virtue of a warrior of the Order of the Holy Grail.

These incorruptible truths were announced to me, the servant of God Cristobald, by the prophet John, who appeared to me on the night of October 6-7, 1582 from the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Recorded authentically from the Monastery of Saint Sebastian by the novice Diego, Seville. Friday, October 12, 1582.

Instructions

Aggression. Excessively aggressive behavior and uncontrollable fits of anger may indicate that a person has been possessed by a demon. Unreasonable irritability is becoming more and more common. A person ceases to perceive his actions logically. Outbursts of hatred towards everything around him force him to commit acts of violence. He can hit a small child for a minor mistake, or break a glass against the wall. Nervous breakdowns alternate among the obsessed with extreme apathy.

Seizures. Epilepsy attacks and convulsions are a manifestation of demonic possession. For no apparent reason, a man who was absolutely calm, a minute later begins to convulse. At the same time, he can bend so unnaturally that he horrifies those around him. Everything can be attributed to the individual flexibility of the spine, but this is not the only explanation.

Losing touch with reality. Possession by demons manifests itself in the strange behavior of people who previously behaved absolutely adequately. They hear voices, they see what others cannot see. This is similar to schizophrenia, but may also be occult.

Apathy. As the demon becomes more and more entrenched in the human body, the latter falls into an apathetic state. He is inactive, stops going to work and communicating with loved ones. This can then develop into a suicidal state. The possessed person seeks to take his own life. Usually he tries to do this through piercing and cutting objects. There is something sacred in this. This is how the demon seeks to completely weaken the will of the possessed.

Knowledge of languages. If the previous reasons can be explained from a psychological point of view, then this is clearly a paranormal phenomenon. A person who did not even speak two languages ​​suddenly begins to speak several. Most often these are languages, for example, ancient or Sumerian. The voice of the possessed can change beyond recognition. It turns to screaming, wheezing, roaring, sounds from somewhere far away. Often a person can be possessed by more than one demon, which is why they speak different languages.

Swearing. The presence of obscenity and vulgarity in the speech of the possessed is an integral sign of obsession. In general, a person becomes vulgar and behaves indecently. His sexual attacks on other people can be unnecessarily provocative. Indecent behavior usually becomes one of the last criteria before the complete possession of the demon and the displacement of the human personality.

Denial of religion. In the initial stages of obsession, a person has a negative attitude towards all symbols of religion: crosses, the Bible, holy water. But in recent times the demon has become so strong in his power that he begins to commit sacrilege against them. The possessed person spits on crosses; holy water has no effect on him.

Soreness. At the last stage of demon possession, the person looks very sick. His skin takes on a greenish-gray tint. The eyes become red and watery. He constantly feels sick and his joints hurt. He stops eating, and his organs gradually begin to fail. Constant convulsions and weakening of the body lead to death.

What is obsession?

There are many conditions hidden under this term. One of them is when a person is under the strong influence of evil forces, spirits, and the devil. Other is a term used in psychiatry. People can talk about obsession in a positive way - "he's obsessed with helping people." Yet obsession suggests unhealthy infatuation or those moments when a person cannot control himself. Those who are possessed require help and sometimes the participation of the Church. Whether we are talking about a mental illness or a spiritual condition, Orthodox Christians believe that the Almighty God is able to help a person who is struggling with obsession.

The Bible also gives us references that some people can be possessed by evil spirits. Therefore, Christians do not have to doubt the reality of the existence of obsession.

In the “Acts of the Apostles” (19, 13-16) there is the following story: “Even some of the wandering Jewish exorcists began to use the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying: We conjure you by Jesus, whom Paul preaches. This was done by some seven sons of the Jewish high priest Sceva. But the evil spirit answered: I know Jesus, and I know Paul, but who are you? - and a man in whom there was an evil spirit rushed at them, and, overpowering them, took such power over them that they ran out of that house naked and beaten.” Demons trembled before Jesus Christ, and in His earthly life there were also episodes of healing those possessed.

How do you know if a person is possessed?

There are no specific “symptoms” or signs of possession. In the Bible, references to possession refer rather to episodes when a person was overcome by sinful thoughts that he could not cope with. We also often use this word in speech, talking about how a person is “possessed by jealousy” or “possessed by malice.”

If we talk about the mention of such conditions in Scripture, it was usually about the likeness of an epileptic seizure, loss of speech or unusual behavior, blasphemy of saints. But if the Bible is an inspired text, then other reports of possession should be viewed critically. Few people know that the state of “possession” is also mentioned in psychiatry. Obsession even has an ICD code. The fact that obsession was more common in the literature and evidence of antiquity, by the way, suggests that psychiatry, as a science in medicine, then practically did not exist or was rather punitive than aimed at helping people. During the Inquisition, many suffered due to the fact that mentally ill people were considered possessed.

Demon possession or mental illness?

How to distinguish obsession from mental illness? Maybe the person is not obsessed? Why do “chastisements” and exorcism sessions help if possession is a consequence of a mental disorder?

Item F44.3 “Trance and Possession” describes what many may consider to be demonic possession. However, in many cases we are talking about a severe mental disorder that requires the help of a psychiatrist. Of course, turning to the Church and healing through prayers to the Lord happens, but a person cannot take responsibility and deprive a loved one of qualified help if, in his opinion, the person is possessed. If you suspect someone is possessed, take him to a psychiatrist. Doctors used to call obsession “cacomania.” People suffering from this disorder often actually had schizophrenia. Due to their split personality, they believed that one of their personalities was a demon. People with narcissistic tendencies often suffer from such disorders.

There are cases where people faked obsession to attract attention. They also needed the help of a psychiatrist. Now delusions of obsession are rare, because in society it is not accepted, as in the Middle Ages, to attribute any condition in which a person has a personality disorder to obsession.

In the case when a person with the disease “obsession” was helped in the Church, doctors more than once spoke about the “placebo effect” and self-hypnosis.

Reprimands in Orthodoxy

The Orthodox Church, as a rule, does not conduct special rituals for those who suffer from possession. This is possible with special permission from the ruling bishop. In turn, in the Catholic Church there is a rite of exorcism. There are many feature films and literature about this.

In Orthodoxy, “reprimand” is rather a rarity. In the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, Father German (Chesnokov) gives a lecture. A lecture is a special rite that is read with the aim of helping people for whom evidence-based medicine is powerless. Believers turn to the Lord for help. The reprimand does not cost any money, so believers can seek help. And yet, first of all, mental illness should be excluded. The line between pathology and supernatural intervention is difficult to draw in the case of possession. This should be done by a specialist. If you are afraid that a doctor who does not believe in God may miss the state of possession, then we hasten to console you - many psychiatrists are religious people, and at the same time as the doctor you can turn to the Church for spiritual help.

A priest who sees that a person has symptoms of epilepsy that can be mistaken for possession, first of all, refers the person to an epileptologist, and not to reprimand him.

Reprimands in Protestantism

Interestingly, traditional Protestants (Lutherans) do not perform any rituals for people suffering from possession. Righteous living and prayer are the remedies that Protestants offer to those possessed by evil forces.

Christianity has not developed a unified attitude towards possession, since many of those who allegedly suffered from it were, in fact, victims of mental illness, pretending to gain fame. Some also believe that God allows possession for a reason. When people see unusual and supernatural things done through evil, they may think about turning to God and that not only the body, but also the soul is real. A person’s physical and mental state can directly depend on the kind of life he leads.

Unfortunately, numerous examples show that a righteous life is not a guarantee of both mental and physical health. But Christians should not build their lives in anticipation of reward on earth. Jesus Christ has overcome the world, so we seek reward in Heaven.

How to prevent a demon from taking over

There are no recommendations or algorithms, by following which you can know for sure that the demon will not possess a person. The Church allows and consecrates homes and vehicles, but the Christian faith does not imply rituals or ceremonies that reliably protect against possession. This is nothing more than superstition. You should be especially careful about offers to save you from obsession on a commercial basis. Numerous priests offering amulets and amulets against the evil eye or evil spirits have nothing to do with the Church. God gave us his grace freely.

Is it possible to buy a report?

The Trinity-Sergius Lavra is always grateful to pilgrims for their feasible donation, but the “reading” does not have a specific cost and there are no officials who cast out demons from a person for money.

According to the instructions of the Church Fathers, it is difficult for an evil spirit to enter where the Holy Spirit resides. People became open to evil when their souls were obsessed with sin and evil thoughts. So Judas betrayed Christ, obsessed with greed. Of course, there are no sinless people, but we must try to prevent sin from taking possession of a person’s soul and displacing the presence of the Divine principle in a person. After all, we were created in the image and likeness of Heavenly Father.

If a Christian lives a church life, confesses and receives Communion, and sincerely wants to live according to the Testament of Christ, he should not fear that he will suffer from obsession. You should not pay attention to stupid superstitions that indicate the possibility of the evil eye, warn against contact with black cats and women who carry empty buckets. Evil spirits are powerless before Christ, as His victory over death and hell directly indicates.

Possession in the Bible

Was demon possession mentioned in the Bible? Does the Bible directly say that possession actually exists and what dangers it poses? Should believers be afraid of possession and are evil spirits capable of instilling their will into an entire people?

There are references in the Bible to the fact that evil forces are looking for victims. The Apostle Paul says “your adversary the devil walks around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour,” while we know that God is stronger than the devil and Jesus healed the possessed.

In the book of Job, the devil actually harmed a person, but with permission from the Lord. Everything that the Lord does, He does for the good of man.

In Dan. 10:13 we also see evidence that possession can spread not only to one person, but to an entire nation. Many believe that the history of Nazism in Germany can serve as such an example.

We can find descriptions of possession in several places in Scripture: (Matt. 4:24; 8:16, 28, 33; 9:32; 12:22; 15:22; Mark 1:32; 5:15-16, 18 ; John 10:21)

Help for the possessed

What should we do if it seems to us that a person is possessed? Should I call an ambulance, pray, turn to exorcists from other faiths, or look for elders who give reprimands?

If you think your loved one is showing signs of possession, the first step is to take them to the doctor. Sometimes people begin to behave atypically or aggressively due to mental illness or organic brain damage. This does not negate the opportunity to ask for prayerful and spiritual help in the Church, since the Lord heals a person from any ailment if this is exactly what is required to save the soul. Consult your confessor or a priest you trust.